tools & products for restorations

[213532]

I've seen the Harbor Freight motorcycle jack and wondered how it would work pulling a 356 engine. Many thanks for the feedback on using it.

Mike

[Meissen540]

Some of the sealers used on engine and tranny case halves can really be difficult and time consuming to remove. If you scrape it, you risk creating a leak path on the sealing surface. A quick trick I have found is to use some Zip Strip furniture stripper. I prefer the gel type as it doesn't run off. Don't leave it on there long, usually a minute or two will do the job, then wipe it away. I suspect this stuff will react with the aluminum, hence why I don't let it set. For the bad stuff you may need a second or third application. Once it's clean and looking like new, wipe it with water or hit it with the hose to fully neutralize the stuff. Your sealing surfaces will look like new, and it's a much quicker way of getting the job done. I'm sure other brands of furniture stripper will work too..

Tom
Atlanta

[Jbrooks]

Here is a jack adapter I made about 40 years ago and still works well. It's a made out of 356 A throw out bearing and a cast iron window weight. It replaces the nose pad on the floor jack for lifting and moving your tub using the transmission hoop. It keeps stress of the engine and trans when jacking it also makes moving the car easy in tight spots. The "U" notch is a little larger than the hoop and is 1/2 as deep as the ODA on the hoop. The throw out bearing allows you to pivot the jack, when moving the car position. The bottom of the adapter fits into the jack pad hole. Pushing a body around on the jack is easy and it won't jump off or scratch the motor.

[Trevor]

When you don't have access (or big enough vise grip clamps) I like to use these butt weld tabs and clecos to align the two pieces of sheet metal together.

http://www.rosevillerodandcustom.com/Products.html

[Jbrooks]

Found this in unpacked box. It's a carb bench from another life. Pretty simple to make. Electric low pressure fuel pump, and the required manifold. Here are three here solex PII, zenith, Webber. They attach to a long screws welded to a plate. I use a small ball knob and a spring to hold them down. This lets you pull up and spin the carb when working. There is a banjo fitting on the pump hose, you can remove it and slip fit to other carbs.

Float Gauges, small test tube and jet reamers, level. The wrenches are for the pump rods. After rebuild you can set the floats, adjust the accelerator pump volume and leak check the carb off the motor. I have three stations on this, it also fits 911's. Even if you only a few sets a year it makes it much easier. Put on a level on a bench get comfortable and get to work.




Test Solex 40PII under pressure, no leaks, no drips, perfect float level.

And I can see everything.

[JTR70]

Just bought this digital protractor which I now find indispensable.

Used it to find out both caster and camber for the front and even has a zero out setting to determine "relative" degree finding. Perfect for setting up those rear spring plates too.

[tperazzo]

My son and I made a Tesla coil for his science class. As it turns out the first half of the circuit makes a nice ignition coil tester!




Video link here

https://youtu.be/6ztZxUXpcPU

Circuit components are cheap and it can be adjusted for different frequency/RPM. Will work for 6V too.
Tom

[bbspdstr]

Tom,
Speaking of Tesla;



I took a short trip today with my open trailer. A 220v spot welder missing only the tips. Not high tech, but better than the Lenco I have always had. A Miller that came with more freebies; some chain, some frame pulling clamps, a light-duty pulling contraption that's probably 100 years old and another rotisserie. From an old shop that's closing down (I worked there for a couple of years, years ago) and being upgraded to become a dedicated Tesla repair facility. Oh, I got about 20 pounds of old 30/70 lead bars. Free.

The retiring owner has a lot of old Porsche parts in amongst antique American car, other imported brands and VW parts, so I suggested he schlepp the aircooled 356/911/VW parts to Ski Roundtop in September...which he agreed was a better idea than scrapping. He has never been to Ski Roundtop, even when that was the 'Hershey' swap meet before being moved literally to Hershey PA. Ski Roundtop is now aircooled ONLY.

Bruce

[Don C]

Bruce,
Will that unit be able to be used hand-held if you remove it from the stand or would you have to be a gorilla to do so? Anyway a nice score!

[Jbrooks]

Bruce

I have the same one, with the timer on it. It's like a plasma cutter, In six months you will wounded how you got along with out it. You can put a time hold relay contractor in line with the input power and get very good repetitive welds with it.

It comes off the stand but it's pretty heavy to lug around, find the longest deepest tongs you can find for it. Hang it from the ceiling with a couple pulleys and a counter weight if you have a lot to do off stand welding.

John

[bbspdstr]

Guys, I would prefer to spring some neutral buoyancy to it, but it's not that bad in weight. It will be limited in use.

With my Lenco, I would do 3 or 4 spots and then plug-weld with a MIG, as I could not trust such a spot welder. The kind I would trust cost around $40k.

Bruce

[Trevor]

Timely Post Bruce, I used a portable spot welder about two weeks ago. It weighed about 25~30 lbs. I like the hanging it from the ceiling idea, but with the tongs and machine getting hot, I sure wouldn't want it bumping into me. I just used a 10 gallon bucket and rested it on that so I didn't have to bend down quite so far to pick up the tool. One tip I'd like to share is to only use the 220V unit, I experimented with a 110V spot welder and it couldn't generate enough heat to put two pieces of 20 gauge together. The 220V had no problem and I totally trust the welds. I did the tear/pull test to make sure the spot weld stuck. A really fun tool, and when the job calls for it totally the right tool!

[Jbrooks]

Spark plug re threader

Many may have see these but I just bought one. A local guy crossed threaded a plug and put out a help post on the R Website. I am on the rescue data base and someone recommended he call me. I have a follower tap, a plug tap with long alignment stud to get it straight in the hole and clean up the threads. I have had it for 50 years, it works but you need to be careful for to double thread the hole.

Someone posted this photo and I bought one. Boy is it easy and works well. Its like an expandable reamer. you put it an the bottom of the hole expand it and turn to insure is straight. Then expand it and back it out to repair the plug hole.

I can believe how well it works. 2 minutes and we were done. Its called a "backtap". They come in several sizes form 10mm to 18mm. It was so much easier than my follower and almost fool proof. I will put mine the travel kit.

I recommend it for everyone.

[Phil Planck]

This is a front control arm needle bearing puller I made, after seeing the one Bruce Baker made. Here is Bruce's:



I used materials on hand so made mine different. My goal was to get the bearing contact area as large as possible. Here is the thick plate I shaped to fit the end of the bearing, along with the brackets to weld to this plate, and the yoke to attach to the bracket:



The brackets above are bolted together with spacers to just fit inside the yoke. Scribed lines on the plate show where to position the brackets. Here it is clamped in a vise for welding to the plate:



After welding, it was apparent that the pivot was too high to allow insertion through the bearing, so the 3/8" pin holes were welded in and redrilled lower as close to the plate as I could get them. Here is the finished product:




Test insert through bearing:



Fully installed:


Actual original bearing removed:

[Jack Staggs]

Nice soft jaws.