Bearing race

[GRANVILLE]

I'm told that this was picked up by a soldier and brought home as a souvenir - atm I don't have very much more info except that it has always been described as a tank bearing. It measures approx 4 1/2" in diameter by just over an 1". The only makings on it are the 3 numbers which appear on both halves. The two halves were simply put together and riveted. Alignment of some of the holes is a bit questionable - not sure if this was result of hasty construction? Has anyone seen one of these before?

David  

[MikB]

I'd think it's distortion has misaligned the holes in the cage - perhaps through nearby explosion or hard foreign object driven into the bearing. It's not likely hasty construction - such items would be built to pretty tight tolerances even then.

There won't be many people with detailed enough knowledge of bearings fitted to WW1 tank sprockets, drive shafts or suchlike. You could try Bovington Tank Museum?

Edited 26 August , 2022 by MikB

[awjdthumper]

I just has a quick look at the Guy Martin WW1 tank programme again - everything was going swimming well with the new tank they had made until the rear sprocket bearings disintegrated. The sprockets are driven by a pair of chains inside the double walls of the tank and rotate on large ball races on either side of the shaft. In the case of Guy Martin's replica tank, it looks as though the outer bearing races failed.

This could well be the cage for one of these bearings but, as said, only the tank museum would probably be able to verify this. As illustrated in the TV programme, these bearings were subject to tremendous forces and, if a bearing failed, it could well distort the cage as seen here.