There's a lot of them stories out there concerning the 261, but the majority of those failures were probably caused by crew hands that didn't give a crap. All ya gotta do is grease that bearing occasionally (and don't over-tighten the chain) and most will survive for quite a while. But its a PITA to yank the drum, clean all the parts in solvent and regrease them every few tanks and replace the chintzy china bearing every 20 tanks or so... so it don't get done.
Stihl still hasn't provided a way to grease that bearing with a needle greaser (like Husky did) yet. And they won't because they sell many more crankshafts when paired up with their soft china needle bearings with plastic cages.
The aftermarket provides far better bearings for that drum than OEM, so its the first mod I do on all my needle bearing clutch drum equipped saws. I've been adding o-rings for years now too, to each side of the drum to help to hold in clean grease longer and keep the fines out of the bearing. Its still a PITA, but its the only cheap and effective way to get out of their trick-bag, IMO.
I never looked up the dimensions for an 044 drum bearing, but its likely one of the major bearing manufacturers make one to fit. Scrounge around the net and buy one. I only bought the high quality Koyo bearing for my 261 because it was cheap and easy to find. Ironically it was made in Germany... Stihl could'a done that too, for the same price as china plastic...
