Anyone know how many needle rollers there are in a Crane Rocker arm?

I lost a needle roller bearing in one of my Lunati (made by Crane) roller rockers. These were the ones with the snap rings on the side. It looks like the snap ring came off then part of the seal and then all of the needles fell out. I found 29 needles. One of them locked up my Kaase oil pump which sheared the pump shaft and the roll pin in my distributor gear which was a blessing in disguise because it shut the motor down in the burnout box. I guess I'll take apart the bearing on the other side of the rocker to see how many needles it has. Great start to the season so far.

Mike I have one from this set I can check.

https://www.429-460.com/t19596-lucky-catch?highlight=lucky

Rick that is exactly what mine did only the snap ring came off also. My rockers had about 450 passes on them though so I did get some mileage out of them I guess.

Snap rings pop off because of side loading. You may want to look into a cause.

For the record there are 30 needles. I have to find 1 more.

Lets just say that I have felt your pain.

512Fairlane wrote:Rick that is exactly what mine did only the snap ring came off also.  My rockers had about 450 passes on them though so I did get some mileage out of them I guess.

I'm not sure what your heads are Mike,i was thinking maybe SCJ's. Check the pushrod guides and make sure your rollers are true w/your valve tips. Might have too cut them and weld.

I've got P-51s. Took the rest of the rockers off. There was one more that looked like it was starting to push the bearing out of the rocker. Number 5 exhaust let go and number 8 intake was getting ready to. I'll take a look at the geometry again. Haven't really had any issues like this in around 450 runs so not sure why it did it. Cam is only .720" ish and I shift at 6200 with the Manley Nextech springs that came with the Kaase heads so its nothing exotic. I've looked all over everything and can't find that last roller. Tomorrow I guess the intake will come off. I flushed the drainback holes with light weight oil and blew them out. I don't think its possible for one to make it through the oil pump and into the filter but I haven't cut the filter open yet.

512Fairlane wrote:I've got P-51s.  Took the rest of the rockers off.  There was one more that looked like it was starting to push the bearing out of the rocker.  Number 5 exhaust let go and number 8 intake was getting ready to.  I'll take a look at the geometry again.  Haven't really had any issues like this in around 450 runs so not sure why it did it.  Cam is only .720" ish and I shift at 6200 with the Manley Nextech springs that came with the Kaase heads so its nothing exotic.   I've looked all over everything and can't find that last roller.  Tomorrow I guess the intake will come off.  I flushed the drainback holes with light weight oil and blew them out.  I don't think its possible for one to make it through the oil pump and into the filter but I haven't cut the filter open yet.

cut it open first! Hopefully no surprises

Do you have magnets in your pan?

I don't know about any of you guys but I keep magnets in the drain backs at the end of my heads to catch matters like this... and it also lets you see if any metalic is going thru the valve train areas....

I only had a magnetic drain plug.  I will definitely be installing some magnets in the pan and maybe drain holes.  How do you hold yours in?  Epoxy?

512Fairlane wrote:I only had a magnetic drain plug.  I will definitely be installing some magnets in the pan and maybe drain holes.  How do you hold yours in?  Epoxy?

Mike I go down to the store nd find some of those clamps that go on the fridge that will hold bigger items they look like Paper clamps, and look to make sure it has a 1 inch square type magnet then you just pry it off the base I always get 4 so I can put 1 in each end of the head drainbacks, and you can either epoxy them or just lay them in the drain back... if anything breaks it will have to go by one of the magnets if it gets to the pan...