T3 shaft play

[Guest Anonymous]

How much play is there usually in the shaft of a T3. Hope I can accurately describe mine.

There is almost none < .003 end play, that is if you push on one end or the other.

Also there is very little if you hold both ends of the shaft...compressor side and exhaust side,

and push in the same direction. What has me concerned though is there is a lot .020 or so if you

push the shaft on one side only. That is if you hold both ends again and push one and pull the

other side, So the turbine shaft is at an angle to the housing. it moves this way enough to have

less than .001 at the inlet blade/housing area. Should I be concerned or does the

oil when running take up the slack?? Hope this make sence.

Thanks in advance

[Tony240ZT]

I've had the same experience with most all used nissan t3's which have a rubber seal pressed into the back of the compressor back plate. I think it's possible that the full round rubber seal prevents less oil to pass than the C clip type. Oil in the turbo may push the seal against the shaft and make the shaft have less play, but not sure on that. The C clip compressor seal seams to make the side to side play a lot less, because it acts as another supporting point for the shaft. You will need a different compressor back plate to use the C clip setup. I know for a fact that the volvo 740's came with this type, and it will easily swap over. Then if you want a fresh set of bushings, seals, etc you tell them you have a t3 off of the volvo 740 and you will get the correct seal kit.

I meantioned that the C clip type seal probably doesn't seal as well, but turbonetics may have a C clip that over laps which is suppose to seal much better and probably keep the shaft centered better, since they have one for the compressor side.

One bad thing about the C clip setup is that if you don't have a good supply of oil to the turbo not only do you mess up your bushings, maybe the shaft, but also the back of the compressor housing gets messed up!

Here is a picture of the nissan type of seal:

 

And here is the part that fits up into the back of the compressor housing with the C clip type of seal:

 

My t04B compressor housing came with this type, and is very tight. Also another thing you could do is get a 360 degree thrust bearing which would help a bunch.

If you go for a rebuild Turbo City has them for around $115. You can find them at http://www.turbocity.com/ and they are located just a block away from MotorSport near Disney Land.

 

Nissan built in a lot of room for slack in the compressor housings, if your compressor wheel is not touching the housing then don't stress too much. On the other hand, if you have the turbo out, have the cash to rebuild then go for it.

 

I have rebuilt many t3's so that they are like new, if you'd like to have yours rebuilt I'll do it for $150, and could have it back to you in the same week. Here is a picture of one I rebuilt a while back: