| #1 |
Now that it's fixed - hopefully for a loooong time - I figured why not post about the fun I had with fixing the car after the auxiliary shaft/distributor gear failures. This'll probably be a long post... because that's just how I roll. FYI - If you want to see any of the images at full-size, just right click on them and select "Open image in new tab (or window)".
It all started on my way home from work. Crawling along in traffic as usual, when all of the sudden I hit the gas and nothing happened. I look at the dash and was like, "Oh hell, engine ain't running"! Tried to start it back up and nothing. Turned over like normal, but never even tried to start. Fortunately I was still coasting so I coasted as far as I could and pulled off to the side of the road. Of course, two more miles and I would have been at the rest area, but couldn't get that far. So I spent the next three hours on the side of the road diagnosing/waiting for a tow.
[Image: rzHQ69I.jpg]
Finally figured out it was the dizzy gear when I removed the cap and could turn the rotor by hand. :headbang:
So 17 miles and $126 later the car was back home (And I now have AAA). Pushed it into the garage and got to work. It spent the next almost two months in there.
[Image: 74QnhOX.jpg]
So why did the repair take so long? Several reasons. First of all, I had just recently put a new SPEC clutch in the car and put new tires on my wife's car so my budget took a nose-dive. Second, when it's cold outside my motivation to work in the garage drops to near zero. Third, I had a difficult time finding parts. And fourth, I kept coming up with other stuff to do to the car besides actually fixing the problem.
I started ordering parts right away, though. Finding a new aux. shaft was less than easy since they are no longer available. I could have bought a used set of gears, but I really wanted to put new parts in. I found an NOS aux. shaft from a TF member and got a new distributor gear from Rock Auto. Of course Esslinger carries a billet aux. shaft and bronze distributor gear, but A) that was not within the allowable budget, and B) I didn't want the bronze gear - I wanted a steel gear.
I really didn't feel like doing engine disassembly right away so before I even started actually doing anything to fix the car I swapped my hood hinges to a set of '87-'88 hinges I got at Carlisle earlier in the year. I'll tell ya - it's WONDERFUL not having to deal with a prop rod anymore!
So anyways, after I ordered the parts I worked out the game plan. My plan was simple - raise the engine and block it up, clean all of the debris out of the oil pan, replace the crank seal that has been leaking for a few years, put in the new parts, and get on down the road. I knew a few people have been able to get the oil pan off without having to remove the engine from the car so that fell within my plans. Well that didn't work out at all.
I got my engine blocked up with my fancy engine blocks:
[Image: m8r2pkg.jpg]
You can also see in the above photo why I needed to replace the crank seal. Everything towards the front of the motor has been covered in filth that was being flung all over the place by the crank pulley. It's not pretty...
Next I dropped the oil pan... and spent quite a while trying to figure out just how in the hell I could possible remove it all the way with the motor in the car. My conclusion - it's freakin' impossible... for me at least. This is about all I could see with the pan dropped down:
[Image: vLZyfCi.jpg]
In order to get the pan off, the oil pump has to come out. In order to get the oil pump off, I'd have to remove the two bolts that attach it to the block, two bolts that attach the pickup tube to the pump, and the nut that secures the pickup tube to one of the bearing caps. Of all these, the only bolt I could get out was the front one that bolts the pump to the block. It was at that point that the game plan changed. But since I was pissed off I took a break from the oil pan and turned my attention to the crank seal for a while.
Well I got the crank pulley off without issue, but I could not for the life of me get the God forsaken timing sprocket off the crank! It was as if the two were welded together. So I sought advice of those smarter than I and was told by someone whose advice I trust to crack the sprocket with a cold chisel. Fortunately I had another timing sprocket so I no longer cared what happened to the one that came off. So I went and bought a cold chisel and a 4-lb. hammer and went to work. I whacked the crap out of it and I didn't think it was working because I never noticed the sprocket actually crack at any point. I put a nice dent in the front of it and chipped off the front of one of the teeth, but never was it obvious that the thing actually cracked. So I gave up for the day. The next day I decided to try wedging a couple of screwdrivers behind the sprocket again to try and force it off. Well... I started sticking one in behind the sprocket and the damn thing slid right off. Lesson to be taken - Just because you don't think something has happened doesn't mean that it hasn't, so it's best to check before forming a conclusion...
Great! so the sprocket was out and work could progress. I bought a crank seal alignment tool from RDOG so I could make sure the thing was lined up properly. When I initially put this engine together I just eyeballed it. Lesson to be taken from this - Don't eyeball it!
So I used a lot of simple green, cleaned everything up,put in the new crank seal, and called it a day. Here's a photo of the lower engine cover going on with the alignment tool:
[Image: b8WZU3c.jpg]
You see the aluminum foil in the above photo. That was to keep more debris from going in to the oil pan as I was working on the crank seal.
At this point I had my new parts. NOS aux. shaft, new steel dizzy gear, aux. shaft gasket & seal, New timing belt, and oil pan gasket. I stuck the new shaft in the motor and buttoned that part up. At that point, this is where I was at:
[Image: QiL7UvM.jpg]
Things were progressing nicely. I pressed off the old distributor gear, cleaned up the dizzy really good, went to put it back together, expecting to have to press on the new dizzy gear, but the new gear just slid right on. I was not happy about that. That means all the stress from turning the distributor and oil pump was going to placed solely on the little steel roll pin that holds the gear on. So I asked around and ordered a new gear, but the new one was just as loose. So I went on a search for a different brand of steel distributor gear in the hopes that I could find one that fit tight on the shaft. That never happened. Eventually I just gave up and put one of the new ones on and decided to hope for the best, There's really nothing else that could be done.
Now back to getting the junk out of the pan. Instead of removing the pan, I had to get everything out of there that I could from outside. This involved a gallon of kerosene (Thanks for that suggestion, Jeff) and a couple different types of magnetic retrieval tools. I spent a significant amount of time on this. I went it from every angle possible and eventually no metal particles were showing up on the magnets. I seriously was working on it for a good three hours, spread out over a few days. After it was all cleaned up I put on the new gasket and bolted it back up. I did have a hell of a time trying to get the new gasket in place at first, but then I realized that I forgot to remove the oil level sensor. Once that was out it became much easier.
So at this time I was really all ready to put everything back together and get 'er back on the road. But I thought a couple of things to myself... First - I've been wanting an MC Machine timing pointer for a while. I've already got it torn down this far so why would I want to re-attach the rear timing cover only to have to remove it again? And second - now's a good time to spruce up the pulleys. So I went to order a timing pointer... Out of Stock. Damn! Sent an email and was told they would be back in stock in a week or so. So I said put me on the notification list!
While I was waiting I painted up my pulleys and a couple misc. parts:
[Image: rGvHbsC.jpg]
[Image: ssDAzU3.jpg]
The crank pulley turned out especially nice, IMO. A lot of time was spent with the wire wheel on this!
I also wanted to get the engine going so I modified the rear timing cover so that I could get it back off without having to take everything else off as well. Well I got it all put back together. Filled it with oil, put on a new filter, used a drill to run the oil pump for a few minutes, drained the oil, put on a new filter, filled with new oil again, ran the pump with the drill for like 10 minutes, turned the key on to make sure I was building good oil pressure, drained the oil, put on another new filter, filled with Valvoline VR1 Racing Oil (high zinc content), and FINALLY, in late-December I got to hear the car run again! 'twas a joyous occasion! :rockin:
[Image: DEfitkB.jpg]
^^^Can you spot the drill?
[Image: jPbHrUK.jpg]
^^^The oil I'm using from now on. You can also see what I did to the old crank timing sprocket in this photo.
Much to my surprise, I both got the new timing belt on correctly the first time and got the distributor back in almost perfect. Started right up on the first try and initial timing was at 4-degrees ATDC. Adjusted it to 10-degrees BTDC, shut it off, put the SPOUT pill back in, started it back up, and let it run for a while. Sounded really good.
Soon after this my new timing pointer arrived. For those unfamiliar with it, this is what it looks like:
[Image: Av2oGy9.jpg]
It's a very nice, very well made piece and it's adjustable.
Slapped that sucker on and took it out for a drive. Though short, it was one of the best drives I've taken in the car in a while. This was on December 28th. Here's the new pointer on the car:
[Image: 9yWzBi6.jpg]
[Image: m01GrO1.jpg]
And some video from the first time the car saw daylight in almost two months.
[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odhkkXl4H_A&feature=youtu.be[/video]
Annnd my engine compartment went from this:
[Image: gIanXqP.jpg]
to this:
[Image: QyTNmoC.jpg]
No it's not a huge difference, but it's a heluva lot better than it was in my eyes...
And I'll end with a random shot of the car.
[Image: BDWrRwg.jpg]
Well actually I think this was the day I took it out of the garage the first time so it's still relevant.
It all started on my way home from work. Crawling along in traffic as usual, when all of the sudden I hit the gas and nothing happened. I look at the dash and was like, "Oh hell, engine ain't running"! Tried to start it back up and nothing. Turned over like normal, but never even tried to start. Fortunately I was still coasting so I coasted as far as I could and pulled off to the side of the road. Of course, two more miles and I would have been at the rest area, but couldn't get that far. So I spent the next three hours on the side of the road diagnosing/waiting for a tow.
[Image: rzHQ69I.jpg]
Finally figured out it was the dizzy gear when I removed the cap and could turn the rotor by hand. :headbang:
So 17 miles and $126 later the car was back home (And I now have AAA). Pushed it into the garage and got to work. It spent the next almost two months in there.
[Image: 74QnhOX.jpg]
So why did the repair take so long? Several reasons. First of all, I had just recently put a new SPEC clutch in the car and put new tires on my wife's car so my budget took a nose-dive. Second, when it's cold outside my motivation to work in the garage drops to near zero. Third, I had a difficult time finding parts. And fourth, I kept coming up with other stuff to do to the car besides actually fixing the problem.
I started ordering parts right away, though. Finding a new aux. shaft was less than easy since they are no longer available. I could have bought a used set of gears, but I really wanted to put new parts in. I found an NOS aux. shaft from a TF member and got a new distributor gear from Rock Auto. Of course Esslinger carries a billet aux. shaft and bronze distributor gear, but A) that was not within the allowable budget, and B) I didn't want the bronze gear - I wanted a steel gear.
I really didn't feel like doing engine disassembly right away so before I even started actually doing anything to fix the car I swapped my hood hinges to a set of '87-'88 hinges I got at Carlisle earlier in the year. I'll tell ya - it's WONDERFUL not having to deal with a prop rod anymore!
So anyways, after I ordered the parts I worked out the game plan. My plan was simple - raise the engine and block it up, clean all of the debris out of the oil pan, replace the crank seal that has been leaking for a few years, put in the new parts, and get on down the road. I knew a few people have been able to get the oil pan off without having to remove the engine from the car so that fell within my plans. Well that didn't work out at all.
I got my engine blocked up with my fancy engine blocks:
[Image: m8r2pkg.jpg]
You can also see in the above photo why I needed to replace the crank seal. Everything towards the front of the motor has been covered in filth that was being flung all over the place by the crank pulley. It's not pretty...
Next I dropped the oil pan... and spent quite a while trying to figure out just how in the hell I could possible remove it all the way with the motor in the car. My conclusion - it's freakin' impossible... for me at least. This is about all I could see with the pan dropped down:
[Image: vLZyfCi.jpg]
In order to get the pan off, the oil pump has to come out. In order to get the oil pump off, I'd have to remove the two bolts that attach it to the block, two bolts that attach the pickup tube to the pump, and the nut that secures the pickup tube to one of the bearing caps. Of all these, the only bolt I could get out was the front one that bolts the pump to the block. It was at that point that the game plan changed. But since I was pissed off I took a break from the oil pan and turned my attention to the crank seal for a while.
Well I got the crank pulley off without issue, but I could not for the life of me get the God forsaken timing sprocket off the crank! It was as if the two were welded together. So I sought advice of those smarter than I and was told by someone whose advice I trust to crack the sprocket with a cold chisel. Fortunately I had another timing sprocket so I no longer cared what happened to the one that came off. So I went and bought a cold chisel and a 4-lb. hammer and went to work. I whacked the crap out of it and I didn't think it was working because I never noticed the sprocket actually crack at any point. I put a nice dent in the front of it and chipped off the front of one of the teeth, but never was it obvious that the thing actually cracked. So I gave up for the day. The next day I decided to try wedging a couple of screwdrivers behind the sprocket again to try and force it off. Well... I started sticking one in behind the sprocket and the damn thing slid right off. Lesson to be taken - Just because you don't think something has happened doesn't mean that it hasn't, so it's best to check before forming a conclusion...
Great! so the sprocket was out and work could progress. I bought a crank seal alignment tool from RDOG so I could make sure the thing was lined up properly. When I initially put this engine together I just eyeballed it. Lesson to be taken from this - Don't eyeball it!
So I used a lot of simple green, cleaned everything up,put in the new crank seal, and called it a day. Here's a photo of the lower engine cover going on with the alignment tool:
[Image: b8WZU3c.jpg]
You see the aluminum foil in the above photo. That was to keep more debris from going in to the oil pan as I was working on the crank seal.
At this point I had my new parts. NOS aux. shaft, new steel dizzy gear, aux. shaft gasket & seal, New timing belt, and oil pan gasket. I stuck the new shaft in the motor and buttoned that part up. At that point, this is where I was at:
[Image: QiL7UvM.jpg]
Things were progressing nicely. I pressed off the old distributor gear, cleaned up the dizzy really good, went to put it back together, expecting to have to press on the new dizzy gear, but the new gear just slid right on. I was not happy about that. That means all the stress from turning the distributor and oil pump was going to placed solely on the little steel roll pin that holds the gear on. So I asked around and ordered a new gear, but the new one was just as loose. So I went on a search for a different brand of steel distributor gear in the hopes that I could find one that fit tight on the shaft. That never happened. Eventually I just gave up and put one of the new ones on and decided to hope for the best, There's really nothing else that could be done.
Now back to getting the junk out of the pan. Instead of removing the pan, I had to get everything out of there that I could from outside. This involved a gallon of kerosene (Thanks for that suggestion, Jeff) and a couple different types of magnetic retrieval tools. I spent a significant amount of time on this. I went it from every angle possible and eventually no metal particles were showing up on the magnets. I seriously was working on it for a good three hours, spread out over a few days. After it was all cleaned up I put on the new gasket and bolted it back up. I did have a hell of a time trying to get the new gasket in place at first, but then I realized that I forgot to remove the oil level sensor. Once that was out it became much easier.
So at this time I was really all ready to put everything back together and get 'er back on the road. But I thought a couple of things to myself... First - I've been wanting an MC Machine timing pointer for a while. I've already got it torn down this far so why would I want to re-attach the rear timing cover only to have to remove it again? And second - now's a good time to spruce up the pulleys. So I went to order a timing pointer... Out of Stock. Damn! Sent an email and was told they would be back in stock in a week or so. So I said put me on the notification list!
While I was waiting I painted up my pulleys and a couple misc. parts:
[Image: rGvHbsC.jpg]
[Image: ssDAzU3.jpg]
The crank pulley turned out especially nice, IMO. A lot of time was spent with the wire wheel on this!
I also wanted to get the engine going so I modified the rear timing cover so that I could get it back off without having to take everything else off as well. Well I got it all put back together. Filled it with oil, put on a new filter, used a drill to run the oil pump for a few minutes, drained the oil, put on a new filter, filled with new oil again, ran the pump with the drill for like 10 minutes, turned the key on to make sure I was building good oil pressure, drained the oil, put on another new filter, filled with Valvoline VR1 Racing Oil (high zinc content), and FINALLY, in late-December I got to hear the car run again! 'twas a joyous occasion! :rockin:
[Image: DEfitkB.jpg]
^^^Can you spot the drill?
[Image: jPbHrUK.jpg]
^^^The oil I'm using from now on. You can also see what I did to the old crank timing sprocket in this photo.
Much to my surprise, I both got the new timing belt on correctly the first time and got the distributor back in almost perfect. Started right up on the first try and initial timing was at 4-degrees ATDC. Adjusted it to 10-degrees BTDC, shut it off, put the SPOUT pill back in, started it back up, and let it run for a while. Sounded really good.
Soon after this my new timing pointer arrived. For those unfamiliar with it, this is what it looks like:
[Image: Av2oGy9.jpg]
It's a very nice, very well made piece and it's adjustable.
Slapped that sucker on and took it out for a drive. Though short, it was one of the best drives I've taken in the car in a while. This was on December 28th. Here's the new pointer on the car:
[Image: 9yWzBi6.jpg]
[Image: m01GrO1.jpg]
And some video from the first time the car saw daylight in almost two months.
[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odhkkXl4H_A&feature=youtu.be[/video]
Annnd my engine compartment went from this:
[Image: gIanXqP.jpg]
to this:
[Image: QyTNmoC.jpg]
No it's not a huge difference, but it's a heluva lot better than it was in my eyes...
And I'll end with a random shot of the car.
[Image: BDWrRwg.jpg]
Well actually I think this was the day I took it out of the garage the first time so it's still relevant.
Brian Leavitt
'86 TC 5-Speed -- MS2x w/COP | 83 lb. injectors | T3/T4 50 Trim Stage 3 .63AR | Full 3" Exhaust - No Cat | Motorsport FMIC | Ranger Roller | Ported E6 | Walbro 255HP | Kirban | 20psi | 120-amp 3G | 8.8" 3.55 rear | '03 Cobra Wheels
'86 TC 5-Speed -- MS2x w/COP | 83 lb. injectors | T3/T4 50 Trim Stage 3 .63AR | Full 3" Exhaust - No Cat | Motorsport FMIC | Ranger Roller | Ported E6 | Walbro 255HP | Kirban | 20psi | 120-amp 3G | 8.8" 3.55 rear | '03 Cobra Wheels
Walmart has it for $20 a gallon where I live. Its $5 cheaper than Auto parts stores.