'59 Plymouth Forum

Faulkner wrote:Has anyone found it necessary to remove the starter to get the pan out? One of the three bolts is behind the exhaust, and to remove that -- well, there's a bit of the "mushroom" factor here. And those bolts to the manifold are so rusted, I'll probably snap one if I try.

We'll, I got the engine up far enough to drop the pan. Except... the shop manual is right. You've got to remove the starter. And to remove the third bolt from the starter, you've got to drop the exhaust. And to drop the exhaust, I've got to remove two rusted nuts -- and fershur, I'll be in deep doo-doo if I snap one. If I were younger -- or, if Matthew Keij were here -- it might be a different story. Settlement on the new house is Thursday, and I'll have plenty to keep me occupied in the move. Time, I think, to cut my losses... I'm going to zip it back up, and take Faulkner for a nice drive (with 50W oil!) before this 74 degree weather ends. Next year, when I'm all settled in, I'll have the time and the money to have the engine pulled and rebuilt -- that's been Ed's advice all along. So that's what I'm gonna do. So close, and yet so far...

Dan

Dan

...make sure you have the inspection plate for the torque converter in place, before you tighten the pan bolts. I conveniently dropped the socket into the pan under the torque converter, because my plate is missing. (I actually have one I got from Roger in a box somewhere, I just never got around to putting it on.) So, I added removing the torque converter pan to the task list... managed to squeeze my fingers in there and get the socket out (couldn't actually drop it all the way -- exhaust pipe, again), and slap everything back together. But it's getting too late to take a joyride now, perhaps tomorrow. Let's see if straight 40W oil helps some, enough to drive to a rental garage in Philly, anyway...

Dan

yes, ownind these cars is always an adventure..!