308 Timing Bearings, Spring and Assemblies

Thanks a lot, Rob !
But I feared that. Many words and almost no information.
I already asked the same months ago via phone at the german headquarter of SKF in Schweinfurt, but they told me the same, generally speaking.
I assume that you are not mainly interested in details about SKF's company structure and distribution channels

I also asked Maranello Concessionaires about the original manufacturer of the bearings inside the latest tensioners ( those with Italy and number, but without SKF ).
Got no reply at all.

I got somehow tired of the suspense of what I have installed in my car during last winter and so I actually decided to replace my tensioners with those from Hill Engineering yesterday evening. They were already on my shelf together with a new set of belts.
Since I have a few days of leisure I got finished this morning and already did a thorough test drive.
What I can already say, is, that those Hill bearings don't create that nasty abrasion of the belt like the Ferrari bearings did. That effect occured already after the first very few kms after I have installed them. And this bothered me more, than the bearing manufacturer issue. Maybe it doesn't matter a lot, but it's not nice, to say the least. You can literally read the markings of the belt on the bearing surface !!
I just returned home from a ~ 50 mls. test drive and the Hill bearings show ABSOLUTELY no traces of belt material on the outer surface.
Will take some pictures of the old ones later this evening, which will explain, what I'm talking about.

Best Regards from Germany

Martin

 

o.k., here's a picture.
It shows a OEM Ferrari tensioner bearing after ~ 3000mls in use.
I found it annoying from the beginning, what you can see on the surface. This effect started already within a few mls.
My engine is dry, no contamination from oil or coolant. Possibly a tiny amount of oily dust from the crankshaft seal. But in former times I had a severe oil loss in that region and NO such nasty things on the tensioners.
What you see is belt abrasion and you can also see, that the markings of the belt are literally imprinted on the tensioner.
What made me wonder from the beginning, was the coarse surface of the tensioner. And this is the result.
The bearing is still running smooth and it's the same on both tensioners.
Maybe, maybe... all this doesn't matter at all but for the price of those bearings, compared with what they were 10 years ago, I expect something different.

Best Regards from Germany

Martin
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HLY $H_T !!!!!!!!


I'd want those POS off my car immediately too !!!!!!!!!!!

 

Robert - Certainly not necessary, but always appreciated. Very cool !
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I would not buy any parts from superformance ever again. I bought a full set wheels for my 308 gt4 and they sent them to San Francisco in a thin wall box with no packing, they were beat to hell. I ordered a quick ratio steering rack for an arm and a leg and got a normal rack gear, took 6 months to get an exchange. The cream of the crop, I ordered a set of oil line hoses to the oil radiator, rebuild the engine and engine bay so clean you could eat off of it and the oil line was defective spewing oil EVERYWHERE! Never again, absolute POS junk!! Rutlands is a good source as well as Italian car part in W Linn,OR

 

I've been following this thread for a while since I'm in the process of very slowly replacing my timing belts. I have questions as well as perhaps a bit of information.

The bearings coming off the car are the apparently OEM "SKF 617546 A/HT22 ITALY A 0" They are on fairly tightly, no way I see to pull them off by hand. I even got them pretty warm before trying. Is that to be expected for this part, or does it potentially indicate a problem? I'm not aware of them being in poor condition although they have at least 30K miles on them. The posts appear to be in good condition, but I'll have to take the assembly to a machine shop to get the inner race pulled off.

The bearings I have to replace them are the "SKF BA2B 633340 B FRANCE 13 057Z", which I got several years ago from McCann when there was a panicky thread about bearing prices skyrocketing or something to that affect. They do have the split inner race, and have been stored in a warm, dry closet in the house. I supposed I'd get Hill bearings today, but I purchased these before the Hill bearings were around, or at least before I'd heard of them. Can I assume that these bearings are of reasonable quality to use?-- that's what I gather from some of the posts. But what Blue boxes was Daniel throwing away, a later version of this bearing in the same VKM 22380 box?

As a note, the bearings are in a box labelled VKM 22380 and list the application as Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Peugeot and Seat. It also sates "made in France." The box is identical to the one shown by Peter early in the thread. The paper wrapping the bearings is printed "Branorost" and carries the notation "Un produit de qualite de Branopac GMBH...Allemagne". Is Branorost a supplier to SKF, and therefore the actual manufacturer, despite the bearings being imprinted "France"? This goes back to the "may or may not be made by SKF" statement.

The more I look at this the more confused I get. Thanks for any responses.

Peter

 

Peter;
first of all, the Branorost paper has nothing to do with the bearing. Branorost is the manufacturer of the corrosion inhibiting special paper.
It's commonly used to protect untreated steel from corrosion.
BUT; normally the VKM 22380 isn't wrapped in corrosion inhibitor paper, but in transparent blue plastic bags.

The older SKF VKM 22380 are of decent quality and you can use them. But they shouldn't be stored longer than 5 years from date of manufacturing.

For this SKF has also released a document. See attached pdf for Storage and Handling of bearings.

Best Regards from Germany

Martin
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Thanks Martin, that is the information I needed to feel comfortable. Oddly enough, I have even stored the bearings correctly. I found the receipt, I bought them in January of last year. I looked at the SKF website on how to determine the actual production date, so I'll have to check that as well. I don't know about the blue bags, perhaps these are somewhat older?

Of course, they are to pressed on this Thursday. Finally, reassembly begins...

Best regards,

Peter

 

http://www.ricambiamerica.com/product_info.php?products_id=343571

Get them from Ricambi (hill engineering)

 

As far as I know the original design of the SKF BA2B 633340B bearing have two inner races. And I think that must be the same by now.

 

Late summer I heard small "tik-tik-tik" -sound from timing side of engine and open it up now. I had change only belts as for so late in summer, there was not so many kilometers to be driven, both bearings where ok.
What I found was apsolutely horror! front side bearing had lost its dust seal and rear side sprayed grease all over... timing is ok!

Today I ordered two of these INA 531055710 bearings, I will receave them monday, but have anyone try them? how are those peforming?

 

+1. Hill Eng tensioners are far superior to anything else on market. Composite materiel and less weight. Just doing mine currently!