Re: fitting pistons 320 packard 1934

Posted by Tim Cole On 2015/9/2 16:12:47

I made a pilot using an old wrist pin with .001 turned off it and chamfered one end.

Then I put a long wire through the small end so I could pull the rod up for assembly. Feed the wire through the piston, followed by the pilot, followed by the pin from the opposite side. This took a lot of pain out of the process.

I also made up sleeves out of heavy tape to prevent the crank from being nicked by the process and used plastic tubes on any rod bolt threads.

If you want to be really fancy you can turn out a drift that will slide through the pin and pilot to hold the assembly in perfect alignment. How about that?

If the motor was out of the car I stood the thing upright on a piece of wood and worked horizontal at bench height.

The bottom of the cylinders should have a relief to allow the rod to be brought higher. If the block has been sleeved those reliefs have to be restored otherwise you will have problems.

Big end bearings larger than the bore is common in diesel engines so you might find a video demonstration somewhere.