Re: Recommendations to repair-not rebuild-a Model A Engine
A few hints if you decide to have a look inside that engine: First, get the Model A-specific engine stand mount, that fits in the four-wheeled Harbor Freight engine stand-then you can swing the engine around. Get a paint pen, and mark every bearing cap with a number, and a line that will tell you the proper way to put them back on. Do the same with every piston-number it, and paint a line from the cap to the lower part, so you don't get the bearing caps turned around or on the wrong piston. Get a piece of cardboard, and as you remove each valve, number it and put it in a numbered hole in the cardboard, along with the valve guides, keepers and springs, each set in a seperate, numbered baggie. The idea is that you want every part to go back in the same place, and the same orientation as it came out. As you clean the valves off (I wire-wheel them) you will lose your paint marks, but do them one at a time, and re-do the marks before you put them back in the right place in the cardboard holder.
I re-cut my valves with a hand-cutter ( one of the very useful tools I've found at swap meets), and re-grind them by hand with grinding compound. Not difficult, but tedious.
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