Restoration of Hull 731- Carrier, MG (Aust) Mortar Carrying

[Darrin Wright]

Lynn,
having read the 1943 workshop manual, it describes the 1940/41 engine as having a slinger on the crankshaft and the seal reatiner fitted to catch the oil.
On the 1942 engines (and earlier engines fitted with a later model crankshaft) the slinger is machined off and a different seal retainer fitted with a rope seal to keep the oil in the sump.

I visited and joined the fordbarn website/forum and have posted a question there to see what info I get.

I think I have the earlier crankshaft and rear main bearing and do not require the rope seal, the slinger should do the job. At this point in time I will not modify the engine as what was engineered originally should work well providing I put it back together correctly or as originally designed.

[Darrin Wright]

After reading and getting some additional info regarding rear main seals, I have removed the rope seal and gone with the original oil slinger set up, should work fine as Henry Ford intended.

I have installed the crankshaft and bolted it down, bearing caps have been torqued down.

Have also cleaned and installed the cam shaft, making sure to align the timing marks correctly.

Used my floor crane and sling and lifted and rotated the block so that I can start on the valves, working the right way up.

Washed the adjustable valve lifters and installed them making sure that they were a light fit in their holes.
Read the instructions that came with them, realised that I had to loosen the adjuster nut before installation, removed all lifters and using a screw driver and 7/16 socket moved the adjuster screw 1/2 a turn in each direction. Then re-installed the adjustable lifters making sure that I had plenty of lube and oil around them.

Installed the 2 baffles in the valve/lifter area.

Started on assembling a valve unit together so that I had a clear idea on the next part of the engine, then time to wash up and have tea...to be continued...

[Darrin Wright]

Today I commenced putting the valve assemblies in to the engine. Individually washed each valve and its items and then fitted the valve into the guide and checked it for free movement, installed the valve spring and with a bit of lube, placed it into its hole in the block.
With a screwdriver made sure the guide was down far enought so the keeper could be installed.
Then using the pry bar lifted the spring and fitted the bottom retainer.
Managed to get 6 out of 8 valves installed on the right side of the engine and 2 on the left (these were the ones where the lifted was all the way down).

This took me about 5-10min per valve. Remember, it's not a race.

In the afternoon got sidetracked and painted the rear interior compartment, left hand side hull and the outer bottom right side of the hull. Not ideal painting conditions as the paint is still tacky after 3 hours.

[Darrin Wright]

Friday saw us drive to Shepparton in Vic, to collect my rebuilt diff and other parts that had been rebuilt by my Dad.
It was brought across by a friend and I just had to drive down the road to collect.
Saturday morning it was unloaded, with difficulty as it was bl___y heavy for my floor crane, and moved inside.
Some of the items to keep me going are the Gearbox internals, NOS steering wheel, steering box, conduit & water pumps.