I am mating a '57 371 Olds to a '55 slant pan hydramatic transmission. This should be easy but I've had to figure things out because the back of my 371 crank didn't have a bushing on it and the factory manual for 1957 of course only discusses the later transmission not the hydro. Now I know I need a pilot bushing and the pilot bushing is held in place by a steel retainer. I looked back at my '49 engine and see the same setup. Any one know where I can get this steel retainer?? Or how I can get the one off my '49 crank? I used PB blaster and a slide hammer to no avail. Heres a pic of the back of the crank, the retainer, and the bronze bushing on my '49 engine:
Did you try filling the hole with grease then putting a tight fitting round rod into the hole and hammering it into the grease? Basically hydraulically pressing it out.
Some guys use bread, but I have never tried it. I use the old fashioned stuff it full of grease and drive a tight fitting socket in it technique. -Abone.
I've had to do that to get the steel shield off before. Sent from my E6910 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Peanut butter works, and is not as difficult to clean up. If you hit your thumb, it doesn't taste as bad. Bob
One can also run a tap into the bushing and it will bottom out on the crank while forcing the bushing out. Use the smallest tap possible, it doesn't need to cut usable threads.
I haven't fooled with any old Olds engines, but I didn't think an automatic ever used a pilot bearing. Is this some kind of oddball thing that Olds did? I do know that long long ago you could get "straight stick" olds vehicles, but I never saw an automatic with a pilot bearing.
4 speed hydro used pilot bushing to support input shaft inside the Taurus. Sent from my E6910 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Bread works amazing, even on the roller bearing style. One slice does it and no greasy mess to clean up!
I do the same as ms55mercury66 said,I run a tap into the bush,then use a bolt of the same size and as you tighten the bolt,the bush just slides out.
That retainer looks like a core plug with a hole in it. If that's true, can't you do a little measuring and modify one?
Take a close look at the '57 crankshaft, it likely needs machining to accept the pilot bushing, if it does, have the shop also give the rotating assembly a neutral balance to work with the early transmission. If by chance the crankshaft will take the bushing as is, you will still need to address the balance issue, take the balancer, crankshaft and torus cover in to have them all balanced together. Either way the balance issue will need to be addressed.
Because Olds mostly came with automatics, they felt machining the pilot hole was a waste of resources. I take it you are going to a standard transmission so index the hole to verify it is centered and then machine down your pilot bearing to fit using one of the methods mentioned above. That is what I had to do. Warren
Blind hole bearing puller Works great for this kind of stuff The grease and punch thing eitknreally well also
We found this out by accident, when as teenagers, we needed a pilot bushing, and had to reuse the one in the old motor. We found that by running the tap in, and bottoming it out against the crankshaft, it just pushed the bushing right on out. This was on a '66 GTO, with the ubiquitous Muncie 4 speed, and since we used the smallest tap we could, it cut some fairly light threads in the bushing. We felt it would retain grease better that way
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