Likewise, back in “The Day”, we had a micrometer and a file. The mic to check out-of-round of the crankpin and the file to adjust the clearance. If there ever were any printed specs for those bronze rods, I never saw them. Consequently, on my first repair job on an engine with a bronze rod (a Jacobson, as I remember), I filed the rod cap down to where it felt about right. Well that wasn’t right because it ran just a couple of minutes or less before it seized up. So, now I had to shim it back to where it felt “loose”. Nope, still seized up. More shimming. End of story is those bronze rods have to be astonishingly loose, even to the point of knocking a bit. Live and learn.
