Monday, May 18, 2009


Before and after, probably should have taken them from the same viewpoint, but you get the idea. Now the real work begins. With the weight of the power train on the cradle, all wires, control cables, front transmission mounts etc., were dis-connected. The rear support crossmember was removed, (Fiat had a great idea!) and the power train lowered slightly. It was then able to be rolled right out from under the car as a unit. I used my shop crane to lift it off of the cradle and place it on the work bench. While checking it over, I got my fingers dirty! Heavens! Get out the power washer, move the power train outside, seal up all openings and bag the distributor, and have at it. With a little degreaser and the power wash it was clean in a jiffy. Get out the electric leaf blower and it was dry in a second jiffy. What the hell is a jiffy, anyhow? Brought it back in, removed the plugs and bag and started serious dis-mantling. The first thing that caught my eye was studs holding the rear exhaust manifold on---that didn't look right---check the manual. Hmmmm, should be bolts there. When I put a wrench on the nuts, the whole stud turned. This is good I thought. When the entire exhaust system was removed, I could see why there were studs instead of bolts. The holes had been bored out and pieces of 7/16 bolts were screwed in and then drilled and tapped for 1/4-20 threads. WTF? Why not do it right? The pieces came out with the studs, luckily. I got the "Master Machinist" to make me two aluminum inserts 7/16 thread with a centerbore. The holes were cleaned with carb cleaner and blown dry with compressed air. The inserts were coated with permanent grade thread lock and screwed in the holes using the tang of a file as a driver. They were allowed to dry overnight and were leveled even with the head using a mini die grinder. Using the centerbore as a guide, they were drilled and tapped to the correct metric size. I obtained two metric bolts, checked the fit---perfect! Went in the house for a cup of coffee.

No comments:

Post a Comment