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IH544 cam bearing installation

J

John G. Hasler

Member
Another try, logged in this time.

Got my reman cam and a new front cam bearing (same part number as the spun one). It slides smoothly onto the front bearing surface of the cam. The shop manual just tells me to drive it in with the special IH tool which of course I don't have. I put the cam in the engine, slid the bearing over the cam (right way around, with the holes lined up), and set about to drive the bearing in with a wooden block and a mallet. Got it started and found that the camshaft wouldn't turn and that the amount of force that appeared to be needed to drive the bearing further seemed excessive. I don't want to crumple the bearing or end up with the cam siezed in the engine. How should I proceed?
 
If you have a response to John's post, please reply to this message instead of his top message. We are having a technical difficulty with his post. Replies to this will work though.

Sorry for inconvenience.
Chris
 

It may already be too late. In beating it in, if you got off-kilter a little bit, you galled the bearing surface of the cam shaft.

They make cam bearing installation tools, which you should be able to rent at AutoZone or NAPA. It's a rather long shaft with various cones and threaded parts that you can use to press cam bearings in place.
 
> It may already be too late. In beating it in, if
> you got off-kilter a little bit, you galled the
> bearing surface of the cam shaft.

No damage. The bearing surface of the camshaft is unmarked and the bearing still runs smoothly on it. I didn't "beat" it. I tapped it with a mallet but stopped as soon as was obvious that this approach wasn't working.

> They make cam bearing installation tools...

Yes, I'm aware of that. The shop manual tells me to use one, but then it tells me to use a special tool for every third procedure.

> ...which you should be able to rent at AutoZone
> or NAPA.

The nearby NAPA doesn't have one and the nearest Autozone is about 100 miles away.

Thamk you.
 
You shold have your local auto machine shop to install that bearing and then they will probably need to hone the bearing for clearance. Hal
 
Thank you for your kind suggestion, but I have neither money nor time to hire the work done. I'm not rebuilding this engine. I'm repairing it so that I can get it back to work. I've fabricated a bearing installation tool with which I am going to install the brearing tomorrow.
 
Take a steel plate and put it insde the block behind the journal in the block for the cam bearing and place another on the outside of the block with the bearing lined up in place and with a bolt you can pullit in without damage to either the bearing or the cam and just stack washers up if the threads aren't long enough to pullit fully into place. much better than tring to drive it and can be controlled for tension then just slip the cam in.The plates will obviously need holes drilled in them for the bolt probably about a 3/4 or 5/8 would be big enough and if your worried about alignmentuse pipe sections over the bolt to fill the void in the bore just be sure they are shorter than the journal thickness.
Hope this helps. I've pulled many a seals and bearings into place this way.
 
> Your engine oil pressure is determined by close
> tolerances on the cam bearings.

Only if they are so loose that the pressure cannot reach the 38 psi limit set by the oil pressure regulator.
 
You've described approximately what I intend to do. I've got the tool mostly finished. I cut a circular groove the diameter of the bearing in a square of 3/4" plywood. I then used the same tool to make a plywood disk that just fills the bearing. The two pieces will be glued and screwed together and then drilled out to 3/4 or 7/8. I will screw a 7/8 washer to the disk end (the "inside"), back up the square of plywood (the "outside") with a stack of washers, put something (haven't decide what yet: depends on what's in the scrap pile) across the inside of the block, slip the bearing onto the disk, and crank it in with a bolt, a nut, and a couple of wrenches. I will, of course, make sure the holes are lined up and it's right way around.
 
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