I've been wanting to see how the Midget's thrust bearings are, since the 1500 thrust washers are notorious. I was hoping Autozone had them to rent, but no joy. Harbor Freight didn't seem to have them. Failing that, is there a clever way to measure the crankshaft float without a dial gauge?

Bolt a fairly ridget pointer or stop to the chassis near the front pulley and pry the crank all the way forward then set the stop to just touch the pulley.
Then move the crank backwards and you should be able to check the clearance with a common feeler gauge set. Not the best way, but without pulling the oil pan about the same as using a dial indicator externally.

I bought my guage from HF....had to buy a stand separately.

I'm scared of buying precision tools @ HF; their quality control is SO poor ... picked up some dial calipers there once and discovered that the indicator was loose on the shaft. But so far I've been happy with the "cheap chinese" stuff from Enco; who happen to have a dial indicator and magnetic base on sale for $20 at the moment:
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INPDFF?PMKANO=235&PMPAGE=55&PARTPG=INLMPA&PMCTLG=01

I've been using a similar unit from Enco for many years and it still works well. They are rather fragile though (even the expensive ones), so careful storage is a must. I keep mine locked onto a chunk of metal, on the top shelf.

They have a reasonable selection at Sears, not cheapo but low price.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/search_10153_12605?keyword=Dial+Indicator+&vName=&x=30&y=9

I bought the most expensive HF unit (~$20) along with a base for crude measurements. Tested it against a "professional" dial gauge borrowed from a friend who rebuilds transmission and it was very spot on.

Now I wouldn't use it in a machine shop for high-precision work, but it is good enough for automotive gears and stuff...

BTW, the HF stand is the same as KD stand from Sears.

Mark

For occasional use the HF stuff is fine. You can index it with feeler gauges and get results "close enuff fer gummint work".

Hasn't done me wrong yet....I mean, we're not working on the space shuttle with these LBC's.

Oh Yeah?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b4WzWFKQ20

(Hijack - sorry)

Okay, other than the Reliant Robin!

THAT was SUB-ORBITAL by any standard!!!

Thanks all, I'll check out HF again. Maybe they have them in the store and I just didn't spot them online. Sears is pretty close too.

My HF dial indicator is Item #00623, made by CEN-TECH; the base is also CEN-TEC #05645.

Hope that helps.

OTOH, if you don't care about .005" (which was about the slop in the HF dial calipers I looked at), then why use a dial indicator to begin with?

Not to mention that HF is more expensive ...

mehheh... "precision" seems to have varying meanings.

All my stuff is Lufkin, Starrett or Prat & Whitney. I kinda tend to trust them more than something stamped "Made in China". And mine get checked against a set of "standards" with some regularity, too. Hard to pass along the benefit of owning known standards to folks buying the bargain tools, as well.
If you can accept measurement to plus/minus half a thou, just get a vernier caliper and no worries.


Notice I didn't even MENTION "touch" when takin' a measurement.

Indeed it does.
But as any good machinist should know, working to more precision than the job requires wastes time and money. In this case, we are only talking about crankshaft end float, where +/-.001" is enough precision. Measuring it to the nearest micron is simply a waste of time.

One of the things I like about dealing with Enco is that they also carry the "good stuff" at reasonable prices. If you would rather drop $200 on a nice Starrett .001" indicator set, they carry that:
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=319-3641&PMPXNO=19507018&PARTPG=INLMK32
Or $300 on a .0001" indicator for that matter:
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=990-0970&PMPXNO=3009293&PARTPG=INLMK32
(base & stand extra)

cut it out, Randall... you know what I meant: Pick yer poison.

A micron is as big as a football field when you have to hold less than 300 nanometers....

m

That gives "Relativity" a proper meanin' Mark.

And nanometers are pretty big when your only concerned about a very few atoms! Good thing TEMs (transmission electron microscope) have that kind of resolution or it would be really difficult to keep up with "Moore's Law" (and I would be out of a job)