Hood Stoway In-Mast Furler: Upper Bearing

[P69]

A few years ago, I bought a replacement top bearing assembly for my Hood Stoway main furler from Eric Pearson and last week. Before installing it, I documented the part numbers and did some searching on the web for possible sources in case I needed another one in the future.  I think I paid around $250 or $300 for the upper bearing parts from Eric.  Unfortunately, died a while back, so it might be difficult to obtain replacement parts. Indalo Rigging apparently bought the inventory from Eric's estate (indalorigging.com/hood-furling-systems). I had a hunch that the bearing was nothing specific to the Stoway system and likely a common bearing. The bearings appear to be common bearings "self-aligning thrust bearings with a model number of 53203.

The top bearing assembly I purchased from Eric included the four parts of the thrust bearing, a washer, a nyloc nut, and a plastic shoulder washer made of black hard plastic (nylon, delrin?). I was not sure where the shoulder washer needed to be placed, so I put it at the bottom of the stack, with the smaller ID pointing down into the hole in the mast head. This formed a cork to keep the grease contained.

Although I took pictures, I did not measure the dimensions of the shoulder washer before installing, but here is the info that I can recall.

The plastic shoulder washer has these approximate dimensions (see attached diagram).

Heights A and B are equal and about 3/16"

Diameter of C (largest OD) is the same as the ID of the bottom-most part of the bearing assembly (~1.25"). This plastic bearing sits in the ID of the bottom part of the bearing.

Diameter D is about the same as the hole in the mast head through which the furler rod passes. This is about 3/4"

ID is about 7/16", which allows the furler rod to pass through. The furler rod (the part at the top that has a threaded end that goes through the top bearing), has an OD of 7/16" and has a fine thread.


I found a link on amazon and one at bearingshop.org that appear to be exactly what I have (except for the nylock nut, flat washer, and plastic shoulder washer).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007MFXYVI...v_ov_lig_dp_it

https://www.bearingshop.org/53203-ns...ings-bore.html

These appear to be the same bearing that I installed as the new replacement and if y'all need one, you might want to give these a try instead of paying nearly 10x for what appears to be the same thing.

[S/V Deo Volente]

I still have the Stearns Dynafurl from 1980. I purchased new bearings from Rig-rite for some outrageous sum and copied the numbers. Years later I replaced them with bearings ordered from a local outlet for a much lower reasonable sum. I also made sure to pack them in a lot of grease and then siliconed the threads on the end caps. Eighteen years later they spin like new.