Crankshaft Thrust Washers

[homebeforedark]

I guess that I have rebuilt around one hundred Big Healey engines over the years and most of the time the thrust washers have very little wear. But the last two engines were a little different. On one engine, someone installed the washers backwards. The block will be fine but the crankshaft will have to be repaired. But the other engine had no thrust washers at all! This one damaged the main cap more than the crankshaft. Both engines were bored and the new pistons hardly had any carbon on top so there were very few miles put on these engines. I guess each owner suspected a problem and parked the car. (Both have been parked for about twenty years)

Alan T

 

[Randy Forbes]

Some people shouldn't be trusted with wrenches...

Welding up and machining the damaged areas are the common repairs; is that the route you're going to take with these?

The most common way(s) to damage the thrust washer/thrust face are pre-loading the driveline, wrong throwout bearing fitted (though they should wear themselves down pretty fast) and running into things!

I'm sure there are more ways, so have you heard of any other really interesting ways?

 

[Johnny]

An improperly installed, or loose, crank balancer on the front of the engine. I've seen newly restored cars that when you look down at the nice and shiny engine, the belt is wobbling out of control.