568/523 Hybrid questions

[BaxterStockman]

Hey guys - thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

I have disassembled both the 523 and 568 and I'm getting ready to take some of the parts to a machine shop to have new bearings pressed. I have a few questions before doing do:

(1) One poster over at the "other" forum states that it's probably not necessary to get a new shim for the input shaft when replacing the bearings. Is that true? I hope so because it might save me some hassle tracking down shims.

(2) I am not replacing the intermediate shaft bearings, as new ones are really expensive and the old ones appear to be in decent enough shape (78k miles on the 568 and 97k on the 523). My question is, should I have the 568 intermediate shaft bearing that's pressed into the case replaced with the one from the 523 - say, because the wear pattern on the 523 intermediate shaft matches the bearing?

(3) Anybody found a good source for diff shims? Also, has anyone ever tried somehow machining down a shim to get the proper thickness, if the shim is too thick?

Thanks very much!

[135sohc]

If the same input shaft, bearing plate and seal retainer are kept together with the original case then yes you probably dont need to replace the shim but the end play should still be checked and verified its not too tight or too loose, (.002 end play is the factory recommended setting)

I would keep the bearing and race as a wear matched set. I am pretty sure most dont and there are no problems but... if you have the means to properly pull the bearing from the case and swap them I would. Its also easier to flush the bearing out with brake cleaner when its not in the case.

Dealership will have most of the shims still since the bearing size was used on most fwd chrysler automatics through current. Sonnax shims work as well. All the information on the shims/thickness and part numbers are listed in the KC article under the drivetrain section in the MTX rebuild guide.