So I'm having a heck of a time with my cam bearings.
Summit brand tool.

I have the long shaft, and 3 collars basically.
- silver collar is supposed to fit inside a bearing, and hold up the shaft while doing #1
- black stepped collar is supposed to be used to whack the bearing, either to remove or install
- gold stepped collar is supposed to fit in the bearing housing, to align the shaft, while doing the further back bearings, once #1 is out.

At least I think this is the idea.
Problems i'm having:
- silver collar was a VERY tight fit. Had to push it in past #1, and into #2 spot, so I could remove bearing #1. I had to hammer it into #1, it was so tight...

-black stepped collar - is it supposed to contact the bearing on the front face (and the step being mostly decorational?), or is the STEP the part that is supposed to hit the bearing? (which would put part of the black part inside the bearing to be installed/removed). It contacts the bearing on the front face, such that while WHACKING the crap out of a bearing to remove it, it "splits" the bearing open, and widens it as it tries to wrap itself onto the tool. Making it very hard to remove, and once it's out of the housing, I gotta beat it off the tool. I'm thinking this will destroy my new bearings once I try to install one...?

-gold collar - no way in hell that's fitting into the housing, unless I beat the snot out of it with my 5lb steel hammer. Then i'd never get it out of my housing. So far i've just gotten the gold collars front chamfer to line up with the cam bearing housing, and held it in place while I beat the bearings out.


I've got them all out, and i'm going to put the new ones in tommorow. I'm terrified i'm going to destroy them. Is this the way the tool is supposed to work???

 

No, something's not right.

 

ok, the gold collar I calipered at .003" oversize of the bearing. (nominally, I think I ovalized the bearing .001" while removing it).

The bearings i've removed, all have a HUGE burr on them, which extends halfway across them. The black "collar" rode that far onto them before it caught and drove them out.

I don't have a lathe to turn it down, it'd be tricky to chuck it up in my milling machine to "lathe" it down.... Should the "black one" ride into the bearing bore? (anyone care to measure the OD of their driver collar?)

 

The drive spool should let a bearing slip easily on to the outside of the small part, and the stepped part should easily slip through each of the bores in the block. Of the other two spools, one should fit easily into the #1 cam bearing bore in the block, and the other should easily fit inside a bearing.

 

never seen a cam bearing tool that used a step collor to alighn the tool in the block, all the tools i've seen use a tapered plastic cone to center the tool in the bore. as for a burr on he bearing it isn't uncommon. use a pocket knife or even a whirley burr tool to remove it.

 

His tool is specific to the SBC, unlike the universal ones I think you're thinking of.

 

hmm, call up summit and try to return it I guess?

 

I have the Snap-On tool, probably actually made by OTC or Lisle or somebody like that.

It has a selection of 4-section bushing driver things of a range of sizes, that fit inside the bushing and have a ramp inside such that a screw in there tightens up and expands it (just exactly like an exhaust pipe expander), and have O-rings around them to hold them together and pad them in the bearing.Then a long handle thing screws onto that, and it has a plastic cone that you put in the outside hole of the block, to hold it centered. Obviously with that arrangement, it can handle just about any bushing, subject to having the right size of driver.

There are 3 different cam bearings, one of one kind and 2 each of the 2 other kinds: the front one has 2 holes and is the largest OD, the 2nd and 5th have one hole and are a smaller OD, and the 3rd and 4th are the smallest OD. Make sure you're putting the right bearing into each hole.

With that tool, I can put in cam bearings (or transmission bushings or whatever) without putting any kind of a burr on the bearings, and almost without even leaving any kind of a visible trace. The O-rings are the only thing that mars the surface, and that only very very slightly, they just leave a little dull spot on the finish.

 

If it doesn't fit the bearings or the block, then you should probably try to return it.

 

holy cow, summit is great on returns.... If you're in USA.

They're going to match the price on the proform tool, (looks the same), and send it to me... I still have to pay to ship it to me, $60 for UPS airmail.

They will pay my return mail price to get their tool back, but I now have to pay shipping on this tool twice essentially. Yowza, I coulda gotten on locally for this price...

anyway, ill update once I get the new tool.

 

Could've rented a truck, driven it to a machine shop and had them put in by now, too.

 

, yea, and gotten the bearings thrown in for that price too... geez...

 

Good post........

 

ok, got the tool tonight, here's the scoop:

-new collars, fit correctly. aha! much easier now...
-however, the roll pin on the main shaft doesn't fit right, and overall, the main shaft is a POS. I'm going to keep the main shaft from the summit tool, and return the shaft from the proform version, along with the summit collars.

-however! I still managed to put on my first bearing a little offset, and destroy it... ok, now I know to slide it on the tool first, so it's taking the impact square.

- once I drove the rear bearing in, I couldn't slide my driving collar back out. I had to hammer it backwards, with the same force as driving the bearing inwards. The bearing wasn't in far enough, so I put some lubriplate105 on the outside of the drive collar, and hammered the bearing in further... Still had to hammer the collar back out... Also managed to gouge the bearing a ways, so I drove it back out and tossed it.

-->should I have to lube the collar? is it normal to have to hammer the tool back out?

--> how crucial is it to get the oiling hole in the right location? Looks like there are many oiling holes in the cam bearing bores, and an oiling groove... just need it in that groove, or should the bearing hole be right above a block oiling hole?

Thanks.

 

Yes, always lube the drive spool. Anything that ever touches a bearing surface needs to be lubed. Hammering the tool back out is definitely not normal.

Some people put them in so that the oil hole is directly below the holes in the block, so that you can look down through the mains and see when the cam bearings are aligned properly. Some people put them in with the holes at somewhere about a 5 o'clock position. There are probably other variations. Any way you do it, the bearing has to be driven in until the hole is completely over the grove.