Chrysler Engines

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coalman

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As I understand it most Chrysler engines are not drilled for pilot bearings. I was curious if there was tooling out there that you can bolt on the crankshaft flange in the car and bore a pilot hole in the crank??? :tool:
 
If you are good with a dial indicator a magnetic base drill on the flywheel can get it done.....
 
As I understand it most Chrysler engines are not drilled for pilot bearings. I was curious if there was tooling out there that you can bolt on the crankshaft flange in the car and bore a pilot hole in the crank??? :tool:

Some cranks have only a shallow center. Others have adequate depth drilled already, but not the correct diameter for pressing the bushing in like the one in this picture. If you use a mag base on your flywheel you may want to have it demagnetized prior to use.
 

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The non drilled are still not deep enough for the old school transmissions though. I have seen the input shafts cut to accommodate this but.....

Yes, sometimes you have to remove a bit off the end of the input shaft to work but is a heck of lot easier than trying to machine the crank.
 
Once I saw the end of a 18 spline cut off to clear. I think the person should have taken the crank to a machine shop. But he sold the car and the buyer ended up getting the shaft. Webby.
 
Once I saw the end of a 18 spline cut off to clear. I think the person should have taken the crank to a machine shop. But he sold the car and the buyer ended up getting the shaft. Webby.

This used to be a perfectly reasonable way to deal with this. You only need a little bit, maybe 3/8 and the chamfer on the shaft is that much.

THERE IS NO WAY I would hand drill or "magnetic" base drill this and call it accurate, EXCEPT for one way, and it could ruin the crank for the original pilot if you are not careful

That is, drill the small hole deep enough and large enough to clear the shaft, then instead of using the traditional pilot, rather use the "large" pilot which fits out in the converter register. Late model stuff uses this

IMAG0146.jpg


You can get these either needle bearing or bushing
 
Thought about sending this question out to one of the Mopar Engine Builders and see what they say. Any thoughts on this??? Thanks
 
I've used a needle bearing a few times without any issues.

If you want one the part number is FC-69907 and you can get them at O'Reilly's for about $15.
 
Thought about sending this question out to one of the Mopar Engine Builders and see what they say. Any thoughts on this??? Thanks

Do you know what you have to begin with? If your crank has the depth factory drilled already, all you need is the needle bearing rather than the bushing I do believe.
 
I know my automatic needs work, and is most likely coming out. I am just curious if such tooling is available, something you could bolt up to the flange and bore the correct hole size straight and true... Thanks for all the input....
 
I bought a pilot bushing for an automatic crank the last time I rebuilt my 340. It was 2008. years before, I had a machine shop trim the bushing to fit on a lathe.
 
There is no loss of integrity if you trim the input shaft and the needle bearing will last a lot longer than a bushing will in that application. Any shop can set up to center drill a hole off the crank hub. It's not a "Mopar specific" deal. Find the exact center of the hub, and drill a big-*** hole.
 
I copied and paste this reply from an old thread that this subject was discussed. This is a real life experience I had and not some "theory." Just so you can make an informed decision on weather to drill or not drill a crank.
From 9/12/11

There is a good reason why you can't or shouldn't drill the 440 cast crank to acept the 4sd imput shaft. in the early 70's i worked at a shop that did all the repair work on Hillsborough county sheriffs cars. We bought rebuilt engines from a company named Wheeler Engines. They had the bright idea to drill all the 400/440 cast crank engines so they only had to carry one part number for auto's or manual shift cars. But it turned out to be a bad idea. The cast crank castings were so pourous that oil would leak thru tha cast cranks and out of the drilled holes. I was unlucky enough to install one of these engines and went through hell trying to figure out why this new motor had a rear main leak. I figured it out and by then Wheeler had a recall on all of these drilled cast crank engines.
 
Fyi, there's three crank options.

Drilled to fit. I.e. an oem four speed motor.

Rough drilled. The hole is there, but it's too small and not necessarily precisely centered. NAPA had a thin wall bushing to fit this crank, but my 360 was not centered so this wasn't an option. How they drilled that out of center, at the factory, is beyond me but they did it.

Some cranks are not drilled at all.

The roller bearing pilot works with the first two. You CAN drill a rough hole in the crank if you desire if you're in situation 3.
 
I copied and paste this reply from an old thread that this subject was discussed. This is a real life experience I had and not some "theory." Just so you can make an informed decision on weather to drill or not drill a crank.
From 9/12/11

There is a good reason why you can't or shouldn't drill the 440 cast crank to acept the 4sd imput shaft. in the early 70's i worked at a shop that did all the repair work on Hillsborough county sheriffs cars. We bought rebuilt engines from a company named Wheeler Engines. They had the bright idea to drill all the 400/440 cast crank engines so they only had to carry one part number for auto's or manual shift cars. But it turned out to be a bad idea. The cast crank castings were so pourous that oil would leak thru tha cast cranks and out of the drilled holes. I was unlucky enough to install one of these engines and went through hell trying to figure out why this new motor had a rear main leak. I figured it out and by then Wheeler had a recall on all of these drilled cast crank engines.


That must have been frustrating. I can imagine replacing the rear main, it still leaks. Everyone including the boss thinks you messed it up. do it again, still leaks AHHHH!!!!
 
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