AJS & Matchless Owners Club

Hi Les

leswaller wrote:Can you find some way of soaking the whole assembly in ATF/Acetone?

That's what I'm trying to do now, when I say 'I quench the studs' I pour ATF/Acetone mix onto them whilst very hot, (hot enough to ignite the mix), I keep applying until it pools around the studs and then leave it until the next day.

As a matter of interest I've just measured what's left of the engine, 50cm x 40cm x 45cm, that's a volume of 90 litres I'm guessing that I'd need about 50 litres of fluid to submerge it if I could find a container of that size.

I've resigned myself to the fact that this may be a, very, long process but I'm determined to not damage the barrels or crank cases, neither of which are replaceable.

Regards Mick

I can't believe its just the gasket holding on, with that puller you've rigged up surely it would have failed. There must be tons of lift. Is it a composite gasket? Perhaps some dental floss may cut through it. The central holding down stud look very corroded. I continue working on the studs with penetrating oil, I think you said some of the studs have started to come out with nuts?. Can you try to turn some of the other studs to break bond if they are corroded to the aluminum flange.
Good luck.
Harry

Hi Harry

Thanks for the dental floss suggestion - I'd not thought of that. The gasket is a relatively thick fibrous material, a bit like asbestos but I'm sure it's not.

It turned out that only one of the studs unscrewed when I tried to remove the nuts - it's a plain stud at one 'corner' I've tried using half nuts to lock the studs but there's no room to turn the lower one to wind out the stud

The studs are a mixture of three types according to the workshop manual:
And all I can imagine holding things together are either the gasket or corrosion in the stud bores but my repeated heating, whacking, flooding should have penetrated that.

Off to experiment with dental floss.

Regards Mick

Could be the studs passing through the hollow locating dowels have rusted together

Hi Mick,

Interesting post though a bit frustrating for you.

Just a thought, when I worked in the aerospace line, we had small tinplate reels of abrasive coated cord in different diameters, all around sixteenth inch. Varying grades, just cut off the length you need.

Wonder if you could get some it might help cutting through whatever you need to cut!

Steve

Just a thought on the studs passing through the dowels, when the barrels are pulled down do said dowels virtually come to face of barrel flange if they do could they have been squeezed and nipped on the studs.

any further developments? kind regards

Hi

No new developments yet - I took a few days off to visit the Costa Del Crime and am now back refreshed - hopefully it won't be too long before I'm posting a 'They're Off' update to this thread.

Thanks all for your continued interest and suggestions.

Regards Mick

Mick,

Referring to your jacking tool, I would suggest using it slightly differently than what you show in the picture. I would jack only on the outer head studs. This will bend the cylinder block upwards at the sides ever so slightly so that a crack can be opened up on the gasket at (one of) the sides. Use a razor blade or Stanley knife to get the crack going. You could also put some ice against the crankcase close to where you are working on the gasket, to pull the crankcase side slightly downwards.

Hope this can help.
Bjørn

Hi

I'm a very happy man this morning - the barrels are off

An initial investigation would indicate they were being held together by the gasket and tight fitting dowels on the studs, there's very little indication of corrosion.

Having resisted a continual regime of heating beating and soaking I decided to purchase a larger nozzle for my propane torch, heated the barrels to boiling point and then whacked them with a club hammer via an oak drift and:
Then using the jacking screws:
And eventually:
No damage sustained and I can at last get on with the engine inspection and re-build - thanks to all for the moral support and suggestions.

Regards Mick