More likely to restrict oil flow. If you go the route of a housed bearing you'll have to work out a way for oil to reach not only the bearing but also the big end which is fed through holes in the crank. Your main feed will be coming from the pump up through the non-return valve and out through the oilway at 6 o clock when you look from the inside of the crankcase. If a bearing outer is against that there will be nowhere for the oil to travel any further. I dont know about machining an oilway in the outer but if you remove the original bush outer from the crankcase you will find that it has an oilway all around its outer surface to feed the other oilways around the circumference and also to dump out through the pressure relief valve if needed. I dont think therefore there is a way to do it without either the sleeve and bush outer or convert the crank to end fed. If I think of anything I'll let you know. Ta

I happened to find a similar but wrong size bearing to look at. It is a NA6904. The outer race has an oil groove around the outside and one hole leading ti the needles. The inner race has no hole or grooves.

Hi mcman, I had a look at that bearing spec. If they manufactured one that fitted a 1" shaft I'd machine half the case away to get one in. Looks what is needed but I didn't have the time to investigate all the size possibilties. I'm still waiting on my bearing experiment to see how it looks, can't hurry along the engineer when they are family.

As a distraction I'm investigating fitting a changeable filter such as a Triumph T3 filter inside the oil tank. It will give me the excuse to remove it and get rid of those weld marks. ta nigel