At least I know it wasn't all me.......

[terriphill]

I finally gave in. Local LBC guru invited me to bring the midget early this AM and they would help me get it timed and running. The have laughed at my adventures for the last few months since I began just "dropping by" to pick up parts and pick their brains. So, I got up about 6AM and loaded the devil car onto the trailer....Had it there just before 8 AM.
Ya'll were right, timing was 180 out. Fixed that, adjusted the rockers, checked the lines....and for the first time in a year...it STARTED!
Then it began its routine...no oil pressure showing. So, shut it off to check a few things...try again. CLick, click, click...starter not working. (Its brand new remember) Take a while to remove the starter, looks OK, check it...it works and appears fine. Reinstall it. Try again. cranks over great.
Now there's that clatter. Finally get a guage hooked up and find there is no oil pressure. It appears the oil pump is weak. (Didn't we just rebuild this thing?) Yep.
Three hours later....I had to get to my son's soccer game. Left the car with him so they can puzzle it out. Drove by this evening about 7:30 and saw the light on and he's got it in the garage still and I see several other members of the local club looking it over!
Now, mind you he's rebuilt LBCs for over twenty years.
I was so sure that after swallowing my pride and taking it in that I would be at least driving it around the block this evening, now I've four or five other mechanics scratching their heads and trying to figure it out.
The good news is...I now know that it wasn't all my inexperience and stupidity...this car really is possessed.

 

[jcatnite]

It might be possessed but it will get sorted out eventually. Have to keep hammering away at them till they are whipped into shape. The lack of oil pressure concerns me more than anything else right now. Pulling that oil pump without pulling the engine is a good afternoon's worth of work.
JC

 

[Morris]

As a fellow owner of a possessed car (although mine IS possessed with my stupidity) I can attest that you can replace that oil pump in 2 hours top. It's easy!

 

[terriphill]

..... The lack of oil pressure concerns me more than anything else right now. Pulling that oil pump without pulling the engine is a good afternoon's worth of work.
JC

I agree with you here! What REALLY is eating at me is that this may be what was wrong all along and the reason for all this insanity.
I do know, if it hadn't been low on oil pressure, I never would have pulled the 1st motor (twice). I never would have known it was toast and wouldn't have gotten me five miles down the road.
I also wouldn't have pulled the second motor (twice) and found out they never installed thrush washers. So, in a way...maybe all this is not possesion but my cars way of telling me there are porblems that need my attention or there will be even greater problems down the road?
About changing the oil pump....I do not have it in me to pull that motor for a 5th time. I am leaving it up to the experts. I know it goes against EVERY RULE of rebuilding cars, but they are letting me watch and follow so I'm pretending like this is a learning experience and not an admission of defeat.

 

[jlaird]

Bah, sometimes it is nice to supervise. Never know what you will learn during the process.

 

[Bugeye58]

Terri, you can drive the oil pump externally with a cordless drill to verify operation and pressure. You'll need to remove the distributor drive gear, and make a shaft to fit the pump and the drill, but it can be worthwhile. I'm wondering if the oil pump bushing that is pressed into the block didn't get removed and then left out. I've seen that happen. If you remove the drive gear, there should be a hole below it about 1/2" in diameter for the oil pump shaft. If the hole is much larger, the bushing has been removed, and you'll never get any pressure.
Jeff

 

[terriphill]

You know, I think we have been here before. Ya'll told me how to do the drill trick and we did. The oil pump is working. (shooting out a good stream)I pulled the line to the pressure guage and found it was clogged with "yech!" Blew it out, reinstalled...still read no pressure.
We hooked up an external guage to the side where the pressure guage is connected (Another excellent suggestion)
It read fine there a week ago and worked great a month ago.
Yesterday, did it again and got a reading of no pressure. The oil pump does not have enough pressure.
Maybe its sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
We do not know if this is trash, weak pump, clogged lines....you get the picture. Stay tuned though, we will get this worked out. I'm too far in to quit now!

 

[Bugeye58]

Terri, pardon my senility. I plead advanced age. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

I was just involved here with a 1500 with zero oil pressure, and couldn't remember which was which. The one I was working on here was missing the bushing.
Jeff

 

[healeyboz]

This bushing issue concerns me as well. I don't believe I have seen this in any of the exploded views of the motor! Any pics?

 

[Bugeye58]

I wouldn't worry about the bushing particularly. They are pressed in at the factory, and should never need to be removed. I pull them out on the race engines to open up the oil passage to the center main area, and then press them back in. I'm not aware of them being available anwhere as an aftermarket item.
The engine I mentioned had had the bushing removed for the oil passage modification, and the owner forgot to reinstall it!
They are peculiar to the 1500's, not the A Series engines.
Jeff

 

[healeyboz]

Thanks again Jeff. I wasn't even looking thinking of the 1500. I just figured that everything else was going wrong with the 1275 that this was just another thing I was going to have to redo!!