Pictures taken 10/31/2003

Friday was a day off, and I decided that this was 
THE day the pistons were going to come out of the 
cylinders, in one piece, or in many pieces. 

A lift was made from tie downs, so the whole weight 
of the engine could be supported by one cylinder.

A wooden ram was cut from 4 x 4 stock, same 
size as the cylinder. I noticed the end of the ram 
wasn't even, and almost trimmed it off with the 
circular saw. It then occurred to me that having 
one side hit the piston first, would concentrate 
pressure in a smaller area, and the ram could be 
turned as it was hit with a 5 lb. sledge hammer.

The engine was resting on a work table, and 
then was lifted almost completely off the 
table, by one cylinder. This way, the weight
of the engine was helping to extract the 
piston from the cylinder. The nylon straps
absorbed some of the shock, and isolated
the hammering to one piston, rod, and 
main bearing.

Each side took about 15 minutes of solid pounding, 
to remove each piston. The gunk left in the engine 
when it was stored collected in the worn spaces of 
the bore, and didn't want to slide past the tight 
spots (bottom of bores) in each cylinder. One 
set of rings came off easy, the other set is soaking 
again back in the sauce, along with the carburetors.

It doesn't get much worse that this. Hopefully 
the con rods and main bearings are usable, would 
have to split the cases to replace those. Now the 
wrist pins have to come out, and there is no reason 
to believe they will be any easier than the pistons.

"Free at last! free at last! 
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

The cylinders will be cut .20 over or replaced,
and new pistons will be used 
for the rebuild. See the top left (from front) 
piston? Big dry spot, even after almost two 
weeks of soaking in kerosene.

Who can guess how many hex wrenches got broken 
before these triple clamp bolts came out? 

Winner gets a prize (not really).

Guess again, it was more than that.

If you needed a new cover for your brake
fluid reservoir, wouldn't fiberboard be your 
first choice for a replacement?

This most likely lasted at least a day before 
beginning to let moisture into the brake fluid, 
lines, and cylinder, creating the rust and
corrosion that is there now.

Looks like someone has been messing with these 
coils already, not reassuring that these will light 
the fire when the engine rebuild is complete.

Battery boxes always seem to be rusty, either 
due to the acid leaking out, or the fumes in 
the area, or the flow of electric. This one 
will need a good sandblasting, primer coat,
and final coat of paint.

The speedo was taken apart, cleaned, oiled, 
and checked for operation. It looks like the 
odometer and trip meter are history, so the
drive gears were taken out for them. 

The speedometer looks to be working OK, 
that's all that is needed for now 
anyway. Replacement glass will be found,
and the seal ring fastened back on to make
it as water resistant as possible.

Just about ready for sand blasting here. All black 
paint and rust to come off, replaced by Yankee 
Silver all around, even the nuts and bolts. If they 
look better in black, they can be changed later.

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