On Fri, 09 Dec 2016 07:04:37 -0800, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On 9 Dec 2016 04:42:07 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2016-12-07, Larry Jaques wrote:
On 7 Dec 2016 03:00:25 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2016-12-06, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Tue, 6 Dec 2016 05:07:30 -0800 (PST), Christopher Tidy
wrote:

Hi folks,

I need an example for an article. Can anyone think of a modern product
which uses plain bearings in a demanding application?

[ ... ]

Are clutch pilot bearings still sintered bronze? That's a dusty,
dirty, hot, and demanding application.

Well -- the MGA (1956 to I think around 1964) used needle roller
bearings for the clutch pilot, and the throwout bearing was a graphite
ring in a cup applied to a hardened steel ring..

Caged? Wow, advanced tech back then.

No such luck! :-)

At least those trannies were
single-armers. I used both knees and both arms to hoist my Borg T-10
up into the Javelin bell housing.

Well ... with the MGA, while the tranny was lighter, it included
the bell housing as part of its casting, so you needed to pull the
engine and trans as an assembly out of the car before you could either
pull the trans off the engine or re-install it. :-)

Back then, it took an hour for that job. It's a little different
today. I remember climbing over the fender of my '60 F-100 and
standing next to the 312cid V-8 to do the tuneup. I could see right
down into the distributor for points and condenser. change, and the
spark plugs were right in front of me. Times have changed.


The needle roller bearing was not an assembly, but rather a
cluster of needles which you put in place with some grease to hold them
until the input shaft pilot was into place.

I thought that kind of sadism was limited to u-joint cups...

It was not that bad, I had the engine hanging from a tree with a
pulley, and could easily insert the needle bearings, and then lift the
trans and put it into the back of the engine, with the pilot starting
nicely enough. It helped to have another pair of hands to put the first
couple of bolts in place holding the trans to the engine. :-)

First stab is the reckoning. You start to tighten the bolts and it
just doesn't want to easily slide up to the engine block when you
realize that a needle is caught. Gently undo it all and start over.
BTDT, got the t-shirt.


OBTW -- The MGB was the same, as I put an 1800 CC MGB engine
in my 1622 CC MGA 1600 Mark II.

Ricky Racer, wot? I'll bet that pepped it up a bit.

\ You want to see a twin carb 1800 B in a '53 TD!!!


There were only 2 places I ever used long grain wheel bearing grease.
The first was on water pump gaskets, after gluing the gasket to the
pump. I hated scraping old gaskets off timing case covers. The second
was to glue the loose needle bearings in u-joint cups so they wouldn't
be crushed in the press during assembly. I bought the Harbor Freight
5" Mechanic's vise in 1976 for that latter use. Once the cups were
flush-seated, I could use a dowel and mallet to finish seating them to
snap-ring depth. The newer moly wbg didn't work worth a crap to hold
those needles.

At that time, I had only a very tiny bottle of Molly grease,
which I used for hand tapping with spiral point (gun) taps.

Yeah, it wasn't extremely available when I started that. Now,
searching for the long grain grease is like finding a dinosaur tooth.

AMALIE (Super Heavy Duty Wheel Bearing Grease #4) and CRC (SL3135)
still make sodium soap based wheel bearing grease. There are also many
manufacturers in India.