Pilot Bush

There are several methods of providing a crankshaft pilot bush.

1. An adapter that takes a bronze bush and presses in to the crank can be made, see top picture on the right.
2. A ball bearing[rz1875-875ZZ] can be fitted to the centre of the flywheel. It requires part of the crankshaft register grinding off.
3. A bolt on steel adapter to take a bronze bush can be used, see picture at the bottom on the right.

The press in bushes are £13, the bolt on bushes £22, that includes a new bronze bush. I can get ball races, they will be £10 but I don't keep them.

I do get asked for fitting instruction for the press in adapter, I call the bit that takes the bush an adapter most of the time but a bush sometimes. Basically you need to clean the crank and flywheel, bolt the flywheel in place, cool the bush in the freezer then knock the bush into the end of the crank. You should fit the bush into the adapter before fitting the adapter. The bush/adapter is retained by it's press fit in the crank and also supported by it's fit in the flywheel. I have been using bushes like this in several application apart from the Montego conversion for some time and it works.

Fitting a ballrace. The ball race is a very loose fit in the crankshaft and needs something to stop it rotating, so a couple of penny washers are put under opposing flywheel bolts. The ballrace needs to go in to the flywheel by about 1/4 of an inch more than it can, so the register on the crankshaft needs to be ground down. if you wrap something around the crank, to act as a guide 'line' to grind to, then take your favorite angle grinder and give the crank a good seeing.