1 5/16 shell bearings

[Stuart Giles]

So no comments on the viability/ availability of shell bearing con rods for 1 5/16" 2 bearing cranks?

That's probably because most shell bearing conversions start with a suitable 'off the peg' shell bearing and work the crank journals and rods around that. The shell bearings used on the 1 1/2" Phoenix etc cranks are standard fitment on  Renault "Billancourt" motors including the (non TL) 4 and 6 cars. The journal diameter is actually 38mm which is a few thou short of 1 1/2" obviously the cranks are machined to suit.

Would be perfectly possible to do something similar for a specially machined Phoenix forging using an 'off the peg' shell from a motorbike or such, but the crank would almost certainly need to be machined with much narrower journals to suit the available bearing shell as modern bearing materials are such that you aren't likely find any shells of somewhere near a nominal 1 5/16" journal that comes close to the metalled A7 bearing width. Having said all that, it would be simpler (and almost certainly cheaper) to just use a new splash fed 1 1/2" crank and rods which are available "off the shelf"

Lots of vintage motors have had this kind of stuff done, so often don't look quite so vintage on the inside. Here's one I prepared earlier.



20's Chevrolet crank I had made to take early Ford shell bearing conrods; the narrower big journals are clearly visible.