The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Midship bearing problem.....repaired1

Hello All,

I am having my midship bearing replaced in the next day or two. My neighbor has an old type garage/ body shop down the street. He said that he would do it for $60.00 plus parts. To me, it is worth that to not have to do it in my driveway during this cold weather.

Would a missed shift cause the bearing to come out? When I got this truck, I was driving around the neighborhood trying to figure the shift pattern out. It is a 3 speed on the column that was put in the floor. Hence, 1st and 2nd are right beside each other at the forward position, while rev. and 3rd are beside each other at the rear of the " H " pattern.

When I took it out on the highway for the first time, I wasn't sure that 2nd and 3rd were where that are. I thought that 2nd would be down to the right, and 3rd would be up to the right. Not the case. So, I started off in first, shifted down to third and wound the motor up. I then shifted up into second, thinking that I was going to third, and slid the wheels around when they locked up. I quickly put it back in third and learned the error of my effort. Could this have been what started the failure of the midship bearing? I am thinking that it was. BTW, I did scratch off lightly in gravel a couple of times, but, I don't think that this would have done it. Any thoughts? - Ted My page, some truck pics on it.

Terminator,

Sounds like the shifter arm for first and reverse is mounted on the shifter shaft upside down. Normal floor shift pattern is left up = reverse, left down = 1st, right up = 2nd and right down = 3rd.

If the driveshaft support bearing was pretty well gone, a little scratch might well have popped it apart.

You have a really common problem - someone put a four speed floor shift kit on your old three speed

I've seen loads like this tho not in 20 years or so . it'll be fine , consider it anti-theft .

that center D/S bearing was prolly rattling for 10 years and you're just the lucky one who gets to fix it .

Funny......the first thing that I thought of when I saw how the shifter was set up was "anti-theft" . My neighbor found the part for $15.00, not bad, and he will put it in tomorrow morning. I am going to call the guy that I bought the truck from and see if he still has the one piece drive shaft that he took out before he "restored" it to the original drive shaft. I will likely put the one piece back in if he still has it. I don't plan on entering it into any car shows in the near future. Thanks for the help. - Ted

OlBlue,
You are right, the shifter is mounted up side down. I will take care of it next saturday morning. The DS bearing and the U-joint in the middle were the only two things in the drive line that had not been replaced. It had new U-joints at both ends. The DS support was cracked completely in half. One half was bolted to the frame, and the ring was hanging free. Well...now she is as good as new. Thanks for your help on the shifter. - Ted

[img]http://home.bellsouth.net/coDataImages/p/Groups/103/103130/pages/241681/Truckpictures003.jpg[/img]