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Throw out bearing type

01/10/2019 11:11
CP is reborn!?! Hello all. A search led me here and I was glad to see the new site up and running. Been a long time. I am doing a clutch job on the Bonnewagon. There are two types of release bearing: the self aligning and the angular contact. What is the difference and benefit of each?
01/15/2019 10:40
Wow, I've been wrenching for decades, have lots of experience with 60s and 70s Pontiacs, and I love 4 speeds...yet I've never heard of the different types. I thought the clutch fork supported the bearing only in two points, which allowed for the bearing to "self align". And I've never had an issue using whatever bearing came in a clutch kit....
01/25/2019 22:00
Hi Ashley, I found my answer. I had to take a Saginaw 4 speed apart just for the speedometer drive gear. Of course once apart you should do everything else just because, so I put in a new disc and throw out bearing. The parts place offered several choices and I had no idea what was what. In Tom Monroe's Clutch and Flywheel Handbook he spoke of the "new design" angular contact bearing. Prior to this the two bearing halves were like two plates with ball bearings between them. Centrifugal force drives the grease to the outer edges and the balls starve. The angular type has one bearing half inside the other and the balls ride between them in the outer edges in a groove. Now the grease is forced there where the balls are. If you grab the bearing and can wiggle the halfs, it is the old type. If it feels solid, it is the angular type. From what I can gather the self aligning type has bearings that can orient themselves to the angle of contact. I ordered the angular type as that was in there before and lasted 10 years.
01/26/2019 23:20
Thanks for that update. I had no idea.
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