pilot bearing question
 

Why freeze my pilot bearing?

Are you trying to take it out or put it in?

To make the other food in the freezer taste like lithium grease and metal?

No but seriously, are you talking about cryo freezing? If so, when certain things are brought down to that temperature, the molecules that make up the object cling to one another in a tighter fashion, which I believe in turn gives the metal more strength.

It's kind of like way back when, when I would have a hard drive fail. I'd pull it out of the PC, stick it in an air-tight zip-lock bag, and stick it in the freezer for 2 weeks. Whatever part that was causing it to fail somehow would re-align itself on a molecular level and I would get another 2 years use out of that particular hard drive.

Just food for thought.

no i was looking a different threads on how to remove them and a few mentioned placing the new one in the freezer before installation. any idea why?

Probably easier to install when it's cold, because cold things shrink in size?

thats what i was thinkin it might be but i wasnt sure

freezing the bearing can make it shrink. this is not necessary though as the pilot bearing and seal are easy to install.

Yep; if you properly clean out the bore that the bearing goes in, they pretty much just slide right in with gentle tapping.

Always install a seal. All new clutch kits from auto parts stores seem to not inlcude the seal anymore but do include a strange roller bearing. I wouldn't really trust the pilot bearing that's included. You are foced to purchase the seal seperately.

What's up with that? Anyone know why the big parts houses chose to screw up like that? I'd rather not think about all the hundreds of people each month getting the bum's rap thanks to that little omission. Glad I don't change clutches for a living.

Joe, did you carefully tap your new pilot bearing and seal in yet? :) I like to use a decent quality 14mm socket. A useful pilot bearing installation tool can be found at Mazdatrix now. I think Atkins also sells one.

havent done it yet but i did go buy the pilot bearing seal a few days ago and picked up a pilot bearing removal tool today. The clutch kit i have is made by exedy so the bearings should be pretty good quality. I also am confused by the extra bearing.

The extra bearing is because the clutch components on our vehicles also fit other vehicles so they are probably putting together one kit instead of 2 with a separate pilot bearing for our applications.

what kinda grease do i need for the pilot bearing? also is 150 grit sand paper ok for prepping the flywheel?