Need crank bearing help!

[Smitherines]

Hey guys, I also need help with this on my friend's 2001. I can't for the life of me figure this out because it seems like I end up needing one 7 set of bearings, and those dont exist apparently. Any help would be appreciated!

Looking at the oil filter with the pan as it would sit on the engine...

Left boss...

Right boss...

Crank...

I also need balance shaft bearings, and I have a "3 3" stamped on the balance shaft. Any help determining what shells I need? I need to replace 2nd gear and the hub and shift fork as well while I'm in here, and I'd like to get it back together already.

The crank isn't scored, but when opening it up to check out the 2nd gear issue, I noticed that the bearings aren't looking pretty and wanted to replace them and plastigage them afterwards for peace of mind!

Thanks!
-John

 

[one2dmax]

Is there no markings left to verify what you have currently?
Sean

 

[Smitherines]

What am I looking for on the underside of the bearing shell?

 

[sdt354]

I pay attention to these build threads and soak it all in. Though I've rebuilt many engines over the years, I've never done a Vmax. When I first became a mechanic this is the type of work we did all the time, now parts replacing only, is a mechanics reality. Most of Tech school was about blue printing an engine. Marinas buy engines in a box now. My dream is a 1300 conversion stump puller engine. I'll want to assemble it myself. Satisfaction and a challenge mostly, and a few bucks saved. A lot of detail involved here.
Steve-o

 

[one2dmax]

The color will be on the very edge of the bearing shell.

 

[Smitherines]

I'll take a look when I get home. Is it a literal color I'm looking for or is it something stamped in the shell?

 

[one2dmax]

They used paint on the edges of the shells. So, literally you are looking for color.

Sean

 

[one2dmax]

By the way, the coating on the shells is a few MICRONS thick. So, replacing them because they aren't the same grey as new isn't always needed.

Sean

 

[Smitherines]

I'm replacing them because there are some gouges in them but no damage to the crank surprisingly. Also, do you recommend replacing the oil pump siphon O-Ring?

 

[one2dmax]

Our HD oiling kit might be worth looking into. Also, some other stuff we have depending on the engine year you're fixing and what all you are doing to it.

 

[Smitherines]

Sean, what does that kit run?

 

[one2dmax]

$100 on the HD oiling kit

 

[dij0674]

First, I'm not an expert at this, but I have rebuilt a vmax motor using Damon's video from ebay. (my motor didn't last long. I think I should have checked a few other things during the build.)

+1 on Sean's oil kit.

With that being said.

RH block numbers equal journal numbers, for the engine from left to right, the engine is faced as if its in the bike and you are sitting in the riding position.


5 6 = Balancer Shaft
1 2 3 4 = Crank Shaft

crank numbers equal XX YYYY
XX = Crank pin, where the connecting rods go.
YYYY = main bearings


so you would subtract your crank/balancer numbers from your block numbers to get the bearing sizes (check them with plasti gauge to confirm)

the bearing sizes relate to a color code, there is a table in the manual for this pg 188

so in your case you would get the following.

for journal 5 and 6 - balancer shaft
7-3 = 4
7-3 = 4


and for 1,2,3,4, main journals for the crank.

8-3 = 5
7-2 = 5
8-2 = 6
8-1 = 7

according to the book 5 = yellow, 6 = pink , and 7 = red for mains, and 4 = green for balancer shaft bearings.

Hopefully you can confirm your numbers with the existing bearing colors

The connecting rods will have numbers engraved as well. its the same process for them, just use the XX numbers from the crank

HTH,
Damien

P.S. the video is a must have for rebuilding, unless you're an experienced builder like some of the guys on here.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

RH block numbers equal journal numbers, for the engine from left to right, the engine is faced as if its in the bike and you are sitting in the riding position.

Not too confuse matters, but of course I will.

There's another thread on here that went into this in detail lately. But whats important is that the above staement is true for some years and not others, it depends on which side of the block the numbers are engraved I think. On one layout the numbers are in order left to right for 1-4 journals, in the other layout they are opposite and read 4-1 and so correspond with the journal location geographically.

You need to go into the supplemental portion of the manual to find this info.....And also verify which journal is #1, think it's the side of the engine nearest the flywheel....That won't change for any year....

Hope this helps!

 

[bigbadwheelie]

I cannot for the life of me find anywhere that says what the varying thicknesses are for plane bearings on my '85. Im .006" short on tolerance on both my connecting rods. Ordered 1 green and 1 yellow. How much thicker do they go? Will i be able to get within atleast .003"?

 

[bigbadwheelie]

Ok. Let me try this again. I ordered some new connecting rods. #6 and a #7. The plane journal is a #2. Now I. Did read in an earlier post that a guy had the exact problem I had, with the same rods and plane bearings. Which he then ordered some blues to take care of the problem. But the blues.only closed the tolerance by about .002 which left him at like .004 of total clearance from journal to plane bearing. Are the blues the thickest whims is what I'm boiling down too. I was unable to look at whatever kind of chart there was on another post due due to my computer. I of course have the service manual which has the formula for figuring the thickness to order, but that obviously was wrong, since I'm writing this. I need help bad. On getting this thing together to sell to have money to get my R6 sent off to a suspension and engine builder for the amapro NOLA race on October.

 

[one2dmax]

The thickest to thinnest bearing only varies by maybe a 2 thousands and not even that. More like .0015 variation! Not sure what you are doing to get that much gap? How are you reading it? Are you using a micrometer and bore mic? Plastigauge?

Sean

 

[bigbadwheelie]

thank you so very much for your response sean. Im using a mic and telescoping gauge for the connecting rods. then just the mic for the plane journal. iv meaured them both several times and am still getting the same reading. almost exactly at .006 clearance. had to emery cloth the journal a little bit due to some rough spots but not that much. atleast not enough to where i would think it would take off that much material, or could i be wrong. im in the welding/machining trade for a living but have never dwelt this far in to a motor. thanks for all your help. greatly appreciated!!

 

[one2dmax]

You'd need to spend a lot of time on a surface as hard as that crank! Try some plastiguage for grins and see what it shows for gap. Worst case I can send a pair of each color shell so you can see what you need.

Sean

 

[bigbadwheelie]

The plastigauge barely even squished. I guess the best route is gonna be the different shells. Shoot me an email at [email protected] to let me know what we need to do to make it happen. By parts or whatever. Thanks again.