LASCO 05-1104 Evaporative Swamp Cooler Bore Spider Bearing, 3/4-Inch

Good fit for my swamp cooler.

Although I stated this item was as described, that is only in the broad sense that it is a spider with a 1" bore. I'll start from receiving the package.....-Despite the items being shipped Priority Mail, it still took a week from the date of order.....maybe Amazon Prime's shipping has me "spoiled".-Packaged well, but upon opening the box, one of the spiders did not contain a bearing....after carefully going through the packing materials, I found the bearing, and its packing/surround (the rubber/foam that holds the bearing in the spider) at the bottom of the box. This was my first insight into how cheaply made this item is....where as quality bearings of this type have semi-hard rubber packings/surrounds, this one has a very soft foam. After installing the bearing into the spider, the packing is so loose that the bearing OD turns rather freely in the spider....the only thing that keeps it from fully rotating is the oil cap/well.-None of the mounting holes matched up on my Evaporative cooler (late 90s model Kenmore). While there are a number of pre-drilled mounting holes in the spider, unless they match to the existing holes on the individual unit, the fan will not be centered when you put everything back together...you either have to take a guess/eyeball it, or do a lot of measuring and calclating to get any new mounting holes in the unit correct.....thankfully I saved the old spiders/bearings, used a 1" piece of shaft to align the old and new, and marked/drilled another set of mounting holes in the new spiders. (NOTE: If there is ANY wear on the shaft, I highly encourage you to replace it....otherwise you will wreck the new bearings in short order.) The day I ordered the new bearings, I built a new shaft for my unit.-Once the new mounting holes were drilled in the spiders, it was a simple matter to install the new shaft and put everything back together. After a short test run, I checked everthing over....remember I mentioned the spider packing being somewhat soft/loose? When I installed the bearings, I made sure the oil wells were centered in the spider hole(s).....again, they shifted in the packing (in the direction of rotation)...and the only thing keeping them from rotating freely is the oil well/cap. This MIGHT keep the cooler running for the rest of this season, but I'm not overly optomistic that they will last much longer then that. I would have gladly paid more money for a high quality bearing, but after checking locally, and finding this EXACT same item for 3X the cost as on Amazon, whats a person to do?

It came fast and was easy to install

With the aid of a hack saw and a little measuring these bearings were made to fit perfectly. The construction is quite sturdy appearing. I don't know if it will last the 20 plus years of the original spider's, but so far this summer...so good. I think it could be persuaded to fit most brands of coolers with spider bearings.Sept. 2, 2014 Update: I do not know what caused the problem...but one Lasco spider bearing, of which I purchased two, failed after part of a months use. The bearing was oiled as specified and the squirrel cage shaft seemed in perfect alignment. The installation did not seem to be the problem. The rubber part of the bearing is what failed, it wadded up and stopped the bearing from functioning.I inspected the other bearing which we purchased and found no sign of the same failure taking place. But now I will have to change my star rating to a 3. I have wound up the season for using the cooler, so I won't be able to ascertain whether the other bearing would be a problem soon. But, as I said...I have no reason to believe that it would fail. And for next year, I will just pick up a new cooler. This cooler was 23 years old. The original bearings made it this long! I wish I could have found some of the original quality.

I am very pleased with this product. The chore was getting the old one off, as it had seized and had to be sawed off the shaft. Once that was done, the new one slid right on and the job was done fast.I haven't used the cooler too much, but enough to know that it is working well and the noisy bearing problem is gone.I recommend this product to everyone whose cooler requires this type of bearing assembly.

Part fit well and has been working fine. But I don't know if I like this design. Next time the bearing wears out I will probably run angle iron across the span and mount a block bearing in the center for the shaft instead of this spider bearing.

Don't forget to get oil!

Perfect. Cooler is practically silent. Before it sounded horrible, could hardly use it.