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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Folbate J2 Cylinder Bearings

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I have received a request for help from an OLC Member in Wales.  

He is looking for a source of supply for the Split Bronze cylinder bearings as fitted to many of the older side wheel mowers. Does anyone know of a supplier who can supply these from stock?

He is also asking the question when re assembling the bearings into the side plates do you position the adjustment slot to the front or the rear of the machine, his machine was assembled with the slots at the top so that the adjusting screw was passing through the slot and not doing any good, I have suggested the rear and looking at the parts list elsewhere on this site it tends to support my theory.

Any thoughts from other members with experience of this bearing arrangement?

Ray.

Forums

hortimech Sat, 16/08/2014

Can't say I remember working on a Folbate side wheel, but I did work on the Qualcast B1, which I think is a later version of the machine.

Have you thought of obtaining a normal bronze oilite bush and cutting a slot in it ?

I seem to remember that the slot was indeed to the reverse of the machine so that the adjuster screw put pressure on a solid part of the bush.

 

hillsider Sat, 16/08/2014

Yes oil impregnated bushes have been discussed and Simply Bearings do list of a bush of a suitable size.

But my concern would be that after cutting the slot in the bearing it would then crack along a line opposite the slot as the adjusting screw was tightened. I have found this type of bearing to be very good when fully contained but fairly brittle if unsupported or subjected to stress such as trying to make it go out of round which in effect is what would be happening in this application.

 

 

greensleaves Sun, 24/08/2014

Hi Hillsider  i have recently overhauled a Qualcast B1  side wheeled push mower 

and the bearings are fitted with the slot at the bottom as you have explanded 

in your statement. As for new bronze  bushes suffolk rear roller bearings come to mind

try suffolk part no  L07034  ROLLER BRONZE BUSHES  these are easy to obtain

and are as near damit same size if i remembered rightly.Its a cheap fix

With slight alterations with a hacksaw could solve the problem. 

 

hillsider Sun, 24/08/2014

Thank you to all who have offered solutions to this problem.

I understand that the member that I was helping has been successful in obtaining some replacement bushes of the correct type via one of the parts contacts listed here on this site.

Interestingly we also discovered that the Folbate J2 and the Qualcast B1, E & E1 mowers share the same part number for the Bronze cylinder bushes, possibly other mowers of a similar design will be the same also.

 

Harvey Thu, 18/01/2018

A bit late I know but in case it's useful info for anyone else: I am just dismantling a Folbate J2 and the bearing split is towards the bottom but orientated at 45 degrees away from the back of the mower: that is  where the wooden rollers are located just to clarify.

The 'split' in the bearing is approx. 3/16" or 5/32" wide.

 

Harvey

hillsider Thu, 18/01/2018

Thank you for taking the trouble to post the information, your discovery may well be a little late in the day as you say but the information is still very welcome as it could help someone working on a similar machine.

If you can a few photos of your project would be good, especially relating to the location of the bushes.

Harvey Fri, 19/01/2018

I will see if I can do a few photo's; probably make a new subject thread for it.  Actually mine is a J1, my mistake but looking at the J2 owners handbook the only difference seems to be that the J2 has 'hubcaps' on the wheels and the J1 does not.

Here ( I hope ) is an 'as was' photo'

 

Harvey

Harvey Fri, 19/01/2018

Well that did not work well; postage stamp size ..... and my edit attempt failed!

 

H

hillsider Sat, 20/01/2018

Thanks for persevering, the photos are always welcome.

I am wondering if all machines built with this type of bush have the opening in this position?

Close inspection of the bushes on your mower might reveal the location of any wear marks present. I am guessing that any wear would likely be located between the Twelve o'clock and the 3 o'clock position due to the effects of tension between the cutting blade and the cylinder coupled with forward travel.

 

Harvey Sun, 28/01/2018

Having had a closer look, the bearings on mine may have been replaced. The one in the other side plate is in a slightly different orientation; more like 5 o'clock and although there are oiling holes in the bearing housings there are none in the actual bearings: I may drill them. Yes, there are slight wear marks as you suggest.

Maybe the exact position of the gap is not critical anyway.

My J1 refurbishment is going well .....

Harvey