John S's Journal

A few more things got done in the last day or so. After getting a few more brackets cleaned and painted, the motor mounts went on as did the alternator which were the last items that I wanted to install before getting the engine off the stand and back on the ground. I called around a couple more machine shops just to see if there was a chance that one of them would be reasonable to lighten the flywheel as the shop that surfaced it quoted me a price that I couldn’t justify. What I learned is that if I wanted a lightened flywheel, I should just buy a Fidanza so I just mounted the one that was surfaced and ready to go.

Next up was the job of removing the old spigot bush. I searched the archives and saw a few methods. I don’t have a puller so that’s out. I knew about packing it with grease but that seemed messy and I didn’t have a wood dowel anywhere close to the right diameter so I settled on trying to pack it with bread. This seemed like it would work and it probably would have if the old bush wasn’t seized. I had to get the reciprocating saw out and cut some grooves most of the way through and then hammer and chisel that sucker out of there. What a PITA! It took way longer than I thought and much more effort than I read about. Lucky me. It’s out, the bore is all cleaned up and the new bush is soaking in some Marvel Mystery oil in an old pill bottle. That was yesterday. Hoping the new one will not put up a fight going in. An impact socket just a tad smaller than the OD of the bush, a persuader, and some tapping is the plan. I’ll find out later today.

Well, after running a bunch of errands and getting a 3 mile walk in, I managed to get some work done. The spigot bush was soaking in MMO overnight so a quick stint in the freezer for good measure and then I tapped it in with an impact socket with 3/8” extension so I could hold it and hit it with my old knock off hammer and not smash any digits. Went in a helluva lot easier than the old one came out. After that, I got the Exedy friction disc and B&B heavy duty pressure plate on and ready for the gearbox. The blue label OD had been seeping some oil around the solenoid cover so I drained the oil that I had been using to bench test it and set about soldering a short piece of wire with a bullet connector on to the solenoid wire. It came with a dodgy looking wire connector so I wanted to clean that up with some solder and heat shrink tubing. Cleaned up the bore and reinstalled the solenoid with some Ultra Black sealant on the gasket. Hopefully that will take care of any leaks. Also did some more cleaning up on the exterior of the gearbox so it’s all ready to go back on the engine. Tomorrow.