YunoBlog

Decided to cleanup the crankcase cover first, so cleaned up a big bucket, got some hot soapy water into it and set to… Well, first I figured I should make sure I had all the small movable bits off it, like the breaker points and breaker shaft,

and the governor arm (at least I think thats it…)

Of course the governor arm was held in by one of those infamous “j-clips”…

but as you can see, I triumphed! HahA! My secret was to move to the center of the garage, then take my calipers

and CAREFULLY force the clip off with the pointy bits, while holding my hand over the other side…

So, once I got the shaft out I noticed that the end piece here seems a bit loose on the shaft…. Wonder if that means replacement….

I then pulled all the rest of the plugs off the crankcase cover… What I don’t know is why these two would be there at all…

and I’m really not sure why the LEFT one looks like a fitting for, say an oil pressure gauge…

So, then a whole bunch of cleaning and scrubbing and drying, then firing up the air compressor to do a final air dry… My bottle brushes came in REAL handy (well, actually they’re cleaning brushes from a friend’s water filtration system).

I got SO ambitious, and figured I’d start on the actual crank case… First order of business, after my successful removal of the governor arm, was removal of the governor spool (Also held on by a j-clip!).

(I have to admit, the governor spool is one of the PRETTIEST pieces of the whole engine….). Of course, I paid for my hubris about C-clips by seriously puncturing my thumb with the caliper this time!

I was surprised to find a bushing/washer behind the spool…

So, now that supper’s done, and Kidlet #2’s still in charge of LTBabe, I’m gonna head back out and clean the OTHER side of the crank case…

Once I got it all clean and fully dried with towels and compressed air, I set everything required for the basic reconstruction up on a table in the garage.

Then, following Oo-v-oO’s advice, I greased up my oil seals….

Too bad I hadn’t read the tech manual closely enough to realize that oil seals go in AFTER the crankcase is buttoned up! DOH! 

BUT I met my nemesis the J-clip once again, and bested him, getting the governor spool reinstalled!

Of course, once I went to put the crank in, I remembered why it was I built the engine stand… Boy that crank spins nice, tho

Then I broke out the ring compressor, and spent a frustrating hour and 3 quarters trying to master the art of inserting a piston into the cylinder via a ring compressor…. Hope I oiled it up enough, and that I didn’t get any schmutz in the cylinder in the process. I DID space the rings out as advised in the tech manual, just hope they didn’t wander too much in the ring compressor.

Finally, it went in, and I placed the rod cap on, dropped on the washers and the lock nuts and gently tightened them…

So, I digressed a bit after checking the tech manual for the torque numbers for the lock nuts… It said 86-110 ft-lbs… Okay, so I broke out the big new torque wrench, eager to use it for the first time… Read the manual, tested it on a bolt I’d pulled out of the head of Frank, the donor motor, at the lowest setting it did, 20 ft-lbs, got the click…. okay, well, lets dial it up to 86 ft-lbs and test it on the head bolt… Geez 86 ft-lbs seems like a LOT… Particularly for a connecting rod… So lets look again…. OOOOHHH…. 86 IN-LBS… THAT’S significantly less… So I dug out the trusty old Canadian Tire torque wrench and torqued to about 7-8 foot-lbs (good thing I could use THAT one tho, as the big new one wouldn’t have fit in that spot…).

Okay, now for the big stumper for the evening… The tech manual says,
“After initial torque, use a drift and a hammer (13 oz) and strike the rod bearing cap above each lock nut. This will seat the cap releasing some torque on the lock nuts. Retorque lock nuts to specification”

Okay, what the heck is a “Drift”? Is that like, a big punch? And where the heck do they want me to HIT? On the side of the rod bearing cap? I can’t see getting a hammer and a drift in to hit the ends of the bolts on the connecting rod… How the heck does this work?!?