Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2024 8:05 pm
bump
Managed to add insult to injury this week. With the wagon dizzy out, I switched to Grace's ute for daily driving.
It has mainly been doing the driveway shuffle in the last year, with a lot of time on choke. Pulled the plugs, cleaned them, and it ran nicely. Putted around for a few days getting groceries and it was waking up nicely. Creaks and groans from sitting around getting less (the car, and me too) and running better. No spirited driving, top speed around 70km/h.
Took it out to Rocket to pickup some stuff, parked it and got the gear. Came back and it would not turn over. The battery is mebbe 5 years old, and sits idle a lot. It had been turning over OK, but only moderately fast. Figured the battery had crapped out, pulled out the jump starter box. Struggled for a second and then fired.
Oil pressure light came on. Checked wiring, all OK. Has plenty of oil in it. Hmmmm..
Limped it home gently, ran OK when parked. Let it cool down, check oil and water again (all good). Won't turn over by the battery. Mebbe the battery is stuffed (waiting for Number One Son to bring home the battery testerer). Motor turns over by hand (good) but creaking noises over about 1/8 of the turn (not so good).
Remove fan belt to eliminate generator and water pump. Make up a plate to bolt to the harmonic balancer with a square hole for a ratchet in the middle. Curse myself for not making that plate up 30 years ago, and doing it now on a 44ยบ day. Fit plate and turn motor, still creaking over parts of the turning process.
Suspect I have wiped the bearings. No idea how - perhaps the oil pump relief valve jammed open. Some more thinking to do, but looking like engine work required. I have to do the grey-motor-shuffle for the FED in the next few weeks, so this just adds another step to that dance. I think:
a) Speedway short motor out of FED.
b) Worked head off FB and onto speedway short motor. Leave lightly smoking short motor in FB for now for mockup.
c) Speedway motor into Grace's car.
d) EKMart long motor into FED once it arrives from Galloway Engines (mebbe January).
Never a dull moment, but better that the engine randomly craps out on me than having sold it and it craps out on the buyer.
Cheers,
Harv
