ANYONE changing a front pulley, or loosening the front eccentric shaft bolt for ANY reason!, needs to be aware of what can go wrong with the torrington thrust bearings inside the front cover/front of engine!!
Before we wade through this FAQ, the way to prevent the problem from happening in the first place is to, (BEFORE! you loosen the bolt):
1) If the engine is in the car (this DOES NOT APPLY for 93-95’s) do something to wedge the clutch pedal down — meaning a 2×4 or something like it, holding the pedal down and wedged against steering wheel or front of the seat.
2) If the engine is out of the car, set it with the flywheel down, front pulley up, the whole time you are working on the front of the engine. Do not roll the engine horizontal until the front bolt is tightened.
3) For 93-95’s you need to do something to wedge the flywheel forward – easiest we have done is a small piece of wood up through the inspection plate on the bottom of the bellhousing. With the wood between the pressure plate and the bellhousing. Do something to hold it there, because if you rotate the engine while trying to get the bolt loose, the wood will fall out.
What any of the above steps will do is to hold the rear torrington bearing in place against the thrust plate – keeping it from dropping out of place if the spacer moves forward.
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If you think you have dropped the bearing, you are welcome to try anything you want to get it back up in place, but we strongly suggest it will be faster to just bite the bullet, and pull the front cover off.If you think your engine may already have the bearing down, and the engine has been run, first check to see if you have ANY end float. This is the amount the eccentric / pulley / flywheel will move front to back. Spec is .0015″ to .0028″ – not much at all, but some. If you have absolutely NO float, you have a problem.
All of the damage CAN be repaired with the engine in the car, and the front cover off. The front gear can even be replaced (just DO NOT rotate the eccentric AT ALLwhile the gear is out. |
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Parts list if you are going to pull your front cover: Front cover gasket Front cover “O”ring Oil pan gasket Water pump housing to engine gasket At least one torrington bearing (assuming the front bolt has been tightened) More parts we recommend, or you may need if it has been run: The other torrington bearing Front seal Thrust washer(s) Thrust Plate Hopefully you will not need a front stationary gear. If the spacer has been damaged, try to salvage it with a file or something. That way (assuming end float was previously set correctly) you will not have to re-set end float by trying various thicknesses of spacers. |