In a message dated 9/3/2005 4:48:44 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
towertalk-request@contesting.com writes:
> I recently took down my tower to relocate to another QTH. The thrust
bearing was a bit sluggish. Upon disassembling, I found the roller bearings on
the base mounting side to be a bit rusty and entire inside of the assembly
dirty. I cleaned the bearings and bearing races and reassembled. This greatly
improved the smoothness when turning. I would like to replace the rusty
bearings. Does anyone have a source? Also, my instincts dictate that this
assembly
should be lubricated. What is the proper lubricant for this type of bearing?
None. The ball bearings are steel and the races are aluminum and require
no maintenance. Since the bearings are wide open to the weather, anything in
the air will get in. By putting some sort of grease in there you're just
inviting all sorts of crap to be collected by the grease which'll speed up the
wear
of the bearings.
You can check the TT archives at www.contesting.com for specifics but I
think that you can take the ball bearings to a bearing store and you can get
some equivalents. I don't know anything about quantities or anything but it's
probably worth a try.
BTW the Rohn TB's suffer most from wind damage when the antenna and mast
rocks and pounds the hard bearings and soft races together so they get pretty
pitted and rough turning.
Cheers,
Steve K7LXC
TOWER TECH
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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