Overdrive Comparison

I was comparing 2 overdrives side by side and I noticed that one of them has a bearing in the center and the other does not.



The other end of the overdrives looks very similar.



Was there ever a time when the overdrive were being built without needle bearings in the center supporting the shaft?

 

For Warn's, I don't think so.

 

Maybe this link will help: http://www.ewillys.com/pdf/Warn-Overdrive-Parts-Catalog.pdf

 

I’ll take the spare one off your hands.

 

That's the bearing for the splined shaft with the sun gear, see 911143 in this Saturn OD diagram.
IIRC it normally comes out with the splined shaft.

 

The real question is where are the oil collectors?

 

I have the Oil Scoops. Just removed them for the photos.

 

I think the real question is where is the missing bearing? Had to have been there before disassembly.

 

Mine is a Warn without a bearing but I bought it used so no idea if anything is missing or swapped

 

I think your bearing is attached to the shaft:

 

You might be right I didn’t see that

 

Odd thing here is I don't see that bearing in the first set of pictures, so how did it find its way home?

 

Yeah, it's definitely not there in the original picture.

One thing of note. The old Warn overdrives and the new Saturn overdrives treat that bearing differently.

The old Warn overdrives have the bearing captured on the shaft with a ridge in front of it and snap ring behind it:


This means when you bolt the overdrive onto the back of the transfercase, you are pressing the bearing race into the planetary housing. Conversely, removing the overdrive takes some effort because you need to pull the bearing out and keep things straight in the process.

The Saturn Overdrive shaft has a collar behind the bearing bearing race and no retention on the front. This means the bearing stays in the planetary housing and the overdrive slides in and out of the bearing with no effort:


I have the Saturn parts in the old Warn OD on my '71 and prefer them from an ease of assembly/disassembly standpoint.

 

Two different posters.

 

Very common for the thin lip on the shaft to break and have the bearing stick inside the planetary housing. I have run several just putting it back together. A new shaft is fairly inexpensive if you want it to be perfect.

 

So, there should always be a bearing, correct? That makes sense to me.

The reason I ask is because a long time ago I sent my overdrive to ATV Mfg (herm the overdrive guy) to be rebuilt. It came back and I finally installed it last year and it never worked right.

It never stayed in direct drive. Herm told me to add more shims. Still didn't work. I had that overdrive in and out a dozen times. Finally the shift fork just broke while driving it down the street. I got so fed up with dealing with Herm that I bought a new overdrive from Advance Adapters.

I installed the new overdrive and it worked as expected. No shims were needed, it just worked. I had a chance to compare the new working overdrive with the rebuilt broken overdrive and I saw the missing bearing.

I contacted Herm, and he gave me the run around some more. Three times I asked him if there should be a bearing and three times I got vague answers, so I still had no idea if the bearing was missing or if it was not supposed to be there at all.

There is a lot more to this story, but I'm not going to drag Herm through the mud. At this point I'm done with him, and I finally have a working overdrive. That's all I care about.

 

Unfortunately a lot of us here share that opinion.

 

Yes, there should be a bearing there. As noted, lots of people on the forum won't do business with him due to similar stories.

 

Yep and that's the thing Herm can't do...make his work unless you shim.Sometimes. Garbage.

 

Herm rebuilds overdrives, he does not make them as far as I know. Shims are not uncommon in rebuilt gear boxes of any kind.