The manual lists the clearances at .0015" - .0025" with a wear limit of .0031", therefore my measurements were within range. This confirmed that the machine shop ground the crankshaft correctly and that the new bearing shells were correct as well; and most importantly that they mated well together! If something was out of range, I would be revisiting the machine shop or checking the quality of the bearings/shells. Once the measuring was completed, I removed the center cap in order to perform the end-float check.

Crankshaft End-Float

The point of checking the end-float is to measure how much free vertical movement (from bearing to bearing) the crankshaft will experience in the engine. The workshop manual says that .004" - .006" is "desirable", but lists .0048" - .0117" as "Mfg." and .015 as "Wear limit".

With the crankshaft still secured in the block by the front and rear bearing caps, I placed a dial indicator on the rear flange of the crank and pushed the crank as far towards the front of the engine as it would go, and checked the DI value. Then I pushed the crank as far to the rear as it would go, and checked the DI value. Subtracting the difference from the first reading gave me an end-float of .061".

I then placed the upper half of new standard-sized thrust washers to either side of the center bearing by rotating them into the appropriate space.  The end-float with top washers only was .008".

Next, I added the bottom portion of the thrust washers to either side of the center bearing cap and placed it into position.  Without any bolts securing the cap to the block, I measured again and got .008".

Next, I added and torqued down the bolts and performed the measurement operation again and came up with an end-float of .004". Seeing how this was .004" off from the measurement taken without the cap being torqued down, I did this measurement two more times, each with a result of .004". Being satisfied, I determined that the new standard thrust washers were going to work out just fine. I then removed all three caps, then the crankshaft, and finally the rear bearing shells in order to perform the next step.

Rear Oil Seal (Scroll Type)

With the shells out of the rear bearing surfaces, I placed the rear seal tool that I borrowed from Ed Barnard, a Triumph specialist in the DFW area, into the rear bearing surface and used it according to the Bentley manual. After performing the steps to align the two halves of the rear oil seal, I placed the upper bearing shell onto the bearing surface and laid the crankshaft into the block. I then used a feeler gauge and checked for the .003" clearance needed between the crankshaft and the rear seal. I am glad I did this, as I did not have .003" clearance all the way around the seal.

What I ended up doing was pulling the rear cap back off, loosening the bolts holding the seal to the block, then basically fiddling with the seal through what seemed like an endless series of trial and error adjustments to get a complete .003" clearance between it and the crankshaft scolls. Once this was accomplished, I tightened the seal up to the block and measured again, just to be sure.

Then I loosened the seal on the cap, secured the cap back in place, then pressed the cap-half of the seal flush against the seal half already secured to the block. I then used the feeler gauge to measure any gap between the two seal halves. When I could not fit even the smallest gauge between them, I tightened down the seal to the cap and measured again.

Finishing Up

Last step was to add the thrust washers and the center cap back into place, torque the bolts down, then recheck the end-float to ensure that the crank was not getting fouled-up on the newly added rear oil seal. I rotated the crank several times to make sure that it was a smooth rotation all the way round, being sensitive to any extra effort required to turn the crank past any point. I was also listening carefully for any odd sounds coming from the rotation. The only sound I heard was the sound of the crank running past the thrust washer surfaces.

Last steps were to soak several ~1" strips of felt in Wellseal and ram them into the slots on either side of the rear bearing cap. This makes a horrendous mess as the Wellseal comes gushing out of the cracks and runs down into the block. I'll be figuring out how to clean that up later. I then added the T-shaped cork pieces, soaked in Wellseal, after trimming to size, to the front sealing block. I added a good bit of Hylomar to the ends of the block itself then secured it to the front bearing cap as described in the manual.

Tid Bits

Here are some extra bits of info you might find useful:

• The threads were cleaned on all fasteners before using. Bolts were cleaned with a wire wheel. Holes in the block were treated with a tap.
• Hylomar was used between the rear oil seal halves and the respective mating surfaces on the block and the rear cap. On the rear cap, be careful not to block the small oil drainage hole!!
• Adding and removing the rear cap several times with the soft, aluminum seal in place resulted in the seal being "creased" where it ran up against the block. This caused the cap-half of the seal to not seat properly on the block half because this "crease" prevented it from traveling into position. To get this right, I had to file the imperfection out.
• Make sure to use plenty of assembly lube between the crank journals and the bearing shells.  You know you've used enough when its absolutely everywhere.  Also recommend filling up the insides of the crank for good measure.