Vert Ventures, Part 2

August 21, 2003

It's been awhile since I have posted regarding my '65 Monza convertible.  Last spring I was driving it home from a meeting in the Detroit area when the engine began producing massive blow-by.  It had been pinging on pretty much a constant basis up till then.

I dragged it home (or rather Jeff and I did) and it sat forlornly in my barn while I prepped my '68 Cutlass for sale.  The Cutlass came out nicely, but that's another story.

I figure I probably put a hole in a piston.  I decided that I would buy a used motor to put in the car and tear down the motor maybe later.

Ken Hand sold me a 110 manual transmission motor out of a '68 for the project.  While waiting for Ken to get the motor out of the car it was in, I got to work on pulling my motor.

Having done this chore a couple of times, I was a bit less concerned about about pulling the motor than I had been in the past.  My plan was to pull the entire powertrain, just as I had done previously.  Ken convinced me to just pull the motor, and I am glad that I followed his advice.  

I always like to have someone else around when I am working under the car, and this time my co-worker John Runcie agreed to assist me.  (It helps to be the boss.)

Here's a picture of John with the custom tool we fashioned out of a 9/16" Craftsman combo wrench for loosening the torque converter bolts:

We got all the thingies and whachamacallits disconnected, unbolted the flex plate, put my little Clark's dolly under the motor, got the jack under it, and lowered the motor, still connected to the tranny.

When we got it down low enough where we thought it would clear the back of the car, we unbolted the starter and bell housing bolts.  We started wiggling and moving the motor and it slid right off the input shaft...taking the torque converter with it.

We congratulated ourselves  on our mechanical prowess and did a couple of high fives.  It was then that I noticed the trickling sound.  The torque converter was peeing on my garage floor!

We got a basin under it just in time to catch the last of the transmission fluid.

As you can see above the motor was out, out , out!  This occurred on August 5.

Sunday of the following week John and I went to Pontiac and picked up the motor and  some gaskets from Ken. We brought the motor home, put it on the engine stand, congratulated ourselves again, pulled the pilot bushing on the new motor, and called it a day.

There it sits.

Part 1

Part 3

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