Saturday, August 2, 2008
Back to it...
Well, down to the deadline of August 3, but looks like I'm not going to quite make it.
Last night I pulled the steering rack off again, and tighten the driver's side engine mount. Put the rack back in - it's a two person job, really, to make sure the steering shaft goes into the universal joint. Colleen grabbed a pair of gloves and helped me out. I also started to put the intake/exhaust manifold on. That went fine until I got my wrench stuck behind the upper portion of the manifold! I was tightening one of the studs and discovered that I could not get my ratchet wrench out from behind! So at that point, I figured it was time to quit for the night.
Today, I was able to sneak the wrench out from behind the manifold! Removed the valve cover and jiggled it around and got it out.
Today, my plan was basically to get everything buttoned up, and have Sunday to get the car running. Well, ran into three issues today that will probably cause me to miss the 8/3 deadline -
1) No alternator brackets! The engine doesn't have them, and my old engine still has the brackets on it when I traded it in. I tried to take a bracket off one of the GB-Series but it's too small. So, tomorrow I am going to check out a friend's parts car to see if he has one that fits. I've also advertised for one.
Here is what's missing -
2) Exhaust system - the downpipe is really stuck in the muffler, and I need to get that out or use the catalytic converter again, which I would rather not do. But I'm going to take it over to my buddy's house tomorrow - he has a torch that we can use to get it out, versus my little propane thing.
3) The distributor in the '76 is different from the one in the '75. The '65 apparently has en electronic ignition while the '75 was points. The wiring is a little different so I need to figure that out.
'75 Distributor
'76 Distributor
If I can get the alternator brackets and exhaust issues fixed tomorrow, that would be great. I have a line on some infor regarding the distributor, so my goal for tomorrow is to have the 3 issues fixed, if not all installed.....
Last night I pulled the steering rack off again, and tighten the driver's side engine mount. Put the rack back in - it's a two person job, really, to make sure the steering shaft goes into the universal joint. Colleen grabbed a pair of gloves and helped me out. I also started to put the intake/exhaust manifold on. That went fine until I got my wrench stuck behind the upper portion of the manifold! I was tightening one of the studs and discovered that I could not get my ratchet wrench out from behind! So at that point, I figured it was time to quit for the night.
Today, I was able to sneak the wrench out from behind the manifold! Removed the valve cover and jiggled it around and got it out.
Today, my plan was basically to get everything buttoned up, and have Sunday to get the car running. Well, ran into three issues today that will probably cause me to miss the 8/3 deadline -
1) No alternator brackets! The engine doesn't have them, and my old engine still has the brackets on it when I traded it in. I tried to take a bracket off one of the GB-Series but it's too small. So, tomorrow I am going to check out a friend's parts car to see if he has one that fits. I've also advertised for one.
Here is what's missing -
2) Exhaust system - the downpipe is really stuck in the muffler, and I need to get that out or use the catalytic converter again, which I would rather not do. But I'm going to take it over to my buddy's house tomorrow - he has a torch that we can use to get it out, versus my little propane thing.
3) The distributor in the '76 is different from the one in the '75. The '65 apparently has en electronic ignition while the '75 was points. The wiring is a little different so I need to figure that out.
'75 Distributor
'76 Distributor
If I can get the alternator brackets and exhaust issues fixed tomorrow, that would be great. I have a line on some infor regarding the distributor, so my goal for tomorrow is to have the 3 issues fixed, if not all installed.....
# posted by Dan DiBiase @ 7:34 PM 
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