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Crankshaft Endplay

Tiny
LVM76
  • MEMBER
  • CHEVROLET SUBURBAN
1990 Suburban v2500, 5.7 Liter 167k miles

Recently when going up steep hills made truck made a concerning
sound - slapping of metal/grinding/knocking in proportion to the
speed of my engine.

With the help of a friend I narrowed it down to it being the
flexplate bolts smashing into the torque converter cover. This means
that under heavy torque loads. The crankshaft is sliding toward the
front of the car causing the flexplate bolt heads that hold the
Torque Converter on the flexplate to crash into the Torque Conv cover.



Can the endplay be resolved by replacing the crank bearings (main
& thrust) with the engine still in the vehicle?

If so, how much
should I expect to pay for this service.

thanks in advance for any feedback
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Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 AT 3:46 PM

6 Replies

Tiny
CHEVY22
  • MECHANIC
  • 1,375 POSTS
If there is end play it would probably be at the thrust bearing, this can be done without removing the engine, its better to have it out so you can see everything better, if you decide to do it in the truck have some good lighting so you can check the crank for any damage, the only problem is you will not be able to see any block damage if the crank is damaged it will have to come out anyway hope this helped

thanks
jim
if you are happy with the info please leave feedback we all here do this for free feedback is a way of saying thank you for the help
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Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 AT 3:52 PM
Tiny
LVM76
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OK, are the cap bearings the actual thrust bearing or is there one hiding in a strange location.

How much effort do you think this is? I've done a bit of car repair.[Replaced ball joints once] but not sure if this is within my capabilities.

How likely would it be that only the bearings need to be replaced? Or does endplay usually mean you need a whole new crank?
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Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 AT 4:01 PM
Tiny
CHEVY22
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Well if the thrust bearing is bad most likely there is bearing material going thorough the oil system and probably scoring the other bearing rod and main and possibly the crank, the thrust is the biggest cap near the back of the crank, no real special tools needed except a torque wrench if you have to put it back together

jim
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Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 AT 4:24 PM
Tiny
LVM76
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Awsome, this is great news, I might actually try to do it.

One last question, Is it easy to get at the the bottom half of the thrust bearing with removing the crank? Does it just rotate out?
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Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 AT 7:28 PM
Tiny
CHEVY22
  • MECHANIC
  • 1,375 POSTS
Yes it should rotate out, if you do try it let me know how it went
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Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 AT 7:40 PM
Tiny
LVM76
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  • 6 POSTS
Hey, so I've successfully removed the oil pan and took a look at the Thrust bearing. The good news is that the thrust bearing was still there and it looked ok. The thrust surfaces were a little scorched and worn but not ground down.

I checked endplay with a feeler gauge and it was just slightly out of spec at 0.011" (specs call for.008).

I tried putting in a stock new bearing and it resulted in end play of.009 - which is ok for an old engine.

Anyone know if there are bearing manufactures that make main bearings that are.005 -.001 thicker for older engines like mine? I don't want the oversizes as those require remachining of the crank which I will not do.
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Sunday, March 18th, 2007 AT 7:28 PM

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