[mactec54]

About the only miss placed or potentially BS word in what was said is "nobody." Should have used "few." The manufacturing process has gotten so refined that "Universal ground" is the name of the game these days. At least that's what I have always run into in the many times I've sought them out in what would be the rebuild/replacement market. Who knows what OEMs see. Believe me, I've sought matched pair and triple sets, you name it, including matching bore and ring diameters to my needs. All with little to no luck. The last time my bearing supplier ever let me go in the back room and pick the bearings I wanted was let me see... never. You find old shelf stock of matched pairs on ebay sometimes. Even Mori Seiki sent me universal ground the one time I went to them for what I think was a triple set. They were all taped together as a group, so that was close. :-) They even had a different ball compliment count. Go figure.

That would be a no if the Bearing where taped together as a set they are not factory packaged that way, there is nothing wrong with universal Ground they just cost more to make as you have 2 extra face's that have to be match Ground

Sales people will sell you what ever they can get there hands on, you can always buy any of the configurations if you have a need DB / DF / DT if you know where to look, if you can't get what you want then any Bearing with the right spec's can be Ground to give any preload you want, I have done hundreds of regular AC bearing this way by Grinding them to any of the required spec's I mostly only do Back to Back and matched sets of 3 and 4 Bearings it's a simple process, you measure the Bearing OffSet take them apart and Grind where needed, demag and clean then reassemble no more to it


Universal ground is by no means the name of the game as you put it, it is just a convenience for the Bearing seller ( less stock to carry ) so those statements are not correct or true in any way

Triple and Quad sets can be a better buy as Universal, the reason the installer have a better chance of installing them correctly and for those that don't know what they are doing when installing Bearings sets like this