Procat Front Trans housings T055 differences

[Jools]

I have two of these housings, both T055, one which has no slot for the tensioner bar and has a bearing housing opening of 15.8mm with 'shoulder' dia of 11.8mm - Fits the flanged bearing 12x8x3.4mm with 13.5mm flange).
The other housing which does have the slot for a tensioner bar and has bearing housing opening of 15.8 and 14.8 seems to fit wheelbearing (16x8x5mm).
Are both of these correct, just different, early/later versions? Can I use either of these on my Procat build? Is the tensioner bar setup useful? (I seem to remember that some people shim the housing to get the right belt tension).
(All measurements close but not precise)

[terry.sc]

T055 isn't a Procat specific part.
The one without the tensioner slot is for the original Cats, up to the Procat. All previous Cats relied on friction, clamping the gearbox in place between the top deck and chassis. The one with the tensioner slot was designed for the Procat. The tensioner meant there was a way of holding the gearbox in place, keeping it pushed forwards and aligned straight, rather than packing anything anything you had that would fit behind the gearbox to keep the belt tensioned.

Both of them use 16 x 8 bearings.

[Jools]

Just regarding bearings, take a look at this shot. The bearings setup is very different.
Older type trans housing on the left has a 12mm opening and a 'shoulder' which suits the smaller flanged bearing, whereas the later housing on the right is larger to suit the non-flanged 16mm (wheelbearing type) bearing.
It has a narrow shoulder (just visible) for the bearing to butt up to in the housing. You might be able to insert the 16mm bearing into the earlier type housing, but the assembled width would be different. It might work?

[DerbyDan]

That's weird!

The one on my ProCat has the slot for the tensioner bar as you would expect (having read Terry's description) But it definitely used the smaller flanged bearing you show on the L/H housing.

[Peakey]

I received another front trans today and it was the earlier one without the tensioner bar and the flanged bearings. Where as the one in my Procat is I'm assuming a GPM one which had the flanged bearings and the tesioner bar so nut of been a copy of the traditional housing

[Jools]

And to further muddy the waters, my Procat manual shows tensioner bar type trans housings but specifies smaller flanged type bearings, same as Dan's setup by the sound of it.
There's also another peculiarity I came across, with 2 different length T031 hubs, (8.8mm and 8.25mm) maybe there are 2 different lengths to suit the 2 different bearings / assembled widths.
There's at least 2 different types of T118 washer carriers too.
Presumably Schumacher was changing parts for the different early Cat versions without changing part numbers.
(BTW I'm still hunting for Rear Trans housingsT070 & T293 )

[Danf1275]

Only front transmission housing I have encountered with larger bearings is in my SWB, which has no diff, andobviously doesn't have tensioner slot.

I wonder it Scumacher retained ability to produce old part variants, via interchangeable tooling inserts,to allow for production of spares. It could be possible these inserts were not always fitted in correct combinations, so we see odd balls.

[Jimbo]

Just regarding bearings, take a look at this shot. The bearings setup is very different.
Older type trans housing on the left has a 12mm opening and a 'shoulder' which suits the smaller flanged bearing, whereas the later housing on the right is larger to suit the non-flanged 16mm (wheelbearing type) bearing.
It has a narrow shoulder (just visible) for the bearing to butt up to in the housing. You might be able to insert the 16mm bearing into the earlier type housing, but the assembled width would be different. It might work?

Jools,

You might want to check if you have these fitted to your t055??