Stihl 056/045 Clutch-side bearing source idea

[Joab]

I stuck this in an old thread, but I'm giving it a bump because I want some opinions on whether my idea on clutch-side bearings for an 056/045 would work. See below:

This is an old thread; but maybe some people are still following it and I found something interesting I wanted to share.

I'm looking at an 056 I might take on as project saw -- I don't yet know the condition of the bearings, but I've been researching whether I can source them if I need to. And I've discovered that clutch-side bearings are all but impossible to find -- a 17mm id, 42mm od, 14.5mm wide bearing, single seal, reportedly.

Here's the interesting part -- apparently unicycles commonly used 42mm bearings that aren't readily available anymore. The solution for a unicycle is a 1mm x 12mm bearing shim that allows you to use astandard 40mm bearings in a housing meant for 42mm bearings. You can order them here: http://www.einradladen.com/Bearing-Shims-40mm-42mm

I think if you paired a shim with a standard (i.e. standard but a little more expensive than some others) 17x40x14.4mm, single-seal bearing(Timken or MRC/SKF make them), you'd have a clutch side solution for an 056 bearing. You probably need to use some Motoseal or the like on the shim to make sure it seals (or red loctite even).

Somebody who knows these saws well, tell me if I'm crazy -- I don't want misinformation circulating to unsuspecting victims, but if this would work it'd be good for people to know about it.

On a related but different note, I also noticed that somebody gives the 'standard' bearing number for the original bearing these saws had on the clutch side -- 527908A. It seems that some bearings shops might be able to get these:

Hi. Does anyone know where can I buy crankshaft ball bearing for Stihl 045 chainsaw?
I think part number is 9523 003 0440
On the bearing is numberv 527908A FAG

 

[Joab]

I guess the link I gave was for one of the European online stores for Unicycle.com. If you go to Unicycle.com, you can pick the store for the United States or Canada too -- and they also have the adapters. Here's a direct link to the adapters on the USA store http://www.unicycle.com/udc-bearing-adapters-40mm-42mm-bearings-not-included/

 

[Joab]

Thinking about this some more, the general theory that you could use those unicycle bearing shims so that you could use a 40mm OD bearing is probably sound -- but it should probably be an open both sides bearing, and you'd need a separate 40mm OD oil seal.

Exactly which standard bearing and which seal would probably take some measuring and/or experimentation because the shims are only 12mm wide -- not a lot of space to get both well-seated.