Hello all!
I thought I would post this to the list to help others
avoid what I failed to avoid.
I purchased a 1500 engine for my Midget this past
fall. The engine had good compression and oil
pressure. I recently decided that I would clean it up
and respray it before dropping it in the Midget. After
removing a few parts, I bumped the crank pulley and it
moved to the rear...hmmm...so I pulled on the pulley
and it and the flywheel moved forward. This isn't
good!
I decided to take a rough measurement of the
movement... .128". Guess what?...this is WAY TOO MUCH.
I made a couple of calls and the normal end float is
.006 to .014". Well...off comes the pan to check out
the bottom end. My worst nightmares have been
acknowledged. The crank and block have damage. It is
repairable...so I'm told BUT the cost to repair would
be greater than it's worth.
Well, it looks like the original engine is going to
get a rebuild after all...sigh.
I'm not saying that I got ripped off (well not
intentionally I'm sure but I paid a premium price for
this engine...so I'm told)but I am saying I didn't
know what to check for on this type of engine. I
figured compression was good, oil pressure was good,
it ran fine...must be good right? wrong!
When looking to purchase a 1500 engine for either a
Midget or Spitfire, take a small prybar or large
screwdriver and check for forward movement of the
crank pulley. If it moves a noticeable amount...walk
away or run! A dropped thrust washer can cause extra
end-float but a non-repaired dropped thrust washer
will trash the bottom end of this engine.
Sorry to take up so much bandwidth with this but I
thought this was an important lesson learned and I
wanted to pass on my misfortune to those who may have
travelled down the same road of fate as I.
Thank you for your time,
Dan Dwelley
77 Midget
Alexandria, Va.
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