Please dont put this in the OT..Need help on a stuck Model A head and distributor

[Will]

Im helping a friend remove the head from his 29 A. I cant get the distributor out of the head. I'm soaking it with a mix of tranny fluid and acetone . Darn thing is stuck solid. Any ideas??

[Ruxstel24]

Heat and quench.
You can take a pair of snips and an old license plate or something and make a shield to help keep heat where you don't want it.

[Tim Rogers]

The club is going to have to hire someone to manage all of the OT threads or just let them be. There appears to be as many OTs as T related threads everyday!

I completely understand why you titled your thread this way and I hope you get some good replies...

[Rich Bingham]

Tim, I hope "OT" doesn't get out of hand. At the moment I think it's reasonable, 74 topics there as opposed to near 1500 on the regular boards. I don't think asking about this Model A problem is off topic any more than posts about non-stock model T accessories and modifications would be. A solution here can be helpful in a T application, there should be ample tolerance for "grey area" posts. Obviously posts about Aunt Granny's parakeet are 'way off topic and belong over there.

[TMiller6]

If you pry on the distributor body, it can brake off inside the head. Try lifting the head off the engine with the distributor still installed. Then use a pipe larger than the shaft to tap it out. This will also allow you better access for penetrating oil.

[Dennis Prince]

I had the dist housing break off on my A and ended up having to drill the housing almost all the way through and then break out the pieces, it came right out after I broke out the first piece, be careful not to let any pieces fall down inside. Good luck.

[critterpainter]

When it happened to me, I removed the head with the dist still installed. Unfortunately the dist did not survive the attempt at removal so I bought a new repop dist assembly and used lots of never-seize during reassembly.

[Mark Gregush]

Did you take the set screw out? Try tapping side to side with a rubber mallet. Be aware that some have a one piece aftermarket shaft, not a good thing, and could require lifting the head up rather high to get the shaft to clear.

[Will]

So far the things I have tried WD-40 and my own mix of 50-50 Transmission fluid and acetone. Iv tried to putting a wedge under each side and tapping them in until they are very tight hoping that maybe the upward tension will force it free. Before I retire for the night I will tap in the wedges just a whisker more and see what happens in the morning. The gentleman drove this car into his garage 7 years ago and now the engine is stuck. I'm hoping that once I get the cylinder head off I can pour in my releasing agent and get it freed up again. Welcome to Florida extreme humidity levels. Iv got a head puller coming from Synders. That should be a great help pulling the head.

[Pep C Strebeck]

Don't forget they also offer a distributor puller for stuck/hard to remove distributor bodies. Available from most all of the Model A vendors. I have had to use them before, they do work. Patience, time and penetrating oil.

model a.jpg (5.95 KiB) Viewed 7108 times

[Will]

Pep, Thanks for the tip on the distributor puller, I will order one as soon as they open.

[Adam]

Even with the cylinder head puller that attaches into the spark plug holes and allows you to “pull” the head with your engine hoist, you may just about have the front of the car off the ground and start working with wedges before the head moves...

[Randall strickland]

I ran into the same problem and made a puller.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtgvnT6ab0U&t=72s

[CudaMan]

I don't read all of the OT threads, but I look at the titles to see if there might be something of interest there.

Is there anybody here that flat out refuses to at least look at the titles of the OT threads?

I guess I don't understand why the OP doesn't want his thread moved over to OT, can you explain?

Thanks!

[Adam]

It is “sort of” OT (borderline). The people in charge of this board do a good job and the decision is up to them. I’m guessing they might let this run a while til there are a good quantity of seemingly good answers, and then move it over to the OT forum.

[fliverfan]

No, Please don't move it to OT - move it to https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=3

[HaroldRJr]

Will - I had the same problem with pulling the head off of my Model A as you are having. I used a "head puller" made out of a piece of steel plate, exactly like the one shown in the video that Randall posted. It finally worked, but after a couple weeks of "struggling", it still took nearly another couple weeks! Here's what I finally had to do:

I cut little pieces of half inch I.D. plastic pipe each about a half inch in length. Then, after cleaning the cylinder head very thoroughly around each head bolt (oops,..."studs" on a Model A) anyway, after cleaning the head with solvent around each stud/nut, I placed each of the little pieces of plastic pipe over each head stud/nut and bonded them to the head with silicone. After that set-up thoroughly overnight, I filled each little section of pipe with penetrating oil (Kroil) and let them all "soak" for about 3 weeks! Would like to have been able to use the 50/50 mixture of acetone/trans fluid, but that doesn't work "long term" because the acetone evaporates very quickly. Anyway, I filled each little plastic pipe "nipple" to the top with Kroil and checked every few days and actually observed the level of the Kroil gradually seep down into where it needed to be. The problem of course is that (as one of the guys in our club stated),...."years of rust & corrosion have caused the studs and the head to become as one"!!!) Even after all this, besides the force applied by the steel plate head puller bolts, I also had to apply even more force by driving very thin hardwood wedges in between head and engine block surface. (....if you use wedges like I did, be careful in the area of valves so you don't bend any of them!) Anyway, it was a very tedious and long, drawn out process which just about exceeded my limit of "patience", but it finally worked! Hope yours comes loose easier than mine did,....good luck Will,....harold