hi everyone, i'm putting in my clutch on my 91 chevy 350 and was wondering if i should use the pilot bearing or a solid bronze/br*** bushing, iv heard good and bad about both. i have both, so thats not an issue, but iv heard that the bearing will wear out faster & chew up the input shaft, but iv also heard the solid br*** one may seize up if clutch is depressed to long while in gear. does anybody have any recommendations? thanks in advance Kalen
Using a needle roller bearing requires that the nose of the input shaft is hardened, otherwise it will brinnell and wear. I've never had a problem with an oilite bushing.
I just replaced a roller type and went back to a solid bronze bushing. Remember when a roller bearing goes to hell it will ruin the input shaft on the transmission and it was hell to remove and could not get it to pop out using grease I finally tried bread and got the bad roller bearing to finally pop out.
I have to replace the bearing on my 49 ford T5 conversion. I went with a bearing over the bushing and now after driving the car for a while it heats up and is hard to shift. My guess is that motor warms up and is turning the ****** and its not letting me shift. I shut the car off, shifts fine (motor stopped). Also works fine for about a half hour then starts to stick. Everything else worked out great on the conversion, I just made a bad decision. My .02 cents, Please run a bushing! LOL.
I'm using the solid bushing & Zoom clutch ***y I purchased thru Summit with my M-21 ****** behind my 350. Had to replace the throw-out bearing after a very short time due to the slave cylinder actuating rod was not lined up correctly with the fork. The action of the fork caused the bearing to fail prematurely. I corrected the alignment with the slave cylinder, replaced the throw-out bearing with a good Hayes one and kept the solid bushing. So far no issues. I'd go with the solid bushing.
Bread makes a mess. Soak paper towels in water and pack them behind the bearing, then punch it out. No muss, no fuss.
Not having any oilite bronze on hand , I turned a bushing out of some 660 bronze just to get a clutch job out of the shop . Big mistake on my part as that ****er locked up in about 20 minutes use !Even though we had packed the whole recess full of grease. Oilite-Oilite-Oilite !!
Interesting that Ford used flywheel bearings for decades, GM used bushings for just as long and they worked fine too.
I like the primitive bushing over the bearing also but I've always wondered why I must be the only person on the planet that has to keep an adjustable reamer (pre-set, just for this job!) in my tool box to slightly shave the inner diameter of the bushing after it shrinks from being installed in the back of the crankshaft.
I used a Napa bronze bushing on my vette. The inner diameter was too small & the input shaft became stuck in the bushing. I should have gotten a clue that something was amiss when I needed to draw in the trans with the bolts. I ended up getting an OEM GM truck bushing with the rollers. No issues, 12 years. The only reason I went with a roller is that GM no longer makes / sells the solid one.
well thanks sooooo much for all the help, very much appreciated, & im guessing that i should probably go with the bushing, haha well thanks alot guys kale
Without the proper tool to install a bearing , 1/2 the time it will distort. that's why so many failures occur. I'd go with the bushing if it lasts longer than the disc......... mission accomplished!!! Buckd
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