Finally back together, but trouble starting. (1 Viewer)

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Proving once again that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Matt had the truck towed up last week for me to start the process of sorting out the brakes, clutch and a few other things on his heirloom 72 (family bought it new)

It had a dead battery in it which I let trickle charge over the weekend. With the clutch and brakes not working, there was no point in trying to start it, so I pushed it from the front yard up to the service bay door and started pulling tires to check the brakes. Two hours later I had all the rust cleaned off the drums (coastal exposure) all 8 wheel cylinders adjusted (one left and one right rear are swapped backwards!) and got pedal.

Started her up and heard this obnoxious squealing. The kind of squeal you get from an over-extended power steering pump when the belt starts slipping. Except Matt doesn't have power steering! I'm thinking, 'well maybe it's the alternator.' But sitting in the driver's seat, it kinda sounds like it could be coming from the back of the motor, like a dry, squeaking rear main seal. So I shut it off. Maybe 20 seconds run time.

Then the sinking feeling hits me. I open the hood and stick my finger down down the side of the distributor, feeling for the gap between dizzy and clamp. It's a measurement my finger knows well. Not good. Pull the battery for a better look.
Pic #1.

Time to call Matt. So I tell him I got the brakes adjusted, but that I think he's got bigger problems. I ask him when he finally got the motor started how long he ran it. "Fifteen or twenty minutes." I tell him that in all likelihood the dizzy is not driving the oil pump, and that the best thing for me to do at this point is to pull and stab it myself to check whether it is properly seated.

Pic#2

Time to call Matt with the news.:(
 
Well I hate bad news, but it's of my own handi-work. The dizzy may have come out when tuning or I may not have seated it in completely from the get go.
Thinking back I actually ran the engine closer to 5 or 6 minutes rather than 15 - 20 minutes, but either way it sounds like the rear main seal could have been damaged.
Hopefully Mark has someone local that could drop the pan and take a look as I no longer have a garage available (I recently moved) so I am between a rock and a hard place.
 

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