New Crank = scratched rod bearings?

iflylow74 · Post by **iflylow74** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:30 am

I'm in the process of rebuilding my L134 and bought the crank kit from Kaiser Willys. I checked all the rod and main bearing clearances with plasti-guage and they are all within specs.
Took the crank back out and applied liberal amounts of assembly lube to all bearing surfaces.

Turned the crank to make sure it feels o.k. and it did. Unfortunately forgot to install flywheel bolts so had to remove crank and do that.

I noticed that the rod bearings had a pretty significant scratch in them about where the crank oil hole is. The number 4 bearing was the worst with each successive bearing to the front having less of a scratch.

I felt the crank journals and they feel glassy smooth. Anyone have ideas to what may have happened? Thanks!

hill · Post by **hill** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 6:37 pm

Sometimes where the oil hole is located there could be a burr left when the crank was made and drilled or reconditioned and wasn't chamfered around the oil hole. This just means to file a smooth elongated counter sink around the oil hole.I hope this helps.

iflylow74 · Post by **iflylow74** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 7:25 pm

Thanks for the help hill. Does this make the bearings no good?

hill · Post by **hill** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 5:34 pm

If you rake a finger nail across it and it catches and hangs in the groove then it's shot but if not real bad it should be OK.

artificer · Post by **artificer** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:18 pm

Thanks for the help hill. Does this make the bearings no good?

Not necessarily or likely with new bearings & reground shaft. Post pic's so we can see exactly what you are talking about.

iflylow74 · Post by **iflylow74** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 5:05 am

OK, I will post some pics of the bearings tonight when I get home

Thanks!

iflylow74 · Post by **iflylow74** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 3:54 pm

artificer wrote:
Thanks for the help hill. Does this make the bearings no good?
Not necessarily or likely with new bearings & reground shaft. Post pic's so we can see exactly what you are talking about.

My camera is crappy so pics don't show the scratch. I measured the scratch on the #4 bearing and it is .004 wide and it grabs on my finger nail when I scratch across it. The #3 bearing is almost as bad, with the #2 being less significant and the #1 being almost nothing at all.

The #3 and #2 both grab my finger nail when I scratch it. Any ideas? I'll try to borrow a better camera and get pics up.

Thanks

Balvar24 · Post by **Balvar24** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 3:09 pm

It's not worth the cost of a bearing set to me to risk having to tear the engine apart again.

iflylow74 · Post by **iflylow74** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 7:29 pm

Balvar24 wrote:It's not worth the cost of a bearing set to me to risk having to tear the engine apart again.

I agree. The good thing is, the main bearings look perfect so worse case scenario, I can get to the rod bearings with the motor still in the jeep. Now I am just waiting to hear from Kaiser Willys about the flywheel bolts they were supposed to send with the new crank.