BretwithoneT's '66 Frame Off Resto (1 Viewer)

[BretwithoneT]

I bought this basket case from @mechag a few years ago and have made some progress, so it's time I start a thread. I have learned a bunch from lurking here for many years and since I've received so much help from so many already, I hope I can give a little back.

Here's the history I know:

The first owner used the rig to take his boat from somewhere in Arizona down to fish somewhere down in Mexico and over the first 20 years, put about 64,000 miles on it. It then went to the 2nd owner in Phoenix and sat for 15 years until he put up this ad.

@mechag bought it from him and started on a resto. Cut to 11 years later and after numerous hints, suggestions, pleas, begging, groveling, etc. he agreed to sell it to me. This is the day I fell in love with her

And here's a pic on of the Olde North State Cruiser club members shot of me bringing her home

Between raising two girls to teenagers and working out of town, work on her was very slow, but I got her almost completely disassembled and have found that I have most of everything she came with.

Here's the plan: Restore everything that can be restored to get her as close to OEM as possible. I've been drooling over @onesprung60's build and hope to get very close to that except with the original F instead of the 2F upgrade. The F looks pretty good, the only thing I've seen out of place was 2 pushrods not under their lifters, but they weren't bent. My mechanical experience to date is just regular maintenance, brake drum, rotor and caliper changes, and the clutch on my FJ60, so wish me luck.

 

[Franz]

Good luck! It's a ton of work and it can easily overwhelm you. I just got mine back on the road again and though it still needs a lot of work, I have decided to just enjoy driving it for a while. It's got to be fun too!

 

[Tojo64]

I too have the one "t" spelling. It seems to be a running joke at work as I receive emails addressed to "Bretttt" quite often.

Good luck on your build!

 

[BretwithoneT]

Good luck! It's a ton of work and it can easily overwhelm you. I just got mine back on the road again and though it still needs a lot of work, I have decided to just enjoy driving it for a while. It's got to be fun too!

Franz, thanks, I think I have a good plan in place for getting this done, slowly but I'm motivated from driving someone else's 40 and can't wait to get this on the road.

I too have the one "t" spelling. It seems to be a running joke at work as I receive emails addressed to "Bretttt" quite often.

Good luck on your build!

Bret, great minds right? Whenever I get emails with more than one "t", I usually replay doubling a letter in the recipients name, unless of course it's a customer.

Thank you, it's been fun and challenging so far!

 

[BretwithoneT]

Well, here's where I sit at the end of the weekend:

Phase 1 is to have a rolling chassis by the beginning of hunting season. Right now I have the frame and some other bits powdercoated.

it looks really good except I missed one bolt for the passenger fender so, another challenge but I'll deal with that after the chassis. This weekend I disassembled the rear axle completely to get it ready for sandblasting and painting. The differential cover was stuck on like someone used superglue. I spent more time going to auto parts stores to get a bearing puller than the 3 minutes it took to pull the bearings. It looks like someone has been in there before, the bearings are National brand, I'm replacing with Koyo from Kurt at Cruiseroutfitters.

There were also these shims behind the bearings

Can I just hammer them flat and reinstall with the new bearings? There were no markings on them indicating size or thickness.

 

[BretwithoneT]

After all the stinking grease work, I like to have things like this to remind me how nice it will look when I'm finished. Got the cadmium full set from Overland Metric and installed my rear bumpstops after I sandblasted, primed and painted the metal and used mothers back to black on the rubber.

 

[BretwithoneT]

Can someone tell me how to disengage this transmission cover to remove it so I can put a new gasket between the cover and the transmission and paint?

 

[Rusty 72]

Mine just fell off when I removed the bolts. Might be glued down. Try a thin putty knife between the case and top cover. Here is the underside of the top plate

 

[BretwithoneT]

Thank you Rusty, I had it separated from the transmission housing but the mechanism inside was catching. I just used a wrench and turned it and it finally came free. The picture you posted showed me what was catching so that made it easy.

On another note, are the teeth on this gear too worn? Do I need to try to find a better gear or will this be ok. And what is the best way to flush out the housing?

 

[REZARF]

Do you have a parts washer?

 

[BretwithoneT]

This week I received the gaskets to overhaul my engine from @65swb45 so I got started. I pulled the pulley and the timing cover and that brought up some questions.
Is this groove normal and will it seal back or do I need to find a better pulley assembly?

 

[Rusty 72]

The groove should be filled in first. I have used Devcon epoxy with good results. After sanding the epoxy smooth you can install a spedi-sleeve. Should last a long time.

 

[BretwithoneT]

Also, (I think I know the answer to this) I have the gasket that goes behind the timing plate but didn't want to mess with the timing right now, however, from the below the timing cover to the rear of the engine is covered in oil and dirt. Can I just mark the gears and replace them exactly as they came off or will it be more complicated than that?

 

[Rusty 72]

My cam gear was pressed onto the cam. Do not know if you can remove it without damaging the retaining plate or cam gear while the cam is still in the engine. The cam gear and crank gear has dots on them and should be aligned.

 

[BretwithoneT]

The groove should be filled in first. I have used Devcon epoxy with good results. After sanding the epoxy smooth you can install a spedi-sleeve. Should last a long time.

Thanks Rusty! Did you use the plastic steel type of epoxy?

 

[Rusty 72]

Yes the epoxy with steel. Probably other brands available also.

 

[BretwithoneT]

My cam gear was pressed onto the cam. Do not know if you can remove it without damaging the retaining plate or cam gear while the cam is still in the engine. The cam gear and crank gear has dots on them and should be aligned.

Do you think the groove in the pulley could have been the cause of all the oil leaking out the front and down the bottom of the oil pan? If so, I think I might leave the timing plate and gears on and just put on the epoxy and speedi-sleeve with a new seal and see how it goes. Since parts aren't readily available for a full rebuild and the engine only has 64K, I think it should be ok.

 

[Rusty 72]

Very good possibility all of the oil came from there. What did the seal look like? If the balancer is rare or was needed quickly I would fix it. If it's a common available piece and was in no hurry I probably would try to find another one. Last spedi-sleeve I bought which was quite a long time was around $10.

 

[65swb45]

That pulley is junk. The odds of it holding balance with a filler and speedi sleeve are low. And when the unbalanced pulley's vibration wears down the snout of the crank, you will have realized that you were penny wise and dollar foolish.

Per my sig line I would offer to sell you a pulley, but I am out of the office until the end of the month.

 

[Downey]

^^^ Guess who's being his own contractor on the new front building/offices.