MTFCA Forum

Over the course of the summer we've noticed an intermittent faint knock in our 1919 T. A local group member was kind enough to come over and through shorting out one plug at a time isolate the noise to the #4 cylinder. Since the car smokes at times & the last record I have of it having any major engine work was in 1963 I figured that it was time to pull the engine this winter and go through it. I decided that since the noise hasn't changed in the 2 summers that I've driven it, I would go ahead and go on my first group ride. The ride was in a "hillier" area than I anticipated & now the knock is louder.

I decided to go ahead and pull the #4 rod cap and see if I could remove some shims to allow me to run around some until it was time to pull the engine this winter. So far I've found that the service manual times for this operation is quite humorous in that I've already spent that much time just trying to get off of the creeper.

I was surprised to see that it has dippers on the rod caps. Here's a picture of the inside of the #4 cap. After I moved the piston up in the bore I could see that the Babbitt on the rod end is also grooved the same way and there is a hole exiting by the rod stem.

This morning I was finally getting close to having the correct clearance when I did what I was afraid I'd do: I dropped the cap & shims as I was trying to get it back on. I had made an aluminum foil pan to try to avoid this but the shims from one side of the cap fell down into the oil pan. I can see them down in the pan using a mirror.

Short of buying a brass magnet, has anyone had any success in getting shims out in a similar situation? Or is it time to bite the bullet and pull the engine?

You could try a flexible claw pickup tool.

Just one leaf of a shim pack? What brass shim, must have dropped it somewhere under the car. Oh well I will find it later. Personally if I was going to pull the engine this winter and couldn't see it to pull it out, don't know if I would worry about it. Or you could try flushing it down to the drain and pull it out.

It might be possible to bend the end of a screw driver on a right angle and carefully insert it above and beyond the shims, then pull them forward till you can reach with your hand. Otherwise, since brass does not stick to magnets, and they are thin and small, they most likely would not damage the magneto.
Norm

Exactly what is a "brass magnet" ????

Can you get at by removing the transmission cover? I brought a borescope camera on amazon, pretty inexpensive. Ive used it to see things around the engine that a mirror wouldnt get at and looked inside my cylinders. With that you can probably find it and fish it out. If not, removing the hogs head might be the next move if draining the oil a few times doesnt reveal it.

Here is a link to a fishing story. This jig should work for this too.
https://mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=27960

And lots of borescopes have attachments like hooks, magnets, mirrors like this

I wouldn't worry about a thin, brass shim in there, especially since you'll pull the motor sometime sooner than later anyway.

RajoRacer wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 02, 2024 1:23 pm

Exactly what is a "brass magnet" ????

A "brass magnet" is a mythical tool that is usually used as the thing you ask the new guy to go look for in the machine shop.

Mark Gregush wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 02, 2024 12:56 pm

Just one leaf of a shim pack? What brass shim, must have dropped it somewhere under the car. Oh well I will find it later. Personally if I was going to pull the engine this winter and couldn't see it to pull it out, don't know if I would worry about it. Or you could try flushing it down to the drain and pull it out.

I should have clarified this. Each side of the rod cap was shimmed .054". Since I'm using the shims from Snyder's that are .035" (I think), I have to use part of 2 shim packs on each side of the rod cap. So I have 2 shim packs laying in the front of the pan down towards some sort of riveted plate by the drain.

The more I think about it, I think it's just time to go ahead and pull the engine. It's November in North Central Ohio, so I don't think there are a lot of good days that will be lost in driving an open car at this point.

Thanks everyone for the input.

Todd,
Pulling the engine and rebuilding it is a good choice. Get it rebuilt over the winter and have it ready for touring in the spring. I live about 60 miles north of you and I suspect the comfortable touring season is over. Normally I do several tours in November. Probably not this year.

Art Mirtes

Todd,
Pulling the engine and rebuilding it is a good choice. Get it rebuilt over the winter and have it ready for touring in the spring. I live about 60 miles north of you and I suspect the comfortable touring season is over. Normally I do several tours in November. Probably not this year.

Art Mirtes

Attach some 1/2" tubing to your shop vac. Works every time.