Took me and two buddies 6 hours or so to disconnect it and take the combo out.

I still don't know for sure what made the engine loose oil, but there's a possibility the knocking sound didn't even come from the engine at all.

Took the starter off, noticed a bolt stuck inside, right in the gear, it had actually caused part of the casting of the starter to break off. So I had my suspicions, got it all confirmed when I removed the tranny dust cover, and YES indeed.

One of the flexwheel to torque converter bolts was gone, it had flewn off, right into the starter.

So it's quite possible the knocking sound came from that bolt coming loose, and that's also why the engine wouldn't start again, the bolt had jammed the starter.

However good thing I took the engine out anyway, since I'm sure several seals and gaskets were bad anyway, so at least this way I'll have a more reliable engine in with the tranny. (Cleaned out and changed gaskets on my other 305, more miles on it than my original one, but it looks good)
.
.

 

Loctite 262 is always a good idea on TC bolts.

 

Thanks, I was thinking about asking that one actually, what to use to prevent it from happening again.

 

The fatory star washer and proper torque has always done it for me.

Check for cracks on the flexplate- if you lost a bolt that might be either the reason why or the result of it happening.

 

I'll check it once we pull the tranny off, since my replacement engine doesn't have a flexplate nor torque converter on it.


How do you remove the oil stick tube from the engine ? Is it a twist in/push in unit ? Pull it out or tap it gently from the bottom ?

 

1 bolt holds it to the exhaust manifold. After that it should just pull out. Twist if you have to.

 

kewl