Thanks guys, well I went back over to Spotty's on Sunday and did the "sandpaper on glass" for the alternator cover and gear selector cover (and was surprised at how warped they were) and by that time I'd run out of excuses, so Spotty and I hauled the engine back into the frame, which was an absolute PITA! I keep forgetting that we're both in our 60's, and we're as weak as kittens compared to our once manly abilities. We'd taken the exhaust spigots and oil pan and pump off to make it easy to pull the engine on Saturday, but the engine just didn't want to go in straight.
Anyhoo, we finally got the baastard in, and installed the engine mounting bolts and new exhaust gaskets behind the spigots, reinstalled the oil pump and the pan. By this stage we'd been at it about 5 hours, but I thought I better install the sump plug before we finished up for the day, and had only been congratulating ourselves on not stripping any threads, when I went to tighten the sump plug, it just kept on spinning. Baasatard....... OK, that was enough for one day, we covered the ports etc and called it good, it's my Ma's 96th birthday tomorrow, so am driving to Bairnsdale on Saturday to celebrate her birthday with her, and so we won't be playing with the K0 for another week and a bit. Oh well, she's 96 and who knows if she'll make 97 (personally, I think she'll probably outlive me) so I gotta do the right thing, even though I'm hanging out for a ride, and the weather this weekend is gonna be really nice.
K0 Sunday 18 August 2024 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I got home and felt bad because Sunday was Vietnam Veterans Day here in Oz (used to be called "Long Tan Day" to commemorate the biggest battle Aussies had in Vietnam) and I forgot about it completely, but there you go, my memory is getting worse, along with everything else. Yesterday I went thru my sump pans, quickly found three, one with stripped threads, one with a crack thru the threads, and one that was filthy but had a sump plug in it. I checked that it was nice and tight, and called it good, then dropped it into my ultrasonic cleaner and it came out looking great. All going well, it'll be up and running by the first weekend in September. More soon.