Ist, if you pounded on, or abused the front pulley bolt in an effort to remove it, discard the entire thrust assembly. Hard washer bearings thrust plate, thick washer, everything. If you have an oil can that keeps falling over and making a mess, you can braze or TIG the thrust plate to the bottom of the can and it will never fall over again.

 

To remove the stock pulley bolt, you heat the head with your cutting torch first, to kill off the Locktite the factory puts on every engine.

 

Assemble the rebuilt engine with all new thrust parts. You can save the spacer for re-use.

 

If you are talking about the center iron that has a groove from the corner seal, it can be resurfaced by anyone with a surface grinder, best by a shop that does big diesel cylinder heads. If you finger nail hangs up in the groove, it is probably more than .004" deep and the Nitride is about .002" or a bit more.

 

 The irons were not always Nitrided and had difficulty going over 100,000 miles in the cars. With Nitride and frequent oil changes you can get over 200,000 miles. There is no penalty for grinding all of the irons if you keep it under .004" on each face, then re-Nitride the irons.

 

For irons in good shape with no deep grooves, you can lap one iron against another to produce a dead flat surface that holds oil better than the original. Or, you can send them off to Mazdatrix or Racing Beat to be lapped. In any case the ground finish is not smooth enough to run on, and any repair must end with a lapping.

 

I use an air powered orbital sander (DA) with 400 silicone carbide paper in the cleaning tank under running kerosene to put little circles in the racing irons. Hold lots of oil, and the irons never seem to wear out. This instead of lapping. Quick and works great. Lapping is better I am told. But I never tried it.  

 

Or you can buy a new center iron, or a good used iron. Sign up for the Nopistons news group and check out parts for sale. You might even get parts for just the shipping.

 

Lynn E. Hanover

 

We all thought it - you HAD to say it, Tom

On 2/23/2012 2:16 PM, Thomas Mann wrote:

>How did you finally get it off, Gordon?

Whoa! 

Getting a little personal don't you think?