Air conditioner clutch bearing.

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Karl
Posts: 997
Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2013 6:03 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Air conditioner clutch bearing.

Post by Karl »

G'day.
I am in the process of reconditioning the air conditioner compressor clutch for my 63.
When I pressed the bearing out of the clutch assy there were two what looks like oil slingers either side of the bearing. the one towards the front was between the snap ring and the bearing.
They are made of thin pressed aluminium and look like oil slingers but the bearing is sealed so they would not be for that. The only thing that I can think of is a spacer of some sort. The one at the front was badly dented. It would still fit in but the inside face was dented.
Can anybody shed some light on them.
Air-con clutch bearings..jpg
Many thanks,
Karl.
1963 Thunderbird Hardtop
claybreaker 144
Posts: 130
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2016 4:49 pm
Location: Central, NC

Re: Air conditioner clutch bearing.

Post by claybreaker 144 »

Karl,
I replaced the bearing in my 61 a few months back and do not remember any spacers. Just remember the bearing was pricey and purchased from Amazon! Bearing was recently up on Rock Auto as a close-out deal. Sorry no photos!
66 Elcamino
62 F100 Uni CVS
62 Tbird Hardtop M Code under restoration
55 Stude Next up
61 Tbird Convt Project
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Karl
Posts: 997
Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2013 6:03 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Air conditioner clutch bearing.

Post by Karl »

Thanks Claybreaker 144.
Firstly I thought the spacers were made from aluminium, they are made of steel. I made a die up to straighten the face that was bent so I can reuse them.
61 is most likely different, there are some different varieties.
The master parts catalouge doesn't have a very good exploded view either. A lot of the images in the MPC are typical anyway.
Mine has a one clutch plate that is screwed to the main body, it looks like the spacers are sandwiched between the larger snap ring and this clutch plate to give more rigidity to the bearing, so they will be going back in.

I took a couple of photo's of my clutch assy.
Air conditioner compressor clutch 1.jpg
Air conditioner compressor clutch 2.jpg
When I dismantled the clutch, the 5 flat head screws that hold the one plate to the body had worked their way out which stopped the clutch from free spinning. I thought that was odd as the clutch plate had been hit with a punch twice to stop that. I purchased some new screws and washers as the old ones were damaged but I had to drill the peened over part out to get the new screws to seat properly. That is when I thought if somebody had changed the bearing out before and never seated the screws all the way home, because of the peened area, that is why they worked their way out.
If anybody has an exploded view of my clutch assy I would be interested.
Karl.
1963 Thunderbird Hardtop
Cliff Rankin
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Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:24 pm

Re: Air conditioner clutch bearing.

Post by Cliff Rankin »

Karl , are those the shims to adjust the air gap on the clutch ?
Cliff Rankin
63 convertible
64 convertible
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Karl
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Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2013 6:03 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Air conditioner clutch bearing.

Post by Karl »

I don't think so Cliff. They have a step in the shape, a shim to me is just a flat piece of thin metal. Then again I could be wrong.
Karl.
1963 Thunderbird Hardtop
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