New Dodge A 108 owner

From 9/28/20

I did get the rocker shaft assembly and inside of the block cleaned up awhile back...



That was tedious and time consuming but I got it done! Each rocker arm has two oil weep passages. One long one to the outlet above the valve stem and one up top to a tough that feeds the oil to the top of the solid push rods. They were all plugged completely up. Guitar strings and a drill helped a lot but it was still slow going.

I cleaned all the baked on oil from the timing chain area.


Cleaned up the head and lifter valley area...


Before...



After...



I started scraping the gasket off the oil pump last night but couldn't find my parts brush(until a few minutes ago) to give it a good through cleaning. OK, I pull out the distributor and start looking at it closely. Besides being filthy, do you notice anything out of the ordinary?


There are three O rings, two large ones(stacked) that ride on the shaft and one small one(just above the other two) that fits in a groove. The Service manual calls for one...



I think the manual is wrong. There's a bevel in the block that appears to be for the large O ring to sit in. You can see how the bevel shaped the lower O ring in the photo. The small one seals the opening the distributor shaft slides into. The extra large O ring shouldn't be there...
There's some vertical slop in the distributor shaft...





I'm thinking someone added that second O ring to counter the slop in the shaft. To be continued...

From 10/22/20

A little larger update:

I finally got around to removing the racks from the roof of the 67. They were riveted on so I used a Cut off disc to cut the exposed washer and rivet. Then I used a grinding wheel to remove any bits that would prevent the rivet from being punched out. For the ones where I punched the center pin on the rivet but the outer shaft remained, I used a drill. It was easier than I thought it was going to be!
One down, two to go!



I finally cleaned the garage out enough to get a vehicle inside! Lets see, the Jetta fits...


But it's too small. Lets see, the 78 fits!



But it's too big.





Ah, just right!

I placed all the parts for the engine inside..



A couple evenings ago I cleaned the oil pump...





I'll take it apart and clean it. I put oil into the gear area and it didn't leak out. When I spun the shaft it pumped the oil out so it's going back on the block.

The gasket was stuck on there in spots pretty good so I used a tool an old childhood friend gave me back in the 80's. It's a putty knife that has been cut down and sharpened(ignore the dried putty on the handle). It works very well on stubborn gasket material. I have another similar putty knife beside it for comparison...





I disassembled the distributor as it was pretty filthy...



and broke a tab on the "Y" shaped spring clip(lower middle of photo). So I stopped by the junkyard to grab the distributor off the van they have there. Unfortunately, someone removed the engine mount on that side and lowered the engine down onto the vacuum advance bracket on the distributor. I'll have to go back with a jack to raise the engine up. I did grab a couple things while I was there...on of the interior ceiling lights and the Dodge badge off the passenger door.
I noticed after I cleaned the nylon gear that there was a crack from the roll pin hole to the upper end. I was going to order another but looking through my photos, I can see the crack was there before I removed it, so it's going back on too...unless it gets worse when I tap the roll pin back in. I am going to add a shim washer to remove the slop I mentioned in a previous post.

One good thing that came out of going to the junkyard was seeing how the plastic edging that holds the headliner over the seats comes off, without destroying it. When I got home I removed that plastic strip and the headliner.





That will clean up.



The strip just snaps over this piece attached to the roof rib...



Hmm, unwanted company. I think this has been in there since before I took possession on the van...





Not sure if I'm going to reinstall that but at least I have a good template to cut another one!

OK, I'm all caught up!

Love all the extra effort you’ve put in to do the filthy nasty work that it takes to get things working properly and functioning well. Taking time to closely look at things and make them right is not pretty work but I applaud your efforts sir!!!

vanny wrote:Love all the extra effort you’ve put in to do the filthy nasty work that it takes to get things working properly and functioning well. Taking time to closely look at things and make them right is not pretty work but I applaud your efforts sir!!!

If I had deep pockets I probably would have had the engine rebuilt. Being out of work this year due to covid has kept my wallet closed and my hands dirty(oily). I'm also curious to see how long this engine lasts.
The real disappointment... I didn't do a compression check on it when it was together. Once I get the engine running again and check the compression, I'll decide on which way to go.
Although I'm not in any big hurry. I have plenty of rust to repair before I can get it on the road. At least with the engine running I'll be able to move it around easier that pulling it with my Honda Foreman. Lol...

Does anyone know what material these clutch pedal arm bushings are made out of and where I can purchase new ones, and the steel sleeve?





Sleeve:
OD=.812
ID=.624
Length=2.375

Bushings(2):
OD=1.000
ID=.816
Length=.590

I'm getting information overload from McMaster Carr's site, and the bushings I looked at(bronze, but are they bronze?) don't have the ID size I need listed. These aren't in too bad of shape but aren't in the greatest shape either.
Any help would be appreciated!