Hi folks,
Just trying to think of a best way to know whether loosening the e-shaft bolt did the bad thing of having the needle bearing behind it drop down.
When the engine is out of the car (as this one was) I usually put tension on the flywheel by clamping it to the rear plate, as I remember the cautionary tales that there is a needle bearing up front that may drop down, and re-tightening the bolt will result in it getting chewed up and breaking things.
Have been struggling to crack the e-shaft bolt for days (heating/using 600ft/lb impacts, breaker bars, etc), and finally yesterday with Dewalt's newest cordless impact that dyno's at 1000 ft/lb in reverse, it cracked loose.
The engine was in a horizontal position, and that last time, I did NOT have the clamps on the flywheel. I did not remove the entire bolt when it cracked loose, but it the impact unthreaded it about 1/3 of the way, so there was no more tension. I immediately put my clamps on the flywheel, before removing the bold and replacing the front main seal and oil thermostat. So here is the question:

Does the bolt has to be ALL the way out, for the bearing to drop down, or does just loosening it enable it to drop? Is there ANY way to tell without taking the front cover off whether it did drop or not? I feel like there is not.

Secondary questions - At this time, even though I've rebuilt a few of these (well, 13b's from my FC, really) I cannot remember which bearing it even is, and watching a few Renesis assembly videos, and even the Atkins oil-thermostat replacement video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ4XH_Doi7E) they don't put any sort of pressure on the flywheel to avoid this potential issue. I'm not making this up, the Renesis DOES have the potential for this bearing-drop-scenario to happen, right? Is it the bearing in the below pic?
Removing the front cover isn't all that bad iirc, I'll just need to replace the gasket for it, and the oil pan needs to be resealed, right?

EDIT: See post #7, solved. TLDR: No need to take front cover off to validate bearing did not come off/get pinched.

Appreciate your input in advance,

sil80

 

Quick bump if anyone knows whether one can somehow tell if the bearing has been dislodged without taking off the front cover.

 

Google "RX8 Club- ESS....."

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tec...l-help-228928/

 

apologies... how does that help? The ESS is on the outside of the engine, I am trying to see whether it's feasible to tell whether a bearing has been pinched on the inside of the engine. the one in the pic I posted, under the front cover.

 

Since I have to take the oil pan off anyway, I'll see if anything is visible that way this week and post the results.

 

Just saying you'd be better off using Google to search the forum instead of maybe waiting for a response.
That was just an example thread.

It's not busy here like it used to be.

 

So, update:

I was worried that it wouldn't be possible to see the bearing with just taking the oil pan off, due to the oil pump potentially blocking the view. Well, lo and behold, it IS possible to see the bearing!
Because the bearing sits around the spacer that determines endplay, if you can see the bearing flat with top of the cage plate and the counterweight is flush with it (assuming your flywheel is clamped down to the rear plate and front bolt is tight), the bearing is seated properly flush, as it should.

needle bearing goes around the spacer and flush onto the cage plate

Again the pic from the OP to show proper bearing seating:

Yes, it is indeed this one.

So when you pop off the oil pan, after unclamping the flywheel, with the front bolt tightened (not 220ft/lb-tight but tight enough so that the e-shaft stack isn't wiggling), you should be able to see cage plate, bearing and counterweight, as in the below, and spin the flywheel to validate the counter-weight is spinning freely on top of the bearing. And now you don't have to take off the front cover and buy new gaskets (or save the gaskets you bought out of paranoia for the next rebuild).

Bearing flush with cage and counterweight


Different view - Bearing flush with cage and counterweight

Spinning the flywheel, you can see the counterweight coming around

Hope this helps anyone who takes off their e-shaft bolt!

 

+1^

Thanks for the update.