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Bearing Clearances

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Dan Bear Kelley

11-21-2006 14:32:39

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I'm still used to reading hot rod magazines, and they always go into Plastiguage and such for measuring bearing clearances on the mains and rods. The recently posted article on rebuilding an H doesn't mention anything about this. Was this just left out, or am I just being paranoid about stuff that doesn't matter that much on these old iron beasts?

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Dan Bear Kelley

11-22-2006 06:11:48

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THANK YOU!! in reply to Dan Bear Kelley, 11-21-2006 14:32:39

Thank you! Sounds like I wasn"t being paranoid, and that measuring these clearances is always cheap insurance. I have no experience whatsoever in mic-ing shafts, so I"ll stick with plastiguage.
.
The article, by the way, is posted on the home page of ytmag. It goes through replacing pistons and sleeves, rebuilding the head, etc. without splitting the tractor. This is kinda what I had in mind.

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El Toro

11-22-2006 16:37:15

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Re: THANK YOU!! in reply to Dan Bear Kelley, 11-22-2006 06:11:48

You can not remove the crankshaft without splitting the tractor or replace the clutch.
It's a good idea to have the block cooked to remove any sludge or dirt. To have good oil pressure you need to have your bearing clearance
at .001" to .0015". The crankshaft should be measured for wear or being egg shaped. It may only need polishing if the bearing journals are nice and smooth. There are undersize inserts from
.001" to .003" for slight wear. If the shaft needs to be ground they have them from .010" to .030" undersize. Hal
PS: A good auto machine shop will only grind them
if its required.

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KEB

11-21-2006 18:54:17

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Re: Bearing Clearances in reply to Dan Bear Kelley, 11-21-2006 14:32:39

Haven't read the article in question, but I'll hazard a guess that the author was following an original manual. I'm not sure when Plastigage was introduced, but I've got a couple old manuals (50's vintage) that refer to checking clearances by seeing how much drag is introduced with brass shim stock of the appropriate thickness between the bearing surface & journal.

That being said, there are ways other than Platigage to check bearing clearances, but as far as I know none of them are any where near as easy or accurate. I have put new bearings in engines without checking clearances if the crank looked and mic'd OK, but only as an expendient measure when there was some sort of time crunch. So far I've been lucky. You might get away with just measuring the crankshaft journals with a micrometer and assuming the inserts are the right size, although I too have seen mislabled boxes. Somehwere I have a set of wrong-size rod bearings for the 226 flathead Continental in my 56 Willys. It also takes some practice to make good consistent measurements with a micrometer.

Keith

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teddy52food

11-21-2006 17:14:36

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Re: Bearing Clearances in reply to Dan Bear Kelley, 11-21-2006 14:32:39

I always use plastigage when assembling an engine. Many years ago I was putting one together and one bearing showed way more clearance than the rest.When checking it out, I found a one half was standard and the other half was .010. The shaft was ground to .010 by me. The bearing was boxed wrong. Without checking with plastigage there was no way to notice until it would have been too late.

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Red Dave

11-21-2006 16:08:43

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Re: Bearing Clearances in reply to Dan Bear Kelley, 11-21-2006 14:32:39

I don"t know of any reason why you couldn"t use plastigage on a tractor engine.

I"ve used it. I found rod & main bearing clearance specs in a manual, I think it was the Blue Ribbon service manual.

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