Four natural rubber compounds varying in carbon black content from 10 p.h.r. to 70 p.h.r. were characterised and moulded for bearings, having four different values of shape factors ranging from approximately 0.33 to 1.73, according to the number of reinforcing plates used. The approximate area of the bearing and thickness were 50 mm x 106 mm and 50 mm, respectively. Three deformation modes were predicted, namely compression, shear and compression-shear. Good agreement was found between the 12 compression model predictions and the corresponding experimental values for bearings containing 10 p.h.r., 20 p.h.r and 40 p.h.r. of carbon black for each of the four different arrangements of reinforcing metal plates (0, 1, 2 and 3 layers). However, for bearings containing 70 p.h.r. carbon black, differences between experimental and predicted results could clearly be visible. The percentage difference increased with the number of reinforcing plates included with the increase of the shape factor. Therefore, an improved FEA model which included an imaginary elastic-glue layer between the rubber block and metal plate as a compensation for glue failure was examined. The optimum elastic layer value of Youngs modulus was 8 MPa while the thicknes of the layer depended on the total thickness or total volume of the rubber block. This model was able to predict the behaviour of bearings containing 70 p.h.r. carbon black with shape factors ranging from 0.5 to 2.35 for 11 cases. The FEA prediction of shear behaviour showed good agreement with the experimental data for all four bearing compounds and no effect of shape factor on shear stress was observed. Moreover, shear stress did not depend on the compressive force to which the bearing was subjected befor shar, and the FEA results agreed with the corresponding experimental results.