Today started out ok. Went to NAPA to pick up the valve stem seals for the Stude and low and behold, he found the freeze plugs for the 345 too. Nice.
Brian T. stopped by this afternoon to borrow the engine crane to move his space 304 out of his Dad's garage. That went off without a hitch. He even brought his enclosed trailer, so no worries about it getting soaked.
Then after work, I decided to tackle the transmission pump seal and bushing replacement. Mike Mayben makes it looks so easy. I didn't have a hook tool that was small enough to get around the seal to pop it out. After much trial and tribulation, I ended up bending the flange out enough to squeeze in the head of one of my puller tools and popped it out. Fine, that only took 20 minutes. Then for the bushing. Didn't have anything small enough to hook around that to use the slide hammer either. MM says no problem, just use a punch and collapse it in on itself and take it out that way. Well, I still had to get something around behind it to pull the bugger out. Ended up grinding half the head off a nail and using that. Another half an hour gone.
Once out I see that my dinging on the bushing knocked off some little shards. Gotta clean them out so they don't get down in the pump. That was another 15 minutes just trying to get it clean, but now I'm ready to put it back together. Hmmm. Looks like a tight fit, but putting the bushing up to the pump by hand gets it pretty snug. Mind you I am sure that there is an appropriate tool for this, one that I don't have. Tried tapping it around the edges to get it started. No dice. Got 6" pieces of wood to tap opposite sides at the same time. No dice. Put the bushing in the freezer for about 10 minutes to shrink it a bit, then tried again using a piece of exhaust pipe the same diameter to push it in evenly, or so I thought. Got it started, success. Well, until I noticed that the bottom edge had caught on the lip and deformed the bushing. Crap. Time to go back to NAPA and get another one and try again. This is certainly one of those times that having the right tool would make life so much easier.
On the bright side, at least I didn't mangle another finger.
Weekend Update, 11/18
1 day ago
2 comments:
You know what's good at shrinking bushings & bearing races? C02 fire extinguishers. We used one when we rebuilt my friend Wade's D44 front and it made the pinion race go in soooo much easier than any I've done before. (Of course you have to recharge the extinguisher, but it's worth it IMHO.)
Sounds like it's time to hit up the Harbor Freight tool sale for some hooks, picks and driver tools. I don't know if they're part of the big blowout, but keep your eyes peeled. Glad to hear your fingers made it through the last work day unscathed. :)
Before you start counting fingers, read the next post!
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