Originally Posted by fyrstormer

In lieu of a heat gun I tried the toaster-oven method, which didn't work even at the maximum temperature setting. Eventually I resorted to blowtorching the crankcase in the past to get the bearings out. I They still wouldn't dislodge, even after getting the entire assembly hot enough that it was smoking and the bearing seals were melting. Never had to do that with a Toki engine, the bearings always dropped out easily. I don't know what Picco does when they install their crankcase bearings, but they apparently really don't want them to ever be replaced.

The engine is discontinued, so I have two reasons for not replacing the engine outright: 1) new engines are getting harder to find, and 2) OFNA is currently offloading their spare parts at a huge discount so I ordered a bunch. No crankshafts though. Also, if I bought a new engine I'd still have to deal with the impossible-to-remove crank bearings, which I want to replace partly so I can use ceramic bearings for longer lifetime, and partly so I can use a metal-shielded front bearing because this engine keeps blowing off the rubber seals on the stock bearings. No idea why that's happening, but a metal shield will never come loose.

So anyway: How can I tell if a crankshaft is too worn to be reused with a new crankcase? What are the telltale signs?