I'm trying to plastigage my rods but I'm having a hell of a time removing the caps without moving that around so much that I ruin the plastigage. Is there a trick to easily taking them off?
Pistons are installed, crank is on the mains, and I'm pulling up the rod bolts and wiggling/hitting the bolts with a plastic hammer to get the cap off.
Any other suggestions?

Thanks
Ben

 

if u look on the bottom of the bolts on the rods there are tiny dimples..use a small punch or chuck and a hammer and GENTLEY tap each side (where the dimples are) 1 after the other till the cap is seperated from the plastigauge then it should be loose enough to wiggle it off..works for me every time........

ps.... im editing this post since im a "trial user" and only alowed 5 post per 24hrs...since u have manleys....just un screw the bolts (so basicaly there just sitting insinde the rod holes and tap down on the bolts with a plastic hammer or a peice of wood and a metal hammer.LIGHTLEY and they should slowly seperate the caps fome the rods(so basically the bolts are pushing the rods down off the caps)...hope that helped..


Modified by bruceleeroy at 2:03 AM 9/22/2003


Modified by bruceleeroy at 2:06 AM 9/22/2003


Modified by bruceleeroy at 3:36 AM 9/23/2003

 

I have Full Race/Manley rods...I don't see the dimple you are talking about or a way to use a punch on them. Any other ideas?

Thanks
Ben

 

edited above post /\ hope that helps..

 

We've had the same problem on a set of P72 rods with ARP 2000 9mm bolts b/c pressing the rod bolts warped the big-end. The out-of-roundness was corrected by align-honing, but the change in bolt orientation made it really hard to get the caps off.

Eventually I just had to put the bearings in, put the cap on, stretch the rod bolts in the table clamp, and measure the clearance with a dial bore gauge and micrometer.

You might also consider putting a slight chamfer on the inside radius of the rod cap to help keep it from binding on the threads when trying to move the caps up and off the rods.

 

i had that same problem with some gsr rods and arps but resizing took care of it....but he has manleys so his problem is different.

 

Same issue....the caps like to bind on the rod bolts.

Might also try lubing the shanks of the rod bolts to keep the caps from sticking to the rod bolts.

 

Thanks guys. I'll lube the shanks and go to work on them with my plastic hammer and hopefully it won't be too frusterating.

Update-
Plastic hammer on the rod bolts (sticking up on the upper half of the cap) works wonders. After a few good hits they literally pop off and reading plastigage is easy.

Thanks
Ben


Modified by Bnjmn at 12:58 AM 11/9/2003

 

Back From The DEAD!!!!

thanks to SEARCH

saved me a huge headache today!

GSR and ARP 9mm same problem

 

Something else we tried was putting the plastigage on the other side of the journal to keep it from being squashed when knocking the rod down.