Hi All, I am just putting together a new gearbox and decided to replace the input shaft bearing and seals. The new bearing seems a surprisingly loose fit in the bell housing. Is there something wrong or is it supposed to float? I've tried to show the free play in the low quality video. http://www.steves-workshop.co.uk/temp/input-bearing.mp4 The bearing part number was SKF6005 and it has an outside diameter of 47mm. I've since lost the old bearing to make a comparison ahem.
When I had a '77 96 engine out, I too noticed the loose fit, but I think the play was in the bearing's ball race rather than in the fitting of bearing or shaft.
At that time I only replaced the pilot bearing, the gearbox is still in the car and works OK.
Thanks for the reply Martin. In the meantime I have located the old bearing and it is the same size as the new one so this suggests it is supposed to be loose. However I can't see what purpose it serves being a loose fit in the housing. It would provide not radial positioning of the shaft.
Guys, A further update from my side. I borrowed some bore gauges from work and checked the dimensions of the bell housing hole. It measured 47.53 which is about 0.5mm oversized. Does anyone know if the bearing is suppose to float in the housing? I guess one end of the shaft is held in the flywheel and the other in the free-wheel, so perhaps the bearing floats to avoid misalignment?! Seems odd though because this would make the bearing redundant.