After the tires were squared away, we pulled the truck over to the mechanic slab. It was not goign to be in the way for long, I was goign to drive it that week.
https://twoheelers.tumblr.com/post/157760237009/she-is-officially-on-the-shade-tree-mechanic-slabI referenced the hard copy I had printed of the dead engine tech tip on this site
http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/engines/Dead%20Engine%20Start/index.htmland pulled the plugs
https://twoheelers.tumblr.com/post/157821645389/1-6They all looked pretty good, maybe a little rust on number 2. Motor oil on the dipstick was a healthy shade of black. Poured some Mystery Marvel oil in the cylinder, waited 2 days and tried to spin the motor. No luck. I made sure the fan and power steering pump were not frozen. I crawled under the truck and pried on the flywheel with a pry-bar, not even a budge. Grandpa wanted to drag it around with the loader while in gear. As a compromise, we bypassed all the electrical checks on the tech guide, and tried the starter. It could not spin either. I put in more MMO to soak, and hit up the forum about loader pulling. The general advice I got here was to not do it. I did learn about Kroil, and immediately ordered some. Other tips were interesting, and I also ordered a scope camera per forum advice.
Couple of days passed and this happened:
So, I pens downed at the end of the end of my work day, put on the dirty clothes, and went out to the truck. Pulled all the plugs, checked 5 times that it was not in gear, and crawled back under with the tire iron. Despite the computer job, I am fairly strong, and have been known to break or bend all kinds of leverage tools. I pulled as hard as I could, nothing, like a rock. Moved to the other side, same. Rinse lather repeat for about 15 minutes. Finally, on one heave, the tip of the pry bar snapped off...... but, was it my imagination, or did the flywheel move 1/32 of an inch? NOw my mind was playing tricks with me, it felt like it was moving fractionally, but it could have been the tip of the pry bar bending, and besides, the whole truck was rocking on the frame. Good thing the flywheel teeth are strong. Another 15-30 minutes of that, and I finally had verifiable movement, a good solid 1/4" for sure. Back and forth, bit by bit, the teeth would move. After an hour, I was rotating more than 180 degrees before it would bind up and I would go back the other way. By the time the sun went down, and my muscles flagged out on me, I had nearly 270 degrees of rotation, no skin on my knuckles, a much shorter tire iron, and pretty good movement in the middle of the arc. I put more MMO in the cylinders, because the Kroil is on order, finger screwed the plugs back in, picked up my tools, and proceeded to drink whiskey with Grandpa. Of course the whole time I was under the truck, he is walking by the slab yelling "fire in the hole!, lets light this baby up" Tomorrow I have to skip mechanicing, so I am hoping the extra day of soaking will net me a full engine turn by Thursday sundown.
Lots more good advice on the forum. Few more days then this happened:
Saturday morning I crawled under to rotate the engine some more. Back and forth a few times through the 270 degrees until I wedged it again. Being an impatient bastard, I got a bigger lever. This was a manual tire changing lever for the old torturous tire machine in the front yard, it has a weird 90 on one end. If you turn the tires all the way to one side, and put it over the leaf spring, and invert the 90 up into the flywheel housing. There is just enough arm movement to rotate one tooth. I found this afterwards. Initially, no movement. I strained hard enough to destroy the ligaments in both shoulders, bend the corner of the flywheel tooth, and flex the bell housing enough to move the motor mount around in it's bracket. The motor moved. One tooth. I did this for an arc of about 30 degrees, one tooth at a time, until the chalk mark I put on the flywheel went around the 360 mark. I torqued on the otherside to straighten out the teeth on the flywheel, time will tell if I ruined it or not, but I think it will still line up with the starter. After I laid under the truck, rotating the motor one tooth at a time, for as many rotations as I could before my arms stopped working. It moves nice and smooth in some areas, still tight in others. I re-applied MMO, put the plugs back in, and commenced to drinking.
This morning (Sunday), I was sup before the chickens, under the truck, rotating the motor (yes I pulled the plugs). Still tight in areas, but it will spin with the bar all the way around. I cannot spin it by hand yet. My shoulders made me stop after an hour, so I made up more chores. I drained the oil, and it turns out that the white milky watery oil was blow the dipstick, so I did not see it. A little clump plopped out, but then it was mostly oil. I came in just now to print up the page about the oil filter, so I can change that as well. I am going to pull the valve cover gasket, pour new oil on, disconnect the fuel pump, and maybe see if I can get the starter to turn the engine for me.
The whole project too a new exciting turn when I pulled the valve cover:
https://twoheelers.tumblr.com/post/158169430249/small-setbackJust a little bit of rust. No one can really figure out where it came from. Truck sat with the hood on and plugs in. Condensation is the working theory, although I think the lower radiator hose may have failed from rot, and the gaskets leaked water in. The radiator was down to the block level of water.
Anyway, I cleaned the rocker arms:
https://twoheelers.tumblr.com/post/158170147549/after-i-cleaned-them-they-are-soaking-in-kroilmore good advice on the forum, and I got around to pulling the push rod cover and oil pan.
https://twoheelers.tumblr.com/post/158296855274/the-motor-on-the-59-may-need-more-work-than-iThe motor was full of rust. A bit depressing. General consensus on the forum and around these parts was that it would make nifty boat anchor.
I decided that in spite of that, an attempt to clean it up would help me become more intimately aware of the inner workings of the motor, so I set myself up with some dental hygienist tools, and went to work. I'll post about that in the next journal entry.
