My air compressor motor burned out so I am temporarily out of business with the sand-blaster. Unfortunately it stopped half way through the left hand rear leaf spring. The right side however is mounted and the bolts are all snugged up. They don't get tightened up for good until the full weight of the car is on them. It is so wonderful to see something reattached to the frame. We are starting to go in the right direction. Tomorrow the rear axle gets fluids and grease. I don't remember if it was said earlier, but all bearings and seals have been replaced. Lash and end float are good. And it is clean and shiny.


On with other news, the block went to the machine shop today to be hot tanked, then magna-fluxed and then pressurized to check porosity. The engine was setting for so long with water in it that before a bundle is spent on it, I want to make certain that there isn't something hiding that will cause headaches later. Also the front brake drums were getting turned, the right stub axle was getting pushed out (that was the one that was burnt), and the idler arm of the steering box was getting pulled off so disassembly of could start. The machinist confirmed my fears that the crankshaft was not restorable. I will need to find the lower end from a later car. I'm told that the rods from XJ-6's will fit. I don't know if the crank will as well.

Rear axle assembly

I was able to finally get the wheel lug studs mounted into the half shaft of the axle, so I was then able to finish assembly of the axle itself. Everything went back together well. End float is at 0.003, exactly where it should be. Contrary to what I found here initially, the shims on each side are balanced now, the leaf spring mounts are recentered, and the leaf spring itself has been repaired. When the leaf was apart, all individual leafs were cleaned, painted, then greased. So exciting.

More pistons

Some close-ups of pistons and rods. Notice the rusting. Also the pistons have been knurled. This is done to stop piston slap when reringing an engine and this also probably indicates that the engine has been rebuilt at least twice. The first rebuild would have replaced the pistons with these which are higher comnpression and 0.030 overbore. When the engine got tired after that, a cheap rebuild was performed where the pistons are not replaced again, but rather they are knurled which makes the metal expand, then remachined to remove the sharp edges and reproduce the proper overall shape. Everything shown here is throw-away.

Rods and Pistons

My follower recently complained that I was not doing an adequate job of blogging of late. So, Peter, here's some photos of some really nasty rods and pistons. The engine was seized up and after great quantities of WD-40, I was able to tap the pistons out of the block. Numbers 3 and 4 were particularly stuck and finally came out several days after the others. Nasty. Two of the pistons are of a different manufacturer than the other four and none are original. The standard 8 to 1 compression pistons have a small dome shape in the center of the top and it does not reach the edges. These are apparently a higher compression ratio since the entire dome is spread across the entire top and shows relief areas for the valves.




















It is probably hard to see here, but the number 3 and 4 rods themselves are corroded and pitted. Both pistons and rods will need to be replaced as a set.

The painted frame

The frame returned all pretty and black. I had it shot with a self-etching primer, then an epoxy primer, and then a single stage urethane gloss black finish coat. Originally, this would all be done in a flat black, but I couldn't resist the shiny appearance. It will likely get flat and dull soon enough.

Oil pan and a couple of the old girls

You can't see here but the pan is hairline cracked in three places. Off to the welder again.

Even more crankshaft

What a nasty looking lump of metal.










Then a shot of the oil pan cleaned up.