“RUSTLESS MONEY PIT, 1973 05 EAGLE, POST #23A, 5/22/2022
More engine replacement post, this is 2nd one, look at photos first to keep interest.
The engine my wife and I traveled and got from Dick Egler in Michigan had the jake brakes on it like I told you in earlier post but after evaluating the work at opening my cabin floor up etc. to put this engine in I realized I made one hell of a mistake as there is no way after all this time I plan to make cross country travels in the future and how often will I need Jakes?? Again I sold this engine for what I paid, Except expenses, to someone that Eric Brown knew needed. So again I went searching for another engine (my wife now knows I am nuts) without all the fancy jakes on it and with no problem I found one for sale by Ed Brenner. We made a deal, I rented a trailer from uhaul and put about 1200 pounds of raw metal plating in it to bring to Ed as part of the deal on my part. Well, this car trailer had 4 wheels and we went all the way to Muriels point, SC to get this engine, about 200 miles or so from us. We left about 3 am so we could make a round trip in one day.
The trip to Ed’s was mostly uphill all the way to Eds, and the truck a friend loaned me kept pulling to the right but I did not know this truck so I thought it always did that. Well, we got to Ed’s, or nearly there and I noticed my fuel was way down near empty. Boy what a thirsty bugger this truck was! We went to Ed’s and more tragedy hit us. Ed rolled the engine over on the ground moving it while we were on our way so two of us had to work our asses off to get this bad boy rolled up the way it is to be. Now this engine also had the back engine motor mount on it that I wanted to have to lay on wooden blocks in my trailer to strap down on. This motor mount really made a challenge, OMG, what a time we had as you will see in the photos getting this motor upright but after many hours we did it. I had no idea if we did any damage etc. it seems never to stop for God’s sake.
As I started to move out of Ed’s driveway he shouts to me that it looks like I have a flat or near flat tire. Jesus, WTH Else now. We filled the tire back up with air and we did not hear any air leaking and on the road we went. The reason the truck was pulling to the right all the time was because of the flat tire in the back of the trailer with 1200 lbs on it and this kept pulling the trailer to the right all the way to Ed’s. It ran fine all the way home, it took only ½ tank of fuel to get home and I had no problem steering. Good grief. I was pissed and let them know when I brought the trailer back. They gave me ½ money back, now I left with my tail between my legs.
After having the engine unloaded off the trailer I immediately started cleaning up this engine and tried to figure out what parts I needed to take off my old engine to put on this new one. In some of these photos you can easily see my new engine cradle for transporting the engine in and out of the bus. I called another friend (Jean Russel) from NC, who is in the bus repair business and I asked if he had any aluminum valve covers and he said to come and get em. Well we did just that and he gave them to me free and clear and after cleaning them up, in photos you can see how beautiful these valve covers were and on the finished product she looks real good.
I removed my old transmission and clutch from my old engine as I had to use this on Ed’s engine as well as the bell housing. Of course there was something wrong, the clutch plate was fried and had heat cracks all over the clutch plate.the clutch plate was fried and had heat cracks all over the clutch plate. Look at the damage photographed. Jesus, Got hit again. I had to order a new one and thank God I had another friend to help me out with this and sold it to me at his cost. If it hadn’t been for all the support I received in one way or another I would never have done all I have so far.
I received the new Clutch and full assembly and after resetting the timing on the engine to original 218 hp I installed and torqued all the assemblies needed to make a complete engine. I had to also rebuild my blower from Ed, his was all full of oil as the bearing etc. were not installed properly and I had to use a book from Eagles on how to rebuild this and I did it and only hope I did it correctly. This is the only assembly I was not comfortable with and hope that I did it all right.
You can see the 4-6 pieces of metal I found by the way in my engine when I opened up the inspection ports, and now you know how concerned I was seeing this. But another friend I have who helped me put in new engine parts, Mike Czemat said what may have happened that this engine blew a piston at one time and some of the parts went in that cavity I found them in and perhaps the engine was alright as those parts were not found as no one usually takes those covers off. Oh for God’s Sake!!
I got an Eaton Power steering pump from Sonnie Gray and I took it all apart, cleaned it all up and installed it on my engine in the (NEW POWER STEERING PUMP PORT OF THE ENGINE). Yea baby, I was going to have power steering. With the photos I now have to post I will quit the second post on my engine for my bus, it tires me out just thinking of the stresses I went through about that bus, just tires me out.
Enjoy