1970 carrier bearing info

[joe70]

I have went through as many threads i can find on my truck,it is a chevy 1/2 ton with leaf spings.The PO rebuilt drive shaft.When I went through u joints and measured them they seem correct,also the horse shoe support bearing looks ok{I did not take apert and mic it}.My questin is should I have horse shoe or clamshell surrport bearing.I 'am asking because I can feel a little vibration,and do not how many miles are on the rebuilt drive shaft or if the PO had balanced it after rebuilding it.Also the phasing is correct.Any info would be welcome.

Joe

[Grumpy old man]

Take it to your local driveshaft shop and have them check it out , You'll be way ahead in time and money ,And when you leave their shop you'll KNOW it's right .

[americanmusc1e]

Do you have any pictures? Not sure about a leaf truck, but mine definitely didn't have the horseshoe type.

[HO455]

As far as I know leaf spring trucks did not come with the hanging inline style. (See photo below I have stolen from a post by chev-obsession, thanks ) You should have one of the horseshoe/sandwich pillow block style carriers. I know that there were at least two versions of that style used. Which style seems to depend on what the GVW of the truck was rated for. That being said I have never compared a C30 carrier with a C10 or 20 carrier, so there may be even more versions out there.

There are a lot of contributing factors to vibration. I would start with wheels and tires. Then if I owned the truck and I knew the drive line had been gone through (Including the sliding joint in the rear shaft) my next step would be the rear end if nothing was known about it. (This also assumes this is your average 75k mile plus truck that wasn't stored for 50 years in a heated garage.) I cured a good portion of the vibrations on my Burban by going through the rear end.

You didnt mention which transmission you have. The output bearing of the transmission can contribute to vibrations too, more so on manual transmissions.

I hope this helps and good luck.

[tdangle]

I agree with others, take your driveshaft complete to a driveline company. They will check it out repair as needed, phase it and rebalance it as needed. Well worth the couple hundred dollars. At least this portion of the driveline will be correct. Good luck with the vibration, I'm still chasing mine after engine, transmission, driveshaft, wheel/tire, brake drums, front end, rebuilds and replacements. When you do find the source make sure you report it as I've followed way too many posts here and elsewhere that had vibrations and never shared what fixed it.

[tdangle]

Originally Posted by HO455

As far as I know leaf spring trucks did not come with the clamshell style. You should have one of the horseshoe carriers. I know that there were at least two versions of that style used. Which style seems to depend on what the GVW of the truck was rated for. That being said I have never compared a C30 carrier with a C10 or 20 carrier, so there may be even more versions out there.

There are a lot of contributing factors to vibration. I would start with wheels and tires. Then if I owned the truck and I knew the drive line had been gone through (Including the sliding joint in the rear shaft) my next step would be the rear end if nothing was known about it. (This also assumes this is your average 75k mile plus truck that wasn't stored for 50 years in a heated garage.) I cured a good portion of the vibrations on my Burban by going through the rear end.

You didnt mention which transmission you have. The output bearing of the transmission can contribute to vibrations too, more so on manual transmissions.

I hope this helps and good luck.

FYI: My leaf spring suspension C20 has the clamshell type carrier support.

[HO455]

Originally Posted by tdangle

FYI: My leaf spring suspension C20 has the clamshell type carrier support.

That's interesting. Does it have the sliding joint in the rear shaft?

[Mike C]

My ‘69 short step leaf spring truck has the “clam shell” or HD carrier bearing as it’s called. Looks like pics are down but someone else’s you can see. I have part #’s for replacement bearing in thread.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=656307

[HO455]

I believe I have caused some confusion. When I said "Clamshell" I was referring to the carrier style pictured below. Which is the cheap 1/2 ton carrier GM used on coil spring trucks without a sliding joint in the drive line.

I apologize and will edit the post.

[tdangle]

Interesting, how does that work with a center support but no slip joint?

[HO455]

With a trailing arm suspension you have less fore and aft movement of the drive line. There is only the movement caused by the axle traveling up and down and the little bit allowed by the rubber bushings. (No axle wrapping around the leaf springs) This amount of movement can be absorbed by the yoke at the transmission. The GM factory carrier bearing rubber mount is flexible enough to allow the drive line to move back and forth at least a inch and a quarter as the truck is driven. The transmission yokes are some what longer than what you find in other applications. I believe that this style is only found on automatic transmission trucks but I don't know that to be a fact.

I do know that this style of mount has caused lots of grief. The current replacement carrier bearings (At least most of them) seem to have the wrong kind of rubber around the bearing that doesn't allow enough movement, causing the bracket to flex until it breaks. With lowered trucks the the drive line is pushed forward and the bearing rubber is running at the limit of its designed movement causing the bracket to flex and break.

In addition the bracket is not very stout so in high torque situations it will flex from side to side.
They work fine for what they were designed to do. (Save GM some money ) Lightly loaded highway driven automatic trucks would go 100k miles without failures. Lowering and grossly overloading was outside of GM warranty concerns.

[Ironangel]

The horseshoe type bearings are Pillow Block type bearings. The teardrop or hanger type carrier bearings are indeed, Clamshell type hanger bearings. HO455 is correct in that the clamshell type bearings were used on automatic transmission C/10 and C/20 trucks. My driveline shop specialist explained that the clamshell type carrier bearings were only installed in trucks that had single non-slip rear shaft applications. The problem with the clamshell type carrier bearings is one, they were located wrong on the prop shaft which limited their flexibility either fore or aft. And two, the "Poly" filled clamshell type were used on non-slip joint rear shaft applications where they self-destructed often taking out a pinion bearing and or the tail shaft bearing in the transmission with them. And three, the Chinese crap is just that, bent crap with bogus spot welds that are guaranteed to fail. I just took a 3/4 ton two piece shaft in to have a National Bearing Clamshell type carrier bearing installed along with shortening the prop shaft and installing 1350 yokes for my drag truck. The National carrier bearing is made in China (because nobody makes them in the US anymore) but is made with a thicker gauge steel, a higher quality rubber insert, and my guy welds the joints at the top making the carrier stronger, not bullet proof but stronger. I have two shafts, one on stand by, when one fails I will go to a slip joint rear shaft and be done with the shenanigans and fears of those Chinese made POS flying apart at 125 mph!

[Jason Banks]

I have the clamshell type and the spot welds broke on the chinese POS... I welded them back up BETTER and then the metal broke in a different spot. Now, I want to get the billet one...

Like this - https://www.summitracing.com/parts/clp-cppcb?rrec=true

[Ironangel]

Originally Posted by Jason Banks

I have the clamshell type and the spot welds broke on the chinese POS... I welded them back up BETTER and then the metal broke in a different spot. Now, I want to get the billet one...

Like this - https://www.summitracing.com/parts/clp-cppcb?rrec=true

That one is fine Jason as long as you have a slip joint on the rear shaft. They are a solid non-moving carrier bearing and will fail unless you have the slip joint rear shaft. The rubber insert in the clamshell allows the shaft to move forward when the rear axle moves up, and to the rear when the axle moves down. That's why they are used in conjunction with a slip yoke in the automatic transmission. This is probably the best clamshell type carrier bearing and you can see that it is already welded in the factory.
https://neapcoparts.com/n210527x-dri...ring-assembly/

[HO455]

Originally Posted by Ironangel

That one is fine Jason as long as you have a slip joint on the rear shaft. They are a solid non-moving carrier bearing and will fail unless you have the slip joint rear shaft. The rubber insert in the clamshell allows the shaft to move forward when the rear axle moves up, and to the rear when the axle moves down. That's why they are used in conjunction with a slip yoke in the automatic transmission. This is probably the best clamshell type carrier bearing and you can see that it is already welded in the factory.
https://neapcoparts.com/n210527x-dri...ring-assembly/

For reference a couple of photos of the billet carrier and drive line I installed in my Burban.