Pilot Bearings

PostPost by: Bill Barry » Fri May 26, 2006 7:41 pm

This string of e-mails seems to be full of confusion - or else I've lost the
plot completely (quite possible!). Although both are bearings, a needle,
roller, or ball bearing is made of hardened steel rollers/balls in a
hardened steel race. New bearings, especially sealed bearings often come
pre-greased. The operative word here is grease. Oilite bushes/bushings, on
the other hand are a one-part sintered metal - usually bronze- sort of
sleeve. They are like a hard sponge and must be soaked with oil - operative
word oil. It does indeed make sense that the pores of the oilite bush
should not be clogged with grease or the oil cannot leech out and do its
job. Am I making this topic clearer for anyone or only more confusing?

-----Original Message-----
From: ***@***.***lto:***@***.***
Behalf Of David Barnes
Sent: 26 May 2006 04:29
To: ***@***.***
Subject: Re: [LotusElan.net] Re: Pilot Bearings


Will - Thanks. Thats a curious message they convey. Do not grease oilite
bearings because the grease will clog the pores in the oilite material. The
pilot beaings come pregreased (??). In any event I would feel more
comfortable if I had simply applied some oil as suggested. The ironic part
is that I recently purchased a Fidanza aluminum flywheel and I didn't read
their instructions throughly enough to catch the bit on the pilot bearing. I
purchased the oilite pilot bearing elsewhere and I don't believe it was
pregreased, whatever that means.
Dave - 72 Sprint DHC
----- Original Message -----
From: Will Grainger
To: ***@***.***
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 11:55 AM
Subject: [LotusElan.net] Re: Pilot Bearings


Dave,

Here's the website (a pdf file actually):

http://www.fidanza.com/Files/clutches.pdf

There's not a lot of info here, but it does make this claim:

"Do not grease new pilots. New pilot bearings come pre-
greased (often with special synthetic grease). Bronze pilot
bushings have oil in the pores of the material that grease will
clog. For bushings, a few drops of 30W oil can be used if
desired."

I've no idea whether they know what they are talking about or not.

I'd bet that assembly lube is probably OK, but I don't really know.
The problematic grease that I used was some type of white
grease (which I previously used with no problem on a needle-
bearing unit). I don't have the name/exact type handy at the
moment, but it said on the tube that it was recommended for a
variety of applications including engine assembly, etc.

Good luck.

-Will Grainger
45/9693

--- In ***@***.***, "David Barnes" <dande@...>
wrote:
>
> Will,
> What was that website? I would be interested in seeing that
information.
> I put my engine back in yesterday, and after reading the recent
messages on oilite bronze pilot bearings, I wiped some
assembly lube on the bearing just prior to the engine going in. I
hope that wasn't a mistake.
>
> Dave - 72 Sprint DHC












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PostPost by: Sking06 » Sun May 28, 2006 2:53 pm

Colin....

I totally agree... but at the time I had just completed a major overhaul and
the clutch pressure and driven plates were new.... so I didn't expect that
to be the problem. As it turned out the friction material on the driven
plate was not properly attached.

I have replaced many things on my Elan in the past 35 years, but at half a
million miles
I'm just waiting to see what will wear out next. All the bearings and
bushings were replaced about 12 years ago, but I don't even want to think
about gears and syncro rings and such.

Thanks for the info
Skip

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PostPost by: wgrainge » Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:03 am

In case anyone is interested, I tried Rod's method of heating the
bushing in a cup of oil, and it works like a charm. I heated it to
100 degrees C, at which point I could see lots of tiny little air
bubbles pouring out of the bushing. No doubt it's sucking up oil.
Definitely recommend this method.

-Will



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