Marc Brunet Jun 19, 2017:

re: adjustable bearing race width... (3/3) for the use of a threaded retaining 'bearing cone', which provides both retention and support of the 'bearing cage' (= balls+spacing retainer) where a fixed flange obviously will not do, see @3:11~3:18

(Bass-san's query is about the bearing ball mechanism of a car model's oil pump. Link a), which illustrates the depth at which the ‘bearing cage’ must be set for best fit and functionality, takes you to a bicycle 'bottom crank' maintenance demo; but these two environments share the same adjustable bearing race width characteristic, IMHO.)

Grateful for your comments.

Marc Brunet Jun 19, 2017:

re: adjustable bearing race width... (2/3) b) In that case, couldn't we expect some parts/functions which this mechanism requires in order to work, to be already provided in some equivalent form by the host shell, and so account for the absence of the retaining ‘flange’ you think must be there.
c) If so, 横油路 might not refer to the side flow of the lubricant within that pump spindle's bearing chamber, but to how an excessively tight positioning of the bearing cage against one side of its race way will affect the 'oil' feed (I assumed 油 as referring to 'lube', not petrol-gas or diesel fuel. If you differ on this aspect, please let me know) pumped out to various oiling ports of the engine-transmission block.
Does the results presented below correspond to what you have in mind, Port City-san, Please advise: :
re: a) http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/bottom-bracket-serv...
(for 'installation' see time segment : @31:06~31:37;
for 'tightness adjustment' , see: @4:02~4:50 );
re: b) for the host shell's variably bored 'bearing cup' doing away with the need for an internal 'flange' See: @2:35;

Marc Brunet Jun 19, 2017:

re: adjustable bearing race width... (1/3) Thank you for your native feel-based prompt, Port City-san. Found it very useful.
The reason why I did not initially follow your interpretation is this:
All the references I attempted on ball bearing designs returned ball raceways with…:
a) non-adjustable widths (set once and for all),
b) trough-like cross sections that did not need any retaining 'flanges', since their raceway already performed that retention function;
…but your supplemented paraphrase of 打ち as 押し, supporting the take of 深い based on its primary meaning as 'deep' (not 'dense'), convinced me to search the web for examples of bearing ball raceways of adjustable widths, to visualise, and better understand your take of that word string.

Did so, based on these distingos and implications:
a) what if the queried reference referred to a ball bearing mechanism that has to be put together in situ from multiple parts? i.e not installed as a single unit, using as you might an off-the-shelf ball bearing product.

Port City Jun 18, 2017:

But "bearing ball spacing" sounds like just referring to spacing between balls, not necessarily between balls and the outer flange, doesn't it? I understand that 玉打ち and 玉押し are the same, referring to the outer flange coming in contact with the balls.

Marc Brunet Jun 15, 2017:

re: "bearings and flange interface".... First, acknowledging Port City-san's lead on the matter. Next, perhaps some speculation on the meaning of the Japanese phrase posted might help.....
Google images on those components suggest that the bearing balls are channelled and retained by the 'flanges' of the inner and outer cases which they service. Yet, there is another important part used to make a ball bearing work efficiently: it freewheels inside that ball track and keeps each ball at the set interval from its neighbours; that's a ring 'spacer', which can also play the function of a ball retainer, in the case where the ball bearing needs it on one of its sides.
So proper ball 'spacing' seems to be the issue here: if it's too tight, to the point of where the balls are practically touching (玉打ち位置？）,　this apparently restricts the flow-through of the idling lubricant flushed around inside that bearing under the displacement of that hardware of balls and ring spacer... Makes clearer sense that way?
PS: 深い can refer to ' depth' , but, as in this case, to (spacing) 'density' às well.
So would go for: bearing ball spacing is too tight/ too dense