Means and techniques useful in mounting self-aligning bearings

A self-aligning bearing and a method of forming and mounting such bearing such that it may be conveniently removed and replaced from an apertured portion of a supporting wall under conditions when access is had to one side of the wall and only limited access to the other side of the wall is available thereby obviating the necessity of expensive and time-consuming removal and replacement of constructional parts that would otherwise deny access to such other side of the wall. This in general, is accomplished by forming an apertured ball within an outer race member, threading and notching opposite ends of the race member to provide a notched portion and a threaded portion at each end of the race member, and threading a separate nut on each of the threaded portions with a deformable ring interposed between the corresponding wall and nut. Each ring has a first tab that engages a corresponding notch and a second tab that is engageable with a flat portion of a corresponding nut upon deformation of said second tab. There is, for selection, one or more notches on one end of the race member and also one or more notches on the other end of the race member with such notches on opposite ends being staggered circumferentially so that if and when desired the same bearing may be removed and replaced, end for end, in the wall opening even though there is very limited access to one side of the wall.

The present invention relates to self-aligning bearing assemblies and in 
particular to an assembly that greatly simplifies and renders their 
removal and replacement less expensive less time consuming and more 
expeditious. 
An object of the present invention is to provide new and improved means and 
techniques to achieve the desirable features mentioned above. 
A specific object of the present invention is to provide self-aligning 
bearing assemblies that do not require structural disassembly of an 
aircraft in order to achieve their removal from or replacement on such 
aircraft. 
Another specific object of the present invention is to provide new means 
and techniques that bring about simplification and versatility.

The assembly embodying features of the invention is shown stationarily 
mounted in an apertured portion 10A of a supporting structure illustrated 
as an apertured wall 10. 
The assembly as shown in FIG. 1 includes six elements namely: a truncated 
and apertured bearing ball movably mounted in its conforming race member 
12 which is accomplished by forming the race member around the ball; two 
identical deformable locking or retaining rings 13,14; and two identical 
fastening nuts each threaded on a corresponding threaded portion 12A,12B 
of the race member 12. 
The elements 11,12 comprise a self-aligning bearing, the race member 12, 
being stationarily mounted and the ball 11 having an apertured portion 11A 
to which a shaft or pin or the like may be secured. 
The race member 12 is formed with a cylindrical portion 12E which is 
slightly smaller in diameter than the apertured portion 10A of the 
supporting wall 10, and opposite end portions of such cylindrical portion 
are threaded to provide the threaded end portions 12A,12B. At least one 
notch 12C,12D is provided in the corresponding threaded end portion 
12A,12B and such notch may be formed either before or after the ends of 
such race member are threaded. 
Preferably as illustrated in FIG. 2 there are three equally 
circumferentially spaced notched portions 12D in threaded portion 12B and 
likewise, there are three equally circumferentially spaced notched 
portions 12C in threaded portion 12A and preferably the series of such 
three notched portions 12C are staggered circumferentially with respect to 
said series of three notched portions 12D as will be seen in the drawings 
wherein as illustrated in FIG. 2 the notch 12C is not aligned with the 
notch 12D. 
While the notches 12C,12D, as illustrated, provide an interruption in the 
corresponding threaded portions 12A,12B it will be seen that such need not 
be the case because the notches may appear elsewhere in the race member 12 
immediately adjacent to the threaded portion for reception of the locking 
tab 13A,14A of the corresponding locking or retaining ring 13,14. 
Each of the two identical rings 13,14 is provided with an inwardly 
extending tab 13A,14A and an outwardly extending bendable or deformable 
tab 13B,14B for purposes of bending the same from the extended condition 
shown in FIG. 3 to its bent or deformed condition shown in FIG. 2 wherein 
it then is in a position to engage one of the six outer flat surfaces of 
the nut 16 to prevent its rotation on the race member 12 while at the same 
time the inner tab 13A,14A engages the corresponding race member notched 
portion 12C,12D to prevent the ring 13,14 from turning on the race member 
12. 
In assembling the assembly to the supporting wall 10 the outer 
self-aligning bearing 11,12 is slipped into the cylindrical apertured 
portion 10A, the rings 13,14 are assembled on opposite sides of the wall 
10 so that their tabs 13A,14A enter a corresponding notch 12C,12D, the 
nuts 15,16 are tightened to press the rings 13,14 against the wall 10 
after which the tabs 13B,14B are bent against the outer flat surface of 
the corresponding nuts 15,16. 
This construction is particularly useful in aircraft construction and 
solves problems which arise when self-aligning bearings are required to be 
replaced after the aircraft has been built and used. While no particular 
problem may initially exist while the aircraft is been built in securing 
the self-aligning bearing to the wall 10 because both sides 10 IN and 10 
OUT of the wall are conveniently accessible, difficulties arise in removal 
and replacement when the aircraft is completely constructed with bulkheads 
or other structural parts that block access to the inside wall 10 IN. 
In that case removal of the assembly is effected without removal of the 
bulkhead or other structural parts using to advantage the constructional 
features of the assembly previously described. It is necessary only to 
have a small access opening to the inner wall 10 IN such that a small tool 
such as a screwdriver may be inserted through such access opening (not 
shown) to bend the tab 14B away from the outer surface of nut 16 and then 
while such tool or other small tool as for example a spanner wrench is 
used to prevent the nut 16 from turning, torque is applied to the other 
nut 15 to cause the race member to turn within the nut 16 to a disengaged 
condition and with the now loosened ring 14 turning with the race member 
12 because tab 14A is in notch 12D. 
The assembly, less the nut 16 and ring 14 may be then withdrawn through the 
wall opening 10A and replaced by another new self-aligning bearing and the 
same ring 14 and nut 16 may be reused to secure the new bearing by first 
inserting the ring 14 in place, threading the nut 16 on the new race 
member 12 and then rebending the tab 14B into engagement with the flat 
side of nut 14 as shown in FIG. 2. 
In such assembly and disassembly, the elements on the left or on the 
outside of the outer wall 10 OUT, namely the following elements: locking 
ring 13, locking nut 15 which are used to stationarily mount the nut 15 on 
the outer race member 12 is considered to be a form of abutment means that 
has essentially two functions. It functions, by its engagement with the 
outer wall 10 OUT as an abutment on the race member 12 to retain the 
assembly in the support opening 10A, and the nut 15 of such abutment means 
is particularly suitable for receiving a wrench for applying torque to the 
assembly either in mounting the assembly on the support 10 or in the 
process of removing the self-aligning bearing 11,12 from the support 10. 
In the latter case as outlined above, the locking ring tab 13B remains 
bent as shown in FIG. 2 and of course the locking ring inner tab 13A is 
within the slotted portion 12C, i.e. the nut 15 is locked to the outer 
race member 12, so that application of torque to the nut 15, when the 
deformable tab 14B is bent back to its original condition shown in FIG. 3 
and the then free nut 16 is prevented from turning results in the nut 16 
being detached from the race member 12 thereby allowing the self-aligning 
bearing 11,12 to be withdrawn from the opening 10A.