Front engine bearing #1 replacement

[CalTrac]

6-8-08, How do you replace the LK3054 pully end crankshaft bearing, (metal 1) Kioti calls it. It sets at the front of the long splined crankshaft right behind the crank pully. This bearing has failed. The crank too, maybe. You can still see it squishing out in 1 inch long flat pieces between the block and the first counter-weight. The three mains, Kioti calls them "metal 2" each so very well support the crankshaft by a massive case ***'y, three bolted to the block structure, that I can't really see a need for a bearing at the front end. As long as I didn't attach to that spline. The price for this strength in such a small engine is the very high cost of replacing bearings because there's a lot of shop time. I don't want to take the engine out and pull the crank my ownself because it looks like a top down dissassembley just to get at one $5 part. The crank can't be lifted out like normal (?), it must be pulled out from an end with the main bearings (metal 2) case covers unbolted from the block structure. There is a collar and an oil seal that may be the problem parts to pull out of the block or off the end of the crank. The crank itself has no play in it, not that I can tell with just the pan off at this point, though there is very little bearing left I'm sure. The tractor has 150 hours but is out of timed warranty, so no help from Kioti whatever the cause is. So I can use any help at all pro or con, or if not possible then per a dealer, shop time cost will drive a replacement engine at $4,000, tractor just doesn't seem worth that. tks, ct

 

[JoelD]

I've never torn down the motor. Something else to think about is a local diesel guy. I had my reverser fail on my dozer. Deere dealer would be $100/hr just to come to my house (I understand that he's got bills to pay, no gripe there).

If you've got the time and the ability, you might want to think about pulling the motor and bringing to an expert, either dealer or local diesel guy, and pay a couple hundred bucks for them to estimate the cost of repairs. The further down you can tear yourself the better I would think.

I ended up having a deere mechanic fix my machine on his own time (his dealership had no issues) out of his house. I saved a lot of money.

I hope you'll get lucky and maybe it's a crank resurface and new main bearing sort of deal. If your jugs are good and pistons, skirts, connecting rods, etc. are good, should be much less than complete motor in my humble opinion.

Good luck, I wish I had more technical advice.

Joel

 

[ERE]

Here is a long shot. I am where I can't go look at my tractor, and of course I can't see yours, but I have replaced mains (and con rod bearings also) in one car and one old International Farmall Cub without pulling the engine off. It all depends on if your pan gives you enough room to get at the bearing bolts, and how the bearing shells are pinned to the bearing housing. In my case I loosened all of the bearing bolts just a little so the crank dropped down a few thousands. Then working one bearing at a time so the crank was always supported, pulled off the cap, rolled out the upper half and replaced both halves. Once I had one in and had it helping to support the shaft I went on the the next. In my case, the surface of the crank was still undamaged so there was no need to work on it. That should be the case so long as there is still some babbit material on the bearing halves and it hasen't gone to hard iron rubbing on the crank shaft bearing surface. The key is that the bearing construction has to be such that the upper half bearing shell isn't pinned in. In my case the lower half was pinned (and that prevented both half shells from rotating) so that it worked fine. You might be able to tell from looking at the bearing in the dealers parts, or someone who has had one open (Rick maybe) might be able to chime in. Not exactly the recommended way to do it, but it worked fine for me and could possible work in your case.