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Well I was working on my runner build last night and putting the stealth trans back together. I noticed there was no thrust bearing behind the adjustment nut and spring. Just the bronze bushing, a washer and some sort of thick spacer where the bearing should be. Just wondering if the bearing is needed? Been a while since I messed with these. I will post a pic a little bit later.

Blacktiger355 wrote:Well I was working on my runner build last night and putting the stealth trans back together. I noticed there was no thrust bearing behind the adjustment nut and spring. Just the bronze bushing, a washer and some sort of thick spacer where the bearing should be. Just wondering if the bearing is needed? Been a while since I messed with these. I will post a pic a little bit later.

There was a thrust bearing in the stealth for a while, but AE quickly removed it from the maintenance kits they were selling as spares and replaced it with a metal bushing. I don't know of any modern car that actually uses a proper thrust bearing - must be cost/weight/maintenance vs. the performance increase I guess

Paul

The modern ones don't need a thrust because they have 2 slipper pads and plates is my understanding... I've been wrong before though

adam lancia wrote:The modern ones don't need a thrust because they have 2 slipper pads and plates is my understanding... I've been wrong before though

wait... you're right. Silly me for not even thinking about it myself

Didn't most racers BITD put a bearing on the spur gear in addition to the thrust parts? If so and that was a racer standard mod, I could see why they axed that little bearing and went with a bushing

That looks like what I have in the pic there. So this was normal as the slipper pad is doing all the work anyway?

Blacktiger355 wrote:That looks like what I have in the pic there. So this was normal as the slipper pad is doing all the work anyway?

Either way, it's somewhat of a secondary slipper. Maybe the mod stemmed from dirt oval guys who typically run slipper eliminators or simply Asso started phasing out that bearing and racers started replacing it with a sealed bearing? Not really sure. I have a stock bearing somewhere, I can't find it at the moment though It looks similar to a 6 gear thrust bearing just all metal.

Maybe someone here knows how it started, you kind of sparked my interest of the history of it

Associated went from a ball bearing and thrust bearing to a bushing and thrust washer at the same time, same update. They said it was more consistent but I'd be willing to bet it was more of a way to cut costs on something that wasn't necessary.

From what I can recall, the outer slipper hub is supported by a ball bearing and the thrust bearing/bronze bushing go on after that, then the spring and nut. I'm pretty sure you need the ball bearing to support the outer slipper hub still, just that the bronze bushing is better at not going kaboom and causing the slipper setting to wander during a run.

No, the later models were all bushing supported outer slipper hubs- even
the world's car

Only the very early stealth tranny's had a bearing, then it went to a bronze bushing.

Early stealth...

I had numerous failures of that bearing BITD. The bushing was a far better setup as far as durability and consistent setup was concerned. You have to remember that the bearing/bushing is only spinning on the shaft when the slipper is actually slipping, so the wear from the bushing is minimal.

Awesome info guys! Thank you very much! Looks like I am good to go then. Just wanted to be sure it was proper.