The labor of love (& nostalgia) begins!! 1963 CA77 DreamThanks! I looked again and they state that. I must have gotten confused with the NOS gasket kits. It's old age creaping up on me again.
Mike, thanks for the offer on the puller bolt, but I have an assortment of 3 jaw pullers, one of which should work. I thought the cam chain looked good, but, I measured it and it's over the max length by nearly 1/4 inch. I got my micrometers out and checked the pistons. They are right at the wear limit. I put the rings in the cylinder (just for the heck of it) and they had over .100 inch end gap (the zeros are in the right place.) Hummm, I wonder why the left cylinder was smoking (surprised the right wasn't) and there were oil leaks all over? The bores have quite a few scores in them. My inside michrometer doesn't go small enough, but I have no doubt there's plenty of wear there too. I think the only question now is which oversize I'll need for it to clean up. I'm not overly disappointed, since this all gives me a good excuse to put in the right pistons.
63 CA78
I picked up a cam tensioner on Ebay. It's supposed to be good, and appeared so from the pictures. I'll see when it gets here.
I pulled the rotor and starter sprocket off the crankshaft. The seal fell out of the sprocket! Another major source of the oil leak. The starting clutch rollers look good, but the small spring and caps are a problem. Two springs are broken and the caps show a wear grooves in the last 1/8th inch or so. From what I've found so far I've decided to split the cases to check the rest out. Apparently someone had tried replacing the seals without splitting them and I see signs of peeled rubber on the outside the the crankshaft seal and one of the large transmission seals is decidedly crooked, sticking out about 1/4" on one side. So far I'm glad I didn't just try to patch and run. It would of been a waste of time (and probably money.) 63 CA78
Finally back at it. Preparation for and vacation to Idaho, Montana, Canada and back kept me away from my Dream. Rainy weather gave me a chance to get back on it.
The cam tensioner I picked up from eBay is in pretty good shape. Pulled the left side off the engine and split the cases. Good news; The transmission looks to be in excellent shape. No chipped or pitted teeth and the engaging dogs show no wear, to my eye anyway. Even the bronze bushing is in good shape. The primary chain and adjuster are in real good shape. Only broke 1 bolt and 1 screw. new bad new; Ball bearing on left end didn't have a locating dowel in the case.(Is there supposed to be one?) Light groove in left cover where it appears clutch had rubbed. I'm not sure what's going on there. The clutch cover has been ground off at the outer circumference at each rib. The biggest concern- crack in the upper case. I had suspected there might be one. I previously posted a picture where at some time the drive chain had piled up into the case. The left side of the chain caused a crack on the inside. The debate is whether to have it (and the crack in the lower case, in a non-critical area) welded or patch with JB Weld. A possible crack inside the case on the left side under the rear shaft. I don't think it's a problem, but I've been wrong once or twice. Okay, according to my wife, many times.
63 CA78
I've come up with the dowels that were missing, torn everything (engine wise) down, cleaned and inspected. I repaired the damage to the cases caused by the drive chain with JB Weld. the inside are I roughed up the cracks (which didn't appear to go through) and sealed with JB Weld.
I lapped the valves, checked with solvent and they seal well. Cam's and lifters look good. The spocket on the cam was slightly loose on the center. I wire welded it carefully, being certain not to get it too hot. One problem I did notice on disassembling the head is that the lefthanded nut on the center assembly was loose. The cam adjuster wheel was shot and may have been a related problem. There is also a small amount of wear on both sides of the center rib on the large idler wheel. There is a line on the wheel that goes across it (see attached picture.) Is this normal? It doesn't appear to be damage. The adjuster I got off Ebay is starting to sprocket. From looking at the parts I finally figured out this is the beginning of the problem the original wheel had. I guess I'll try LM dressing method, hopefully I won't have to take too much off to clean it up. I've pulled the starter apart, cleaned (was full of dirt and oil) checked and assembled it. Works well and brushes in good shape. I have gotten stainless allen head screws to replace most of the phillips head screws. The only ones there are problems replacing are the 5mm ones. The ones on the alternator cover are the ones I'm concerned with, since the a couple of the originals are stripped. I've considered trying to re-tap them to standard thread, but that probably wouldn't turn out well. I'd also considered going to 6mm, but there might not be enough room. Right now I'm waiting to hook up with the machine shop to see what oversize piston I need. I've missed connections because of their holiday schedule conflicting with my schedule. When I get that worked out a parts order is in store.
63 CA78
along the lines of your tensioner wheel, I've noticed that the two parts engines I took apart have horrible tensioner wheels. Broken apart and very "sprocketed" as you put it. Would it make sense replacing the wheel with an actual small sprocket? I figure that would be the ideal solution. Anybody have any input on this?
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