turbo shaft play?

[ripperbone]

what is considered shaft play on a turbo?
if the shaft and turbine moves side to side but not in and out is that considered shaft play?

[Enthalpy]

It actually depends on your bearing type. You will see somewhere in the 0.15 mm range in both axial (in the direction of the shaft) and radial (radially away from the shaft). This is if you have journal bearings. If you have ball bearings, the shaft play should be much less than this.

[M@]

Most turbos will have some shaft play, but whether or not it has excess shaft play is what you want to look for. If it can move in and out, that's usually a broken thrust bearing. If it moves side to side quite a bit, you could have bad journal bearings.

[doctorstupid]

http://mattmasonms.com/img/FUBAR/turbineshaft.jpg

Can you guess which way this one moved? :D

[M@]

Ouch. I took apart one a month ago that had done the same thing. Sadly it was a VERY nice turbo, too..... WAS. :(