• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

How to remove pilot bushing from crank

Share this page

bugedd

bugedd

Jedi Knight
Country flag
Offline
I am working on installing a Rivergate conversion, and one part is to remove the pilot bushing in the crank and to press in a new one. Anyone have ideas on how to get the original one out? There is a slight shoulder on it on the inside, I can hook onto it with a bicycle spoke head, but its not coming out.
 
Wait, you use the grease to push it out when driving a bolt in there with a hammer?? That seems like it doesn't have enough power behind it to drive it out.
 
I seem to just get really greasy using that method! if its the bronze bushing run a tap into it and use a bolt to push it out or to get ahold of to pull it out. If its a needle bearing I use a carriage bolt with the head ground so that the remainder looks somthing like a T. Slip it in at an angle then the 2 legs of the T will just hook the edge and pull it out. Grease is definely worth trying on the needle bearing. Its the simplest.

Kurt.
 
I ended up splitting it with a dremel. Power tools always make things better, right?
So, any takers on Sierra Nevada beer for help with the 5 speed install :smile:
 
bugedd said:
Wait, you use the grease to push it out when driving a bolt in there with a hammer?? That seems like it doesn't have enough power behind it to drive it out.
Click to expand...
That's the method I've always used. You need a close-fitting bolt, and hydraulic energy forces the bearing out. A decent-sized hammer helps!
 
Here's a note from a year back re the above, along with the thread reference. Just an FYI for folks doing the same thing. And regards my comment about running the tap right into the crank: I managed to bust a 1/2" bolt by tightening it into the threads I thought were tapped only into the bushing.... Another example of having failed the IQ test.

Doug

https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcforum/u...erga#Post757532


Pilot Bearing: the pilot bearing drives into a 'stepped' hole, so you can't use a bearing puller to get a grip on the inside edge to pull it out: the stock bushing pushes right up against the 'step' in the crank. I wasted a lot of time and effort getting it out originally, finally using a hack saw and a small chisel - and it came out easily. Other methods (such as filling the cavity with grease and a pilot bearing puller and running a tap straight on through) all seem to be only suitable for other vehicles where the steel bored hole stays constant diameter past the bushing.
I managed to bell the Rivergate bushing tapping it in, such that the ID got squished down and when I was finally able to force the pilot shaft in (not knowing any better) there was way too much drag since the clearances had gone negative. Phoned Rivergate and they mailed me two replacements for a quite reasonable price, and these bushings had a rim on the trans side so you couldn't tap them in too far and bell them. To get the belled bushing out, we just ran a 1/2" (if memory serves) coarse bolt in and it was loose enough we were able to turn it out. The problems I'd caused myself originally were due to running a tap into the bearing with the idea of running a bolt into the tapped threads, but I managed to run the tap right through the bushing and into the steel crank.... Just running the bolt in the second time without the tap, meant that it pretty much stopped when it ran out of bushing and into the steel.
 
I read your notes on the install, sound like the real fun is soon to begin! Any other thoughts/tips you might have? Right now I have installed the clutch, and the clutch fork/slave on the trans, next is to mate the two together.
 
Not really. If you wait a few weeks though....
We didn't use the Sprite this year or last, other than a buddy taking it out for a drive in 2011 and something locking up in the drivetrain. So pulled the trans this past June and had it rebuilt (it wasn't the locking up problem, but there was a missing spacer) and haven't got it reinstalled yet.
The only real comment is that if you figure you're going to have to bend some sheet metal to get the clearances, then you've missed something in the instructions. In my case, I(that's me, not the instructions) managed to screw up the install on the trans mount and bent up the front edge of the metal in front of the heater with my heaving and grunting. And I think you read my comment about it being pretty tight to get the crank pulley down in there.
 
I did read that. How did you manage to screw up the trans mount? Did you have it in backwards?
 
Can't remember - that was two or so years back. And it's probably going to be late October before I can get the engine/trans reinstalled, and then check the axles/diff to see if maybe there's a problem there.

I haven't got 'round to finalizing the shifter position etc. etc., but Rivergate has the shift lever for modifying and (touch wood)it'll fit in the metal cupola again. And next year everything will be perfect!

Doug
 
Back
Top