MTFCA Forum

I got most of the oil pumped out of my ‘24’s differential and probed around a bit with a borescope. Is the yellowish component in the first picture the bronze axle thrust bearing everyone says should be there in place of the original babbit? Sorry I couldn’t get a wider view. The second photo is the ring gear for scale (hopefully). There was no evidence of anything silvery in the oil.

Yours sure looks like bronze to me. Here is a picture of one of the Babbitt thrust washers that I removed from my rear axle when I tore it apart to convert it to a Ruckstell.

Sure looks like the bronze thrust bearing to me Miles. Others will contest that you still don't the bearing on the other side is bronze, since it can't be seen. However, I can't fathom anyone changing only 1 of the 2 thrust bearings, especially the one that takes the least beating and is less likely to need replacement. I say you're good to go.

I am relatively sure the component in the first picture is bronze; I just wanted confirmation I was looking in the right place and that it is the thrust washer. From Mark’s photo I’m pretty sure it is. Also, the ring gear teeth show little wear so that makes me better too.

My understanding (and what Lang's sells) is brass for such washers. The brass / bronze thrust washer is sandwiched between two steel washers of a little less than half the thickness. Sure looks like what you have in the first photo.

Do you know any of the history of your car? Maybe the previous owner did some work on the differential sometime or another. Or maybe the one before it??

John kuehn wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 13, 2022 8:17 pm

Do you know any of the history of your car? Maybe the previous owner did some work on the differential sometime or another. Or maybe the one before it??

I bought the car last October, and don’t know much about its history; that’s the main reason I was concerned with the health of the rear axle. It runs fairly well and is in decent cosmetic condition. The guy I bought it from only had it a year or so, and said he hadn’t done much with it except put a kit in the carburetor. He got it from the estate of a Larry Mohrfield near Cincinnati who passed away in 2014, so it had been sitting for at least 6 years. Also, it has an old Akron AAA badge on the radiator, but I have no clue whether the car is from that area or if the badge was an eBay or swap meet find. If anyone on here knew Larry or what work he might have done to the car I’d like to know.

Surely if it was the Babbit style of Thrust Washer, there would be a large space between the Steel Plates as it would be non existent by now! Bronze for me too.
Alan in Western Australia

Can you post a photo of the car?

Yes that is a modern brass one. and every once in a while you find a whole babbitt one. But usualy they are a pile of pieces in the bottum of the Diff.
Craig.