Heater control box bearings

Jameel · 04-12-2017, 02:47 PM

I spruced up my heater control boxes this week. Managed to get them off without breaking any studs! Bead blasted and painted, they were in pretty good shape overall. Except the little round bearings, all but one was broken. My nephew has a desktop 3d printer, so I asked him to see what he could do. After two tries he nailed them. Perfect fit on the rectangular shaft, and nice free movement without slop. We could print up a small batch in case anyone is interested in having some. Not looking to go into business or anything, just giving back some to the community here. I couldn't even find this part anywhere, not even here on Pelican. I did test them for heat. My nephew says the melting point is just north of 300 degrees. I baked them at 250 on a piece of thick aluminum (so good heat transfer) for two hours--no change, not even any softening. Cranked it up to 350 and they melted. So, I can't imagine the boxes would ever get close to 300, but maybe they do? Anyway, I'm going to run these and see what happens.

https://youtu.be/4E8ygO3ACy0
https://youtu.be/n4C6QD6s85A

brighton911 · 04-12-2017, 02:51 PM

Nice job on those, isn't the 3D technology amazing. Thanks for offering these up to the masses too.

wrxnofx · wrxnofx's Garage

It's part number 90121125521. I'm pretty sure they're available still.

DRACO A5OG · DRACO A5OG's Garage

Wow, just learned something :-) Did not know they had bearings I just lube them after winter rains. Barely used in the Spring Summer Fall here in Cali.

JJ 911SC · JJ 911SC's Garage

Very nice...

When I did my 10 steps cleaning program I could not find them so I had to re-use them, the crack one stil do the job.

Cleaning Flapper Boxes

Jameel · 05-03-2017, 07:44 AM

Update. I hit the 100 mile mark on my engine rebuild, so while I was checking my CV's I also checked the status of these bearings. Well, even though they passed the oven test, they didn't pass the in-car test. Picture says it all. So, we've got another material we're going to try and print with, then run another test. It's supposed to withstand heat better.

For those who pm'd me asking for some of these, subscribe to this post and if we have success, shoot me another PM and we'll print some up.