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/brass 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 brass 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 tranny 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 assy I purchased thru Summit with my M-21 tranny 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 sucker 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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