# how hard to change rod bearings



## softball_shrimp05 (Mar 19, 2007)

Yeah i was searching around the site and couldnt find an answer for how hard it is to change the rod bearings and should i change the main bearings while im there. the oil pan is allready off the car and the engine is still in the car. so i was trying to do all this with out pulling the motor. Can it be done and is it difficult to do. oh yeah it is a 95 200sx with the 1.6L. i am a new nissan owner. ive done top end motor work just never any bottom end motor work.


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## Coheed (Oct 12, 2004)

It is a little harder with the engine still in the car. But you can do it. Remove the lower oil pan, then the upper aluminum pan, not sure how the ga16 is set up exactly but I know you have a big crossmember in the way so you will have to remove that. Once you remove the pans you should be able to see the rods. Move the crankshaft slowly with a wrench on the crankshaft pulley until it is where you want it to make it easy to remove the rod bearing. Then remove and replace. 

I highly suggest the nissan full service manual you can get it here on the forum.


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## softball_shrimp05 (Mar 19, 2007)

hey thanks man. the oil pan is already off the car so that part is done and i allready downloaded the fsm should i just pull the crank all the way out and have it checked?


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

softball_shrimp05 said:


> hey thanks man. the oil pan is already off the car so that part is done and i allready downloaded the fsm should i just pull the crank all the way out and have it checked?


Just check the crank with plastigage with new bearings.
To remove the crank normally requires pulling the engine.
why did the bearings fail ?
Good luck..


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## softball_shrimp05 (Mar 19, 2007)

im not sure what happened i got the car this way and was hoping to fix it cause the body is flawless and the odometer says its only got 97,485 miles on the car.


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## BlizzardStormSR (Mar 22, 2007)

if you're good, you can figure out a way to avoid scratching the surface of the crank shaft bearing surface. 

use some small hose to fit around the studs on the connecting rods. this will help prevent from scuffing up the surface of the crankshaft. 

removing bearings is simple, you pull off the connecting rod cap, (pull out the spark plugs to make this easier) put over some soft tubing (rubber hose works well) and the bearing is half in the cap, and half on the rod, gently wipe away any oil/residue/dirt/contamienents on the connecting rod, use "plastigauge" and re-torque the cap back on to spec. pull off the cap again, and check your readings, see if you have too much gap, or too little, this can affect your oil pressure greatly. you may need an undersized/oversized bearing. 
no need to replace the bearings if they are still within spec. it's better for the car to have the same bearings anyways, they are surface-matched

make a special note to the direction of the caps and what side they are facing, because they were machined that way. 

now when you get the top half of the cap off, make sure to not scratch that crankshaft, if that bearing sufrace gets scratched, you're going to have a long list of problems down the line. do anything you can to prevent that. try to get the connecting rod cap out while the piston is still in the bore, you will need to move the crankshaft around a bit to get a good angle. 

find out what you need, get it, possibly replace the bearing is needed, re-torque the caps back down. and you should be golden from there.


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

I think you should buy a least one set of new bearings to pastigauge with since you say the bearings are already known as bad.
This will tell you the crank wear, If its worn, ie the new shell bearing will not bring the clearance back into spec, you will have to remove the engine, and have the crank machined (re-ground.).
The other option is a low mileage Engine.

If you don't know the history, how much metal was in the pan, and what does it look like ? how large are the filings.

what do the shell bearings look like ?
Is the bearing surface down to the backing steel. Or is there some bearing material left.


Good Luck....


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## BlizzardStormSR (Mar 22, 2007)

doesnt matter what you plastigauge... it's better to do that with the USED bearings because it will give you an acurate idea on how it WAS running according to the specs. 

using a fresh bearing that's not even going to be left in the motor is pointless... it will only tell you how worn down the crankshaft is. and dont worry about your crankshaft unless there's 2 possible outcomes. 

1. your crankshaft was ground down too far, and your clerances are excessive. 

2. your crankshaft bearing surface is scuffed or scared.


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## softball_shrimp05 (Mar 19, 2007)

well now i have to wait till i get a title for it if i can wait that long it might just become a parts car that i might just strip out depends on if i can get a title. thanks for ur imputs though.


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