03996

This is just fyi.........'03 4S.......just had a new clutch put in along with some preventative maintenance items such as LN bearing/seal, new RMS, new AOS. I asked for the old bearing back to send back to LN, per their warranty requirements.

The old bearing has no gauling (sp?) on the outer race, has zero perceiveable play in the vertical direction (across the shaft) and just a very little play in the horizontal plane......the bearing is still mounted onto its original stud.

But, the bearing itself is VERY stiff to turn!! The dealership guys said the oil gets in there and kinda solidifies. Sounds reasonable to me and I bet if I soaked it in kerosene for a few minutes it would free up. But of course you can't do that "flushing" while it's in the car so my guess is that it was not a lot longer for this world. But who knows. All I know is that it the bearing shoud be totally free to rotate and mine was not, so I think I dodged a bullet!!

If anyone is interested in seeing a my cause/resolution of a heavy clutch, take a look at my posting on the topic "how heavy should a C4 clutch be" or something like that.....very recent (few mins ago) posting.

03996

OK, correct thread title is "how stiff should clutch pedal be"

KNS

Good call on the IMS replacement.

996_North

right time to do it. any pics of the bearing ?

03996

I haven't taken any pics of it but it looks perfect. Just doesn't rotate freely worth a crap.

I wonder if I cleaned it how much play I would find in it. However, it's going back to LN for their continuing analysis so I can't clean it.

street rod

Does sound like you may have dodged the bullet. Good call and even helps you sleep better.

03996

A LOT better!!!

Dharn55

One of the problems with the OEM bearing is that it is sealed. This I supposed to keep the original lubricant in but experience shows the original lubricant degrades and that oil and contaminants penetrate through the seals over time, but there is no easy change of lubricants with the seals. Back in '09 when I had my engine out for a cracked head repair LN was still working on the tools to extract a dual row bearing (and I was not sure of the success of my repair) so the dual row replacement was not really being distributed and I did not replace mine.

Charles from LN did advise me to removed the outer seal on the OEM bearing to allow some splash lubrication , which I did along with replacing the flange with the newer OEM style. I feel better having done this and have put almost 18,000 miles on the engine since the repair. However I still kind of wish I had done the bearing replacement and one of these days when I have some Spair time and funds I am going to do the replacement.

Cool T

What oil have you been using in the car?

I've stayed with Mobil 0w-40 on my oem bearing,with the thought it would penetrate better and offer some type of clean oil flushing.

LordVicious

Second rule of engineering ... IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T FIX IT!