Fan pulley bearing gone ...

300 Tdi engine in a 90. Lots of squeaks from the belt so thought of the tensioner and removed belts for a look see .. turns out it's the fan pulley bearing, all others either having been replaced recently or feeling good. On perusal of various tomes I find that it's only available as a complete front timing case cover at mega-money new.

My question is, has anyone simply used a bearing/flywheel type puller and simply replaced the bearing?

Although mines squeaking, it's barely wobbling at all, but I ain't gonna trust it, and wondered if it's a simple bearing/double bearing for the load, or how it fits inside the case. I've only had the cover off for the timing belt change and never really gave it a thought before other than to clean the inside of the cover out while it was off ..

Cheers.

Paul D said:

300 Tdi engine in a 90. Lots of squeaks from the belt so thought of the tensioner and removed belts for a look see .. turns out it's the fan pulley bearing, all others either having been replaced recently or feeling good. On perusal of various tomes I find that it's only available as a complete front timing case cover at mega-money new.

My question is, has anyone simply used a bearing/flywheel type puller and simply replaced the bearing?

Although mines squeaking, it's barely wobbling at all, but I ain't gonna trust it, and wondered if it's a simple bearing/double bearing for the load, or how it fits inside the case. I've only had the cover off for the timing belt change and never really gave it a thought before other than to clean the inside of the cover out while it was off ..

Cheers.

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The bearing cartidge will press out of the alloy cover plate but you may need to be very careful to use good support in the right places to stop cracking the alloy.
The proper replacement cartridge, (single ended shaft), is hard to get hold of over here at least,(and I believe expensive if you can track one down), but I did some checking with my local SKF bearing service and tracked down a cartridge, (double ended shaft), that was out of one of our Australian Ford models. The cartridge bearing case outside diameter and length are the correct size for pressing into the alloy timing case cover as is the shaft mounting diameter and length of the shaft is for the fan drive boss. All that was needed was to cut/part off the other, (unwanted), end of the shaft off with a 1mm thick cutting disc in my 100mm angle gringer, keeping the shaft as cool as possible to avoid damage to the bearing and seal. Doing the job this way saved me lots of cash, cartridge cost less than $10 Aus, a little bit of effort, you need access to a 10 tonne press, mine has been on for about 40,000klm now and still doing ok.

Thanks for that. Yeah, it was cheaper to order a new timing case than the bearing cartridge, so I did that.

When I've swapped the covers over (promised delivery 1/2 an hour ago!) I'm gonna try to fix it anyway, just for the sake really, and keep track of the parts, maybe make a video 'cos I reckon it ought to be fixable easily(ish).

Paul D said:

Thanks for that. Yeah, it was cheaper to order a new timing case than the bearing cartridge, so I did that.

When I've swapped the covers over (promised delivery 1/2 an hour ago!) I'm gonna try to fix it anyway, just for the sake really, and keep track of the parts, maybe make a video 'cos I reckon it ought to be fixable easily(ish).

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What is the cost of the assembled bearing and cover unit over there?
I was quoted a couple of hundred dollars here if there were any available, as the hourly rate for my time is zero, thought that the "fix" was worth it.

Bearmach £148.95 delivered, dunno the GB£ to AUS$ rate. Trouble is I need it done and not sure about getting the correct bearing in time. It's now 'a project' ..

It was delivered 2.30pm yesterday so not too bad really.

Fitted the front cover, crank seal not needed, pretty clean inside so no worries.

The old bearing is the pits! Didn't photo it, but I will tomorrow, rusty, rough and just horrible when turning, no sing of water ingress in the timing chest so must be from just the bearings as the inside cap was properly intact. I didn't have a proper gasket for the timing cover, so used Hylomar Blue, it isn't pressurised and doesn't need to hold oil, just stop the inside getting wet, so should be good .. I hope!

Paul D said:

Fitted the front cover, crank seal not needed, pretty clean inside so no worries.

The old bearing is the pits! Didn't photo it, but I will tomorrow, rusty, rough and just horrible when turning, no sing of water ingress in the timing chest so must be from just the bearings as the inside cap was properly intact. I didn't have a proper gasket for the timing cover, so used Hylomar Blue, it isn't pressurised and doesn't need to hold oil, just stop the inside getting wet, so should be good .. I hope!

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You forgot your fan mate...LOL

Does that come fitted withthe external crank seal fitted?


Cheers

Heh, the fan is nackered too, it has two Tecscrews in it so it works as a basic fan, but it's rare I fit it nowadays .. I have an electric one behind the rad which seems to work OK!

Yes, the cover seal was already fitted. I ordered the crank seal 'just in case', I'm skint but not stupid, but it really wasn't needed. Spares box now ..

I know this might be too late now but I've just seen this. I also have been meaning to do this and I set a thread up about it

I don't know how to post links and all that stuff but if you go back to 7th august 2016 in 300tdi section you'll see the thread I set up called timing cover bearings

basically I was told to buy a john Deere water pump for about £15 and then use boiling water to remove the old bearing then cut the new one down to size and press in

Hope this helps, let us know how you get on