Jerry,
I want to respond to your question, because today I was out looking at the crank and studying it and taking it apart.
I have a 216 straight 6 in a 1941 sedan.
You are right. At the end of the crankshaft is the timing gear, but that is seperated from the crankshaft by a metal plate. The gears for the crankshaft and camshaft are covered by a timing gear cover, but on the outside of that is the harmonic balancer. So from outside in, it goes balancer, cover, gears, metal plate, then crankshaft.
I took off the first bearing cap today and noticed the shims. The shim which holds the cranshaft from moving front to back is totally ground out except for the remains of the shim on one side. On one side it had two shims in between lower and upper cap. The upper bearing had several deep groves/pits.
I couldnt figure out, however, how to get the crankshaft out of the block. The harmonic balancer will not let me remove the timing cover. I removed all the screws and bolts that hold the plate and cover to the block. Thinking ahead, there still is a problem. Even if I take all of the bearing caps off and remove the crankshaft with the harmonic balancer and plate attached, how will I mark the gears so that it lines up correctly with the camshaft when I put it back together? I cant access the gears with the cover on. And I cannot get the cover off with the harmonic balancer there.
I read the manual, and it looks like there is a special tool to remove the balancer. The manual is helpful in some ways-especially in understanding how it works. Is there another way to get this engines crankshaft out with the balancer and seperating plate?
Judson
