2010 diamond drive bearing

[BigAir]

The 09, 10 and 11 sleds have DD issues. Seals and grease are bad. Check your axial load - every sled is different - due to poor QC. 3203 bearing has same dimensions as 5203, just newer and better.

What makes the 3203 better than the 5203? Any suggestion on best place to buy?

 

[Coldfinger]

I read on the skf bearing site that the 3203 replaces their 5203. Not sure if that is true for all brands.

 

[Paul27]

Big Air: A 3203 bearing to you and me is dimensionally identical to a 5203 (ID, OD, width). The difference is the 3203 is a newer design, made from extremely high quality bearing steel with much reduced impurities and better grain structure, better heat treatment for improved dimensional stability (up to 300 °F), internal geometry design changes that are less sensitive to axial overloading, races manufactured to ISO P6 running accuracy, ball uniformity manufactured to one ISO grade better than SKF 5203 (several grades better as compared to other brands like BDX Peer) which improves running accuracy at high speeds (reducing noise and operating temperature), improved Polyamide cage to better withstand high acceleration. Those changes resulted in lab-tested load-carrying performance improvement, increased durability (similar axial wear at 40,000 hours vs. 1000 hours), higher reliability, and longer service life (tested at double vs. SKF 5203 - more for other brands).

In my opinion, an SKF 3203 in a critical application like this, in $800 DD, in a $10,000 sled, which could ruin a cool ride if it grenades - is well worth the extra $20 cost vs. a Chinese Peer (BDX) 5203 bearing.

You can purchase a SKF 3203 for about $35 at a local industrial power transmission store, ebay or amazon.

Good luck!

 

[Paul27]

Some trivia about the stock 6203 bearing. It is by far the most common bearing in the world. Used in automotive alternators, washing machines, etc. Low quality Chinese versions sell for about 35 cents each, and a good brand sells for around $7 (in very large quantities - 10,000 plus).

 

[BigAir]

Paul27, thanks for the awesome reply. What are your thoughts on sealed vs unsealed? When you search eBay for SKF 3203 there are several 3203 bearings, all with different parts numbers and different prices. I searched the SKF website, but couldn't figure out what the differences are.

 

[Paul27]

BigAir: Here are some good discussions on those topics:

sealed vs unsealed:
http://www.snowest.com/forum/showthread.php?t=372322
http://www.snowest.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3019727&postcount=518
http://www.snowest.com/forum/showthread.php?t=248066

3203 bearings, all with different parts numbers:
http://www.snowest.com/forum/showthread.php?t=345246
http://www.snowest.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3213576&postcount=13
http://www.snowest.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3022676&postcount=522

Hope those help. The SnoWest "Advanced Search" feature works good for finding specific information. Enter the authors name if you know it (bgreen776 is sharp and very helpful) and a key word or phrase (seal, or SKF 3203 ATN9/C3). Helps make the haystack of information smaller. Good luck!

 

[thefindian]

I just did mine with 1700 miles and I'm lucky it didn't **** the bed out in the woods I had to replace my drive axle bearing to at the bottom of the case all the pieces from the junk bearing go right to the drive axle bearing,