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E-shaft End Play

Old 03-08-2003, 08:19 PM
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In the turrentine rebuild video, he checks the end play by prying on the counterweight with a large screw driver. the manual says to check it by hand. When I do it both ways I get different readings. If I pull out by hand as much as I can, I get less than 0.001" endplay. By prying on the counterweight, with quite a bit of force, its like 0.0018". What should I go by? Do I just need to eat my wheaties or what?
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Old 03-09-2003, 05:43 AM
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No need to pry it with a screw driver. when the engine warms up to working temperature and a serious engine load is applied, metal expands. Expands way over .001 and well over .0018 of an inch. If you don't have an end play over .002 you will find yourself having engine main bearing problems. If you measure the end play on a stock engine(engine never taking apart and built by Mazda) you will find that the end play is easily measured by hand, not by using a screw driver to pry it. If your end play is too tight, as I could see, just change your end play spacer to a bigger one. Tell me the letter on the end play spacer that your using, and Ill tell you the next end play spacer that will give you perfect end play.
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Old 03-09-2003, 10:15 AM
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Thanks judge, i'll make sure and have an endplay between 0.002 and 0.0028". I was using the thinnest spacer, z. I have the v also.
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Old 08-16-2003, 01:13 AM
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What does it mean and what should I do if I have no end play in the e-shaft?
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Old 08-16-2003, 01:24 AM
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What if I have no tools to measure the e-shaft play? All I will be changing are the o-ring water seals and nothing else. Am I taking a big risk not measuring this play?
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Old 08-16-2003, 03:53 PM
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no offense goracer, but you have A LOT to learn.



and yes this must be taken into consideration when building an engine.
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Old 08-16-2003, 04:08 PM
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What I found by prying on the front weight is that you get variable endplay readings depending on where around the weight that you wedge the screwdriver. Obviously there is some flex happening, which makes this method dubious at best.

I've since taken to levering up on the rear of the shaft (engine front up on the stand). This seems much more consistent.



Gary
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Old 08-17-2003, 10:06 AM
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I am not going to claim to be a 13bt expert, but I rebuild large compressors as part of my job, and to properly check end play, you first seat the assembly one direction, either buy pushing on the shaft, or having the assembly in the vertical plane so that wieght pulls it seated against the reference thrust surface, then using a dial indicator, with the dial indicator mounted as close to the base as possible ( the farther the indicator is away from the base, the more beam flex and droop error there will be in the reading), make sure the indicator is 90 deg to the plain you are reading from. using a small prybar, apply enough force to pull up and seat the assembly towards the near thrust surface, you don't need to go crushing the thrust bearings or anything like that, then rotate the assembly a couple of times, and recheck, if you can't repeat your reading with this method, you are doing something wrong with the tools..Maxt
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Old 08-17-2003, 10:31 AM
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yah, myabe the prybar is giving too much leverage. i like to check it by hand myself
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Old 08-17-2003, 02:06 PM
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the prybar worked fine for me, if you're experiencing inconsistencies due to 'flexing' you probably have your dial indicator in the wrong place.
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