kaelen
I wonder if anyone can recommend a good method for aligning the thrust bearing. I'm putting together a 360 for another project. I know the 360 can be picky about thrust bearings. I'm paranoid about proper alignment.
I've seen a few different methods.
Tapping the bearing cap to the back with a soft hammer, tighten bolts to seat it, loosen to finger tight and pry crank forward.
Or using large hammer and block of wood hit crank on front and back a few times while cap is finger tight. Just curious, anyone ever warp a crank by hitting it like that?
tufcj
I've always left the cap loose and tapped the crank front/back with a lead hammer. You don't need to slam it with a sledge hammer, just a light tap will do. All you're trying to accomplish is getting the thrust surface flush on both halves of the bearing.
Once it's set, tighten the cap and check the clearance with a dial indicator. The only one I've ever seen out of spec was on a crank that had a damaged #3 main and was cut incorrectly.
Bob
tufcj
kaelen
Thanks, I was mostly curious what other people do. I've tried both methods. Yeah, I suppose if a person was to thwack on the end of the crank with a 2lb sledge they would be asking for trouble. I always put a chunk of 2x4 between and hit that to soften the blow. (I wouldn't hit it very hard anyways) I'm sure the wood absorbs much of the impact. I was just thinking of when I was pounding old studs out of some rotors. At first I had the rotor up on a piece of wood. Could hit them all day and they weren't budging. Set it right on the floor and they came right out.
tarior
I use a dial indicator and a prybar. Check your dial indicator to see that the endplay is the same with the thrust tight or loose. Once it is, you know the bearing is lined up.
