Air cleaner's turn for a little work today. Managed to get the top off with the help of some anti-seize oil, to reveal a pretty thick layer of crusty sludge. It was going to be fun trying to clean around all those louvres.
The filter on the bottom wouldn't budge. It's supposed to be removeable, but this one appears firmly attached, with no room for a screwdriver or anything else to help get it to move and slide down the central tube. Did they change the design at some point? For now, I've cleaned the area and applied more anti-seize, and I'll see what it does in a day or so. It could just be stuck to the possibly ancient gasket between it and the top part. Or does anyone know of another way it comes off?
After some scraping, cleaning and a going over with the brass wire wheel, the air cleaner as a whole was starting to look a lot better. Some corrosion and rust revealed, and all that will be taken care of by a primer coat of rust converter. Still have to remove the orginal black paint on the hose insert, which is in good shape and didn't want to come off, thanks to having spent most of its life hidden inside the air hose connection.
Air cleaner with top back on, waiting for further work. Louvres took a long time to clean (had to do both sides, too), with a lot of gentle scraping and wire brushing, but now they're clean.
