Replacing front crank bearing? - Be careful...

[Watty]

Myself and a few of the crew have just been through a little bit of hassle while replacing our front crank bearings.

The jist of it is that mine was water damaged/seized, and therefore had to be replaced. No worries, all done. Put the engine back together and ran fine.

After a few routine checks that I always perform after having the engine out/apart, I noticed that the flywheel cover was so hot that I couldn't hold my hand on it for any longer than about 2 seconds.

Upon pulling the engine out, I found the front bearing had the outline of the crank case oil gallery in the middle of nowhere rather than having it around the oil gallery hole in the bearing itself. Upon further inspection, it turns out the oil gallery hole is on the equal but opposite side of where it's supposed to be.

My mate had recently had one replaced, so I rang him to find his was also like this, but the crank hadn't been run or put into an engine yet. It turns out mine was bad enough for me to warrant tossing it.

I rang my crank guy and found that he has been using WSM front bearing for some time, and had him a little worried.

The bottom line is, even though you have a new bearing from WSM, and everything lines up nice with the crank/cases, it doesn't mean that the oil gallery hole is lined up! It might be worth checking this if you have or are going to use a WSM bearing(s).

 

[sflsurfrider]

wsm is crap

 

['Crockett]

There is supposed to be a pin in the case to locate it properly . . . . . you really shouldn't be able to do that. (locate it improperly)

Weird . . .:dunno:

 

[Watty]

Yep, WSM is crap.

That's exactly the point, when you locate it the bearing in the locator hole, the oil gallery is on the wrong side of the locator hole. A manufacturing defect I think.

 

[Matt_E]

Quite the defect I say.

 

[djyox]

Was
Suposta
Match

 

[willycrumb]

he made a funny

 

[SUPERTUNE]

I avoid problems like this by using only OEM Yamaha main bearings. Now do you think I'm expensive? I just do it right the first time. You'll never have to redo any of my motors, It's called experience and perfection.

 

[djkorn1]

Don't replace your front crank bearings... another will just go and take out your whole motor. :banghead:

Get the new crank!

 

[Watty]

I actually thought my crank guy was a lot better than this and I've never used anything WSM for that reason. He sold me the Hot Rods crank, so I figured he would use a Hot Rods bearing as well. Not the case, and I'm none too happy considering the WSM bearing cost more than the Wiseco bearing I ordered yesterday.

Don't replace your front crank bearings... another will just go and take out your whole motor. :banghead:

Get the new crank!

Say what? Don't you think thats a bit extreme? They make replacement bearings for a reason, and I'm certainly not going to buy a new crank if one bearing fails due to water intrusion. Thats like saying..."Why would I want to go out, I'm only going to end up back here again"

 

[Exile]

Question: How expensive are new crank bearings for a stroker crank hot rod or crankworx or whatever.......? So what on the crank do you have to replace for prior failure sake? and how often replace the bearings?

Exile.

 

[Matt_E]

I don't imagine a stroker crank takes a different bearing than an OEM crank.

 

[Mouthfulloflake]

this reminds me of Mitch Hedburg.

Why would you eat an apple? its eventually going to be a core?

hahaha

Thats like saying..."Why would I want to go out, I'm only going to end up back here again"

 

[sflsurfrider]

im bringing up this old thread cause i was going to start one about the same thing and this came up as 'similar existing threads'.

i recently noticed the same thing. not only that, but with OEM bearings. it doesnt make much sense to me.

oddly, the new WSM bearings have a groove cut all the way around them for oil travel. without it, the front oil galley is blocked by the bearing and the oil go nowhere.

wtf? could yami have really been this careless for almost 20 years?

 

[waterfreak]

im bringing up this old thread cause i was going to start one about the same thing and this came up as 'similar existing threads'.

i recently noticed the same thing. not only that, but with OEM bearings. it doesnt make much sense to me.

oddly, the new WSM bearings have a groove cut all the way around them for oil travel. without it, the front oil galley is blocked by the bearing and the oil go nowhere.

wtf? could yami have really been this careless for almost 20 years?

Yeah, the new wsm main bearing is a pretty cool design. A definite improvement

 

[Idok]

we need pix

butti and I have been talking about lopping off a front bearing from a crank to replace it....we'll use another OEM bearing


is there a trick to lining it up correctly?

 

[sflsurfrider]

we need pix

butti and I have been talking about lopping off a front bearing from a crank to replace it....we'll use another OEM bearing


is there a trick to lining it up correctly?

not really. the easiest thing that i can think to do is cut a small groove from the hole in the case to the hole in the bearing, on the case top. it actually wouldnt be that hard for yami to have gotten this right.

 

[waterfreak]

we need pix

butti and I have been talking about lopping off a front bearing from a crank to replace it....we'll use another OEM bearing


is there a trick to lining it up correctly?

Here you go! a bit blurry but you get the idea!

 

[Idok]

sweet!

 

[meatball]

Here you go! a bit blurry but you get the idea!

so can I take this notion as a "buy WSM front bearings over OEM?"

This is the ONLY positive thing I've ever heard about WSM