Freewheeling Hub and Engine Paint

So with the assembly tool completed it was time to assemble and install the freewheeling hub. I figured I could make the washer part of the tool myself, I should have just asked my friend to make it when he made the rest since that's what I ended up needing to do anyway...

Ashcraft sent me instructions for using the tool when he send me the dimensions and freewheeling hub and for the most part they're spot on. There are a couple of revisions I would make though:
The instructions say "...after you've place a roller bearing rotate the freewheel clockwise." but isn't super clear which side you should be looking at. It also mentions loading the freewheel into the tool with the part number towards the "large washer side" which you would think is the open side, which is NOT the case.

The biggest revision I would suggest though is NOT using a Popsicle stick to compress the plungers then trying to get the roller bearing situated with a pencil magnet. That operation requires 3 hands or more finese than I posses. That technique resulted in a tiny plunger going flying across my messy garage and I spent about an hour finding it, which amazingly I did.

We're calling the end that mates to the transaxle the front (the end with the teeth), the back is the side where the roller bearings are loaded.

My modified technique for loading the freewheeling hub into the tool and assembling it:

1. Clamp the tool in the vice by the attached tab with the front facing you. The part-number of the casting should be facing AWAY from you. If this isn't clear enough: when you install the finished hub the part number stamping should be visible, so the part number should be away from the toothed end of the tool.
2. Load in the spacer/washer and bar that hold the freewheel centered and in position in the tool. Use 2 pairs of needle-nose style vice grips to retain the spacer, regular vice grips will work they're just heavier and put more stress on the tab. I imagine any kind of clamp would probably work.
3. (2x)With a small pencil magnet grab a since spring, dip it in Moly grease and carefully install in the hole of the exposed section.
4. (2x) Using a strong pair of tweezers or fine needle nose pliers, dip the shouldered end of the plunger in the grease and then install it. The shouldered end goes down and connects with the spring. The plunger shouldn't fall down or go flying just gently set it in the hole, DO NOT COMPRESS! NOTE: be very careful that there is a spring in the hole you're trying to put the plunger BEFORE installing it, the plungers are almost an exact fit in these holes and if installed without the springs they are VERY difficult to remove. Ask me how I know...
5. Now with your magnet grab a roller bearing. Carefully compress both plungers into their holes. If you're not careful it's easy to push the plungers out of their holes in the wrong direction, simply correct this and try again. Compress the plungers down with the the roller bearing,  then carefully rotate the hub in the tool while keeping steady pressure until the chamfer in the tool separates the magnet and the bearing.
6. Repeat steps 3-5 until the entire hub is loaded. When the last bearing is installed the hub can be rotated to a half step so all the bearings are retained (none are in place to come out the installation hole).
7. Once the hub is in the position described above I used a piece of tape, covered the sticky side towards the bearing, to tape over the installation port. You can now remove the loaded tool from the vice.
8. Rotate the ring gear in the receiving trans-axle til the spider gears are towards the freewheel cup, if you don't do this the tool won't fit in place correctly.
9. Slot the tool into place, the teeth on the front should pair up with the teeth on the cup.
10. Using an input shaft with a single cir-clip installed tap the the freewheel into the cup.
11. Once installed you should be able to hold the freewheeling hub and spin the input shaft clockwise freely, counter-clockwise should move the whole assembly. If this is not the case something has gone wrong. NOTE: In my installation I had to hold the hub with reasonable force to get the freewheel to spin in the hub, however it does act as intended: counterclockwise doesn't freewheel at all.  I suspect this is simply a result of limited lubrication of the outside of the roller bearings, I didn't pack the entire assembly with grease, it is unclear whether it should be. I assume once the trans-axle case is full of gear oil it will lubricate the hub, plus with the freewheel being neutered I'm not that concerned about it.

Once that was done I figured I would do everything else I could do to make sure the trans-axle was in good shape. I replaced the carrier bearing, welded up and reground the release arm to remove the wear, and installed a new throw-out bearing. I use a medium bead of anaerobic gasket between the two halves of the case before bolting them back together, simply wipe off the excess that squeezes out of the case. If you use the recommended surface prep/catalyst I believe it cures faster, but isn't fully necessary. I waited 24-48 hours before adding any gear oil to allow the gasket to fully cure since I didn't use the catalyst/prep.

First I used some clean cheap sacrificial gear oil to flush the whole trans-axle of any dirt or crud from the time it was disassembled. Amsoil synthetic oil after that's drained and it's ready to go back in the car.

However since the engine is already out and I'm not likely going to get a better opportunity I thought now would be a good time to repaint the engine. In an ideal world I would tear the whole motor down, have it hot tanked, and respray it as a bare block, then re-assemble. It is not an ideal world we live in so I decided to paint the engine assembled. First that means removing the old paint which is cracking and flaking off in big chunks.

So here's the paint as it came out of the car. I've removed everything from the engine except the parts that keep the oil in.

Now to remove the paint I don't have many options. I could really try to seal all the holes into the block really carefully and try to sandblast it. I could seal all the holes and try to wire wheel it by hand. Neither of those options sounded like very much fun, so instead I opted to use aircraft paint stripper gel. This stuff is gnarly, so much so that even with thick rubber gloves on I could feel it on my hands if it dripped on me. However it does work VERY well, minutes after applying you can literally hear the sizzling and bubbling. 

The big chunks come off with a scrapper, and then another coat or two for the harder to get stuff. Some of the original paint and more baked on paint, mostly around the exhaust port resisted the stripper a little more and I still needed to break out the wire wheel.

I also ended up pulling the heater ports out of the block... they were so rusty they basically were tin foil. I'll try to have some new aluminum or stainless steel ones machined or thread the holes for resistant pipe-fittings in brass or something else that won't rust. The method for removing these is a little counter-intuitive: tap them with a hammer into the block semi-gently until they bottom out, then I used some penetrating oil and vice grips to pull them back out where they started and a little further. Repeat, add some twisting, and eventually they'll come out.

The dipstick tube also needed to come out to finish getting the paint off the block and I'll probably replace it while I'm at it. It's a standard 5/16" internal diameter Ford dipstick tube, just presumably at a different length. The tube is really seized in there so I'll have to come up with a way to get it out; in theory it should just be a press fit into the block, but no amount of yanking on my spare engine could dislodge the tube and only managed to crush and mangle the tube. More modern designs integrate an o-ring and hold the tube in it's port with a bracket, but on the Taunus it's just rammed right into the block, and made of a thicker metal than most I've seen. This may be another custom replacement, maybe drill out the hole and thread it?