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Intermediate shaft won't go in and fits tight

The good news is that the intermediate shaft material is hardened,


Hardened?

Oh..


Really.

Looks like ordinary boring cast iron,,

Cuts like ordinary boring cast iron..

Has a grain structure when broken in half but a vicious POS totally inadequate 13mm rod like ordinary boring cast iron.

SMELLS like ordinary boring cast iron.

A random old file cuts it like I'd expect cast iron to cut..

Just saying, not like I really know much about cast iron, only worked with and around it for 43 years...

So what's supposed to be hardened about it?
 
The brake hone and grease idea sounds like the way to go to me, as it will follow the bore, and you can do a bit and test fit until it's right.


Ken those three prong hone things are crap for a number of reasons.. The first is the stones are brutal, likle 20X more coarse than you want, one turn would KILL the bearing surface.
One turn..

Second that shaft needs to go thru not one bearing but all 3. Gotta be a set up that does all 3 holes in one pass....

Even if the horrible slabs of concrete would not kill the bearing surface ( doood, its lead and tin alloy, softer than pooo pooo and fresh Scothch-Brite will gouge the fawk out of it) those gross three finger things will cock and move around in one hole RELATIVE to the others..

No bueno muchachito, no bueno por cylindros tambien, usar solemente le "dingle ball hone".
 
My intermediate shaft bearings were worn. The only place I could fine to get them was through NAPA. It would cost way more than a rebuild to ship my block to a specialist, and this would get away from the TBrickers guy in a shed sort of project.

The set from NAPA is maybe 70 bucks and I think another 20 to have the shop press them in. The good news is that the intermediate shaft material is hardened, and all that has to be done is get the bearings to fit. These do much less work than main bearings spinning just an oil pump around.

Sounds like a lot of nice suggestions to work with what I have. Thanks everyone. That mesh sounds really like a great idea.


Keep us posted on how this turns out.

I do know for a fact the stock journal diameters on the counter shaft are different for each of those bearings.
Largest being the front journal and smallest being in the rear.

Front.....46.975mm - 47.000mm (1.849" - 1.850") Bearing clearance .0008 -.003"
Middle.. 43.025mm - 43.050mm (1.694" - 1.695") " " " "
Rear.....42.925mm - 42.950mm (1.690" - 1.691") " " " "

Just to add....The Countershaft bearing specifications are the same for a B21 and B230 engine.

As you can see, the factory specs are pretty tight on those bearings.
If I'm gonna go to the trouble to rebuild a B21 engine, I'm gonna make sure that the oil clearances are correct.
Burned bearings are not forgiving.

Just my opinion
 
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It takes all of 5 minutes to cut some grooves into the journals with a die grinder and a cut off wheel. Just make sure to deburr the grooves. This is what I use on the cam bearings for B18/B20.

CamBearingTool.jpg


FYI, aftermarket cam/intermediate shaft bearings are pre fit, OE are not and require line boring.
 
FYI, aftermarket cam/intermediate shaft bearings are pre fit, OE are not and require line boring.

That's good to know.
What dealer sells pre-finished bearings?
The last time I worked on my rebuild B21 was about 15 years ago, and I couldn't find any pre-finished countershaft bearings.
I'm gonna finish that re-build......sometime.
 
Thread resurrect!

I recently had a set of these bearings installed on an engine (B230FT) build and the shaft rotates by hand but with noticeable effort.

However once it begins to rotate the effort to maintain rotation is considerably less.

I used a torque wrench and I need about 11-12 ftlbs to overcome the static resistance but once it is spinning this drops to about 1-2 ftlbs.

Should I be worried? My machinist says it will seat once it is broken in.

What do you guys think?
 
What do you guys think?

I think that everything you need to know is in the first page of this thread.

2manyturbos said:
Good to go, you're kidding? 10 lb*ft of torque to turn the aux shaft. You are going to seize a bearing to the shaft if you run it like that. At least, tear the s**t out of the bearing and journal that is dragging that much. Fix the problem now, otherwise, this is going to turn into a crying in your beer thread.
 
double thread resurrect! Same thing has happened to me. Triple checked that each bearing was in the right position. They are the machined type DuraBond brand part number VP94015.

I can only assume that each blocks clearance specs are different and that the standard size bearings aren't a perfect fit for everyone or the bearing manufacturing specs are off. My intermediate shaft is so bound up I can't even get it in all the way with a mallet or turn it at all.

Can anyone else who has successfully done this without line boring point me to where you bought your bearings from? I suspect the suppliers specs are off, or the install positions are incorrect on the box. Unfortunately my calipers aren't accurate enough to measure them properly.
 
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