I was not looking forward to doing this job again, but I finally got started and finished. The new crankshaft bearings are installed and the crankshaft re-installed. Whew. I'm glad a took a couple days off work to get ahead. It took me all day Tuesday to get the crankshaft out, and all day Wednesday to get the crankshaft back in. Double whew. A smart choice to make is to have a large puller available to pull the crankshaft out. It will pull it out regardless of all the kicking and screaming from the crankshaft.
The hardest part of re-installing the crankshaft is the last 1/8". The crankshaft protrudes through the front of block by 1/8" so it's tough to find or make a puller to do the final draw down. I had to resort to using a 10-lb sledge (no handle) and a brass drift to drive the crankshaft the final 1/8".
The front-most bearing support was misaligned by about 1/64th inch in rotation but that did not matter. The bores in the bearing supports are slightly bigger to allow for such a misalignment.
Here are some things that I noticed along the way...
This drawing was a little confusing to me because they labeled the upper and lower halves of the bearing differently. That made me wonder if they were actually different. ...they are not different. Making top and bottom alike just makes manufacturing easier and assembly fault-free.
This is a very helpful drawing in the manual as it helps the mechanic decide which side is UP on the bearing support halves. The bore for the alignment pin (#4) is a little too big up to the shoulder. This allows for some slight misalignment, which is helpful. Perfect alignment is a PITA. The smaller bore beyond the shoulder is smaller so it stops the alignment pin at the correct depth.
This is a precautionary note about installing new crankshaft supports.
This is a picture of the bearing support assembly in totale. Notice that the oil passages (the two angled fat parts in the casting) are not aligned 180° from each other. If you get the bearing support in backwards, the oil passage will not deliver oil to the bearing and cause engine failure. Also, if you assemble the bearing support with the oil passages actually 180° the oil passages will not align to the engine, nor within the bearing support.
Take notice in the manual that this image is WRONG. The image shows a square casting void next to a round casting void. If assembled this way, the bearings will not get oil, nor will the balance shaft assembly below the crankshaft.
This is the CORRECT way to mate the bearing support halves. Notice that the square voids are on one side and the round voids are on the other side.
With the bearing support assemblies mated correctly the oil passages are aligned behind the bearing. This is the key to delivering oil to the bearing, and also to the balance assembly below the crankshaft.
Dean.