Help with an OS FP .40

Leonnard or someone HELP! I got a used OS FP .40 and decided to take it apart and clean it up prior to running it. Great idea but not so easy. Took off the head, backplate and pulled the sleeve - no problem but I could not get the rod off the crank. Messed around until I finally scratched the piston and gave up. So how do you get the rod off the crank??

>Leonnard or someone HELP! I got
>a used OS FP .40
>and decided to take it
>apart and clean it up
>prior to running it. Great
>idea but not so easy.
>Took off the head,
>backplate and pulled the sleeve
>- no problem but I
>could not get the rod
>off the crank. Messed around
>until I finally scratched the
>piston and gave up. So
>how do you get the
>rod off the crank??
>
>Cary

Very carefully. Actually most of the rods will come off the shaft quite easily. Sometimes you have to add a little pressure to pull them off--pry them up a little, or grab them with a pair of long nose pliers (but grab lightly and pull lightly. Don't force anything or you could bend something.)

Now...the big problem. Occasionally you have an engine that has been run with castor oil (good idea) but it is varnished up (read that: "the rod is stock") in the wrist pin area. The rod should slide back and forth smoothly on the wrist pin that goes through the piston. If it gets stuck on there and won't slide back and forth, it makes sliding the rod off the crank area more difficult (or impossible). The solution in this case is that you need to unstick the rod from the wrist pin. Dripping some after run oil (Marvel Mystery Air Tool Oil) on this area--sometimes just "spritzing" it with WD-40 will free it up. I have sometimes turned the engine upside down and filled the inside of the piston with after run oil and let it sit for a while. Once the rod is freed and slides back and forth on the wrist pin, then getting it off the crankshaft should be easy (sort of).