rebuilding balance shaft - parts located
 

for those with a 4.0 SOHC engine installed in a 4x4 ranger,you may be familiar with the difficulty in locating bearings to use in rebuilding the balance shaft located under the oil pan. Ford does not sell the individual bearings or shafts, but only sells the full assembly ($475). Clevite has bearings to replace the worn out bearings under the bearing caps, mounting the main balance shaft. The smaller drive shaft, however, is supported by a sleeve bearing, which no U.S. bearing manufacturer has in their catalog. After 3-4 months of searching, I located a sleeve bearing imported from China and sold by Kaman Industrial Technologies that will replace the factory sleeve bearing in this application. The part number is M2030TU and the cost is $2.05! It is designed for a 20mm shaft diameter and is 30mm long, which is slightly longer than the thickness of the frame in which it is inserted. The extra length poses no problem. It is necessary to tweak this sleeve bearing in two fashions. First, using a 7/32nds drill bit, an oil passage hole must be drilled in the side of the bearing in the exact location as the factory hole. This is 180 degrees opposite the split in the bearing. Second, although the bearing is perfect fit for the shaft, it is a smidge smaller in OD than what is necessary to snug this into the housing (factory OD). This is remedied by standing the bearing on end, placing a thin bladed slotted screwdriver ends on above the split and lightly tapping the screwdriver with a hammer so that the screwdriver blade begins to insert into the split. Take another, slightly thicker bladed screwdriver and in the middle of the length of the split, insert the screwdriver blade at a 90 degree angle to the bearing, but parallel with the split. This will spread the bearing so that it becomes a press fit into the housing. After spending several thousand bucks on having the heads rebuilt with larger valve seats and valves, ported, bowl-blended and polished, having the cams re-ground by Comp Cams for longer duration, having the block decked and heads milled, having the cylinders bored .50mm over, all new main, connecting rod, and jack shaft bearings, etc., it made no sense to re-install the old bearings on the balance shaft. Hope this helps someone. If nothing else, you might save $472.95.