Bill:
The cast iron thermostat housing is hanging up on one or more
coroded studs. You will have to be very careful or you may snap a stud
trying to remove the cover. Looking from the front of the engine the likely
candidate is the left hand stud. It penetrates into the cooling passage and
tends to be coroded where coolant seeps up the threads. Lots of WD40 down
the studs and careful wiggling will hopefully break the studs free. The
cast iron housing will take a fair amount of abuse, so careful tapping with
a soft hammer or "deadblow" on the air pump extension can be done to rock
the housing. Emphasise "careful".
If the housing does not come loose with careful tapping, plan on a
longer job which may include drilling out broken studs and retapping the
head. Worst case the head can be redrilled and tapped to a larger size, but
I classify that as DPO behavior. Helicoiling back to original is the
correct way to go.
As with any stuck part, patience, care and careful use of leverage
work better than swear words and heavy thumps.
When you reassemble use a touch of silicone on the stud that
penetrates the waterjacket to seal it and antiseize to prevent a
reoccurrence.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Saidel [mailto:saidel@crab.rutgers.edu]
> Sent: Saturday, January 09, 1999 8:50 AM
> To: mgs@autox.team.net
> Subject: frozen thermostat housing
>
>
>
> Hi all,
> I'm taking advantage of a water pump replacement to replace the
> thermostat. The problem is that after removing the 3 nuts
> holding the housing
> on, the housing won't come off. Even with the aid of a hammer.
>
> Any suggestions as to how to remove it? (It is a '76B.)
>
> Thanks,
> Bill
>
> Bill Saidel (609) 225-6336
> Dept. of Biology (609) 225-6312 FAX
> Science Building E-Mail: saidel@crab.rutgers.edu
> Rutgers University
> 315 Penn Street
> Camden, NJ 08102-1411
> For more information about my science, check
> http://crab.rutgers.edu/~saidel/saidel.html
>
> "Sacred cows make divine hamburgers."
>
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