I have a small nick in my main bearing. I was changing out my rear main seal and ended up putting a small nick in the bearing when I was removing the cap. The cap is perfect and the crank is fine but it is just the bearing surface. Is this a major problem and how do I fix it?

 

Remember that the bearing allows the crank to spin on a cushion of oil. If you "nick" the bearing, you could create an interference problem between the crank and bearing or alter the oil flow to that bearing. Performance guys polish bearings with fine Scotchbite all the time to get a better surface. You went the other way with that. IMO, you should replace it.

 

Is that as easy as getting a new one then just replacing it or is this a major rebuld? Could I just polish the nick out with 2000 grit?

 

I would install a new bearing of same size and type as the one you nicked. If you want a brand, Clevite makes nice bearings. FYI, you can buy just one of bearing and the sizes will be either a std, .10, .20,. This refers to if your crank is std size journal or if it has been ground down "turned" .10 or .20, during a rebuild. The only way to tell that is to mic your bearing or mic your crank. I believe the part number for a Clevite 77 Ford FE390 main bearing is MS863P.

 

Thanks for your help, I did a quick search and where could I buy just one bearing? The clevite website explains a color code, I noticed the bearing has a black mark on the side, if that is correct then I have .10 undersize bearings. I will bring the bearing to work to mic it just to make sure.

 

Yeh, mic it if you are not sure b/c you do not want to be wrong on the bearing size or you could have a seized crank pretty quick.

 

all the clevite bearings i've run had the # on the backside that say what size they are should be something like this .001 .002 .010 .020 but we have nicked a bearing before and takin somekind of knife took the nic out and scotchbited it smooth not telling you to do this but it is possible
good luck

 

I pulled the nicked bearing out and it is a clevite .010 with the part # as well. I took some 2000 grit paper to it and it has no raised edges. I searched the net to try and find a place that I could get just one bearing and had no luck. I hate to buy a whole set just to replace one half. There was only minimal wear on this bearing to begin with. I will keep searching but any help would be great. A hard lesson learned.

 

just replace it, then you wont have to worry about if you did it right, maybe replace all of them while you are at it

 

Bearings are cheap enough to replace really. Post a pic, you can have nics in bearings that aren't going to be a problem.