I had never heard of pinning the thrust washers prior to joining this list
and would have considered doing this had I known about this procedure when
I built up my current engine four years ago. Upon dismantling my GT-6
engine I noticed that one of the thrust washers had fallen out at some
earlier time (I was blissfully unaware of this problem). When I rebuilt
the replacement (TR-6) engine I observed how little surface area on the
main bearing cap is holding the thrust washer in place. I welded a small
amount of material onto the side of the main bearing cap and filed the
buildup down so that I ended up with an extra .030 in. of local cross
section to support the thrust washer. Either it is working as intended or
I'm (again) blissfully unaware. To weld on the main cap, I removed the
alignment sleeves and clamped the cap to a copper plate to provide a
backing surface to weld against. I used a mig welder with a few short
bursts to keep the heat low.
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