If any one can help: I am replacing all the bearings on my '94 pickup. I've removed all the old bearings and installed the new rod bearing with no problems. I can not get the new top half of the main bearing to start sliding into place. Any ideas?

 

Sounds like you're trying to do this with the crank in place? If so, not sure how to do it that way. I installed mine with the crank out.

 

you will have to remove all the main caps to do this. that way you should be able to get the crank to move enough to get the bearings to slid in. also why are you replacing them?

 

To do the upper main bearings with the engine in the frame, you need to make a special service tool.

You use a small cotter pin, bend the ends into a Tee shape. Then drop the pin into the oil hole of the crank, then use the pin to 'turn' the bearing into place using a wrench on the end of the crankshaft.

Note that the bearings only can slide in one direction, the tang has to line up with the notch, and the non-tang end must go in first.

They can be done one at a time, no need to drop all the main caps at once.

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks for the cotter pin method. I'll give that a try.

 

Thanks Brian, the cotter pin worked great! All the bearings are in and the oil pan is back on!

 

I think im going to attempt to install main bearings in my rig, any tips for someone who's never done them before?

 

I just did mine a month ago for the first time...see the above posts. To pull the oil pan, I removed the steering cross members, loosened the diff. bolts so the diff would lower a few inches, removed the bracket on the left side of the tranny. Removed the bolts from the oil pan. removed the bolts that hold the oil pump pipe in place and pulled the pan to the left and out the front. Keep all the bearing covers and bolts in order. The bearings were easy to remove. I had a machinist friend look at the crank and old bearings. You may need to have someone see if you can just replace the bearings with the same size. The cotter pin tech. in the above posts worked great for putting the top side main bearings in place. I torqued the bolts to the ft-lbs specified but can't remember what they were off hand. I used a real good gasket goop on the oil pan and it is running well with no leaks so far. Good luck, I'd be glad to help if you have any problems along the way.

 

My reason for doing this is to hopefully solve the low oil pressure problem i'm having before it causes something I cant fix on my own. Thanks for the info, i'll probably contact you when I get going.