It’s never been clear in my illustrations how the transmission separates from the crankshaft. There just isn’t good detail and resolution in the transmission parts drawings I have. But the tip-off was in one of the tools provided with the engine (which I don’t have but it’s in the parts manual). The lift ring attaches to the front of one of the outside through-bolts. I fabricated a crude lift ring from a nut and eye-bolt with the mig welder. Despite hours of staring at it trying to figure out how to remove the darn thing, the transmission came off easily.
Last up was the crankshaft itself. Once the transmission was out, I removed the crank pin oilers and the bearing caps. Out she came without any drama. Not surprisingly, it’s darn heavy. To put the size in perspective, the length of the crankshaft is 7’-2”.
It took a couple hours to give the crankshaft a good first cleaning. The number two bearing has a lot of wear and left quite a bit of babbitt material on the shaft but otherwise it appears to be in very good condition. Four of the five crank bearings will need to be rebuilt along with all three rod bearings. This babbitt work is penciled in for the fall.
Next up is to get caught up with cleaning. I’ve taken off a lot of parts recently both big and small. Each cylinder is held on with 10 bolts, 7 nuts and 2 taper pins. Each one gets cleaned in the parts washer, wire wheeled and lubricated for storage. The cylinders and bases also need to be thoroughly cleaned and I’ve only completed one set so far. They are really nasty with caked on oil sludge. I wish I had a nice big automatic parts washer. Lots of paper towels, mineral spirits and WD40. After cleaning, parts get doused in PB Blaster or they will start rusting within an hour. I will also do some painting if it makes sense to do so before assembly. Lots of gaskets to make too.
Following up on a prior post, I made a replacement part on the lathe for the piston rod bearing alarm.
