I'm in the process of measuring everything and mocking up my short block. I noticed that the bearings in the rods don't line up. Some better than others. Here's a pic,of the worst one. What is the best way to correct this. I could narrow the tangs on the back bearings with a file so I can center them, Is this how it's done? Overall I was impressed with the tolerances of the King bearings, They were very consistent in their thickness. All of them were +-.0001 between the whole set. (measured 6 places on each bearing half with a ball anvil micrometer)
Rod Bearing Alignment
- Thread starter Sleeper-6
- Start date
Welcome!
By registering with us, you'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.
challengermike
Member
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2005
- Messages
- 717
You do have the upper bearing in the rod and the lower bearing in the cap correct?I have never seen a set off like that before.I did try to install them backwards once and it looked like that though.I have done only 1 buick engine so maybe somebody with more knowledge on these will chime in.
OK,After feeling really dumb for i few minutes I went down and swapped bearing locations in the rod and had the same result. I have to pull a few more rods apart tomorrow and check if it is the tang location in the bearings that is off or it the receiver groove in the rod bore is off. FWIW these are K1 rods.
I have not checked what is out of line yet. I am currently on vacation and have stumbled across a bootleg internet connection, so I can follow the boards. (remember boys to activate you WEP key.:biggrin: ) However, Once I return I will check the bearing and rod tang offsets and report what I find. As a side note, I have not switched the rod caps around. The caps have stayed with with the rods they were shipped with.
OK, Took some measurements tonight. I looked over all the rod assemblies and they all seem to be misaligned by about .040". I measured a few of the bearing tangs and here's what I got. From the side of the tang to the edge of the bearing shell I got .110" on the short side and .429" long side. I went on to measure the receiver grooves on the rods from the edge of the groove to the flat side of the rod and got .215-.220 on the narrow side and .502-.509" on the wide side. These are King bearings and K1 rods. Does anyone have a correctly fitting set they can measure up and tell me if the bearings or rods are out of spec?
Measuring the oe GM bearings I took out I get .127, .434; .131, .416; .113, and .430 (using the normal outside caliper jaws and going from tang edge which is beveled to side of bearing which is notched on the .43 side corner so that explains the bulk of the variance 
). Checking two new King bearings I get .122, .452; .132, and .458. Looks like it's time to call K1.
). Checking two new King bearings I get .122, .452; .132, and .458. Looks like it's time to call K1.OK, since you mentioned stock parts a little light bulb went off in my head and I went down to switch out the bearings with the set from my stock rods. Now get this, I put the new bearings in the stock rods, and my old bearings in the new rods. I could get BOTH of them to line up properly. 
I think what I'm dealing with here is a tolerance stacking issue with the new rods and new bearings.
As an experiment I took a small hand file and narrowed a set of the new bearing tangs about .015" on side closest to the edge. After this I was able to line up the bearing halves centered in one of the new rods without an issue. Is this an acceptable fix?
I think what I'm dealing with here is a tolerance stacking issue with the new rods and new bearings.As an experiment I took a small hand file and narrowed a set of the new bearing tangs about .015" on side closest to the edge. After this I was able to line up the bearing halves centered in one of the new rods without an issue. Is this an acceptable fix?
I've never done it but a similar problem came up with some mis-machined main caps about a year ago and Bill Anderson recommended doing just what you did. I don't know if rods would be different than mains, though . How's that for a long non-answer?
. How's that for a long non-answer? It works for me, I remember the thread you are taking about. I figure since the tangs measure about .118" wide to start with and I'm only going to remove .015" off one side, that leaves lost of it there anyway. I was hoping to to get some reponses saying it's not a problem to do so. I am gong to call my machinest for his opinion before I go fileing the tangs on 14 more bearings though. :smile:
But that's a whole other story.Just to provide some closure on this thread, I spoke with my engine machinest today and he agreed that it would be no problem to narrow the bearing tangs to get a proper fit. Apparently it's a somewhat common thing when dealing with all new aftermarket parts, as he has had to do this many times in the past.
