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>..... Cylinders can be had but cranks are nearly impossible to get
>and are very $$$$. Takes some time to check this but in the long run may
>save you much trouble later.
If anyone is interested (Jim, I think you've heard this) in my mitey mite
motor story here it is. My mite went from the USMC to the AEC (atomic
energy commision) then to a seminary. They used it but for some reason
basically left it intact including paint with the AEC numbers still on the
hood. At some point the engine swallowed a bolt, that's my post mortem
opinion anyway, which made a mess of one head and piston. They took it all
apart and then realised that they had not idea where to get parts, I'd like
to have been at the counter and heard the Napa guy try to look that one up!.
They then piled all the parts in boxes and pushed the thing outside where it
sat uncovered for 7 years. A freind bought it from the seminary and then
got laid off and sold it to me. The first and only project I figured was
the motor as it was the only thing missing as far as being road worthy. I
found all the parts I needed and took the block, crank, and cam, plus new
bearings from Sam Warner into the areas premier engine shop. One of those
places that says up front, they are very fussy, the are not cheap, and you
better not need it right away. They still did poured babbit bearings at
this place just to give you an idea of what they were into. Obviously the
crank had to be plated back above standard and ground as undersize bearings
are not available. They looked thru all the books they had going back to
time zero (for shell bearings that is) and found nothing even close. Then
they determined that the crankcase was warped. So they cut the caps and line
bored it. They put the cam bearings in as well as I didn't have a "nice"
way to do that at the time. They then went and checked the cam clearance
and found that it was to much. I got another set of bearings and they were
the same. They were not comfortable with the clearance and so we decided to
plate up the cam journals and grind to fit the bearings. The bill for all
that came to $800 and that was 15 years ago. At the time someone had a new
in box motor for $600, should have bought it!
Later,
je
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jul 02 2000 - 23:51:27 PDT