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This blog is designed to enable viewers to post their comments on various subjects related to The Torrington Company's demise as a separate corporate entity. We will try to answer the question "Why?" and hopefully provide guidance to other Companies who might find themselves in a similar situation. We will also try to be a vehicle for alumni to express their thoughts
Blog Archive
About Me
- Norm M
- North Reading, Massachusetts, United States
- Now retired, I was employed by The Torrington Company / Ingersoll Rand from 1963 through 1987. Recently widowed, relocated from TX to MA
8 comments:
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From: Joseph Brown 404-317-7625
Date: Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 4:43 PM
Subject: Torrington Square Bearing
To: Normand Massicotte
Hi Norm, hope all is well with you and family. I came across this Torrington Square Bearing I had in storage and was unable to find anything about it on the internet. It may be just a development that never went into production but would love to learn more about it.
Unfortunately, I failed to keep notes on many items. The attached PDF has pictures of the bearing with the details (also posted below). Regards, Joe & Sally
Torrington Square bearing. I have this bearing; rollers still move easily around the 4-sides of the casing. I am interested in learning more about the history, development, and use. It was my understanding it was being developed for a Cadillac shifting mechanism? Bearing measurements are 1 ¾ x 1 ½ x ¾. Development may have been 1975 and 1984 – (just a guess)
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Dave Champagne 5:55pm 1/07/2022
I have one sitting right in front of me!
As far as I remembered, it was a front wheel bearing for the Cadillac front wheel drive cars the Eldorado, Allante, and the DeVille. The Eldorado was actually Cadillac’s first front wheel drive car beginning in 1967.
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Mike Myers mdmyersct@gmail.com 6:17PM 1/07/2022
It was for the constant velocity joint coming out of the transmission with the Cadillac V8 front drive cars. The high torque caused the normal joints to bind and shudder under acceleration which was not acceptable for a luxury car. We developed it with Saginaw who supplied the axles and this was a later joint which was cost reduced to use a powdered metal block and stampings to retain the trunnion end needle rollers as they recirculated as the joint moved in and out with suspension travel. Early ones actually used 52100 steel cast blocks with integral flanges.
I used the analysis of the dynamics and forces of this type of joint as part of my masters degree in engineering from RPI Hartford in the 80’s
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Mike Osber ritpkg@gmail.com 1/7/22 5:31 PM
I came across those in the 90s. Something about a Cadillac suspension comes to kind.
They were cool and an impressive engineering piece.
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Michael Brauer brauem@gmail.com 1/7/22 5:35 PM
Heavy GM front wheel drive bearings. Not sure of the models or years. 3 per side. very robust design!
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Dave Champagne d.champagne@comcast.net 1/7/2022 5:55 PM
I have one sitting right in front of me!
As far as I remembered, it was a front wheel bearing for the Cadillac front wheel drive cars the Eldorado, Allante, and the DeVille. The Eldorado was actually Cadillac’s first front wheel drive car beginning in 1967. Dave Champagne
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Bruce Whipple via fitnessfromscience.com 1/7/22022 6:04 PM
The square bearing was for Saginaw Steering Gear. Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.
Ah yes. The glory days in Detroit. Says the old guy from Detroit. LOL
The team was Bob Richtmeyer, Rich Murphy, Bob Hart, John Albini, Charlie Fritz, Stu Wallack, Sandy Sprague, and Dudley Miller. Apologies if I missed someone.
Sold to Saginaw Steering Gear Best Regards, Bruce P. Whipple
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Mike Myers mdmyersct@gmail.com 1/7/2022 6:17 PM
It was for the constant velocity joint coming out of the transmission with the Cadillac V8 front drive cars. The high torque caused the normal joints to bind and shudder under acceleration which was not acceptable for a luxury car. We developed it with Saginaw who supplied the axles and this was a later joint which was cost reduced to use a powdered metal block and stampings to retain the trunnion end needle rollers as they recirculated as the joint moved in and out with suspension travel. Early ones actually used 52100 steel cast blocks with integral flanges.
I used the analysis of the dynamics and forces of this type of joint as part of my masters degree in engineering from RPI Hartford in the 80’s Mike Myers
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Dean Johnston 1/7/2022 7:56pm
Used 3 Per, in a constant velocity (cv) joint. See patent US4830516.pdf.
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Al Nixon 1/8/2022 9:17am
Bruce; Good to hear from you. You missed a few people involved in getting the distressed price increase we needed to cover the costs. I recall Art Padovano, maybe John Begg, Frank Johnson and I had some sleepless nights over that one. Al
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Bruce Whipple <bpw1995@sbcglobal.net 1/8/2022 10:15am
Al: Great to hear from you also.One of the things I enjoyed most about those days was how the teams came together. I learned a lot from senior management and was always impressed by how the manufacturing side worked to get things done. Art was a great mentor for me on the sales side. I too had some sleepless nights on this but not as many as with the Rochester Products roller lifter project that was a nice win, perhaps because of how hard it was. I still laugh when I think about our "celebration" at IR. Best Regrds, Bruce P. Whipple
Tate Pearson 1/8/2022 11:03am
Great stuff! Went into the CV assembly for front wheel drive GM vehicles. Similar to the attached. I could not find one of the exact design that used our Square Bearing. Certainly someone here has it or can find it.
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Bruce Whipple 1/8/2022 11:56am
A little history from Dudley Miller who called on Saginaw Steering Gear. Bob Richtmeyer designed it and would have the design details. We developed it for Saginaw Steering Gear front wheel drive axles for the new Cadillac high output Northstar engine. Existing tri-pot ball designs had failed and Cadillac was planning to de-tune the engine to make launch dates. The square bearing allowed the North Star engine to launch on time without the de-tune. Torrington and Saginaw worked 7 days a week for months to pass the validation testing and then get the bearings into production. Best Regards,
Bruce P. Whipple
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Bob Waldrop julie.t.waldrop@gmail.com 1:16 PM 1/08/2022
Nice trip down memory lane remembering the great people at Torrington pre-Timken. Greeting to all, Bob Waldrop
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Mike Basmajian MikeBasmajian@gmail.com 2:20 PM 1/08/2022
Ah yes, the "square bearing" ... was all the rage when I joined Torrington in '88. Definitely a nod to the creativity of the Torrington culture. I miss it. Judy, sorry to hear of your loss. If anyone on this distribution has a LinkedIn profile and isn't a part of the Torrington group please feel free to request access. It's a good place to see where people are these days without a lot of nonsense posting notification.
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Scott Helms sghofsbin@gmail.com 5:17 PM 1/08/2022
Happy New Year everybody, The inquiry from Joseph Brown triggered my memory to look for some items I have had stored in a box in my basement. I've attached a PDF
showing some of the items. Maybe someone can shed some light about the bearings shown in the photo. In South Bend we were known as the Bantam Bearing division, so the small needle and ball bearings were unfamiliar territory.
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John Luciano lucky13@snet.net 1/09/2022 11:23am
That bearing next to the box. Is not that the helicopter bearing.
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N. Massicotte ndmassicotte@gmail.com 1 /09/2022 1:37pm
Don't know John
Maybe someone on our mailing list would know
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Mike Hurt mhurt77@comcast.net 1 /09/2022 1:21pm
I’m sure the development was in the 1980’s. I was Business Manager for Needle Bearings & worked with Product Engineering to get this designed & we got it made in the Standard Plant. I worked on it with GM. & we sold them for $4.00 ++ to correct the handling in the 3.8L motor steering. There were 3 square brgs on each side of the front wheel drive lines. At that time the big engine motors were not there before
We replaced 6 just bell bushings by Ina selling for $1.25 each. GM screamed & shouted but it solved the steering problem in the front wheel drives in the Bruck’s & Cadillac’s
Thank for the discussion to pass on this email
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John K. Pearson jkp78windy@aol.com 6:40 PM 1/09/2022
Ahh the Square Bearing.
From the Materials Engineering side
The original design was investment cast 52100. This had a u shaped channel on the “OD”
I was Standard Plant Metallurgist then and was challenged {faced??} with getting it done. Only later did I learn that the Chief Metallurgist at the time had written a memo to the top of what a bad idea this was and it should not be done. {note name unsaid, as his opinion really was not that far off the mark in terns of stating risk}. For a time a bit of chilliness went on as I went into the lab.
I was given plane ticket to go BDL to go to Vermont American asap. Being a skier I have visions of visits to the supplier with skis for some side trips.
But on the air plane to… Auburn AL. ??
Met up with Bob Hart who was on “extended tour" with the instructions to pay for everything, as he had maxed out every credit card in existence.
To confirm, that was a time of great team work. Long hours, design and process engineering on the fly {ie gut}.
And a life time of great travel stories.
Best dive bar in Auburn...
A Grandmothers strike for justice of all air travelers in the Atlanta airport…
A tour of a house in Lake Geneva WI…
A trip to Huntsville AL, {plant 23??} with a Ford Rental Car..
And then came 2nd generation using 4680 hot forged Powder Metal {same material as the world famous cam shaft lobes}. More travel stoires
And a President Award to the team. Named, not there at the award ceremony because of I was on vacation.
To everyone have faith, and stay well. John K. Pearson
Patrick McCotter Patrick.McCotter@parker.com 9:20am 1/10/2022
I was always very impressed with the creativity and engineering / research abilities within the Torrington Company. I was fortunate enough to be involved as a sales engineering in Detroit on the Buick 3800 engine project to antifriction the push rod tappets. I still have a plaque in my office on the development of this, which resulted in significant sales/ profits for the company for many years.
Patrick McCotter, Division Business Improvement Manager
Parker Fluid Control Division Office: 860-827-2333 Cell: 860-712-0119
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Juergen Saggerer saggej@gmx.de 9:58am 1/10/2022
wow… certainly alot of names on this list of e-mail addresses that ring a bell. While I personally had no involvement with this program… I was either in Europe or LA at the time this was being developed, I do recall the peculiarity of calling a bearing square! Like… how the hell should that work??? Anyway… I wish everybody on this list a happy new year! Stay healthy! Greetings from Gifhorn Germany! Cheers Jogi (alias Jurgen Saggerer)
Deborah Poleyestewa dpoleyestewa@snet.net 7:32pm 1/10/2022
Hello all - Even though I was not part of any bearing design whatsoever it has been interesting to me as well to read this thread AND to see a lot of familiar names! I was in Corporate Plant Engineering in the Standard Plant from 1989-1999 and did a lot of office space planning. I hope all are well and have a safe and happy 2022. Debbie Poleyestewa
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