Turbo shaft play, how much is too much?

[Morkai]

I just bought a used TA-49 which I was hoping would be a bolt-on replacment for my leaky stocker, but I'm concerned about the play in the shaft. How much side to side play is normal or acceptible before a rebuild is a must? This has very little end to end movement, but some side to side, offhand I would say about 1/16" (I can get an accurate measurement if I pull the housing and put the dial indicator on it)

Supposidly this turbo was working fine and wasn't leaking. I was told to put it in and go, but I don't want to take a chance wiping it out. Normally I would just rebuild it without thinking twice, but money's tight and if I can get by it would be better.

 

[GN SBS]

See: www.turbobuick.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=68540&referrerid=1129

I found suggested end-play values of between 0.003" (from GM specs) and 0.006".

I called PTE and they suggest that a good rule of thumb is that there should be no perceptable endplay-- if you can feel it then it's too much.

Scott