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I'm an old car nut, probably like a lot of folks on this forum, and since this is my first post perhaps an introduction is in order.
I work in Food Service, my pet projects are a '48 Plymouth and '67 VW Bug, and my Lady Wife and I live 45 miles North of Denver. I also write social satire.
My Landlord is a great guy with no mechanical ability, so when his '76 Ranchero started to take a dump on itself he asked me to diagnose the problem. The problem was a bent exhaust valve in #2 with so much ground steel in-and-outside the engine that replacing the head was not an option.
My question: How can I torque the head bolt at the rear bottom next to the heater box without removing the box? I can get a crowfoot wrench on it but not the torque wrench. I could use a universal driver but the torque would be off, perhaps a lot.
So, rather than re-inventing the wheel, I turn to some folks who've probably been in the same barrel. Any suggestions?
It depends on the clock position you put the crowsfoot and the center to center dimension of the c/f. At 12:00 you would decrease the torque setting by the percentage of 1foot that the c/f center to center is. At 6:00 you increase torque setting. At 3 or 9 your nuetral. Good luck.
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62 Falcon 2dr
63 Ranchero
01 Saturn SC1 plastic Vega
11 Kia Forte 5
3 Bikes
My time to wrench on that '76 400M engine has been limited to just a few hours on only one day each week, but I honestly thought I'd get it finished today. I got a crowfoot wrench for the head bolt but it requires a universal joint and although I was able to put 60# of torque on it, any pressure more than that would cause the universal to twist vertically, which makes the cf to ride up the flats and slip off.
I thought seriously about cutting a hole in the heater box to make room for the head of the torque wrench, but although I think that portion of the box is simply an air duct I'm afraid of cutting into something I shouldn't.
Fords are made too well to require pulling the engine to get to one stinking head bolt, so there must be some way short of that to wrench it properly.
A local dealership offerred to do it for me for an exorbitant fee if I had the Ranchero towed in, but they wouldn't tell me how they'd get the job done.
Since the vehicle is driven only about 1000 miles per year I toyed with the idea of leaving the torque on that one bolt light, but that's inviting a blown head gasket and a warped head. Besides, I don't like to do Mickey Mouse jobs, not to mention that the owner is a friend of mine.
So, what's the general consensus; could I get away with cutting the box or is there a realistic approach to this that hasn't occurred to me?
If I were to do it again I'd make the cut an inch taller to facillitate insertion of the torque wrench, but after the re-torquing I'll seal the plug back in with silicone and never need to look back.
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