During my visit with Ted Schumacher, he asked me if I understood the concept of thrust washers in the TR6 engine. Of course my answer was "thrust who" !?! So Ted pulled a set of new thrust washers off the shelf and explained where they went in the engine (at the rear of the engine around the crankshaft), what their purpose was (control the fore/aft movement of the crankshaft) a.k.a. "float", and most importantly, how to measure the amount of float (should be between 6 and 9 thousands of an inch).
On the drive back home, I got a sinking feeling that the float in my engine was more that .009 of an inch ! Ted had also explained that the bronze face of the washers was designed to be sacrificed in order to preserve the crankshaft (clutch usage is what tries to move the crankshaft fore and aft ) ,and checking the float was something that must be done annually or every 10K miles.
Once I got home, I went to the 6-Pack Forum and did a search on "thrust washers". It seems this has been a favorite topic over the years as many threads were retrieved for me to read. I learned that if the float becomes too great from worn washers, they will fall out of their crankshaft nesting place and lay in the oil pan. Once that happens, the crankshaft and and block will slowly destory each other !
During my next visit to the "Man Cave" (my garage) where I am working on "Tillie", I grabbed the engine damper and gave a it yank....it moved waaaay too much (you should hardly feel .009), so ,I got a ruler and rough measured about 1/8 inch movement, that's 125 thousands !! Based on what I had read on the 6-Pack threads, I knew my thrust washers were laying in my oil pan, and who knows how long the crankshaft and engine block had been tearing each other apart.
Here is what I saw when I dropped the oil pan....
Here are some of the metal chunks / shavings
And finally the battered thrust washers
At this point , I know I'll need to have the engine rebuilt. The issue is whether or not the crankshaft and engine block can be salvaged.
Ted has assured me that he has the machine shop resources available when it comes time to deal with the engine, so for now I've put the whole engine mess on the back burner.
