Lost my end play spacer >.<
 

During tear down of my 6-port 13b I lost the end play spacer and now that I'm needing to measure end play I cannot. So my question is this, which spacer should I buy?? I know this is a difficult question to answer, but does anybody know the factory size spacer? Or did each engine get a different spacer from factory depending on the end play at time of assembly? I'm thinking about just ordering every size from Atkins or Mazdatrix but it's going to be over $80 from either site after shipping. That's a lot of wasted money if you ask me... I mean, I guess I could always return the ones I don't use, if they allow that... Or buy one, test it and if it's off buy the next one based off the measurement? Any ideas as to which one I should start off with would be great.

There's not one factory size. I took apart 4 S4 N/A engines and got 4 different spacers out of them.

For reference here are the options for 1979 - 1992:

Stamp Part Number Thickness (mm)
S 8871-23-129 8.12mm
T 8534-11-518 8.10mm
X 0839-11-506 8.08mm
K 8519-11-517 8.06mm
Y 0839-11-508 8.04mm
V 0839-11-502 8.02mm
Z 0839-11-509 8.00mm

Aaron Cake talks about end play spacers at about the 44-45 minute mark of this video. He notes a V spacer is common.

The larger the end play spacer the more end play you will have. You could start with a V or even a Y and work your way larger as you go, or you could grab a drawer full of them. I ended up having to go for a larger one. I had V, Y, K, and X to choose from.

Yeah I called up Atkins and spoke with somebody on the phone, he suggested to start with a K. But then I spoke to a local rotary engine builder (Rotary Doctor) and he explained nine times out of ten when he rebuilds a 13b with used plates and housings he is typically a Z or V. I'm going to go a head and order a V and go from there.

Better to follow the FSM, then use a digital vernier to check sizes, then subtract to come up with the proper size needed.

Sorry if this isn't the easy answer you're looking for. :)

edit: no, that's really too much work, now that I checked the FSM again. Well, not too much but you'd have to measure quite a few parts since you don't have any spacer at all.

Get an "S" to make sure you have too much end play, then use a dial indicator to see how much over you are. Then use that to get a thinner spacer.

Start with a V spacer. If you buy new Torrington bearings at the same time, you'll probably be able to stick with the V. Almost every engine I see is a V from the factory.

Yeah I bought the master rebuild kit from Atkins, so just about everything is new. I did buy a V spacer and I'm at around .0020 so that seems to be the one to use!

Also, Aaron thank you VERY much for all of your videos I think I watched your engine build video 20+ times and followed it as I built this engine. You are the bee's knees..

Aaron's calming voice has walked me through more than one build, I'll tell you that. lol

What the video doesn't show is the mad scramble to find another inner coolant seal because one of the ones supplied in the rebuild kit was split. Thankfully there was a spare around the shop. Now I always keep several spares and check the ones supplied with the kit. Equals less swearing halfway through the build.