[Boatanchors] Thrust bearing info (was SS U-Bolts needed)

[Glen Zook]

I have an old Telrex thrust bearing at the top of my tower.  However, I have 13 feet of mast above the thrust bearing and 7 feet of mast below.  There is a pretty good "Christmas tree" on the mast.  Even with the thrust bearing the sideways movement on my rotor was above what I desired.  Therefore, I installed an aluminum plate just above the rotor with a hole just large enough to pass the mast.  This keeps the sideways force away from the rotor.  This arrangement has been up around 30 years and is still going strong.

If you look closely in the first photo of the attached link you can see this plate installed above the rotor.

http://k9sth.com/uploads/newantenna.JPG

Glen, K9STH

Website:  http://k9sth.com


--- On Sat, 9/20/08, WØQFC <erastber at tampabay.rr.com> wrote:

From: WØQFC <erastber at tampabay.rr.com>

Finally figured out how to mount my Ham-M on the old Aluma tower, so I no longer need the U-Bolts.
 
Now, a new question has come up: "What to use for thrust bearings".
 
Research  shows that the Yaesu GS-050 is a really cheap unit and does not hold up very well and the Rohn TB3 is too expensive.
 
I do not need a thrust bearing Per Se because the only weight on the rotor will be a 10' mast, 3-el 6M, 7-el 2M and a yet to be determined 440 beam; just something to keep the mast in vertical alignment.
 
I  need some sort of bushing (to fit the mast) that will go in the two 2-1/2" holes where the original thrust bearings were mounted. Something like Delron, Nylon, etc.