Taking Apart the Supercharger - w/ Pics

[Eye8Pussies]

So, my blower began making some pretty bad bearing noises....and the clicking that the rotors had been making before got louder than before. All this, of course, all happens at one of the worst times possible. Just as I'm looking for more power, I need to deal with maintenance instead.

I've already posted pics on changing the s/c oil and taking off the nose (http://solaraguy.com/viewtopic.php?t=38263), so this is kind of a continuation.

I wanted to get a good idea of what was wrong with the blower and why it was making noises, since theoretically, it is a very simple design. Also, I had a set of needle-nose bearings that I had picked up a long time ago, which I hoped I could replace.

Long story short, it is really easy to take the rotors out of the blower. After removing the nose drive and its bolts, just tap the second part of the assembly until it pops out, and the rotors are attached.

Here is my nose and rotors sitting separately:


The good news is that I found why the rotors were clicking- because the bearings were obviously going bad, the rotors were hitting each other. No real damage though, but some of the protective coating was coming off of the rotors. More of a problem, if anything, was that the rotor edges were scored.




Also, the end of the rotors were slightly scored as well from rubbing against the rear wall of the chamber (where the needle-nose bearings are)



In addition, the fact that the bearings were letting the rotors move in all directions more than they should, the rotor edges were scoring the inside of the s/c chamber.





In these pics, the scoring looks pretty bad, because of the shadows thrown, but they are in fact not THAT bad. The main thing is that the blower holds boost with no problems still.


The problem though, as can be seen from the pictures of the chamber and the bearings in the rear, is that there is basically no way to get the bearings out without a specialized tool. On the website, rollingperformance.com, they had described a procedure to "pop" the bearings out with a custom grease fitting. But it seems that on our model, there is no practical way of doing it. From what I can tell, a special tool that can grip the bearings from the inside along with a slide-hammer design would be needed to remove them from the front.

I also used emery cloth to buff out the scores on the rotor edges as well as smooth out the edges of the coating that is coming off the rotors so that they would flake more and go into my combustion chambers. I then also buffed out the interior of the s/c chamber until it was ALOT smoother.

As a final result, after reassembly (I used paper gasket again, in lieu of anaerobic gasket maker, since I don't like dealing with drying time) and adding oil, the blower was a lot quieter, but still making noises. The main noise though, I think is coming from the bearings on the rotor (nose side). The problem became obvious when I attempted to drain the s/c oil before disassembly. THERE WAS ALMOST NO OIL INSIDE!!! That was my fault, as I hadn't checked before I installed it back in the day- but back then, in Canada, nobody seemed to know what supercharger oil to use, there wasn't any definitive answer on SG, and my dealership knew diddly crap about the blower. The blower ran fine for quite a long time, and since it had just been rebuilt not too long ago, I presumed that it was fine. My mistake. The gears inside the nose were fine (as I had always presumed was the main reason for the oil), but then I found out that the oil was also to lubricate the bearings BEHIND the gears on the rotor side....now it makes sense why the bearings went. A possibility though, as well, is that the seal at the bearing on the rotor side was going, so that the oil was leaking into the rotor chamber slowly until there was almost no oil left.


So, long story short....as a recommendation for people who are installing their supercharger now, or have taken it off to do maintenance of some sort. TAKE YOUR SUPERCHARGER APART every time to check. First, check that there was always oil in it (hadn't leaked out somehow or gotten past any seals) and also check the condition of the rotors for scoring and the s/c chamber for scoring as well since it will let you know if the bearings are going, and you can get them replaced before more damage is done. I'm pretty sure that I caught mine just in time. I'll know when I send it in for a rebuild and see what they tell me.

I hope this helps people out. Feel free to ask any questions.

[99V6solaraSE]

ill definitely have to look into this. I feel as if some of the noise im hearing isnt normal as well. I just added some oil with that came with the trd oil change kit. But the amounts seemed so small and some may have leaked out. I also didnt use a paper gasket but whatever the stuff was that they gave me.

[CamryOnBronze]

Good info again King- how many miles are on your charger?

I need to pull mine in a month or two to install my injectors and do some other work, maybe Ill take it apart and have a look. I wasnt going to change the oil since I have about 5k miles on it at most right now, but I probably will since I have to remove it anyway. Im hoping I dont have any issues though with the blower being so new.

[akora12]

This comes at a perfect time. I don't know if I would have had the will to take everything apart w/o seeing how it's done. Thanks!

[Akfahad]

Great info King!! Definitely something I'll have to look at when it comes time for the next oil change.

[Eye8Pussies]

good to hear that it helped ppl.

at the very least, everybody should check their oil and change it (you may as well, since you'll have to pour it out to see how much is in there) to preserve the bearings in the rotor gears, whose deterioration leads to the deterioration of the needle-nose bearings

and if there is a leak, to take off the nose and reseal it as soon as possible.


and damon-> the blower was rebuilt about 15000miles before I picked it up (gabe was the original owner, and I got it off of somebody who picked it up from him) and since then, I've probably put about the same on it. But gabe ran high boost and ran it hard. And I can't say that I stayed at 4psi too long and drove it gently either. That much mileage with very little oil is the most likely culprit for the bearings going. I'm pretty sure that if there was adequate lubrication/heat soaking oil the entire duration, the bearings would not have failed so soon.

[ptballer]

Very good info!

[akora12]

FYI, this was easier to do than I originally thought. Taking apart the S/C was a breeze...cleaning everything took quite a bit longer. I definitely recommend a breakdown like this to anyone changing their oil. It gave me piece of mind to see everything close up and check for any problems. Also, inspect the coupler very well. On first glance it seemed to give no play on the gears, but removed from the S/C I could see that the holes were a bit oblong. I changed it out for a new one. Here's a pic.

[unbalancedwood]

^ when did you get one akora!???

[Eye8Pussies]

yup yup....very very easy....ALOT easier than anybody would have thought- that's why I posted up what I did, so that ppl would have the confidence to do it themselves.

As for your supercharger there...there seems to be a lot of oil on the rotor side....if it's not a lot of blow by from your pcv, then it may be the seals in the rotor bearings starting to leak into the chamber/rotors. May want to keep an eye on that.

[akora12]

yup yup....very very easy....ALOT easier than anybody would have thought- that's why I posted up what I did, so that ppl would have the confidence to do it themselves.

As for your supercharger there...there seems to be a lot of oil on the rotor side....if it's not a lot of blow by from your pcv, then it may be the seals in the rotor bearings starting to leak into the chamber/rotors. May want to keep an eye on that.

The picture took kind of dark. The rotors did have a thin coating of oil on them, but it cleaned right up. The actual rotor housing was cleaner than I ever could have imagined. The best news is that all the teflon coating was in tact, so I don't think the bearings a going quite yet. I'm going to tear it back down in 20,000 miles and re-check everything...probably do the rear rotor bearings then. I inspected the port on the underside of the S/C and I think the grease pop method will work, but it will take a lot of grease. There is an eaton S/C repair shop close by that I'm going to check into about this.

[Gregtrd]

yup yup....very very easy....ALOT easier than anybody would have thought- that's why I posted up what I did, so that ppl would have the confidence to do it themselves.

As for your supercharger there...there seems to be a lot of oil on the rotor side....if it's not a lot of blow by from your pcv, then it may be the seals in the rotor bearings starting to leak into the chamber/rotors. May want to keep an eye on that.

The picture took kind of dark. The rotors did have a thin coating of oil on them, but it cleaned right up. The actual rotor housing was cleaner than I ever could have imagined. The best news is that all the teflon coating was in tact, so I don't think the bearings a going quite yet. I'm going to tear it back down in 20,000 miles and re-check everything...probably do the rear rotor bearings then. I inspected the port on the underside of the S/C and I think the grease pop method will work, but it will take a lot of grease. There is an eaton S/C repair shop close by that I'm going to check into about this.

check your intake and if it looks the same way as you charger blades then you got alot of blow by.

[Eye8Pussies]

yup yup....very very easy....ALOT easier than anybody would have thought- that's why I posted up what I did, so that ppl would have the confidence to do it themselves.

As for your supercharger there...there seems to be a lot of oil on the rotor side....if it's not a lot of blow by from your pcv, then it may be the seals in the rotor bearings starting to leak into the chamber/rotors. May want to keep an eye on that.

The picture took kind of dark. The rotors did have a thin coating of oil on them, but it cleaned right up. The actual rotor housing was cleaner than I ever could have imagined. The best news is that all the teflon coating was in tact, so I don't think the bearings a going quite yet. I'm going to tear it back down in 20,000 miles and re-check everything...probably do the rear rotor bearings then. I inspected the port on the underside of the S/C and I think the grease pop method will work, but it will take a lot of grease. There is an eaton S/C repair shop close by that I'm going to check into about this.

if you can see scoring in the chamber, then the bearings are going. But if the teflon is fine, then usually it means that the bearings are good anyway. But I was referring to the seals where the bearings are, since if they continue leaking (if the are) or get worse, you will run out of oil in less than 20,000miles and then destroy your bearings due to lack of oil.

and you have a rebuild shop right by you? damn...you're lucky...you can just take it apart and bring it in and have them probably do it for a hundred bucks or something.

[akora12]

yup yup....very very easy....ALOT easier than anybody would have thought- that's why I posted up what I did, so that ppl would have the confidence to do it themselves.

As for your Chuck Norris there...there seems to be a lot of oil on the rotor side....if it's not a lot of blow by from your pcv, then it may be the seals in the rotor bearings starting to leak into the chamber/rotors. May want to keep an eye on that.

The picture took kind of dark. The rotors did have a thin coating of oil on them, but it cleaned right up. The actual rotor housing was cleaner than I ever could have imagined. The best news is that all the teflon coating was in tact, so I don't think the bearings a going quite yet. I'm going to tear it back down in 20,000 miles and re-check everything...probably do the rear rotor bearings then. I inspected the port on the underside of the S/C and I think the grease pop method will work, but it will take a lot of grease. There is an eaton S/C repair shop close by that I'm going to check into about this.

if you can see scoring in the chamber, then the bearings are going. But if the teflon is fine, then usually it means that the bearings are good anyway. But I was referring to the seals where the bearings are, since if they continue leaking (if the are) or get worse, you will run out of oil in less than 20,000miles and then destroy your bearings due to lack of oil.

and you have a rebuild shop right by you? damn...you're lucky...you can just take it apart and bring it in and have them probably do it for a hundred bucks or something.

Ah, I'm getting all of these bearings confused. I'm not entirely sure about the condition of the front rotor bearings since they seem a bit hard to access. I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on it, but I'm usually under the hood messing with everything anyways. There was little oil left in the snout when I pulled everything apart, but the gasket was also leaking for a while.

I wasn't aware of the rebuild shop until a week or so ago when a friend mentioned it to me. They mostly do a lot of the GM eaton S/C's, but I called and they know the M62's as well. I'll most likely have all my bearings swapped out once I notice any degrading problems with the S/C.