Cleaning up an old oil can

I bought an old USA Made oil can at the flee market two weeks ago and had a few minutes to take it apart and clean it tonight. (Please forgive my messy workbench.)

A bit of wiping off of old grease and back together it went.

Draining the Transmission Fluid

The transmission drain plug on my three speed manual transmission is in the middle of the bottom of the transmission. 

This is a 5/8 inch square head bolt. My 5/8 inch wrench couldn't get enough tourque on it though but a 17mm socket fit the end of this bolt allowing me to use my father in law's long socket bar on it.

I am not sure what transmission fluid is supposed to look or smell like, but this stuff looks grumpy and smells nasty.

 

 

Draining the oil

I wanted to drain the oil from the engine to lower the potential mess while pulling the engine.

The engine drain plug is located on the driver side of the oil pan and needs a rather massive 7/8 inch wrench to unscrew it.

The oil itself didn't look too dark or at all sludgy. That is encouraging.

 
 

Removing the throttle linkage assembly

The throttle linkage assembly is the last thing in the engine bay (besides the engine mounts themselves) that is attaching the engine to the car.

There is a linkage bar that attaches the throttle spring thing to a bar attached to the firewall that moves forward when the gas pedal is pressed down. 

This bar is attached by two little clips that just pull up to allow the linkage bar to slide out of the other bar it's attached to, thus freeing the clips. 

After that is off the throttle spring assembly comes off by removing two 9/16 inch bolts.

 

Removing the Z bar

Apparently the real name for the clutch pivot brace thing that goes between the engine and the side wall of the engine bay and transfers movement from the clutch into the transmission is a Z bar. Who knew? (Well apparently a lot of people do because I was able to find the name with only a few minutes of googling.)

It's the brace in the bottom left of this picture. Apparently I failed to get a good before picture. 

I started by removing this spring and the cotter pin that connects the clutch pedal rod to this Z bar. 

I then pulled that rod out and removed the bushing. 

There is also a spring and cotter pin assembly that connects the bottom of the Z bar to another bar that connects to the transmission. (I again failed to get a picture of this.)

This bolt goes into the engine end of the Z bar and screws into the engine with a 3/4 End box wrench. 

It looks like rust has taken the place of a bushing on this end. Ugh.

It's out now which just leaves the accelerator linkage and two engine mounts connecting the engine to the car in the engine bay.

I plan to pull the transmission with the engine, so I still need to pull the driveshaft, pull the shifter, and loosen the transmission crossmember before I can pull the engine. I also plan to drain the oil and transmission fluid just to avoid as much mess as I can.

Removing some engine wiring

I removed a wire that goes from the car to the engine today. I assume this was an ignition wire, but it might have also gone to the temp sensor. I'm not really sure. Yet another reason to invest in a full new wiring loom for this car, so I can get some instructions on putting the wiring back together.

 

Removing the Exhaust Header

I wanted to just disconnect the exhaust pipe, hence my removal of the alternator and starter so I could get my long wrench on these bolts. 

Nothing I tried was able to get this bolt loose though so I had to go around that problem. Thus I decided to just take off the whole exhaust header.

The exhaust header is supposed to be held on by eleven 9/16 inch head bolts. Five long bolts and six short ones.

My exhaust header was missing one of the short bolts when I got the car, and two of my long bolts had 14mm heads instead of the 9/16 inch heads the rest of the bolts had. I do NOT think that is the way this is supposed to be. I blame the previous owner. :-)

Removing the fuel pump to carburetor fuel line

The nub/nut on the fuel line needs a 1/2 inch wrench to turn it.

 

Removing the Starter

The starter is fastened to the car by two 9/16 inch head bolts. 

The top bolt has a wire on it going from it to the firewall.

I had to use a really long extender on my socket wrench. Also, there was very little room to move the wrench even then. I am starting to like the idea of an air wrench for jobs like this.

The starter is out.

It looks like I had a hive of something make a nest all the way up here on the starter. That's a bit disturbing. The engine ran when I bought the car but now I wonder what else I am going to find in it.