Cam Chain Tensioner Mystery...

[Captain Obvious]

Unfortunately it's down there somewhere:

[Diseazd]

No way in Hell (getting the spring loaded plunger back w/o removing the front cover). IMO. Once you remove the front cover (it ain't that hard), they make an extendable magnet (works like an antenna), you can retrieve the plunger w/o removing the pan, and put it back together the right way!

Edited August 23, 2014 by Diseazd

[siteunseen]

It's hard to get it in the hole with the cover off! I just took one off an L24 and there's no way in hell the plunger could get in the oil pan except in pieces.

Edited August 23, 2014 by siteunseen

[siteunseen]

I just remembered the Zip-Tie around the housing trick Tom Monroe says do.

I'm wrong, Tom didn't write it. Some clever person on here most likely.

Edited August 23, 2014 by siteunseen

[Diseazd]

Good point Siteunseen.......looks like it should be laying on the front edge of the oil pan, however the spring is probably swimming in the oil pan. :tapemouth

[siteunseen]

After fooling around with that motor more I think it's possibly able to be seen if you drop the oil pump. He'll have to remove it anyway.

[Namerow]

"can i pull the oil pan without pulling the engine?"

I'm facing a similar task with my '72, so I feel your pain. From a review of previous posts on this topic:

1. You can pull & replace the pan without pulling the engine... but it's a tight fit. Things that will help include:

a) You can jack the engine up ~ 1" by disconnecting the RHS mount. The member who suggested this said, "Remove the two bolts from the passenger-side motor mount rubber. Using a jack, raise the mount arm approx. 1" and then slide a 3/4" block of wood into the gap to hold it. Lower and remove jack". I suspect you will have to disconnect the rad hoses in order to accomplish this (but maybe not?).

Another member suggested undoing both motor mounts, and said that this should be done by removing the single bolt on the isolator that goes through the engine crossmember. I'm not sure who's right, but it sounds easier to try unfastening the RHS mount only to begin with. You can always unfasten the LHS mount too, if the RHS-only strategy doesn't work.

c) Consider unbolting the sway bar at the frame mounts (and possibly remove the bar completely, to get it fully out of the way?). It appears, though, that this might only be necessary if you're intending to remove the oil pump.

d) Adjusting the rotational position of the crankshaft might buy you that last bit of clearance needed to get the pan out (or back in).

Once you've got the pan off (and located that pesky tensioner shoe and spring), check the pan's mounting flange for bending and/or dimpling at the bolt holes. Make sure the flange is flat and clean before you attempt the re-install.

Re type of gasket, there seem to be varying opinions amongst members re cork-with-rubber vs. rubber-only (is there such a thing?) vs. cork-only. The main caution is not to over-tighten the bolts (see FSM), since this can: a) make the gasket try to squeeze outside the lip of the mounting flange, and; dimple the flange.

There's also a general caution not to be over zealous with the application of gasket compound. For the cork or cork-with-rubber gaskets, I found this recommendation: "a thin film of aviation form-a-gasket".

I'll be interested to hear what others have to say about this task.

Looking on the bright side, your recent engine work means that you probably won't have much difficulty removing your harmonic balancer, water pump, and timing cover.

[rossiz]

looks like i've got a long day (or two) ahead of me...

the biggest thing i've been dreading is getting the balancer off the shaft (i haven't done this yet) and i'm gonna have to read up on timing the distributor after removal.

next weekend is a long one... maybe i can clear the decks of obligations and git-r-done. of course i won't know if the tensioner is salvageable till i find it, so may have to order parts and have the car out of commission for a while. booooo.

[EuroDat]

"can i pull the oil pan without pulling the engine?"

I'm facing a similar task with my '72, so I feel your pain. From a review of previous posts on this topic:

I have never done it, but I remember reading in a threw threads that they dropped the pan and remove the oil pick up (two M8 bolts) before they could get the pan off. It seems to make sense because its a lot lower than the crankshaft. You will know soon enough once you dropped the pan.

You don't need to remove the swaybar unless you plan to remove the oil pump. The steering rack will hit before the swaybar because its a fraction higher than the cross member.

My experience while changing engine mounts. Things to check while lifting:

Your top radiator hose and the heater hose to the back of the block will be points to check when lifting the motor. The back heater hose can really strain the fittings in the cabin if its tilted a lot. Its short and makes it less fleaxible compared to the one going to the front of the engine. The bottom radiator hose is generally long enough to move 1".

The fan shroud on the radiator gets in the way if you move the engine more than 1/2" or more. I had to unbolt the shroud.

[rossiz]

finally got started and making good progress - thanks all for the kind words and encouragement.

ordered a timing kit from msa (chain, sprockets, tensioner, chain guides, front seal) for the very reasonable price of $135 and sprung another $19 for a new bolt kit. all parts arrived quickly and i set to work saturday morning.

as posted by others, this job really isn't that bad - there's nothing really complicated or difficult, just a pretty basic disassembly/reassembly. i think i've spent about as much time restoring and cleaning things up as the actual work. of course i had a broken bolt (doesn't even phase me anymore) and a stubborn part or two, but nothing to really worry about.

i pulled the oil pan first, but neither the chain tensioner nor any ground-up bits were in there. cleaned it up, hammered out all the dimples in the flange from the PO trying to stop a leak by cranking everything down too tight, gave it a new paint job and a new gasket. when i finally got the timing cover off, i found the chain tensioner broken in half (the head sheared off the plunger shaft) and the spring down in the bottom below the crank sprocket. took me a while to find the plunger shaft - it was hidden in a casting hollow in the block. amazingly lucky that those parts didn't get sucked into moving gears - no damage whatsoever to be seen!!

there have been several others who have posted step-by-step directions (thank you all, i read them over and over) but i did discover a couple of little tips.

• the oil pan comes off without lifting the engine or removing the pickup - just jiggle and you're good
  
• had to remove two bushing pivots for the sway bar to drop it down for oil pump access (easy)
  
• removng radiator makes a huge difference
  
• there IS a clever way to time the dizzy shaft without a helper!
  

the biggie was getting the dizzy shaft timed - a bit of a PITA if you have to install the pump, crawl out from under the car, look in the dizzy adaptor to see how far off the paddle is, crawl back under, adjust and repeat. so i wadded up a paper towel in behind the shaft from below, and used a piece of the old rubber oil pan gasket bridged between a couple bolts in the oil pump mounting surface to act as a stretchy sling under the shaft. then from above, i used a pair of needle nose pliers to push the shaft down, stretching the rubber sling until it cleared the drive gear on the crank, then moved it a tooth and it sprung back up into position - voila! a simple way to move it one tooth at a time until it's in the right position. then i wrapped my pliers with a strip of rubber (from an old motorcycle inner tube i've cut up and keep on hand - very useful material) to make an improvised needlenose clamp, locked it onto the paddle up top to keep the shaft from falling down and was able to pull out the paper towel and mount the oil pump up underneath. of course i put the whole thing together with the paddle 180 degrees out the first time... but it was easy to re-do it.

oil pan off

nothing in it... other than sludge

improvised puller setup (nuts, washers, bailing wire) did the trick

cover off - goodies inside

tensioner was worn anyway

find waldo - can you see where the tensioner plunger was hiding?

pan all clean

new paint

Edited September 1, 2014 by rossiz

[rossiz]

today i hope to get it all finished - will post the results

broken bolt... lovely

old bolts vs. new set

cover all cleaned up, new seal & gaskets

new parts installed

holding dizzy shaft in place

holding paddle from up top

paddle 180 degrees out - it's offset so it makes a difference...

refreshed pan in place

front buttoned up

[Diseazd]

2 questions.....1) Did you make sure you were on TDC (compression stroke, not exhaust stroke) before installing distributor drive shaft? 2) How did you make sure that the bottom tang of the distributor drive shaft fit into the oil pump correctly? If it didn't engage properly, you'll have no oil pressure.

Edited September 1, 2014 by Diseazd