Help ! Rotors in wrong place?
 

I'm rebuilding a 13B. I just set the second rotor in place and then I noticed that the rotor is marked front. So......... I quess I must set the rotor that was marked rear in first. How big of a problem is this? Do I need to take it back apart or will it be ok the way it is?

thanks...........ashley

not a big deal.

If you reuse seals it's more important.

Im guessing becuase used seals are broken into that specific used rotor right?

Man I want to rebuild my own engine... :(

I'll respond....but you have to update....deal????

I would not switch the rotors. You are reusing parts. The main thing is.......IF you put your Gear on the front stationary......then your apex corner seals are facing the wrong way. I would just take it back apart (shouldn't take that long) and re-assemble

Wait^^^ that's not right. You put your apex seal in after you laid the rotor....scratch that.

yes

More precisely, the used apex seals are broken into the rotor housing; so (I'm assuming here, so correct me if I'm wrong), it's more important for the re-used seals to go with the housing.

She has new apex seals.

I just wouldn't feel good leaving the rotors in the wrong housing......just seems something may go wrong that I am not anticipating.

If you put the rotors in backwards, the engine will spin backwards and you'll actually have to use reverse gear in order to move forward. Plus you have to use an FD waterpump (which spins backwards) so you don't have cooling issues.

:rofl:

Seriously though, there is no F and R rotors for 86+ engines. You can install the seals facing either way, stock has the short piece on the back always, and this is how they're easiest to install.

^^ there ya go. just get a larger Rear view mirror and your all set.

LoL

Check the FSM. There are oil seals on the rotors. Two on the front face, two on the rear face of each rotor.
Under each oil seal is a circular brass spring. The purpose of the spring is to push the seal up against the irons. One end is pointy the other end is flat. The flat end grabs the notch in the oil seal while the pointy end sits in the dimple in the groove in the rotor. The way these springs point is dependent on rotation. They are all oriented the same way with respect to rotation. If you installed the springs with the correct orientation for the intended rotor, and then swapped rotors, all the springs will be backward with respect to rotation. I do not have enough experience to say if this will be a problem or not.

I'm using new springs and seals (side, corner and apex, oil). If I have the rotor that is marked front, in the rear, will the oil springs that were supposed to face the front, actually be facing the rear. And if so, does it really matter.


ashley :cool:

Can anybody check to see if they are mirror images?? I think if there was a differeince it would have been mentioned in the 8 months I have been reading threads on this forum.

There is no difference in the rotors themselves. Usually when Im doing a rebuild, I lay out all the parts, and both rotors. I pick a rotor to be the front, and one to be the rear. Doesnt matter which is which at that point, but after the seals are installed it does matter. As mentioned above, oil seal springs are directional, so once you decide which rotor will be front, and rear, and install the seals as such, from that point on you wouldnt want to switch them, because then the springs you installed would now be backwards.

For the first 50k miles or so this won't be a problem...as the new oil orings are nice and round, and are sealing up well. However, later on in life, as the rings flatten out due to heat and age, the entire ring assembly will want to start to spin with rotation, because the rubber ring is no longer fat enough to provide resistance against the rotor. At that point, the springs that were supposed to provide a lock against rotation, won't work properly because theyre backwards, and the entire ring will start to spin. This will lead to rapid deterioration of the remainder of the oil seal, and likely some smoking problems. This is all theoretical, but I think it's a pretty good one.

rotors- front and rear
 

I really appreciate eveybody's input. Special thanks to RotaryResurrection for the detailed perspective. I guess I'll just have to take it back apart. And I was doing such a good job. ;)


thanks again..............ashley

Me personally, I would just leave it if it's already buttoned up. I mean, by the time this becomes an issue, you'll either have wrecked, sold, or traded the car. Longevity of rebuilds beyond 50k miles is really a moot point with these cars, if you think about it.

OK. Sounds like a really good idea to me. I don't think it would be worth taking it apart again either.

ashley

you only expect 50k out of a rebuild? I guess if you are reusing housings.

What were the letters stamped on the rotors, I always try to keep the higher letter to the front, ie, A in the front and B in the rear. If you dont have the tensioners tightened down, why not just pull the irons apart and re assemble. It would be good practice anyway.

Think about it. These are people's second or third cars, not daily drivers in many cases. So, you figure most people put on 3-10k miles per year. Even if the rebuild only lasts 50k (most last more, that's just my guess for this situation) that's 5+ years...and most people don't keep the same car that long, either.

In the process of putting a three rotor back together.

I was very careful to install the rotors in their proper sequence in the housing from whence it came and keeping the front of the rotor facing the front of the engine.
I was reasonably certain of having the front and center rotors orientated with respect to each other in phase. But now I'm having second thoughts, as I'm ready to put the third rotor housing on. Once the rotor is slipped onto the e-shaft and rotated so all corners of the rotor are within the confines of the rotor housing is there more than one way for it to fit?

yes, the oil seal springs lock the seals in place versus engine rotation direction. if you placed the seals in a specific rotor and put it in the backwards position then the oil seals will soon spin and eventually burn up.

edit: holy crap! i just assisted in the dry humping of a corpse of a thread...

my answer applies to you, mr necro master as well. the rotor oil springs have to be in the correct rotor face. mixing the rotors up has no negative effects except for slight additional wear of the apex seal slot, since the slots wear on the face that pressure is applied to, running your finger accross the top of a seal slot you will notice one has a lip, that is the one that is against the rotation of the engine so mixing them up just assists in widening the slots quicker to a "V shape". i honestly wouldn't worry about that though since you most likely are using 2 piece apex seals(this was really only a problem with the 3 pieces once they were worn down enough they could fall out of the seal slot and jam up, also only occurred on very high mileage engines..).

just make sure you put the oil seal springs in the right way into the rotor where it is going to live in the engine and don't worry about the rotors locations or mixing them up prior to building the rotors.

Wait, there is more than one person on this forum with a inuyasha avatar?
http://memegenerator.net/Instances/5...DISAPPOINT.jpg

in the same thread no less..