I spent a good part of the day just getting to the point of getting the rod bolts loose.
I had to rig up a piece of angle iron to mount the crankcase in the vise and clamp
the dangling rod / piston to the angle iron so every thing was “steady”.
Got the biggest screwdriver I had and it was impossible to get a good grip
on the rod bolt. Got the torch out and heated the rod around the bolt up.
Took several tries as the screw driver kept slipping. Finally got one loose
and moved on to the 2nd and 3rd with no luck.
Decided the pistons “had to go”…… got tired of them flopping around and
afraid of breaking them. Spent the next hour making a wood piston anvil.
Not having a 2-3/4” hole saw, radial arm saw, hammer and chisel had to suffice.
Not being sure in which direction to knock the wrist pins out, I taped on the
solid ends, and they came out with relative ease.
Life was much easier with the piston removed.
I got the smart idea to remove the one loosed connecting rod bolt and
checked the fit in my screw driver. The screw driver was only going down
in the slot about half way….. no wonder it was slipping. Some custom
fitting of the screw driver on the belt sander soon fixed that.
I still needed to use the torch on each rod bolt, but they are all loose now.
Decided to take a break and let things “cool off” before I tackled removing
the rods, and all those loose roller bearings. Bet they’re going to be fun
getting back together.
I mentioned in a prior post that my connecting rod oil holes were pointing
down, not “up” as Frank suggested. Wasn’t quite true. Only one
was pointing down, the other “up”. Turns out both rods are
the same part number, with an offset piston pin boss and with the
oil hole for the wrist pin drilled the same.
Funny thing is, I believe the parts list only shows one part number
for the connecting rod. Can anyone verify that? My list is very
hard to read.
Garry, I have not researched the availability of piston rings yet, but pretty
sure I measured the pistons at 2-3/4″, not 2-1/2″, when I made the
wood anvil.
More later!
Prepare to be boarded!