A while back I installed an axle support bearing of the type sold by the Fiero Store and Rodney Dickman. I did that at the same time I did my Northstar swap. I only did the left side as I was expecting to use an intermediate shaft on the right side. I was unable to use the intermediate shaft due to exhaust issues. I did not install a second bearing on the right side of the transmission.

After a year and a half of hard driving, my CV axle looks like this.

The transmission was overhauled at the same time the bearing was installed, so the diff carrier bearings were brand new. I did not disassemble the differential, however, so the thrust washers on the side and spider gears may be worn.

Has anyone else using these bearings encountered this phenomenon?

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Turn the key and feel the engine shake the whole car with its lope; Plant the gas pedal and feel in your chest neither a shriek nor a wail but a bellowing roar; Lift and be pushed into the harness by compression braking that only comes from the biggest cylinders while listening to music of pops and gurgles. Know that you are driving an American V8. There are finer engines made, but none of them are this cool.

Luck, Fate and Destiny are words used by those who lack the courage to define their own future

Will,

I don't have any experience with these but I have been skeptical of all the good things said about them without a lot of data to back it up. I just wonder what happens if the differential carrier bearing and the new helper bearing aren't quite on the same centerline.

There are lots of people that say that the Getrag differential carrier beartings are undersized but when I was searching for selective shims I found something like 300 pages of differentials/transaxles that use the same Set 11 bearings on the Timkem site.

The Diff Carrier bearings are not in the rebuild kit.

I know what the phenomenon is.
I replaced the carrier bearings.
I installed the support bearing as per the directions included with it. I've been using nothing but GM synchromesh.

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Turn the key and feel the engine shake the whole car with its lope; Plant the gas pedal and feel in your chest neither a shriek nor a wail but a bellowing roar; Lift and be pushed into the harness by compression braking that only comes from the biggest cylinders while listening to music of pops and gurgles. Know that you are driving an American V8. There are finer engines made, but none of them are this cool.

Luck, Fate and Destiny are words used by those who lack the courage to define their own future

[This message has been edited by Will (edited 11-08-2004).]

CalKid? Looked at your axles since you put those support bearings in?

Eh will,,,i need u to give me ur thoughts on this..

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/057042.html

can i set my halfshafts like that in the crappy pic that i made?

3.4 DOHC mated to a audi trans and the engine pushed back a few inches and then have the halfshafts on a angle,,,or will i be busting shafts right left centre all the time?

quote Originally posted by Will: CalKid? Looked at your axles since you put those support bearings in?

Hey Will...........never got a chance to put very many miles on them (less than 500), I did a tight, moderately powered " U " turn (left) and the halfshaft locked into the bearing, shearing a tooth off of second gear in the trans. Since my engine is shifted to the left about 1 1/2 inches, with custom axles, I figured there was a little error determing the lenght of the left side shaft (resulting in a clearance problem). As you know, the needle bearing seals are thicker than the seals they replace (reducing the clearance to the halfshaft). I hate to say this, but I think the designed clearance to the halfshaft with the aftermarket needle bearing seals is very marginal (which could be the reason you see the problem on yours). For the reason stated here, I went away from these aftermarket parts, and went back to standard seals. I didn't feel like shortening the already short left side halfshaft any further.

Will,

If you go back to standard seals it looks like that axle can be saved with a Speedisleeve if one's available in the proper size. Have you looked into it?

John Stricker

Any kind of sleeving would involve removal of parent metal, which I don't want to do at this power level (or the higher power levels in the future).

At any rate, it's just a 440 series tripot cup... it's not that expensive or had to come by. But I can't go back to the standard seal until I replace it, because the seal won't seal on the galled surface.

I'm just rather annoyed that it happened. I had been wondering since I put it in whether or not that part of the CV joint was an acceptable bearing surface.

I'm also wondering how many of the people who have installed these things now have damaged CV joints.

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Turn the key and feel the engine shake the whole car with its lope; Plant the gas pedal and feel in your chest neither a shriek nor a wail but a bellowing roar; Lift and be pushed into the harness by compression braking that only comes from the biggest cylinders while listening to music of pops and gurgles. Know that you are driving an American V8. There are finer engines made, but none of them are this cool.

Luck, Fate and Destiny are words used by those who lack the courage to define their own future

[This message has been edited by Will (edited 11-10-2004).]

Speedisleeves don't require any removal of metal, they are thin enough that they don't interfere with sealing. I agree, though, that the tripots are probably cheap enough it may not be worth fixing.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by Will: Any kind of sleeving would involve removal of parent metal, which I don't want to do at this power level (or the higher power levels in the future). At any rate, it's just a 440 series tripot cup... it's not that expensive or had to come by. But I can't go back to the standard seal until I replace it, because the seal won't seal on the galled surface. I'm just rather annoyed that it happened. I had been wondering since I put it in whether or not that part of the CV joint was an acceptable bearing surface. I'm also wondering how many of the people who have installed these things now have damaged CV joints.

As originally designed, that area of C/V joint was never intended to be a bearing surface.
Therefore it was never surface hardened for direct bearing roller contact.

Just to make sure... A sleeve is only a posibility if you are returning to a standard seal. Doing that isn't going to be fun due to the metal displaced in the transmission by the aftermarket bearing assembly. I doubt a sleeve would fit in the bearing or be hard enough if it did.

Replacing the bearing could also be a pain for the same reason. The new one may not hold well in the already chewed trans opening.

Regardless of some others... I don't think Rodney would sell these if he thought they would be trouble. That said it could be the folks that make these haven't told him everything either.

Keep in mind that one of the selling points of these is to extend the life of a worn trans with sloppy axle bearings etc.

Could engine load be a factor? Yes. It could be a main factor or accelerate a problem that would just take longer to show up with less powerfull engines.
Could there be variation between axles? Yes. I'd be very surprised if there wasn't. Even between individual axles let alone brand to brand. There could even be differences from side to side because of how the axle ends are made for different transmission.

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The only thing George Orwell got wrong was the year...

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top of every forum page...)

Well, I purchased those bearings from Rodney Dickman. I currently have a transmission shop rebuilding me a getrag 5spd and installing those bearings. I'll keep you posted on what happens when the car is on the road in spring.

Will, buddy you got PM!