WD 45 Gas

Welding man · May 28, 2016

I just got a WD 45 Gas in the shop yesterday for a rebuild. Water in Oil- liner o-rings shot. .010 Rod Bearings and .020 Mains. The main caps also had shims. Looking at a rebuild kit. Main bearing and rod bearing shims are both available. I rebuild a lot of engines, 5 in the shop right now of different brands. Would some of you AC Gurus that know a lot more about AC than I do please explain to me why that you would grind a crank,buy the correct bearings and still need shims? Thanks for anyone's input.

DrAllis · May 28, 2016

WD-45 engines always had .010" thick shims on the main caps and none on the connecting rods. Models WC and WD did have shims on the connecting rods, but not WD-45's. The shim feature was becoming outdated by the time of the WD-45, and was completely eliminated in the D-17 series. Each .010" shim consists of FOUR shims glued/laminated together that were .0025" each. The concept was when doing a ring job, you could tighten things up a bit without changing bearings or grinding the crank. It also required filing on the ends/edges of the bearing inserts just a bit to make up for shim removal. You MUST continue to use the .010" shims, or align bore the block to eliminate the need. If your old shims measure .010" reuse them. Be aware of the offsetting of the piston pins on that engine, or you'll have a piston pin carve a nice groove inside a new sleeve and you'll get to take it apart again.

Welding man · May 29, 2016

Thank you for the response. I will check the shim thickness tomorrow. I also have a service
manual ordered. Thanks again.

WD 45 Gas

Welding man

Well-known Member

DrAllis

Well-known Member

Welding man

Well-known Member

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