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Old 09-05-2012, 10:24 PM
97 SL320 97 SL320 is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 7,534
A few things.

The pictures are way too small to tell much more than , yep there is wear. A good automotive machine shop can give you a OK / NG on the crank. Also get it checked for straightness and cracks. When a bearing over heats, it can cause the crank to bend.

Cranks can be reground or even welded up. If the crank is at all common, welding isn't cost effective.

Oil starvation isn't always the cause of bearing failure. Sometimes the bearing clearance becomes large due to wear. Once the crank journal to bearing clearance gets large enough, a hydrodynamic wedge of oil can't establish it self. This allows the crank to contact and beat on the bearing inserts causing them to thin in the radial direction then grow laterally. ( in normal operation the crank should never contact the bearing. )

Once this occurs, radial tension is lost and the bearing insert starts to rotate. ( The tabs on bearings are more for locating the bearing during install than anything else. ) A combination of lack of oil between the bearing bore and the back of the insert coupled with the now sort of bent flat tabs dragging along the bore causes a downward spiral.
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