The end of my crank has a larger opening then the pilot bearing I had bought
the inner dimension is correct,
What’s the easiest way to track down the correct bushing
measure the outer and inner dimension and I should be able to find one?
I dint have it in front of me, I should have measured before I left the shop

 

Go to Autogear website and check their pilot bushing table for various dimensions. They will even make you a "special fit" one if you so desire. They use Oillite bronze material.

Larry

EDIT: I found and attached it for you. . http://www.autogear.net/wp-content/u...hing_chart.pdf

 

Perfect thank you

 

Looking at the page and several pictures
i thought it would be a small needle bearing but is this my pilot bushing
( blue arrow)
does nothing go in the yellow marked spot
i was looking for a bushing to fit that

 

Nothing goes in the larger yellow area. Your trans input shaft would never seat if you put anything there.
Doug

 

Thanks doug

my lack of experience, appreciate the feedback guys

 

In over 55+yrs of building engines, ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL pilot bushings that I have installed were oversize (interference fit). I use an old transmission input shaft and a 2-3lb hammer to drive the bushing into the hole in the rear of the crank.
I have used the pilot bearing with rollers ONE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!! NEVER again!!!! When those needles go bad, and crumble into small pieces (I have seen it happen to several bearings), here is what happens to the pilot on the end of the transmission input shaft.

 

Tom, there is a terrible story going around about someone using an old transmission input shaft with a BFH as a drift when installing a bushing. Seem a piece of the input shaft broke off and took one of guy's eye out! Blinded him in that eye. I've been using a deep socket and I guess it could also fail and break-up also. The input shaft has gear teeth and ridges that can become ballistic pieces of shrapnel. Just saying... Al

 

I cut down my input shaft (removing the teeth) on my lathe, and then pressed a large brass plug into the "hammer" end.
The brass plug (being softer) will not splinter.
I also always wear safety glasses.

But if the pilot bushing needs that much "hammering", then something is not correct, and a few minutes measuring, then some lathe time should fix that issue.

Plasticman

 

Agree with Plasticman. Cut the input shaft down to about 7 inch max length. Dress up the hammer end to a smooth finish. Yes.........I use a lathe to do this.

The pilot bushing to crank interference fit is about 2-3 thousandths of an inch. So put the bushing in the freezer overnight to shrink it down a bit and then use a normal hammer. A BFH is not needed or desired. If that is what it takes, then the pilot bushing ID will likely be distorted and too small a hole for the input shaft. It should have a few thousandths of an inch clearance to the input shaft.

Larry

 

Some years ago I changed a 58 Impala from turboglide to 4 speed and had to get a special pilot bushing as the as the inside diameter of the the crank was larger than the powerglide or 4speed, If I remember correctly it was pretty common and easy to find then.

Russ, I hope you have a happy new year, I have been kind of following your progress on your 60, and if I can help you in any way let me know.

I turned 79 last month and still drive my 60 about every day, since it was in the 80s I put a few miles on it today.

Bill

 

Do that also, lightly oil it before which many say you dont need to -

Didnt know you could order them different sizes that is a plus. Learned the hard way about using regular old auto parts store bushings. Trans came right back out lol. Summit still sells them I believe.

Shoulda checked to see if it slipped over the input shaft ok prior to installing those are no fun to get out.

 

I agree with Larry in post #10, cut the bushing down to .002 interference fit and it will install very nice for you. The crankshaft in my 63 engine was .010 to small for the advertised bushing OD and I had to do the above. It's not necessary to start beating on anything like this because you will for sure damage the inner diameter of the bushing and then have more problems.

From reading many posts about these pilot bushings it seems like there is a huge disparity in crankshaft hole diameter sizes, maybe it was the tooling used, my memory pictures a drill bit looking hole so if that's the case the bit may wear. Don't know if this is really the case, I only know what I had to do with mine.

 

That was true in my case as the bore in my 427 was too large for a standard bushing. I had AutoGear machine three custom ones to fit. Not sure what people did before someone like AutoGear set up to do custom bushings - had machine shops turn down larger sized bushings I guess.

 

Pilot bushing OD can be easily turned down. But enlarging the ID will seal off the Oillite oil pores, and is not recommended.

But then you do what you have to do......................

Larry

 

I recently needed to pull the transmission in my wife’s ’62. When we built the car we used a Moroso roller pilot bearing. The bearing was about 20 years old and had close to 50,000 miles on it. It looked to be in excellent condition and still had some of the original grease in it, but I decided to replace it anyway. I purchased a Moroso bearing and here is the instruction sheet.

Notice that the instructions state that you should “press the bearing into the crankshaft using an arbor press and DO NOT use a hammer”. Well, I don’t have an arbor press and I don’t know how one could be mounted to press the bearing into the crankshaft, so I made a tool that mounts in the flywheel holes and presses the bearing into the crankshaft. I think my bearing/crankshaft interference fit was about 0.002”.

 

EXCELLENT tool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Brilliant on the tool making.
My Grandpa was a machinist
He often made one off tools.
Thanks for sharing
Marshal

 

The really fun part of my pilot bearing replacement was getting the old bearing out. I tried the grease and grease/bread method and none worked, I assume because the space created by the roller bearings allowed the grease to pass by. I borrowed a two prong puller from the local Chevy dealer, but the prongs were well used and, no matter how tight I adjusted it, they just slipped by the tapered part of the bearing.

I ordered a new two prong puller from Summit but it had the same problem. As you can see in the pictures below, the hole on back side of the bearing is tapered and the steps on the ends of the prongs are only 2mm wide, not wide enough to reach the flat part of the bearing. So when I tried to pull the bearing, the prongs flexed enough so they could not grip the bearing enough to pull it out. I did manage to pull a few of the bearings out of the race.
None of the local auto supply houses had a puller that would fit, so I looked on ebay and found a 3 prong puller that was advertised as fitting into a 0.5” hole, which was the size hole in my bearing. Well, guess what, it was too wide to fit the 0.5” hole in my bearing, so since I already had torn some of the bearings out, I used a 0.75” drill and removed all the bearings. The three prong puller still would not quite fit but, I found if I removed the prongs and inserted them one at a time, and kind of twisted them as I put them into the hole, I could get all three into the bearing hole

So I tired the three prong puller and it felt like it was working, except, as you can see in the picture, the horizontal bar was bending. So the next step was to replace the horizontal bar with something more substantial. In my case I used a piece of 1”X 1.25” bar stock which did not flex, and finally the bearing was removed.

 

Next Time, try this.
I bought a large tap, The bushing is soft so the tap cuts threads into the bushing easily.
Then I use a bolt the same thread pitch and size.
I thread it into the bushing, let it bottom out in the crankshaft hole and it pulls the bushing right out.
Easy and very effective.