At least three sources that I checked for main bearings (D2 5U) suggested that I might babbit the old bearing shells, Motorwarehouse among them. Does anyone have any experience with babbit in aluminum shells? The man at Motorwarehouse pointed out that a lot of Wisconsins and B&S's ran babbited aluminum rods. Anybody want to weigh in on this? Anything,ANYTHING, that you might like to add will be carefully weighed, pondered at great length and profoundly appreciated because these bearings are hellish expensive if you find them and no one yet has found the center thrust insert. Of course there are still possible suppliers that I havn't reached yet, and I'm going to check out a possibly better shaft this week.

Thanks,

Jack

I had a machine shop cut out the babitt from the cast iron rods and they fitted insert type bearings in a 4 cly. wisconsin gas engine. quinq:)

Call Ziegler caterpillar in Shakopee Mn, ask for Doyle in parts. He might be able to help you out. Sorry, I don't have the phone number at the moment. (I'm out of town on business)
He has some sources for obsolete Cat stuff.

OK, it's as I expected. Nobody has had any inclination to go back to poured babbit in recent memory. I have heard of several people who, like guing, have had rods rebuilt to use steel-backed inserts. Usually it was for Herculese. There was a superb workman here until his death who diid a great job on T Ford rods. He said it was absolutely necessary to get the rod hot enough to tin with the babbit but not hot enough to change the bearing metal. On rods, he declared that you cannot rely on mechanical featured--holes, knurls, pins, etc.--to hold the babbit in possition.

I don't know if it's possible to solder babbit onto an aluminum backing. I am guessing the answer is "no" and no one has offered anything different. So thanks to all of you who might have given this any thought at all. No answer is probably the best answer.

beaver flat, I'm forced to delay this project at the moment, but I'll try your source ASAP. Thanks.

Jack

Hi Jack,
Did a little searching on the net but didn't come up with much. All the re-babbitting seems to be done on anything but aluminum backing. I have had plenty of exposure to large babbitt bearings for steam turbines, marine reduction gears plus Kingsbury thrust bearings and hand scraping/fitting of propeller shaft bearings up to 24 inch diameter but nothing on relining of thin bearing inserts and nothing on aluminum.

The best I could find on the net was www.babbitt-inc.com but I can almost tell they are more oriented towards the heavy equipment and utility industry, read....big bucks.

Also checked "Hemmings Motor News". They list five advertisers specializing in babbitting work, including Vintage Engine Works in Spokane. (turns out this is same location as the "ramengineman" source mentioned in earlier post). What happened to your contact attempt here??

Jack I think your best bet is stick with the original bearing inserts. Have you tried your local NAPA as some guys on here have had luck finding older parts there.You could give this guy a call & he may give you a little help too. His name is Geo. Logue & his # is (570) 368-2639 & he is located in Montoursville Pa. at 120 Arch St. & the zip is 17754. He is into antique Cats & also has a machine shop there too & makes some Cat sheet metal parts.

O.M.
I came to the same conclusion about babbit on aluminum. The folks I've contacted just don't call back after they've thought it over, Ramengine included. They are optimistic at first call. I think when they talk it over with the managment they decide to not touch it.

SJ,
NAPA local store prowled through their books, then their old books, found no Cat bearings for D2. They found bearings for some D4 models and a lot of the newer machines.

The boss (wife) made me get serious about building counters for the new restaurant we are about to open, something about "...get off your butt NOW, can't you read the bloody calendar? We're paying interest on a startup loan and you havn't driven a d___ed nail! You wealthy or somethin' you havn't told me about? etc..."

So I'm not doing all that much right now on the 5U, still have a bunch of leads to follow up. I'm still hoping to get a crank that's close enough to standard to run on the bearings I have, should know pretty soon.

Thanks for advice, good as always,

Jack:rolleyes:

The problem with aluminum bearings is that the babbit will not stick to the aluminum. I work for Ram Engine and own Vintage Engine Machine Works. I have come across this problem before and I have tried to make the meld but it just doesn't work. If the bearings are thick enough, holes can be drilled in the bearing at strategic areas and then the babbit has a hold to grab to (such was the case in model A's and T's.)
I am a member here and can be contacted to rebabbit your bearings.
Mike

Back when Bill Glenn was rebuilding his D2 I seem to recall that he had aluminum bearing shells machined for his pony. It seems to me it was a special grade of aluminum. Maybe you could have new ones machined for the big engine....just a thought.

Tom

Somewhere in another discussion of the aluminum bearing availability issue I seem to remember a person stating that he aluminum bearing was a T-6061 alloy. This happens to be a common alloy. It is very difficult to solder anything to aluminum. Aluminum oxidizes very rapidly when exposed to oxygen and heat.

If you can find a set of babbitted shells having them rebuilt is a viable option.