This was one of the first jobs I had done for the construction company the machine belongs to. over the years since, they have brought me numerous things to make and or repair, usually 1 or 2 small jobs per month. Coincidentally while I was just now reading through the latest several thanks for this older thread the construction manager called me to let me know he had a couple things to drop off next week, while I had him on the phone I asked him about the cylinder I had repaired in 2019 He said they still were using it with the same sleeve bearing I had made and installed. He said before I had done the repair they were replacing at least 1 of the spherical bearings in 1 of the 2 cylinders on the machine every couple of months. but in all this time they have not even had to replace the bearing in the opposite cylinder.
It just goes to show even though a design on paper looks like there should be a certain amount of movement to allow for miss alignment on some things, sometimes it is better to have at least 1 of a 2 part system to be stabilized. I was amazed to hear they haven't even changed the homemade sleeve bearing though, sometimes you get lucky with mystery metal is all I can say to that.