It started with two things on my desk at 7:40 on a Tuesday. The maintenance lead called about the indexing table: “There’s a whine coming from the gear drive.” A minute later, an email from a customer popped up with the subject line: what happened to Pete Jackson gear drives? I didn’t connect the two at the time. I should have, because both came down to bearings.
I’m the office administrator for a 60-person industrial services company. I manage MRO purchasing—roughly $400k a year across 12 vendors, and I report to both operations and finance. I’m not a mechanical engineer. I’m the person who gets the part number, calls the supplier, and keeps finance from screaming.
The customer was restoring an old pickup with a Pete Jackson gear drive on the engine. He wanted to know if the company still existed. I typed what happened to Pete Jackson gear drives into a search bar because I assumed the company must have disappeared if it was this hard to find parts. The results were a mix of forum threads and old racing pages. Some said the brand changed hands. Some said it’s still around. I can’t confirm any of it—that’s not my lane.
Cue the Honest Disclaimer
I can’t speak to whether Pete Jackson gear drives are still being manufactured. I don’t have an official source for that, and I’d rather not guess. What I can tell you from a purchasing perspective is this: a Pete Jackson gear drive, like the gearbox on our indexing table, runs on standard rolling bearings. And bearings are where the useful part of my story starts.
If you’ve ever watched a machine sit idle while someone argues about part numbers, you know that specific feeling. Time is the enemy. So we pulled the old bearing and read the markings.
The Bearing Hunt Begins
The damaged part was a self aligning ball bearing. The markings were worn, but readable. Standard outer diameter, standard bore, standard series. At that point, a bearing is a bearing—assuming you know the dimensions. And this one matched the catalog dimensions.
Our regular supplier could get Koyo bearings, but not by Friday. The Koyo bearings catalog—I keep it in a bookmarks folder named koyo-bearings—listed the exact self aligning ball bearing series, but the distributor’s system showed it as a special order. Then they came back with an alternative that cost twice as much and had a lead time that made no sense. I said “as soon as possible.” They heard “whenever.” That mismatch cost us two days and one very awkward call with the maintenance manager.
Here’s the thing: the pricing wasn’t the real issue. The real issue was communication. I should have asked, “What is your in-stock cutoff for overnight shipments?” Instead, I assumed the urgency was obvious. It wasn’t.
Wait, a New Hampshire Ball Bearing?
Somewhere in the cross-reference, a note came up from a supplier in New Hampshire. At one point I searched new hampshire ball bearing because the old OEM number had an NH prefix. That led me to a precision bearing company in New Hampshire. They quoted a beautiful part with a full traceability chain. It also cost ten times more and took four weeks. Not the right call for this machine.
Look, I’m not saying the aerospace-grade bearing is bad. A New Hampshire ball bearing manufacturer that works mostly in aerospace will do good work. But you don’t need a $400 airframe-grade bearing for a 1,750 RPM industrial gearbox. You need a standard Koyo self aligning ball bearing with the right clearance.
What I mean is that “better” is only better when it actually fits the machine, the speed, the load, and the budget. The aerospace-grade bearing might last forever. It might also cost more than the gear drive is worth and arrive after the machine comes back from the shop. That’s overkill, not quality.
Finding Koyo Torrington Needle Roller Bearings
Then the parts guy dropped the real bomb: the gear drive also needed a set of Koyo Torrington needle roller bearings. Not a standard single row, but an assembled cluster for a planetary section. If you’ve never bought needle bearings, they can be cheap. They can also be impossible to find when you need one specific cage profile.
We got lucky. After the failed first supplier, I called a smaller distributor that handles Japanese brands. They had the Koyo Torrington needle roller bearings in stock. Three sets, each about the size of a matchbox, and they were on a truck the next morning.
That part of the story is about why I still order Koyo bearings when I can. The catalog is consistent, the part numbers are straightforward, and the quality has been reliable in our equipment. But I’d say the same thing about other brands I’ve used. It’s not a religion. It’s a track record.
The Part That Arrived
The bearing arrived on Wednesday—not Monday, because of the earlier communication mess. The maintenance lead put it in. The gear drive ran quieter than it had in months. Not ideal, but workable.
The invoice came out to $32 for the self aligning ball bearing and $21.50 each for the needle bearing assemblies, based on January 2025 distributor quotes from two suppliers. Verify current pricing because this stuff moves around. The rush shipping was another $78. That was the price of impatience, and honestly, it could have been worse.
We didn’t have a formal cross-reference process at the time. We do now. A simple checklist: exact part number, dimensions, speed rating, seals, clearance, and a “what did the old one actually look like” photo. The third time we almost ordered the wrong quantity? That’s when I made the checklist. Should have done it after the first time.
So What Happened to Pete Jackson Gear Drives?
Back to the question that started this. If you’re here because you searched what happened to Pete Jackson gear drives, here’s my honest answer: I don’t know for sure. I found traces of the brand online, but no official announcement that I could trust enough to repeat. If you need gear drive parts, check with a distributor who can cross-reference the model. And if you can, replace the bearings before they fail. The bearings inside those drives are more important than the name on the cover.
This worked for us because we’re a small service company with one maintenance team and a narrow set of machines. If you’re running multiple shifts and can’t tolerate downtime, your approach might be different. You might need a stock of critical bearings on the shelf. You might pay more for a local supplier who can hand you the part. The calculus changes with your operation.
I’m not a bearing engineer, so I can’t speak to dynamic load ratings or lubrication-life calculations. What I can tell you from behind the procurement desk is this: standard dimensions save the day.
According to ISO 15:2017, radial rolling bearings have standardized boundary dimensions. That standardization is what lets you take a worn, stamped ring and find a matching Koyo bearing. (Source: ISO, iso.org)
I’d recommend Koyo bearings for standard industrial catalog applications. If you’re in a high-speed spindle or need a certified traceable assembly, that’s a different conversation—talk to a bearing engineer, not a buyer.
Trust me on this one: the smartest thing you can do for a bad bearing is to stop, measure, verify, and then order. Sometimes the answer is a self aligning ball bearing from Koyo. Sometimes it’s a Koyo Torrington needle roller bearing assembly. And sometimes it’s just a better process for the next time.
