I kind of have an understanding of axially, so since a crank spins I'm assuming if it moves up and down at all the thrust bearing is bad ?

Radially (at least in the context that I mean) would be up and down. Axially (same disclaimer) would be forward and backward.

 

If your flywheel, while bolted to the crank flange, can be shifted in a fore/aft direction for more than 12 thousands of an inch, then the thrust bearing on the crankshaft (integral with one of the main bearings, IIRC) is worn out.

Ahh makes sense, well my flywheel did indeed move back and forth quite a bit, even with just one bolt missing. So I'd agree with you that the thrust bearing is shot so therefore I'm just gonna get a new motor and use this one for a spare :cool:

Don't give up on it just because I have some guesses as to what happened. I am just guessing, and I have been known to be wrong.

 

My guess would require LOTS of movement fore and aft, close to 1/4inch. Also, you would find large debris in the oil pan. If neither of these are true, your engine may be just fine.

Oh no I'm not just gonna give up on it I'm open to more suggestions. And nothing in the oil, I literally did an oil change the day before this started happening and it was clean, well kinda black but clean LOL

 

But when I got my motor out and before I took off the flywheel, i could move around quite a bit, I'd say around 1/4 inch or so. But when I was moving it around it got kinda stuck/jammed and didn't really move that much anymore.

I went to the Home Depot after that to get a 1/2 in 14mm for my impact gun and took the flywheel off

Edited January 29, 201313 yr by Skylar

One way of looking at this problem is to take into account the fact that any work you do to your engine will cumulative and sorting out further problems will guarantee a trouble-free motor for many thousands of miles. The alternative, to start putting in second hand 'junk' engines, is to keep going back to the beginning and never having a reliable car that performs as it should.

 

By the way, here in the UK, a back and forth movement in a shaft is called 'end float', is is called the same in the USA? 1/4 inch end float is huge and I would definitely have a look inside to see what's wrong. The centre main crank bearing has two thrust surfaces. Bearings are easy to fit but the real cost is in any work that might be required to the crank journals. I recently paid about over £100 to have my crank done (a first class job but London is one of the most expensive cities in the world) but I think it's worth it.

True, if I were to pull this motor apart and rebuild it. It'd be a lot more reliable but it's an ea82 and I don't feel like tossing all that money into it for a rebuild when I could probably find another for the same price or less. Scott from SJR has one with 100k on it I might be picking up .

 

Today I stuck a flat head in one of the holes for the flywheel and moved my crank around and heard it go " clunk clunk clunk " on the inside of the motor so I'd say those thrust bearings are shot .