Im getting ready to tear down my tranny this winter to replace the driven plate that has elongated holes for the clutch pins. While I'm in there I was planning on replacing the bushings and freshening it up since I can actually feel the play in the reverse and low drum. I have the ability to machine my own bushings out of oil-lite. Has anyone else tried oi-lite bushings in their tranny instead of the standard bronze bushings? I would think they would be better, but not sure.
Oillite is made from sintered bronze and makes a nice light duty bearing but I wouldn't use them in a transmission. I don't think they'd stand up for long. They're a lot of work to replace.
R.V.'s right, a few years ago, they were made of oil lite, but not for long, as the bushings disintegrated in just a few miles,the triple gears went first, Many Pieces!
Pat Penrod:
Why do you want to change the bushings?
from what i understand 660 bronze is one of the best bearing materials around.
Best for what? Why aren't you using it in your main bearings then?
Dave, when I press on the reverse or low pedal with the inspection cover off I can see the drums move. Its MUCH more than .005,
the only reason its not used in main bearings is because it lacks embedability.
in modern engines the bearings are steel, bronze, and then babbitt, the babbitt layer is only about .0005 thick, so once the engine wears its running mostly on the bronze bearing surface.
if you were to supply clean constant oil pressure to the bearings and both surfaces were polished, you could run straight on cast iron. however bearings such as this have to be set up near perfect and are not very forgiving thusly we use multi layer bearings, or float shaft on a pillow, like grade 2 babbitt.
in the early 30s south bend machine co. used cast iron bearings in their low end lathes, they found that the bearings lasted nearly forever, and many of them are still in service today.