This is going to be a slog.
A while back, I received the crank scraper and windage tray for the Midget. I opted for the Teflon insert, which lets you get closer to the crank and gives you a little wiggle room for crank movement, block distortion – everything an A series engine is likely to do when spooled past idle.
I received and returned the templates, and received everything I needed – and an EXTRA crank scraper for a 1275. I won’t have any need for it, so if somebody is building a 1275 and wants to install a crank scraper, first $150 takes it, and I’ll donate $50.00 to the site.
But I would wait until I’m done with this – you can then determine if it’s worth the headache it’s turning out to be.
Right out of the box, with a bolt in place at the front of the block – this unit attaches to the flange - at the back of the block, 2 of the bolt holes didn’t line up . . .
Knowing that enlarging these holes would let the scraper move laterally, I determined I needed to pin the scraper in place before I started trimming it to fit. A trip to Puhl’s True Value landed me 2 1/8” pins. I clamped down the scraper with a couple of bolts that DID line up, and drilled into the flange, then used J.B. Weld to hold them securely in place, centering the scraper . . .
After cutting them down to be flush with the oil pan, I cleaned up the mess and removed the plastic bag, which I put into place to prevent shavings from getting into the crankcase . . .
After that, I needed to trim the scraper a bit more around the inside counterweights – they made a really sweet scrapey noise when you turned the crank, and I got to thinking that it might not be too good creating shavings – after all, that’s why I put the plastic bag over the open crankcase.
The Teflon insert sandwiches between the mounting frame bolted to the flange, and a mounting piece, held in place with 10 bolts . . .
I got to this point and realized I had about 3 hours of Teflon trimming in front of me.
So now I know what I’ll be doing Wednesday night.