I've never used a floating bearing arrangement before and so wanted to check if anyone else knows anything about it. I have a housing which is a slide fit for a ball bearing, with the ball bearing 'floating' inside, it needs enough clearance to move up / down, but be held from side movements. Because of this, there's no retention for the outer ring and so the outer ring rotates with the rest of the bearing. Sometimes it gets a bit more friction from the side walls of the housing and it stops, but most of the time it just rotates as a whole inside the housing. This will cause wear over time and introduce more side play.

Is there anything that can be done about this? one solution is to use a roller bearing rather than a ball bearing and clamp the outer ring down as the inner ring is free to move vertically.

Regards,
dsc.