It begins! (project thread)

The crane has come! We were slightly worried about there being lots of missing bits but it just turned out that the parts list on the Chinese instructions was complete gibberish!
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Its not bad for £120, shame I wasn't close enough to pick it up. They are only £80 then. But such is life!
 
thats the same as my crane, the instructions are fun arent they! i assembled it to find i used the wrong bolts on the wheels and the legs wouldnt fit, then the pins in the legs wouldnt fit, i needed to ream out the holes.
 
We managed to get the engine lifted out this weekend. It was a bit worrying but fairly straight forward in the end.
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Now I've got to tidy up all this rubbish.
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The clutch which is responsible for all this messing about. Interestingly the release bearing doesn't look all that worn. So I've got some research to do to find out exactly what's wrong with it. Might be some wear in the fork or its mountings. We shall see!
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Unfortunately we couldn't get get it in the engine stand. The bolts that hold the flywheel on were done up by the incredible hulk and they have irritatingly shallow heads. The locktabs are quite damaged as well which didn't make it any easier. I'll have some fun getting this off. I've got an awful lot of degreasing to do now.
 
Sharp hits with a clubhammer on the end of the ratchet normally shifts mine and the inertia in the flywheel is enough to get them cracked so you can undo them. What was the clutch doing then?
 
Can't use a spanner, they've hidden them down a hole! Swines! If I could get the socket to stay on I could use the impact wrench but it doesn't and I really really don't want to round the heads off! I'm hesitant to start hitting the ratchets too, could beat hell out of a breaker bar though :)

The clutch was grinding a bit when it got warm especially in traffic. It was getting worse as time went on so I guessed I'd killed the bearing, but perhaps not. SOMETHING was definitely grinding when I put my foot on the clutch though.
 
The clutch was grinding a bit when it got warm especially in traffic. It was getting worse as time went on so I guessed I'd killed the bearing, but perhaps not. SOMETHING was definitely grinding when I put my foot on the clutch though.

Have you checked the crankshaft end float?
 
Have you checked the crankshaft end float?
nope BUT i've just found this from your suggestion
http://www.britishcarweek.org/tr6_1.html

Which sounds exactly what I've got, perhaps more interestingly than that I have slight damage on one side of the flywheel teeth. I presumed this would be from someone using the starter while its already running but it might be an untoward amount of play. Unfortunately if this is the thrust washers it could be game over by the sound of that link. Fun fun!
 
Thrust washers arent the end of it, dont worry often little damage is done to the engine although prob need some new big ends, but thats not major.
Re: that link soloution is horrific, bolt the thrust washers in, emmm.. nah your ok.
 
They used some counter sunk machine screws...looks a bit....um...odd.

I guess its been damaging the block longer than its been grinding for so it may have been a while. It really depends how far its machined through the block. By the sounds of it (albeit that's a different engine) the fly wheel doesn't start hitting things until after you've lost a bit of material from somewhere or other. The sumps coming off anyway so I can have a look.
 
Finally managed to get those damnable flywheel bolts off. I got a socket and lathed off the end so I could get some purchase on the heads. A bit of tighteny looseny at 9 bar started them moving. Its on the stand now but I really don't trust the bolts yet so its still in the sling on the crane too. I've only managed 1 m10 and 4 m8 and its all threaded bar rather than bolts. I think I need to find some high tensile ones.

Didn't get a great deal done this weekend appart from that though.
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I think this impeller has had it though. You can see the damage to what I presume to be the leading edge. It may have attempted to pump steel at some point. Unfortunately what I believe to be a nut holding it on is quite firmly round so I might need a whole new pump.
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This is a look through where the water pump used to be, I'm not sure it its supposed to look like that. Its a bit ugly.

My next entertainment is to try and build myself a parts washer. I'm off to the scrap yard at some point this week to try and find a suitable fuel pump. I think a small metal drum of some kind and some old tshirts as filters would do the job :) Ah the joy of cars!
 
I'm thinking diesel, although it may be a touch stinky. If not I might have to get some real stuff. This engine really is encrusted with crap. It took about 10 cans of carb cleaner to do the carbs which weren't as bad as the engine is. I was fairly high that day. I'm going to need a fairly phenomenal amount of degreaser just for the engine bay!

I read a top tip the other day. If your cleaning fluid is lighter than water (diesel for instance) fill the bottom of your reservoir with water and then all the crap will drop out of the diesel into the water making it muck, but leaving the diesel cleaner. Dunno if it works but its worth a go!
 
Diesel is uber stinky, and not a particularly good degreaser. In fact it makes things quite greasy :D

Paraffin is better and probably cheaper, or you could use proper chemical parts cleaner that is not hydrocarbon based. I use gun wash (essentially cellulose thinners) for really stubborn grunge. In either case not a good idea to have your hands in it for any length of time, so invest in some disposable nitrile gloves (latex ones dissolve in hydrocarbons!).
 
Try and get yourself some marine clean, i used it to clean up my engine block and it worked a treat. Smaller parts like carbs etc i use an industrial ultrasonic cleaner heated to 70 degrees c and sea clean (non abrasive made from seawead) awesome some clears oil rust and most paints off parts.

marine clean took my block from this
http://www.mattinglis.com/upload/DSC00344.JPG


to this (it also had a major skim and bore hence the shiny bits)
http://www.mattinglis.com/upload/DSC00361.JPG

Gloves are a good tip my hands are destroyed after heavy degreasing and assembly lube yesterday.

alternative which is quick and easy is to get the block acid dipped, only 40 quid from many a machine shop and it will clean up all that rust inside the block nicely and free up your waterways, all that rust must clog up the waterways badly.
 
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I would think the rust is a minor issue ;) I am expecting a certain amount of cloggage!

Hmm, I'll think about an acid dip, depends how far I'm going to strip this thing down, which depends on how broken it is.

Where did you get the marine clean from. I can only find it in one place. From having a look at that rust stuff thread i think a parts washer to degrease everything and a bucket of that deox-c stuff might be a good idea! Saves me building a blast cabinet anyway which can only be a good think as I don't have room for a blast cabinet!
 
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