Was my max upgraded?

Hey guys as y'all probably already know I have a 1996 max IV. I'm in the process of going through the entire machine and replacing everything that needs replacing. I am waiting on my bearings to come in and when I removed my old bearings I noticed I have inside bearings and my axles are solid, is this factory or has someone previously upgraded it? Also I talked to Greg at buffalo bearings and I told him I wanted to do away with my locking collars and he suggested a bearing with set screws? I ordered what he suggested. Any pros or cons I should know about regarding these set screw bearings??

Solid axles were a factory option. Most were greasable inner bearings by 96. If not install greasable flanges on inboard ones. If you install 90 degree fittings on rear inboards they are easier to grease. I personally don't think the setscrew bearings hold to the axle as well as eccentric collars. Argo uses setscrew bearings and I rarely find one tight on the axle. You may want add locking collars to keep axles from walking in or out.

Thanks for the reply. Is there another kind of locking collar I can add beside the eccentric ones? they are a real pain to unlock and I had to cut a few off. Just don't want to run into that problem again in the future if I have to change the bearings again.

Sometimes the eccentric collars are tightened different ways. You can tighten them by rotating them to the left or the right. If the previous owner put them on a different way then expected, that could be why they weren't coming off easily for you. Also, you sometimes need a long punch so that you can knock them away from the body while you are rotating them at the same time. If you always tighten them against the rotation of the axle, you will know which way to get them back off. So, for the left (drivers) side, tighten them clockwise and the right (passengers) side, tighten them counter-clockwise.

Some people install a split clamping collars to prevent axles from moving. They clamp with a single screw around the axle. I'm not sure the bolt axle gear tubes have room for them. I use them to retain snapring type sprockets on spline axles that don't have any snapring grooves. I don't have a part number handy but there are several posts on this site about using them to retain axles or sprockets.

I too recently have had issues with the set screws loosening, I've tried lock tight which helps. Had one machine with 4 loose after 25 hours, threw out the set screws and replaced them with knurled point set screws (which is the way they used to come). I believe that it was caused by the small wear on the axle where the bearing rides.

If you get split collars with 2 bolts you should be able to add or remove them any time.