Crank Pulley Removal, Almost.

Tonight we started to remove the crank/drive pulley needed to complete the oil pan removal since we were unable to remove the frame stabilizer bar (broke two ratchets trying with a 6' extender on the end). We quickly found that the fan had to be removed, and undid the 4 bolts that held that pulley in place.

After the fan was out of the way, we were able to turn the crank shaft pulley by hand, about 1/16 of a turn and hear hissing and gurgling from deep inside the engine. This is a good sign, nothing is seized. We put a breaker bar on the center bolt and tried to torque it off, but it would not go. The pulley kept spinning in place. A few google searches turned up some ideas, we tried placing the car in gear. All that did was spin the rear wheel almost completely off the wheel dollie before we noticed what was going on. Tried setting the parking break to hold the rear wheel in place, but it did not do the job. Might need to be tightened up a bit, but we're not ready to start messing with that yet. We tried reaching through the pulley and bracing against the frame with a screwdriver, but that was not strong enough either. The preferred method on the web seems to be to use an impact wrench. We did a bit of research on compressors and impact wrenches, and it looks like we are going to take that route. We could get an electric impact wrench, but we're going to need the compressor anyways, and the pneumatics are better tools. I'll be checking the local pawn shops to see if there are any good deals to be had, and then Harbor Freight if we can't find a good one used.

Carburetor and Valve Cover Removal

We made some good progress this evening. Since we had the video cam charged up and running, we took the carburetor off, and removed the valve cover. Lesson of the night: Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey.

The carburetor needs a bit of cleaning, but seems to be in good shape. There was one odd copper pipe that looked like it re-breathes hot air from the intake manifold back into the carburetor. There was some corrosion on this, but it appears to be just a copper pipe, and a compression fitting. The valve cover cleaned up nicely, and we placed it back over the valves to keep them clean. We have a few seals that will need to be replaced, around the valve cover and the carburetor.

From the looks of the valve springs etc, I'm not sure we are going to tear down the engine much further for cleaning. We'll finish the oil pan, and clean out any gunk in the sump and then hopefully start working on the seals. There will be another days or so work to clean out the carburetor.

Next work day will be removing the drive pulley so that we can complete the removal of the oil pan. Oh, and we built a creeper out of some spare wood, wheels, and cushions we had laying around.