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When reassembling the rear thrust bearing to the housing I noticed one side of the bearing is open and one is closed. Should one side face a particular direction?
Thanks
Thanks
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Hello,
Universal always assembled the rear thrust bearing with the shield facing forward, meaning toward the flywheel end of the engine. They used the shield to prevent bearing parts from flying into the crankcase in the event of a catastrophic rear thrust bearing failure.
The shield is not sealed around the inner race of the bearing, so oil from the crankcase is free to move in and out of the bearing itself, though no doubt somewhat restricted by the shield.
NOTE: For those of you who may have installed the bearing with the shield facing away from the crankcase in a previous overhaul (which is actually more intuitive), I definitely would not pull an engine out of a boat just to reverse the rear thrust bearing. Having faithfully stated Universal's position on the matter, I can report that we have never seen a catastrophic rear thrust bearing failure in almost 15 years of working on the Atomic 4, and we see many engines come through our shop where someone has installed the bearing with the shield facing away from the crankcase.
Regards,
Don
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