Spherical plain bearing has several advantages than other type bearings, and widely used in aviation, aerospace and so on. However, it will produce residual stress on the processed surface when cutting spherical plain bearing parts. Therefore, it is necessary to study on the performance for spherical plain bearing effected by residual stress in cutting. The reason of producing residual stress in spherical plain bearing was analyzed based on the analysis of the friction torque before and after cutting, and the residual stress in spherical plain bearing was tested. The results show that residual stress and deformation are produced in the cutting process of the spherical plain bearing,which affect the consistency and stability of the spherical plain bearing.