need a connecting rod splitting tip!

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mopar56

mopar56

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my son is rebuilding a 340 for his pick up, he got the block punched .040 over and had the machine shop supply the bearings, pistons, rings, etc, the rods were machined and came back assembled with rod caps, the bloody things are on TIGHT!, we have tried to separate them, the first one was tough but we were able to get it apart, gently, then install and plastigauge it, but again tough to get apart once in the cyl, any way on to the second one, we can not separate it we tried using the block of wood trick, a dead blow, etc, I know you should be able to separate it with your fingers but it aint happening, we seen a couple tools made for the job, one was a pretty elaborate hydraulic version, we heard about using a plastic cone in the center then tapping the rod with a dead blow, any one know any tricks?, help!, thanks.
 

Summit sells a rod disassembly tool. They are reasonable.
 
Ok thanks, I see them, one pretty heavy duty bench style and one hand held by Pro-form, that's kind of the size and style I had in mind, anyone have experience with them?
 
yes, defiantly, they were machined at the engine re builders and sent back assembled with nuts on tight, we are disassembling them to install the bearing shells and install in bore to plastigauge
 
Well thanks Rusty for your tool suggestion, however the soonest I could get the hand held version of that tool was three weeks here in Canada, and at $89.99, maybe Summit would have got it here faster but at a lot more expensive against our Canadian dollar plus brokerage, anyway after seeing how that tool was used I started thinking of other ideas that could work, then it hit me why not a exhaust expander?, same principle except the face of the tool was metal, a simple fix... I had some plastic indoor vacuum cleaner pipe laying around from a job I did and it was approximately 2" in diameter, so I cut off about a two inch wide piece from the pipe then cut it in half, I put the two halves in each side of the rod then inserted the tool, it only took a few turns of the tool with a ratchet and socket and it easily split apart!! The best part was the tool was only $36.00 Canadian which would mean probably only about $20.00 bucks to our U.S. friends south of the boarder, the tool I used was made by "Gearwrench" part number 2071, I tried to post pictures on this thread, hopefully they showed up if not I will try again, maybe the administrators might want to move this to the tool thread, also let me just say the rod caps on our rods were VERY tight, this was the only way to split them!
 

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like I said, these rod caps were TIGHT, I actually clamped a dead blow hammer in a vice and put the handle end through the rod then pulled on the rod at the piston end back and forth like a slide hammer until things came flying off my work bench, I have removed other caps before and yes a mallet or dead blow works for that but in EXTREME cases the rod needs to be split with a splitter, not everyone will need this tool but it is a cheaper alternative to the real McCoy!
 
mopar56 said:
like I said, these rod caps were TIGHT, I actually clamped a dead blow hammer in a vice and put the handle end through the rod then pulled on the rod at the piston end back and forth like a slide hammer until things came flying off my work bench, I have removed other caps before and yes a mallet or dead blow works for that but in EXTREME cases the rod needs to be split with a splitter, not everyone will need this tool but it is a cheaper alternative to the real McCoy!
Click to expand...
I`ve always loosedned the nuts,don`t take them off, and hit the nuts w/ a hard plastic mallet or such, knocks the bolts out a little and loosens the cap.
 
well I tried that too but not hard enough to knock the bolts out as they are knurled and set in the rods I really didn't want to disturb them, that may have worked but I really was trying to avoid any unnecessary shock and the tool I used avoided that
 
mopar56 said:
well I tried that too but not hard enough to knock the bolts out as they are knurled and set in the rods I really didn't want to disturb them, that may have worked but I really was trying to avoid any unnecessary shock and the tool I used avoided that
Click to expand...

somethings wrong w/ them if their that tite!
 
I like the tool you made. I had the same problem when I built my 340. I had the machine shop resize the rods and add ARP bolts. Those caps did not want to come off. I fought with one for 45 mins and finally got it off. im going to keep this tool in mind for my next engine build!
 
OK, like bluedream said, that's exactly what we had, the machine shop got our stock rods and machined them then installed new ARP bolts, and we fought the first two for 45 min each, they just wouldn't release, however with the tool they came apart in seconds, there isn't anything wrong with the rods, they came out nicely, just tight
 
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