Been working on this for a while and I still don't know what I'm doing.

Looks like your headed in the right direction. How do you plan to bore it?

I got the mould made and it works good, unscrew the inside to the height needed to seal the babbitt. Made the fixture, 0 it in X&Y But I still don't know what to center the cap to. Using the bolt holes, some of the collars that hold the babbitt are off by an 1/8 or more. Center the collar and the bolts are out. Anyone got an idea?

Center on the flat where the bell hits the flange.

See you run your lathe in reverse so you can see what your doing! Mine is so old it has no reverse.

Bob,

Would you mind showing a litle more detail of the mold set up? Thanks.

Another Bob

Be_Zero_Be

Bob,
I agree with Dean Yoder. There are assertions that the cap will seat in the crankcase using this fillet between the bell and bolt flange. I think thats too sloppy. The holes allow a lot of room to move the 4th main for fitment when the engine is placed on its nose. If it won't drop into place with bolts aligned then the pan needs some blacksmithing, ie about a 2-4# hammer and locate the 4th to be in the correct position.
I placed a two 1/8 rollpins in mine when finished so that I can R & R the 4th if necessary.

Hate to say it boys but align as much as you want then step on the ball cap on any T short of of a 26 style with the two bolts and you permently bent it one to three thou down.

Started with a 2.80" long 1.875 stock true one end and chuck the true end one inch in the lathe. Drilled and tape for a 5/8x11 studd. Drill tap and mount a piece 5/8 AL and turn to 6.625. Drill and tap for the two 10mm holes @5.140 centers. Take off the plate and remove the stud. Bore the stock to 1.225 ID 1.5 deep. Now on the outside of the piece measure 1.10 from the true end. Start the 45* and cut from the 1.875 to 1.440, this makes the seal for the babbitt inside the bell cap. The stock needs to taper from the 1.440 down to 1.375 to make it easy to remove from the bell cap. I used 2 nuts to make it easy to hold in a vice. The IR Thermometer helps in getting the mould to around 400 and the babbitt to about 820.

Thanks Bob. I'll add it to my never-ending project list.

Be_Zero_Be

Nice mold Bob. On a slight tangent, I once poured a babbit rear drive shaft bearing for an early EMF that was owned by a pattern maker. He made up the mold out of cherry wood. Oddly enough, while I was a bit skeptical about the mold, it did work. He said the babbitt turned out very nicely (this was a BIG bearing). Smelled nice when I poured it too.

When building a T engine, the ball cap is located on the engine by the bolt holes, no matter what procedure is used. Engine in the vertical is best, of course. We bore ball caps on a faceplate using socket head cap screws with tapered shoulders to center the ball cap on the faceplate. We have observed severe runout of the nose of some caps using this method, but no problem with assembly, if the pan is straight. If the pan is not aligned, nothing else is of any importance. We include pan straightening with every main bearing job, otherwise no guaranty can be made on the life of the bearings.
Fordially, Erik