Buying generic bearings for your argo.

I did 5 bearings on the argo a few weeks back. I didn't do it myself, too busy at work so I dropped it off at an argo rental place near me that does all their own maintenance. I have a 97' conquest and I bought bearing part #UC206-20 from fastenal, the triple sealed version that I found recommended on this site somewhere.

The guy at the shop showed me that the greasing hole on the outer race of the bearing is on the wrong side, therefore making it impossible to grease these bearings through the grease zerks. %*#@!, no time to turn back now, installed them anyway. The bearings can only be installed one way. There was also a little nub on the bearing outer race that had to be ground off for the bearings to fit in place. What he did end up doing was machining a little channel across the outer race to the greasing hole with a dremel tool, and tried to line that up with the grease zerk in hopes to be able to get some lube in there. He said he had to do the same thing when he tried non argo bearings in his old conquest many years ago. He recommended using only the argo bearings next time.

Anyone else ever run into this problem?

The NTN bearings Argo uses are a quality piece, if the nub had been removed the grease hole would have been where needed though they often do not cooperate. The NTN bearing not only has 2 grease holes but also has grooves around it so the hole need not be exact.

Some things are worth a few bucks.