WTB: Two (2) Sets of L/M Standard Main Bearings

[Phil Dally]

Prefer good quality not Made in China...what you got?

[jimbrandberg]

As a person adverse to car parts Made in China I'm disappointed that I hadn't thought of readily available main and rod bearings being made there. I've used a lot of them and don't know if there's been trouble aside from one set of rod bearings with flecking of the face material discovered when unwrapping. They were readily replaced with a statement like Gee, we've never seen that before.
I've got about 3 sets on the bench now and didn't really need something else to be worried about.
Jim Brandberg

[Wittsend]

Ebay has a set of (NOS) Johnson rod bearings for $110 and a seller who stated "new" but visually concerning (surface treatment) Clevite main bearings for $175. I've never seen such few offerings on Ebay.

I have a list of all the Corvair rod & main bearing numbers I could find. I found that vendors on Ebay would often get large stocks of bearings in, and expeditiously list them by number only, not application. So, one stood a better chance of getting a better deal that way. And..., just now in looking up the PMS657 number for the manufacturer I did in fact find the bearings currently listed on Ebay for $66..., but only for a "Chevy Truck" (FC), not Corvair but listed the engine size as 140/145/164. Here is the link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/334678883511

Numbers list: Michigan 4219M, Federal Mogul 4063M, Clevite MS584P, Perfect Circle PMS657

That said, I spent months scanning Ebay and general Google searches finding very little. I had time and was going for cost needing .010 bearings. In the end I got new Federal Mogul rods bearings for $60 and a used (far better than what I took out, the car will see little use) set of mains for $30. Unfortunately one is probably spending close to $400 for rods & mains with tax and shipping looking for quality NOS bearings like Clevite 77's. If only Corvairs used SBC bearings like they do lifters.

Clark's states a 30% lower price on their "house" bearings but they don't identify the country of origin or manufacture. On the other forum some said they used them and did not have issues. Happy Hunting.

[Phil Dally]

Clark's house brand bearing are Made in Taiwan...better than China.

We would support a Democracy over a Communist regime every time.

Nobody says anything bad about Clark's...they're our fall back choice.

https://ssl.corvair.com/user-cgi/search ... rt=C6563MA

[Wittsend]

I have a bunch of 70's/80's Taiwanese tools that have stood the test of time and are superior to the USA "named" tools that are often (now) made in China. Given the lack of complaints about the Clark's house bearings it is a nice thing to fall back on if needed.

I've been curious as to why the cost of Corvair crank bearings seem to escalate at a far steeper pace than other bearings? With a total production of nearly 2 million cars, being a popular collectable, and many that don't still roll are flying you would think there is enough volume for reasonable prices. I wonder if the one offset main bearing is a factor???

[jimbrandberg]

I wrote down the main bearing part numbers from the various manufacturers. How about something similar for rod bearings? Thanks.
Jim Brandberg

[Wittsend]

Unfortunately Jim I got my rod bearings early in my searching and as such don't have a list for them. You could take the manufactures I have listed for the Main bearings and see what their rods numbers are. Real quickly I found (below) this in a Google search and it gave me four numbers (7385CAP, 2385CP, CB584P, 6103CP) to search for just by looking at the boxes.