Burr on new rod bearing.

[shojuan]

I'm finally replacing the rod bearings on my 89 at exactly 200,000 miles. Gotta say it sucks doing it outside in the middle of the night when it's barely above freezing. Don't think the rod caps come off as easy when it's cold.

Anyways, I was cleaning up the new lower bearing half for the first rod with some acetone and then gave it a final looksee under some light to make sure there wasn't any stuff on it before dabbing on the assembly ****. Anyways I see this little black burr. Wouldn't come off with the acetone and clean blue shop towel. So I try to lift it by sliding the edge of my clean fingernail across the surface. No dice. Since I've been up all night, not that I was very productive, my judgement isn't the greatest. So I cut a tiny square of crocus cloth to try to "polish" the damn thing out. I think I got it but of course the crocus cloth took off the dull layer and cut down to the shiny stuff. Doesn't look that great.

Am I ok to install the damn thing anyways or should I scrap it and get some more bearings? Which of course will mean even more delays.

 

[F-22 Raptor SHO]

Rick: In as much as I want to see you on the road, I wouldn't risk the burred bearing. It might be just fine, but the cost to pay if its not is too high, not to mention it will be alot colder when you have to do this again. Return the bearings for another set.

How did the old bearings look?

 

[ManySHOs]

I had a burr in my Clevite main bearings. I sanded it down with some extremely fine sand paper and washed it all down with brake cleaner. New bearings weren't available at the time. I'm satisfied that I won't have any issues. I wouldn't worry about it too much if the burr was small and you managed to get it out with minimal sanding.

Just don't sue me when the bearing spins.

Ian

 

[shojuan]

Rick: In as much as I want to see you on the road, I wouldn't risk the burred bearing. It might be just fine, but the cost to pay if its not is too high, not to mention it will be alot colder when you have to do this again. Return the bearings for another set.

How did the old bearings look?

I've only taken out the one pair so far and they looked really good actually. Now that the sun is up I'll take a look with more light.

Won't be able to return the bearings, bought the set three years ago. Yup, that's how long I've put off this stuff. I'll just buy a new set I guess.

 

[shojuan]

I should have a replacement set tomorrow morning. The wonders of a phone call to NAPA. $10. Easy choice.

It looks like I didn't get the burr out after all. I just made it harder to see and impossible to feel thanks to the scratched babbitt. I have to get the light just right to see it with my 10X loupe because the "polished" err...scratchy babbitt is so damn bright.

I'm thinking that my so called "burr" is really splatter from the plating process. I just happened to be unlucky enough to catch sight of one of these almost invisible tiny pieces that was high enough to detect with a fingernail. Actually I could feel it through the acetone covered shop towel. I have a set of bearings installed then immediately pulled from shotimer's ATX several years ago (tang didn't seat properly). It seems to have many similar looking "micro burrs" except the tops are flattened and shiny under the 10x. From most angles they look like the same little black bumpy thing that raised my eyebrows this morning. If it's just babbitt or splatter from the final tin/lead flash plating then I'd guess the crank would just displace it without a scratch. I might very well have ruined a perfectly good bearing.

Any other thoughts out there?

 

[SolidState]

you may be right, rick, but why risk it? I think you took the right course of action here.