D333 thrust bearing

The thrust washer option has been around for years. For the D333 they were available in two thicknesses, .185 and .205.

If you check closer, all the main bearing caps call for the 2M769 (large) shim and the 2M770 (small) shim. I'm not sure but I believe those are for shimming the nuts for cotter pining. Where's SJ when ya need him😄 😄

There is no mention of shimming for bearing clearances in the service manual.

I read about CCs D333 but I don,t have a parts book to check on the thrust bearings & can,t remember just the setup. I have rebuilt dozens of them but as I said can,t get it in my memory how it,s setup. Some engine had the thrust washers doweled on the sides but don,t know about this one now.The washers under the nuts if I recall were just to protect the cap surface & in later assembling of most engines they didn,t even use the cotter pins but you used a T-T-T system called torque turn tightening & you torqued the nut to a certain low torque & then advance the nut say a 1/3 turn or 1/2 turn or whatever it called for depending on the engine & that was it. I have very few parts books on older tractors so if I had the books I,d remember the setup as there were so many different engines & different ways they were assembled.Where you used cotter pins you just torque it to specs & then advance the nut to the next hole as it would be close with the holes in the studs & the castellated nuts. I just found a spec. book for a D343 engine & the 1693 truck engine & T-T-T- main bearing torque is 75 lbs. plus 120 degrees or 1/3 turn of the nut & the rods are 50 lbs.torque plus 180 degrees or 1/2 turn of the nut & no cotter pins needed.

SJ,
Here is the block with the shim call outs for all the main caps.
Main bearing torque for this one is 155 ft-lbs.

Well that potentially explains the shims. Makes sense to me you could shim the nuts up so the castellations hit the cotter pin holes correctly. I thought I had to really do some shimming on some studs and then had some too short, but finally figured out the person who assembled the new block at CAT mixed the short studs for #1 cap in with all the rest. They did have the caps in the correct order before they line bored it though.

OM, what is involved in the conversion to shim washers? New cap?

I'm assuming you mean conversion to thrust washers.
You would be best to take up the subject with your engine jobber but as far as I know there is nothing exotic involved. The engine thrust is absorbed by the lower half bearing cap only and the thrust washers will most likely require dowels in the bearing cap to hold them in place.
The info I have is for TRW Heavy Duty Engine parts (1990) with a thrust washer set part number of TW252S (.185 th) for the D333A engine that covers your 99E also references a TW407S (.215 th)
I don't know if there are other thickness available or not.

CC I never heard of them using washers to shim the nut as the bunch of ones I did you got the torque & then advanced to the next pin hole.Most studs had two holes in it so you didn,t have to turn (advance ) much to get the pin hole to line up.I have no idea why they show two thicknesses of the washers, as far as I remember they were to protect the cap hole when you torqued the nut against the cap.I,m going over to the shop this week & I,ll check some books & heads over there as an answer to our mystery.I can,t remember if the D333 was changed to the T-T-T tightening or not as I can,t remember as we had a sheet to go by & then no pins were installed.

The shim call out seems to be unique to both the D330 and D333 variations only.
They mention one of them being slotted on the D330T (60A) block. Somebody's got to know for sure what they are for😕 😕

Machine shop says there's got to be a way to use the thrust washers, but they're still looking for a flanged thrust bearing. I could see how the thrust washers and cap could be drilled and a roll pin or two installed to hold the washers. That's probably the way to go.

The standard main bearing shell is a lot narrower than the block saddle and cap it fits in. I also thought about cutting the flanges off the old thrust bearing (0.030" undersize) so that it left enough of a lip to keep the flange in the cap, but it wouldn't be a new bearing obviously. The thrust bearing cap has a chamfer on each side that the block saddle doesn't have and that could keep the flanges from rotating with the crank.

Machine shop says there are no flange type thrust bearings available in 0.040 undersize for our engine. 😕 CAT makes up to 0.030 undersize.

SJ, how were the thrust bearings pinned on the engines you mentioned earlier?

I am thinking about drilling two approx 3/8 deep 1/8" holes for a roll pin on each side of the cap to hold the thrust washers. The pins would protrude about 1/2 of the thickness of the thrust washer.

the Federal Mogul thrust washers (two thicknesses available) are too thick to fit so the cap has to be machined to get the correct 0.011-0.018 end play. this make a shallow recess on both sides to retain the washers, but I still think it would be best to use the dowel pins as well.

any advice or experience?