Abstract: A ball or roller bearing with two symmetrical halves, each designed to absorb both radial and axial stresses, comprises an axially split inner ring on a shaft and an axially split outer ring carried by a housing member coaxially surrounding the shaft. The inner ring halves form seats for respective rows of balls or rollers engaging contact zones on the inner peripheral surfaces of the outer ring halves that are offset from these seats in either an axially inward or an axially outward direction. In the first instance, the housing member has an annular disk received in an annular recess or groove of the same axial width which is formed by two confronting peripheral rabbets on the outer ring halves; in the second instance the inner ring halves are rabbeted to form an annular recess or groove receiving an axially coextensive peripheral rib on the shaft. In either case, the two rabbeted ring halves are axially separated by a small gap.