Rod Bearings

My Grandfather's 1940 D has insert bearings. yet, his 1951 G has babbitt bearings?

They switched back and forth between insert bearings and poured babbit mostly due the rationing of the bronze backing that was diverted to shell casings during the war. I think that shortage carried on for some time.

That soft gray finish on many shell bearings is still babbit alloy today. There is a great article on the Federal Mogul site that I downloaded a while ago that really explains the purpose of the soft facing. The reason it is so soft is to grab hard particles and let them nestle down into the babbit so that they don't rub wear lines in the journal.

Any of you guys ever scraped babbit bearings back into size? Not a chore I'd wish on anybody, but it can be done. The method was covered in the older Motors Manuals, and I know it was listed in an Oil-Pull document I had around at one time.

Frank

Yes it is tedious! Assemble, test, disassemble look closely, scrape. Assemble, test, disassemble look closely, scrape. Assemble, test, disassemble look closely, scrape. Requires the patience of a slow growing tree!

You say scrape bearings to most people and they'd look at you as though you were making it up.

Once WW 2 was over, paving country roads went into full swing, and the last thing the township leaders wanted was for farmers to operate spade lug tractors over the newly "oiled" roads. So blacksmiths were busy cutting off the steel and welding in rims -- conversion to rubber was in full swing. The neat part of this story -- you seldom saw a rear wheel show any wobble as the tractor went along. But then -- jig it up right and your usually successful, and right those guys usually were.

Frank - have a great one! (PatB)