Positive thinking restored, moving forward... This project will have to wait until the weekend because of shuttling kids back and forth to school, but obtaining the bolts won't be a problem. Are you saying the pulley is still serviceable or should I grab the one on eBay while it's available? (You're right, no one else seems to stock those.) How about the woodruff key(s) if that's obtainable? Not jumping the gun and assuming anything until I get the pulley off, but if there's anything besides the bolts I can pick up ahead of time, better to have what I might need at the ready.

Still kind of pissed that the rockers were tapping today after all the work I've done to clean them up, on top of all the work the PO did on it last year per my earlier post today. I guess I just have to chalk it up to the heat... damn women.

 

The pulley and crank snout are serviceable so far. No, don't go crazy yet, the pulley isn't going anywhere right yet, it's still in working condition it's just the fact that if it does go ***-under it's good to have a source for another. Will Tillery was my source and it was $50 shipped from VA. to me. Stay calm and chive on...... for now. You'll see what's what soon enough if you get to it this weekend.

Yep, I know the feeling about seemingly moving backwards on the rockers/lifters ticking but it's hot out. You could be running 20W50 with the heat wave you've got. Seriously. The Rotella dino and synth are the same hot weight 40, the lower number is how thin it's going to be in cold weather/cold state. Obviously 5W is thinner than 15W in cold weather and yet my oil light never came on during -35* starts. Not bad at all. 15W was too heavy, I could hear every tick and groan until the motor came up to temp.

 

Good to know the pulley should be okay. I'm sure I'll learn more when I pull it this weekend. If you have the contact info for Mr. Tillery, that would be great. A good source for hard-to-find parts is always welcome.

Oh, and (insert sarcasm here) good to know that not remembering the difference between low temp/high temp oil weights until now caused me to waste $42 worth of perfectly good synthetic... Thinking to myself, C'mon dude, that's basic... doh!

But good point on running the thicker oil during the heat wave. At the store on Sunday I was even thinking... maybe I should go full bore and run 20W50 in this heat... Oh well, the more you know. The temps are supposed to "drop" to the low 90s this week so I'll see how she holds up, but I'll be running 20W50 during the summer from now on. The PO was running 10W30 when I bought it from him. Probably why we was having the same issues.

Thanks again and have a good night.

 

Gave the Disco a long overdue bath this morning and while rechecking the fluids, I noticed the crankcase still needed about 1/2 quart. (I've learned to be conservative with this thing and add fluids slowly to avoid overfilling and also spilling on the exhaust manifold which always spooks me when I smell that oil burning off.) Topped it off and drove another round trip of about 20 miles this afternoon to fetch the kids, and no oil light and no tapping when I pulled it back in the driveway. Then again it's "only" 91* today so that probably helped.

Small victories.

 

Got rained out this weekend, so the pulley project consisted of... watching football. Oh well, next weekend.

 

Haven't checked in for a few weeks so thought I would post an update...

Been too damn busy the past few weekends to remove the pulley and check the keyway, but will finally be able to get to it this weekend. In the meantime, the truck has been running better, other than the exhaust leak which still needs to be fixed. I don't put a lot of miles on it so it gets used gently. So far the oil light hasn't come on once, and the tapping has only happened a couple of times due to the heat. So I think the rocker cleanup helped a lot.

However today while at a stop, I heard squealing that sounded like the belt or even possibly the pulley. It only lasted for 10 seconds or so and I was close to my destination anyway, so I pulled into the parking lot and had a look while the engine was running. Thankfully the pulley hadn't moved (I have it torqued to 200 lbs. so it shouldn't), but the front crank seal was leaking. And it leaked some more during the drive home although I didn't hear the sqeal again. So, replacing that will be added to the job now... and I'm hoping it's just the seal itself going out and the sqeal was just the result of oil dripping down the pulley to the belt--and not a symptom of something worse behind it. I'll know more when I get it apart this weekend.

Over and out.

 

Well, good thing it's torqued to 200 ft/lbs. cuz you'll have to remove it to replace the leaking front cover seal. It's Rover's method of tuning, fix one thing and you'll be visiting a cousin of that one thing in a little while. I'll bet the pulley snout has a groove where the seal lip is and I'll bet the seal is as hard as the chrome on a Snap-On combo wrench.

I've been working allot of hours lately too. I'm burned out between that and keeping up with lawn chores this Fall. The compressor on my truck just started making a wonderful noise this week, pulley bearing causing the clutch to mate, blowing compressor oil........ and while I was playing hide the belt loop under the crank pulley I noticed the water pump is due for replacement, shaft has allot of play. Can't have that fail on me. Yippee. I shimmed the clutch out with a second washer, no problemo. Will need a new clutch, metal to metal. I might just remove it and go without a compressor...... I don't need it or use it here.

 

I'll bet that groove on the pulley will look very similar to the way it did when the pulley came loose a couple months ago.

Famous last words: I'll get to it this weekend... Well, starting a new job pretty much puts the kibosh on that, so will have to reschedule it yet again. Livin' the dream!

 

That's funny, I've got a buddy at work that says that everyday we work together....... Livin the Dream...... cracks me up every time.