C5Rookie

I'm in the middle of manual swap and noticed the auto drive shaft spins nice and freely in the torque tube. On the manual torque tube I have, the shaft spins but feels a bit rough. If you put your ear to the torque tube and spin the shaft, its a bit like sand in the front bearing. The rear is quiet and smooth. I see a LOT of people replacing the bearings. I pulled the slinger washer on the front bearing, and then pulled the seal off the bearing. Its largely dry in there. This has me wondering, is the failure of these bearings due to lack of lube? Should I pull the seal on the new bearings and add some high pressure grease? Hmmm....thoughts?

strand rider

A lot of people replace the bearings because the run out tolerances are in the three decimal points, if I remember correctly.

That being said, the happy shop that I gave my money to selected a 'good one,' among the torque tubes on hand by grabbing the shaft, and the one without play was the winner. I was a little surprised, but since they run about ten corvette service bays, and I don't, I just nodded, playing the wise decision maker, unfazed by how things get done when you are on the clock.

dadaroo

There are grease compatibility issues in certain cases. If it were me I would install new bearings and let it go at that. No time to cheap out when you are talking the time and effort to redo this effort.

C5Rookie

I'm installing new bearings, so there's no cheaping out. I just question the failure rate, and I'm thinking lack of lube could be one of the issues.