I don't hear this talked about anymore or on the HAMB Websight but years ago a lot of engines used( babbited) bearings,lead bearings. the replacement bearing that had to be poured by some body that ready knew what they were doing. While doing it if there was even a drop of water while pouring it could explode.. I believe one of those engines was the very old 6 cyl chev engines that I hear some of you talk about. Do I remember this correctly and are these guys still around that pour lead? Gene in Minnesota
Quite true. Babbitt metal bearings have been around since the 1840s. There are different alloys but in the Model T days Ford used 86% tin, 7% copper and 7% antimony. The metal was poured in a mold or poured directly around the shaft. Then hand scraped to fit and run in. All cars had this type bearing until Chrysler introduced the thin shell bearing in 1934. Even they have a thin lining of babbitt. Today every car uses them. Last to use poured babbitt bearings and splash lubrication were Hudson (up to 1950) and Chevrolet (up to 1953 on some models). This type bearing is durable and forgiving, and can be scraped and shimmed to present a new wear surface instead of being replaced. But they were not so good for high speed use especially when the engine had some mileage on it. Pouring new bearings used to be a common part of a rebuild. But this has long gone out of use. There are a few specialists who still do this work on antique cars but not as many as there used to be.
Correct Rusty O'Toole. As an old timer I never pored babbit bearings but I did add brass shims to a lot of them. Engines really didn't last as long or turn as many RPM's so they were fairly durable and shimming gave new life to old engines.
Typically the bearing halves had shims already installed...you remove shims to tighten clearances (taking them up for wear); never heard of adding shims, as that would increase clearance, reduce oil pressure, and ultimately lead to failure. Babbitt tends to be much more forgiving to dirt and debris in the oiling system...whether the bearings are insert or babbitt has no bearing (no pun intended) on RPM or compression (contrary to popular belief)...the thing that kills babbitt are bearings that are too thick, spark knock, and/or lugging. Diesels ran high (12:1 +) compression and Indy racers held high RPM on poured bearings for years before the advent of the insert. All discussion to the contrary is simply 'revisionist history'. To the OP's question, there are still a few folk that pour babbitt...I know of a couple on the west coast, a couple in Texas, and one or two in the midwest.
My '32 plymouth has thin babbitt steel backed main inserts. my 31 did not. Egge machine in Santa Fe Springs Ca. still pours bearings
Found a guy sitting alongside the interstate back in the mid 70's with an early 50's Chevy pickup trying to get a cross country trip to get to a new job. He had lost a bearing. All he was needing was a old boot. He cut strips of leather out of the boot, soaked it in oil and made an insert. After a few hours he was back on his way. We asked how long he expected the boot repair to last and he told us he left home with a leather bearing in that hole and made it from Pennsylvania to Iowa in 2 days time before it acted up. Asked for the other boot for spare pieces to get him all the way there. SPark
Right about using shoe leather for bearings! My Buddy had a '55 Plymouth Savoy 6-banger that had a rod knocking. He had a hot date that Sat. night so he asked me to help him jack it up so he could pull the pan and put in the leather. He went on the date and did it a couple of more times, then scrapped the car. pdq67
Here's a couple links to some older posts that go into a little more detail about babbitt bearings... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/see-how-babbitt-bearing-are-poured.696972/#post-7749567 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/if-youve-never-seen-babbit-bearings-being-poured.250009/
Had a Model A coupe that sounded like someone inside the engine with a wooden mallet. Added some brass shim stock and it ran good enough to drive around in the yard and to a few cruise nites till I got another engine.
My wife's long gone Uncle Wylie(?) "Mutt" Hill lived in Indy and dealt in and worked on Model T's. He poured babbitt and line bored everything. he also had made up Herculoy main caps for the "T"s that he sold.. And if he installed them, he line bored them too. Every so often in the summer time he would drive over to His parents in Moberly, MO. He drove a hopped up '23 Bucket T. It had a Rajo OHV conversion, a Ruxtle 2-speed rear end, a Vega steering gearbox, Buffalo rims and other stuff. He used to tell us about all the looks he got from people that he saw on I-70.. He'd run right at 70 mph to make the trip...... Boy, this brings back memories.. pdq67
Intriqued by the use of old boots( leather) to fix bearings. Todays boots made overseas wouldn't last, I'm sure. Could only learn this stuff on the HAMB ! ( or the Ford Barn)
I have poured babbited bearings on elevator hoist machines shafts. A lot slower then crankshafts. The babbit in them usually last a long time. Depending on lube.
We have a local guy still doing it along with Model T restoration. If you want a Ph# send me a P.M. I'd be glad to pass it along. He'll take good care of you. The Wizzard
I used to always hear the old guys joke about using a piece of leather from a belt to repair a rod bearing. Always wondered if there was any truth to that. I thought they were pulling my leg when they told me my 54 used a roll of toilet paper for an oil filter. They were right, it had one if those Frantz filters.
there's a bunch of vids on youtube on doing this, fun to watch... mmmm, would the leather would already have a layer of lead if the boots were made in china?
My old man used to tell of using the hide from a fresh killed hog to replace worn bearings in model T's. He was the son of an old Kentucky tobacco farmer. They had all sorts of tricks to make equipment last longer.
To the Original Poster. In your backyard... Addelmann Engine in Blaine, MN pours Babbitt and specializes in all old engines.
I don't do it but I can do it. I don't play with babbit motors very often if at all. A drop of water will not survive very long in the process, it would turn to steam and gas out of the product. Normally you would want your parts to be dry for sure, I doubt that it would cause an explosion, but I imagine it would be a lot like dropping water in the oil when you cook, and pop and splatter.
The company, "BABBITT BEARING" in San Jose, CA. was in business until the late '80s, I believe. Had a few flatheads they did machine work on for me...(29A rods resizing, crank turning, cam grinding, tappet resurfacing) Automotive Industrial Supplies, also. Rich Fox: Did Harry also pour babbit? (Auto. Industrial Supplies on West Santa Clara St.)
the guy who used to rebuild our old tractors on the farm ( we sent them out instead of doing it ourselves ) used to pour babbit , but later they started using a alloy with aluminum that held up better ( smeared like babbit but didn't pound out like it , but I still thought it was neat to watch him make up the moulds in the block to make the pour out of ash or maple , and I do remember him heating the block where he was pouring with a old gasoline blowtorch to dry the block out .
I worked in a ship repair yard for a lot of years and I've assisted coppersmiths( they did bearing overhauls). I've helped to pour babbit bearings by means of molds,which were machined to specification and I've worked on spinning bearing material into bearings. A full bearing casing would be placed in a lathe and heated to a spec and tinned so the babbit would bond to the casing. The babbit would be heated to spec(liquid of course ) and by means of a movable crucible and spout ,the liquid lead would be poured at a controlled rate into the center of the spinning bearing. Centrifical force would spread the babbit on the surface of the bearing"shell". Cooling was controlled and the full bearing was then checked for porosity,then final machining to finish the job. Worked on jobs doing this from small to as big as prop shafts for subs.
Very interesting.......my brother bought a really nice 50's Chev truck in E. Iowa in the 70's when a guy on a cross country trip made a bearing repair and it failed. He got to our small town Chev dealer and traded it for a better vehicle and kept on going. As I remember, it had different colors on doors, fenders, hood.......yellow......orange.....pink ?Still has the truck dis-assembled in storage (all bodywork now stripped and primed years ago)
My 1926 Chrysler 6 cylinder speedster has insert bearings. I have poured babbit bearings on prop shaft struts for old inboard boats. All the temps must be right for a good pour.
If anyone in SE or central Texas wants to see a good babbitt man at work, look up Ross Lilleker in College Station.
I worked at a large industrial gear manufacturer and babbit was the only thing used in ultra high RPM gear reducers. we're talking 10,000 rpm, thousands of horsepower, gears 6 - 8 feet in diameter. heck, the OIL PUMPS were 60HP. We made our own bearings, exactly as described below. You DID NOT want to be in the area when the babbit was poured into that rapidly spinning housing! little bits of hot lead slinging out everywhere, even with a shield. The wall behind the pouring station was coated with a thick layer of babbit !
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