carrier wheels question

[Lynn Eades]

Not post war. SOME carriers came off the production line with bronze bushes. It was because of bearing shortages. I believe it worked o.k. but I like Rob am sceptical about the life expectancy.
A regular greasing regime would have been strongly applied. I believe the the Bronze bush was directly replaceable by a ball bearing. The caution being that if the wheel had wear in it, that the wheel would have been scrap.
O.k. I have now gone to the manuals.
The Canadian manual does not mention them, so I assume the Canadians never suffered the shortage. The British manuals do show them but say that the bushes have to be replaced with ball bearings when the carrier comes in for overhaul. This is stated in a Jan 43 Chilwell 63/63 Wksp instruction manual.
Rob the bushes were directly interchangeable with bearings. They were burnished and intricately made with eliptical lube grooves etc and the bushes extended into the wheel center (more surface area on the axle)

On that note, (a side note): Some people talk about Loyd axles and U.C. axles however the Canadian wksp manual states that the double threaded axles superseded the earlier one thread / flanged axle.