Spent much of the weekend attempting to remove the drivetrain from the parts donor 900 (pictured in its former rusting place). Did a leakdown test of the cylinders to see if the engine was good as is. It is not.
#1 - 32%
#2 - 48%
#3 - 68%
#4 - 56%
And the #3 spark plug had some whitish deposit on it, so there are issues. The engine did run, however, and there were no banging noises within, so hopefully it just needs a valve job, head gasket and rings. It has over 220,000 miles, so it is due.
Removed the grille, headlights and turn signal lights to sell. They should be worth at least what I paid for the car. The radiator looks good, though it could probably use a good flush, so it will be kept as a spare. Disconnected all of the electrical stuff and removed the air conditioning condenser from atop the engine.
In order to remove the engine/gearbox assembly, you must first remove the axles. Here is where I ran into trouble. First of all, the car sat in a field for a couple of years before I bought it last fall, and it was not driven any distance, just moved around the yard a few times over the winter. The lug bolts that hold the front wheels on were pretty rusted and took a lot of effort to remove. The nuts that hold the axles to the hub were also slow to remove. Then came the stopper: I could not get a couple of the ball joint bolts out on the right side. I was able to remove the nuts, but one upper and one lower bolt are rusted into place. I tried pounding, I tried the impact wrench, I tried the air hammer, all to no avail. I will try heat from a propane torch next, but I don't have a cutting torch to melt the bolt heads. I do have some cutting wheels and an angle grinder, so might have to resort to that, but there isn't much room to work in that area.
The front calipers came off pretty easily and seem to be in working order. The brake discs, however, are rather rusted from their years of disuse. They might be salvageable with a bit of machining, but machine shops don't like them in that condition because it's hard on their cutting blades.
Menards had fire extinguishers on sale this week, along with the CCWS required metal mounting bracket, so there is a new extinguisher to mount in the car.
Brought my MP3 player out to the garage and was able to plug it into the "Tape" input on the 1960s vintage RCA Solid State console stereo out there. None of the music on the MP3 player is newer than about 1965, most is Big Band from the '30s & '40s. BTW, "Tape" in those days meant reel-to-reel, as cassette tapes were not popular until a few years later.
