Derg
i believe the problem is actually not the bearings but the
structure supporting the bearings - forces, temperatures and vibrations do significantly impair bearings geometry and hence the behaviour. The conditions are far from ideal. Rough environment calls for tougher solutions with wider spec tolerances so bigger ball diameters. I am sure RR must know it from their experience!
The splines are eaten neither by temperature nor nominal forces - must be significant uncontained forces from vibrations induced by parasitic resonance. Check the engine vibrations signature depicted in Fig 1of your link
http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~davidc/pubs/ieeeaerospace.pdf - this does look like asking for bad resonance to happen.
But overall - watch the name: David Cliffton. Yes, he works on 'novelty detection' but to my feeling he will get it right. Both links from your post #328 are worth really careful reading. Thanks for research and posting them
