WooHoo! Bell housing dial in is DONE! (almost)

[Ron Dame]

A small glass of good wine just before bed should do the trick.

Already started....

[Bob Andrews]

FYI... They (the big 3) suggest this, too (if you read deep enough in their manuals..).
Just is, very few take the time to do it.

This is the only place I've ever heard that. As mentioned last time I'm a Stude rookie, but have plenty of experience with Big 3 cars, literally thousands of street/race engines including oval track engines that turn 8K plus, and have never done, nor heard of anyone doing this in my almost 50 years.

I'm not doubting what you say, just giving my experience.

[Dan Timberlake]

Last night I had one of those 2:00 ayem 'UH-OH"s! I started with the 9:00 position at 0.000" 6:00 was 0.002" 3:00 was 0.000", and 12:00 was 0.001". It sounds like the runout is fine except why is it not 0.000:, 0.000: 0.000" and 0.001"? Was my set-up wrong? Is the hole oval? does it really matter? HELP! I need to sleep tonight!

Was the crank horizontal or vertical? Did you get the same readings rotating the crank a few times? How did you rotate the crank- pulling on a ratchet in varying directions or a constant direction ?

Generally speaking the perpendicular pairs of readings should add up to the same number. Millwrights doing "precision" machine alignments call this the "validity rule."

http://www.maintenanceworld.com/Arti...d/Pitfalls.pdf

http://books.google.com/books?id=b2Q...gnment&f=false

Yours are 0+0=0 and 2+1=3. Maybe not bad enough to worry about, but bad data is not good data.
Among the reasons I'd consider for discrepencies are bellhousing bore ovality, crank moving within main bearing clearance ( crank vertical), slightly "bent" crank (crank horizontal, all 5 main bearings installed).

Note that indicator sag (crank horizontal) will report some vertical misaligment even if concentricity is "perfect." Indicator sag is poo-pooed by some, but I can be absolutely sure that until I test, measure and record MY indicator set-up's sag, I don't simply know.

A two time former National SCCA GT1 champion who also did a lot of his own wrenching corrected a shifting problem by throwing away a famous name bellhousing after measuring the 3D alignment (bore concentricity AND face runout) and discovering it was too bad to correct.

[Ron Dame]

Was the crank horizontal or vertical? Did you get the same readings rotating the crank a few times? How did you rotate the crank- pulling on a ratchet in varying directions or a constant direction ?

Generally speaking the perpendicular pairs of readings should add up to the same number. Millwrights doing "precision" machine alignments call this the "validity rule."

http://www.maintenanceworld.com/Arti...d/Pitfalls.pdf

http://books.google.com/books?id=b2Q...gnment&f=false

Yours are 0+0=0 and 2+1=3. Maybe not bad enough to worry about, but bad data is not good data.
Among the reasons I'd consider for discrepencies are bellhousing bore ovality, crank moving within main bearing clearance ( crank vertical), slightly "bent" crank (crank horizontal, all 5 main bearings installed).

Note that indicator sag (crank horizontal) will report some vertical misaligment even if concentricity is "perfect." Indicator sag is poo-pooed by some, but I can be absolutely sure that until I test, measure and record MY indicator set-up's sag, I don't simply know.

A two time former National SCCA GT1 champion who also did a lot of his own wrenching corrected a shifting problem by throwing away a famous name bellhousing after measuring the 3D alignment (bore concentricity AND face runout) and discovering it was too bad to correct.

The crank was horizontal, and the engine freshly rebuilt, so mains clearances should not be an issue. The engine was balanced, and knowing this shop, they would have checked for and reported any crank bends. I only rotated the engine clockwise (from the front) and went about 3 full turns, with good repetition.

It could be indicator sag, but because I had heard of this before, I lightly pressed the indicator mount, ( guessing 8-10 ounces of pressure), and saw only about 0.001" deflection. Whatevert it was ( I really don't recall) I decided it was not significant enough to worry about.

In fact, I've deceided not to worry about any of it, and get the durned engine in the truck.

[studebaker-R2-4-me]

This is the only place I've ever heard that. As mentioned last time I'm a Stude rookie, but have plenty of experience with Big 3 cars, literally thousands of street/race engines including oval track engines that turn 8K plus, and have never done, nor heard of anyone doing this in my almost 50 years.

I'm not doubting what you say, just giving my experience.

AAH Come on Bob, Your rookie season has been past for more than a few years now! You can't claim rookie status just because you change your user name from Bams.

BTW Congratulation on gettin' that engine in the truck, Ron. Happy to hear my tutorial on Dialing in a Bell housing helped you out.

Allen

[tluz]

When I dialed in mine, I discovered that the bellhousing bore was oval, and not by a little. 2 o'clock and 8 o'clock were -0.002, but 11 o'clock and 5 o'clock were 0.009. I did it twice and got the same result. This bellhousing operated on a car for 35 years, so I can't imagine it will stop mine. Expert opinions to the contrary, however, are always welcome.