I am working on a transmission for my 48 COE Chevy. Actually I was going to switch it out with a newer 60 Viking transmission but now I discovered it had a crack in the lower case so I wanted to just switch the main and counter shaft into the 48 case so I pulled both apart, everything seemed identical. My question is on both this pilot roller bearing just fell apart. The rollers look fine, 18 in the 60 but only found 17 in the 48. Do I need to get a new cage bearing or just grease up the rollers to hold them in place and just put it back together or is that a bad plan? Thanks Fran
Parts book calls for 18 rollers ( 7/32" x 3/4" ) on the SM-420.
'57 GMC 102, Original 347 V8, HydraMatic, 3.08 rear gear, added A/C, disk front brakes, HEI, AFB carb, '98 Honda Black Currant paint. T-boned and totaled 10/12 '52 GMC 152 Stake Bed, Original 228, SM420, added A/C, HEI, disk front brakes, '67 Chev 3.55 rear gear. Gets used as a real truck.
There is a retainer that holds the rollers in place during assembly. The retainer is pushed into the gear when you assemble the transmission. (you might be able to find it under the rollers you can see in your blurry picture above)
I will pile on and confirm that the rollers are loose once installed. There is a steel flat metal ring that is pushed into the bore behind the rollers during installation that will be found behind the rollers that are still in the bore. The ring is split and easy enough to retrieve for reuse. I can also confirm that there should be 18 rollers, basically filling the bore. They can be a little tricky to get in place but some grease helps hold them in place until they are all in and the retaining ring can be inserted. Put the retaining ring about mid roller position so that the shaft can enter the roller defined bore. As the shaft is pushed into place the ring is pushed into the pocket behind the rollers for future use.
