Well, I received my rebuilt tranny and assort other parts last Thursday and
Friday, so I rented an engine hoist for a couple of days. Pull out the old
stuff, replace a few parts, pop it back in, right?
Not quite. No I haven't exactly fallen for the "as long as I'm at it" bug -
I'm pretty much sticking to the things I planned to do. But I have
discovered a couple of things that need immediate attention.
First, there's a tooth gone on the ring gear and most of the others are
pretty beat up. Kind of a surprise as I haven't really had any problems
starting. So I just put in an order for a new one. But is this something I
can install myself? I've read the instructions in the Bentley manual and it
sounds pretty simple, except will a standard houshold over be good enough?
My grandfather installed one on an old tractor once using a regular oven.
But the manual gives the temp range as 572 - 732 degrees. My oven only goes
to 550. Maybe on broil? How about removing the old one? Manual says to use a
cold chisel - that still the best?
Also a question on the cam trust plate (read below to see why I'm asking
this one!) Is there anything that goes between the cam and the plate?
Doesn't look like it from the manual, but the cam seems to be able to move
in and out a little. No, not easily, but I noticed it as I was trying to
work the sprocket off. Does the way everything works in there just natually
"push" the cam forward against the plate? Also keep seeing in manual about
shimming the crank sprocket to assure the two sprockets are in the same
plane. Where can I get shims?
Anyway, nothing much else is flat out BAD. But lots of interesting stuff I
found along the way, in roughly chronological order:
1) Distributor mounting block was loose. I've had to tighten that thing
before - maybe some lock-tite is needed.
2) Missing 1 nut from exhaust pipe flange (threads are fine - no excuse)
3) Pulled plug to drain tranny - two springs stuck in goop in the plug. At
least there's no doubt there was something wrong with it! I just don't know
how it was working as well as it was!
3) One starter bolt missing.
4) Only 4 bolts holding tranny to engine (plus the one starter bolt) - fully
half the tranny to engine bolts missing!
5) One clutch slave bolt missing.
6) Throwout bearing carbon worn down to metal and badly chipped and
cracked - no matter as putting in a clutch kit anyway of course.
7) The broken tooth on the ring gear.
8) Planning to replace timing cover gasket and seal, so go to remove the
crank pulley. Washer was WAY off center. Bolt wasn't even tight - removed it
with my fingers!
9) Strangely the seal didn't look like it had been leaking, but my leak
seems to mostly be from the bottom of the timing cover. Probably because the
two bottom bolts were way to long and bottomed out on the oil pan. Guess
that where the two extra short bolts that I found in other holes?
10) Timing chain appears a little stretched, gears look pretty good though.
Lock tab not bent down on cam (DPO NEVER bent down lock tabs - that's one
way I can tell where he mucked around.)
11) Pull cam and crank sprockets. Missing 1 bolt in from the cam thrust
plate. Plate pretty worn and a little bent - wonder why? ;-)
I've decided that these must be pretty good cars considering the shape mine
was in and yet it was still working pretty well!
Oh, well. All this is half the fun, right? Right? Hello? Anybody there? ;-)
Eddie
1971 Midget - "Bebop" (in surgery)
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