181 bearings.

[heartwoodlover1001]

On a bearing swap are 6203 proper? Does anyone know about the early esque that sported two different diameters.

Also the techniques that you all use if the bearings are with or without seals.

Thank you so much for the expert know how. Have a great night.

 

[Daserlon]

I just did bearings n seals on one of my 181's. 6203 are the proper bearings. The first year, 81' or 82', was the only year of 2 different bearings. If you get sealed bearings i would pop the seals out so they can get lube and still use the standard crank seals.

There are lots of threads for splitting the case on this forum. I found those after i did mine. I found that heat is great when assembling. My disassembly was crude and needed a bigger hammer.

 

[heartwoodlover1001]

Daserlon.

did you go with husqvarna seals? What bearings did you go with?

 

[Daserlon]

I ordered oem from the husky shop. I think it was about $50 for bearings, seals and gasket set. I figured good oem bearings because its kind of a pain to change them. I didnt want to take the chance with cheap bearings.

 

[stihl here]

If everything is clean and assembled properly, any good quality bearing should be fine. If not, the very best bearings won't last.
I used Nachi bearings in my saw from a local bearing supplier, for around $7.00 each.

 

[XP_Slinger]

After getting a lot of tips from members here I opted for the following installation method.

Install the bearings on the crank. Since there's no seals to worry about and the bearings have steal cages I used propane heat on the inner races to help motivate them to seat. I had to use my press to get the last 1/8 inch but more heat may have done it. With bearings on the crank, I again used propane to heat the flywheel side case as evenly as I could around the bearing bore. I'd say about 2 -3 minutes of moving the flame all over the area. End result is the bearing literally fell into place in the case. Repeat steps for the clutch side and the case fully seated by hand. This was on my 288 and I opted to leave the oil pump assembly out while putting my cases together. Hope this helps. @tree monkey has a good video demonstrating this technique in his "Saw Vice" thread. Helped me to see the process and you get a look at how a pro handles the assembly. Highly recommend watching it.

 

[XP_Slinger]

Here's the thread. It's the second video in the first post.
http://opeforum.com/threads/saw-vice.7222/#post-383040