Hello everyone!

Well, now I am officially onboard!

I bought a 1985 120GLS from its original owner. It has 60k kms and a bad crankshaft I'm told.

The body is in a decent shape with only some surface rust spot and paint flaking here and there.

This is a brand new territory for me in all aspects. I've never removed or rebuilt and engine and body/paint is not my expertise, but I will learn and work my way through this...unless the wife kills me!

 

I haven't taken a good look around the car yet, but I'll open with a question about the paint.

Should I leave the original as is and clean it up as much as possible and leave the surface spots there, or think about repaint? I don't think these cars are sacred classic territory (yet) where keeping everything or8ginal would be valued significantly, correct?

 

Thanks again and I'll keep this thread alive with my progress!

 

Cheers.

Anyone out there?

 

I am looking for first pointers on how to diagnose the engine. It does not look very good. So, I would like to see if I can get it to crank and then my plan is to take it out and clean it up and replace seals and anything that's broken.

First, I tried turning it by hand and I can rotate it quite easily counterclockwise, which I hope is the proper direction.

 

When I complete a full roration, there is a distinct "clunk" sound from the oil pan like golf ball dropping inside. It happens on every rotation at the same spot. Is there some kind of a lever that drops with each rotation? Is that sound normal?

There's only a very very tiny drop of oil on the dipstick. At least it's not a completely dry engine sitting all this time. I'm quite sure there's no gas left in the tank and I don't see any brake fluid in the reservoir either.

 

So, I was hooing to disconnect the fuel line, just in case, pour some gas or squir starting fluid into the carb and connect a bettery and see if it will want to crank.

Does that sound like a good plan given that clunking sound? I don't want to destroy any internals.

 

Thanks!

I would have thought you would be better taking the engine out and stripping it down to find out what is "clunking" inside. 
And if there is that little amount of oil in the engine I certainly wouldn't want to try and start it.

I would start by removing the oil pan and taking a look under there. 

If it clunk's it can either be something very bad or very very bad. 

Thank you.

I managed to take the engine out and put onto a stand! So, the teardown will be done over the winter months. 

 

The good news is that the engine is turning freely. Bad news is that one if the bearing caps is off and the surface underneath looks scratched.

Hopefully, a crankshaft regrind will renew it to usable state.

Pistons do move freely and from the limited view through the spark plug holes, they do look coated in carbon, not in rust.

Well grooves in the crank is one thing but wou can not go smaller than one dimension as the cap will not properly sit and you will get low end play. 

I would try to sort out a new crank and new bearings. And for god sake I would check all oil galleries for blockage because I have a hunch why the scoring was caused in the first place. 

Edited 10 February, 20206 yr by Thefeliciahacker

I’m curious as to how you are making out with this car I stopped at your house back in 2019 as I was about to purchase one as well I still have mine it runs and drives tho I need calipers for the front and my starter is starting to drag