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Triumph TR6 - Engine Bearings

Does anyone have any experience with bearings. apparently they are manufactured in and are the try metal type. I am assured they are of top quality and would like to know if any member has had expearience with these!.
C Parker

The thread was missing the words and manufactured in
C Parker

King bearings manufactured in Israel
C Parker

Vandervell in UK are the best known and preferred Tri-Metal Bearing Insert (shell) manufacturers for TR owners. The name Glacier seems to be teamed with the Vandervell name now. All the TR race owners try to find them. For some reason they are harder to find these days. BTW, Vandervell built the Formula 1 Vanwall race cars back in the 50's so these bearing shells have been famous for well over 50 years.

Clevite say they invented them 50 years ago. The Clevite site is :-

http://www.engineparts.com/products/Bearings.html

For causes and photos of bearing insert shell wear, click on :-

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/bearingwear/bearingwearanalysis.htm

Now to really get you confused, check :-

http://www.scardana.ca/Bearings.html

Don Elliott, 1958 TR3A
Don Elliott

Thanks Don, I have tryed to find Vandervell Brgs but to no avail, I have been recomended these King bearings that I have been assured are good and are the tri metal type, I will let you know how they turn out
C Parker

Dana Corporation bought up Clevite, Glacier, and Vandervell (among others). Here's a quote from the Dana Corp web site :-

http://www.glaciervandervell.com/na/ :

"Glacier Vandervell North America is a market leader in the design, manufacture and sale of thinwall bearing products in North America. We supply original equipment manufacturers in the automotive, heavy duty and industrial markets.

Additionally, Glacier Vandervell products have strong brand recognition in the automotive aftermarket under the brand name of Clevite. "

So there you have it. If you are the only game in town, then there's no economic reason to make "premium" bearings for limited markets like ours.


All the TR race drivers say that if you use aluminium backed bearing shell inserts, they won't last more that a race weekend.

Don Elliott, 1958 TR3A
Don Elliott

Don--I believe Dana offers TR6 bearings in the Clevite "tri-metal" configuration (see their website for a description of this design). At least that's what a Clevite retailer told me. I understand this is equivalent to the original Vandervell construction (indium-copper-steel??).

Rick O.
Rick Orthen

The following is from recent FOT comments in Bearings.

Jack Drews who races a very fast TR4 writes :-

To the best of my (current) knowledge, the only makers of TR4 bearings are those supplied by Moss (Glacier aluminum) and Roadster Factory (King two-metal).

John Kipping, former owner of Canley Classics in England (and now living in New Zealand) writes :-

If you try 149081OE and 149082OE into the Canley search engine and compare the prices to 149081 and 149082 you'll see they are quite a bit more - the OE ones are King non aluminium type. (if any Vandervall ones turned up they would be sold under these numbers as well). Whilst these King bearings may not be as good as original Vandervells (we had no way of testing them), they are better than all aluminium type. The bearings to avoid if you can are manufactured by Glacier, these have a small G in a box on the steel
backing - they charge a lot for them and never honour a guarantee, so why pay the extra?

Someone else wrote that the aluminium shells expand at a different rate and that's why they are not as good,

Don Elliott, 1958 TR3A


Don Elliott

This thread was discussed between 25/04/2004 and 29/04/2004

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