1971 Meyers Manx dune buggy

Picture below was taken in mid 2022 after a body off restoration. Tires are new tractor tires from India on 15 inch diameter by 15 inch wide aluminum wheels. Way down are pics of engine torn down May 2023 due to oil leak. 

Below is a picture taken in about 1980 at Pismo beach. 

2023 PICTURES OF ENGINE WORK TO CURE STUCK TIEROD AND OIL LEAK.

The oil leak was so bad that the engine was run with low oil. My fault – so I pay for it by being forced to fix it. The result was the engine could not be started by the starter – the crank was very hard to turn. I left it to sit for the winter and here it is spring. So I pulled the cylinder sleeves off and found that one piston tie rod was stuck and would not rotate on the crank. I loosened the two nuts on the tie rod end and just that action allowed the tie rod to rotate thought not loosely. Taking it off revealed that the bearing (which is in two pieces) was badly scored and ruined and there are remnants of it welded to the crankshaft. Here are pics.

This bearing is destroyed. The tie rod end cap is not damaged but the crankshaft has some metal fuzed to it. See that here below. I used the knife to see if I could scrape it off and I did get some to peel away. More later. 11 AM 3-26-23

Below is a chronicle of my task to remove the engine and get it up onto my work bench.

You can see the engine is not too heavy for a folding table.

May 2023 engine work

An oil leak in 2022 caused low oil which caused some tie rod bearings to fail and the engine froze and would not turn over. I removed the heads and the cylinder just behind the flywheel on the left side. I was able to remove and replace the tie rod bearings and reassemble the engine. But when nearly altogether there was an odd friction and snap when rotating the flywheel. So off it all came. Here are the pieces.