Sudden turbo shaft play

[Talasas]

Okay, I've been trying to hold back and do some more research on this but it's been eating me up inside all day so I might feel better to let it out of my system.

Earlier today I decided to rotate the exhaust housing of a turbo I recently bought. I've never done this before myself (only compression housings before) I had been given some advice on it once before. The turbo I just got is in good condition (having been recently rebuilt) and had almost no shaft play along the axis or side-to-side.

Anyways, prior to heating up the housing I thought I'd try rotating it in a vice. I clamped the mid-section with some wood so that the exhaust housing can spin freely. I got a solid steel bar and wrapped it lightly in a cloth and stuck it in the exhaust inlet. I carefully checked to make certain that the exhaust wheel wasn't touching the steel bar.

I then proceeded to try and rotate the housing using the steel bar and it wouldn't budge, some straining later I gave up. I pulled the turbo off the vice and inspected it, upon checking the shaft play I noticed it now had a very noticable amount of movement in it.

Having now dismantled the exhaust housing completely I found:

a) There was a locator pin preventing me from rotating it

b) There is now way the steel bar could have touched the exhaust wheel. The steel bar was 3/4" thick and the exhaust housing has a tiny gap through which only a small screwdriver could fit.

So why the hell does it suddenly have shaft play? The only other thing I did before this was put some oil into the oil feed this morning to keep it freshly lubed. The shaft play is definitely different to before, and while it doesn't touch the sides of the housings, it's really unnerving. Tomorrow I will take off the compression housing to try and inspect the centre.

Any expertise on this? It's really ruined my day, having possbily wrecked a perfectly good turbo.

[30psi 4agte]

The oil could have drained from the turbo bearings causing the play.
There will always be some form of play in a bush bearing setup.

If you squirt some oil back into the oil feed of the turbo you should see the play get taken up by the oil thickness.

If this doesnt work you may have done some damage.

[Talasas]

Mate - you've made my day, put some oil in through the oil drain (easier and direct on this one) and it's feeling much better. I didn't think to oil it any more since it was still dripping oil a bit.

I noticed some oil came out when I was prising that damn housing through the oil drain but I assumed it was what I had just put in at the time. I have to say that I didn't think the oil would make so much difference since the other turbos I've had seemed bone dry and still didn't have any slack in them. All that could mean then I suppose is that the oil clearance is larger on this turbo, and that the other turbos had better adhesion between the oil and bearing so it didn't come out quite so easy.

Phew.....I feel so much better.

[30psi 4agte]

ha ha lol : all i can say is..............Been there and done that