I replaced the small little rear main seal on my 93' tonight with the much bigger new one and in doing so found that my crankshaft has a bit more end play than called for in the Mitchell shop manual. The book calls for around 4 thousanths (spelling?) but the crankshaft in my truck had around a 16th of an inch or a bit less. The truck sounds good and runs great. Should I be worried, looking for a new engine or what.<br> My flex plate had gone a month or so ago so I don't know if that can damage the main bearings.<br>THanks for any advice.<br>Todd

 

It's pretty unusual to have a lot of endplay on a motor with that little mileage. I'm wondering if your flex plate problem is related to this. Maybe it was bottoming out the converter causing the crank to constantly ride against the thrust bearing. Were you able to spin the converter freely to line up the bolts? Just a thought ??? Jim

 

I had a VW diesel that had about 1/8 inch endplay...<br>Destroyed the block and crank....the thrust bearing surface was totally gone, so it gouged into the crankshaft, and one of the bearing caps was wacking the block on every revolution. <br>The axial force made the cyls out of round.<br>I would suggest removing the oil pan and inspecting the thrust bearing surface...hopefully you have caught it early enough.<br>Jay

 

Funny you mention the Rabbit- I had several of those come in with mega end play. I always told the customer to not sit at stoplights with the clutch in and keep it adjusted. They had dinky clutches and were always tight on adjustment from wear. I can't figure an automatic doing it,though. It seems the only 'pull' on the crank would be the crank gear driving the front gear train (everything else being equal) Jim

 

Thanks for the replies. We didn't drop the oil pan to check the thrust washers because it is my understanding that these engines require an engine out bearing replacement not just as simple as dropping the oil pan. The truck sounds good and seeems to run fine. Also I figure the cost of taking out the engine to do the work would be the same as trading in the engine on a rebuilt model. I bought the truck really hoping to have a trouble free engine and the rest would be little stuff that I could deal with. So far everything has had to be done in a garage on the hoist.<br> The converter was easily turned to line up the bolts.<br> By catching it early enough do you mean there is a relatively simple fix or am I in need of a bearing replacement at a Cummins dealer (Big Bucks)

 

By catching early I meant that in my VW the endplay got bad enough to cause pretty catastrophic damage...it ruined the crankshaft and block.
If I had any clue that it was getting bad, I could have simply replaced bearings. I didn't know it was bad until I could hear a strange clanking noise that I couldn't indentify until I tore the engine apart....that was the crankshaft counterweight hitting the bearing cap. (another dead rabbit!)
But that was a good thing...my next diesel fix was this CTD!! ;D

ps..actually I was always pretty **** about not keeping the clutch in at a light...

 

no good news from my side of the fence on this issue. i just spent a grand getting towed in, having tranny pulled, viewed wiped out flex plate, rear engine plate, and main bearing seal mount!!!! the parts were replaced, unit buttoned up and fired only to find excessive crank end play had the flex plate hitting the new rear engine plate threatening to start the whole thing over again. need new bearing set and probably crank before the situtation is resolved. considering replacement engine and tranny so that problem does not reoccur. tranny was replaced along with converter. converter spun freely when reinstalled. anyone have same problem with such diastrous damage? signed bummed out chiefart

 

Just so you know what you are looking at. The thrust bearing is only the top half of the bearing. The lower cap is just the standard bearing shell.