I want to duplicate the paper strips with wax that West Bend and Chrysler used to use to hold the rod needles for the 610/820's. You just slid the needles as a group off the paper into the rod body, wrapped the strip around the crankpin and put the cap on. A heat gun melts the wax out, or you can just squirt brake/carb cleaner in there, oil them and run it gently for a minute or so. Does anybody, maybe Dick Teal, know what wax the factory used to "glue" the needles together on the paper strip? I will make a holder from aluminum to hold the needles in place while I pour a little melted wax on the strip. Then I may roast the assemblage in the toaster oven for a short time to ensure the wax penetrates between all the needles. As we get older, our hands get less steady and our eyes less keen. It gets harder to put the needles into grease or Vaseline with tweezers every year! The wax strips make it super easy to do the assembly. Thanks! Ted
I'm not sure what the factory who shipped them to us used but we used to use paraffin wax on loose ones we had in the shop.
John, I figured paraffin was the ticket. I will have to order some from McMaster. Thanks. Ted
I hear ya Ted on the hand agility issue, I am not as steady as I used to be.
Just a warning though on using paraffin wax.....
When My Dad and I raced in the 60's we used wheel bearing grease which had paraffin in it to install the needles and didn't wash it out. We ended up burning up two cranks and rods due to the increased heat before we figured out it was the grease. When we switched to petroleum jelly we never had an issue again.
Now I just slip in the needles using assembly lube and a good pair of tweezers. The assembly lube is sticky enough to hold the needles on the crank while I place the cap.
At any rate, if you use pariffin wax, in my opinion, make sure you figure out a way to get is all out of there before running the engine. Pariffin requires quite a bit of heat to melt.
Just my opinion from a bad experience that cost us two state championship races....LOL
Scott
Got ya, Scott. I have the heat gun Terry sent me years ago "for those cold Arizona Winters". It'll melt out the wax. My engines aren't painted, so no danger of hurting the finish. On low heat the gun will melt out every bit of wax. I'm pretty sure, though not certain, that West Bend/Chrysler used paraffin on their factory needle strips. I've melted out their wax a number of times. I'm just too shaky for tweezers these days, plus the light in the garage is very poor. I have been using black moly disulfide grease for fifty years, and it works fine. I just want to try the wax thing. I kind of think the fibrous quality of wheel bearing grease may also cause issues. Maybe it makes the needles slide instead of turning, I don't know. Pop started using the moly grease when I was a kid, and it does work well. The paraffin melts at 154 degrees max, so that ought to be reachable pretty easily. My engine holder can hold the engine stuffer-hole down, so the wax will drip out from underneath instead of going up into the little end bearing. The jig is almost made. One cut and two holes, drilled and tapped should do it. The question is whether to preheat the jig and needles, or to just lay shavings of wax on top of the needles and let it melt between them. The jig has drain holes below where the needles and paper strip go to get rid of the excess. I waxed the paper strips with Turtle wax so the needles should come off as a unit. We shall see! Thank you for the good input. Ted