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The overall goal;
Refresh engine, refresh tranny, new clutch, window and door seals and wipes, poly bushings throughout, general fixes like the air pumps for the seat and go through the headlight motors, and paint
Got the druveshaft and c-arm out tonight so tranny can be next.
Toughest part for me is im still recovering from rotator cuff surgery last november. Its like only having one arm and of course it was my right arm that got fixed. I figure this is physical therapy.
Thought i would touch base.
Upon inspection it lookes like the motor is in pretty good shape but some light scuffs in the cylinder walls. My plan is to hone and rering with standard size parts. I will go through the bearings on the lower end with plasti-gauge but i measured crankshaft endplay and am still within spec so at least the thrust bearing isnt completely shot which leads me to believe its still servicable for my needs. The cam lobes seem like new, no appreciable wear but i did find one lifter that the retaining clip is gone for the center cap. If that valve had floated ot the pushrod gotten slack that could have been bad so i feel justified in tearing it down. Top ring ridge is minimal so overall bore wear looks good enough for me. Once i pop out a couple pistons and check ring end gap and ring groove slop i should be be able to make a final determination. I dont want to go to a full rebuild, the car isnt really worth that and all the other work it still needs, there are better ones out there to start with. That and i would bet this car never sees 3,000 miles per year with me. Still need to pull valves but from the bottom nothing sticks out. Hoping guide clearance is in spec so i can just touch them up and replace the seals.
Inside the trans is pretty much what i expected, the syncros are pretty worn and the sliders are loose but all the gears look good and i dont feel any slop in the main shaft or the counter balance shaft. The shift forks are worn though. Once i get the mainshaft disassembled i should know where i am with that. I am positive that this trans and clutch were replaced/rebuilt by zumbrota gear back in 99 as that is the year stamped on the clutch and there was a Zumbrota tag on the top of the case, that explains why the hard parts are still pretty good.
At this point i expect to come out OK on this project. Not building a race car and nothing special about it to warrant a concourse type restore.
Oh yea, found a $10 wedged under the console, WaHooo
Got the block and heads off to the machine shop. Having the valves ground and cam bearings installed (i dont want to buy those tools) but the guides and the bores i think are fine. Th valve seals were TOAST, which i expected.
Now to the tranny, got that all apart and as expected the brass syncros are worn but the input shaft may be toast as well. 4th gear had the worst grind and it looks like the syncro ring (they might call that the blocker?) wore enough to gall the face of the gear. Its pitted with brass and it doesnt seem to want to "polish" off even with a fine file so i expect to replace the input shaft, as well as both slide locks and the shift forks along with the bearings, brass rings, shims, etc. the roller bearings and related counter balance shaft parts are all great but they come in the kit so those will all be new. i suspect the root cause of failure was that it was run low on lube.
Now, on to the OD. I want to attempt to replace the OD clutches etc. again i think it has had minimum maintainance bit i believe it was rebuilt once before. I should probably go all the way to that thrust washer and bearing but i have never been inside one of these before.
Got the block, heads flywheel back today. They look grear from what i can tell. Still wrapped in plastic but can see they look clean. Thats a good first sign.
Thinking of how close we are to being able to 3D print one right in front of us like on Ironman
They are printing metals, but still very expensive
Imagine just being able to print stuff like a bushing set or a specially shaped plastic hose, we can basically do that right now
02-21-2017, 11:02 PM
And so it begins.....
