Yanmar Saildrive Needle Bearings

[Captain Bill]

After finding and reading through the Yanmar SD40/SD50 Sail drive service manual today I noticed that these drives contain needle bearings with a 1500 hour service life. My drives are approaching this level and I was wondering if anyone had actually experienced any issues with these needle bearings. I've heard a lot of complaints about cone clutches and seals, but not the needle bearings. I am wondering if this is really an issue or is it something like the two year service life rating of one of the hull diaphrams. Note that I had mine hull diaphrams replaced at 6 years and there was absolutely no sign of any deterioration on the old ones, but since the drives had to come out to replace oil seals I had them done anyway.