A Few More Steps Forward
Happy Fourth of July! July!!! When I started this in March, I really expected to have Pandora back on the road by now. Sigh… However, I have managed to do a few things.
One of the biggest is she now as the correct number of pedals!
None of these pedals are connected to anything. The clutch master cylinder mounts directly below the brake booster / master cylinder, so that had to come out. I wasn’t planning on having a hydraulic clutch, but I was convinced that it was the way to go. Unfortunately, that required a LOT of time to get lined up properly before I could even drill holes to bolt it on. Once I had it hooked up and the brake stuff set back in, I discovered the clutch pedal sits way too high, even with all of the adjustment out of it. I decided to chance spending $7 on a shorter internally threaded rod that should take care of the problem. It is also a turnbuckle-style rod – left-hand threads on one end and right-hand on the other. Adjusting the pedal height and travel should also become much easier since the one it came with requires disconnecting the pedal to adjust it. Of course, we’ll see what I actually end up with.
Because of where the clutch master cylinder mounts, the fluid reservoir gets mounted remotely. The kit came with a bracket for this, but it doesn’t fit where they suggested it go and I really didn’t want to drill more holes in the firewall. I decided to modify the bracket to work. It is at times like these that I am reminded that I have no fabrication skills. I recently bought an inexpensive plasma cutter because they are supposed to make nice, clean cuts – unlike my oxy-acetylene torch. Since I expect I’ll have to cut at least some of the rear quarter panels off to get rid of the rust and since I only very recently realized that I was going to have to make a hole in the driveshaft tunnel for my shifter, I thought this would be really handy. No one told me that it required practice.
Of course, after torturing this poor thing with the plasma torch, I found I still didn’t have enough clearance to mount the reservoir. I purchased a welder a couple of years ago, shortly before we decided to move. I managed to try it once before my time was occupied with moving related things. Thinking I was going to have to drill new holes afterall, it occurred to me that maybe I could weld this butchered thing to a piece of scrap and make it work. I used my welder for the second time this morning to create a thing I’ll actually use on my car!
My grandfather was a professional welder. He offered many times to teach me to weld, but I was young and dumb and never took him up on it. I’ve regretted that decision over the years. And apparently now whenever I try to join two pieces of metal without using bolts. But the two things are stuck together. Once it is cleaned up and painted, it might not be too horrible.
With the engine bay getting pretty close to being done, I’ve been able to think about the engine and transmission installation. I honestly didn’t know that the dowel pins on the back of the engine used to position the bellhousing aren’t always perfectly placed. My transmission kit included instructions on measuring the runout, which has to be withing 0.005″ for my warranty to be valid. Mine was 0.008″ out of true.
I should have offset dowel pins arriving tomorrow, at which point I’ll have to repeat this procedure and hope I didn’t screw up the initial measurements.
I’ve also been able to get a few little things done. I replaced the worn out idler arm for the steering. I have the differential cover off in preparation for installing a posi and new gears and I replaced the broken gear that runs the windshield washer pump. But the biggest win also happened this morning. I scrounged enough vacuum line and was able to get the headlight door system hooked up and tested. I had them working for a short time when she was my daily driver, but hoses and one canister deteriorated so much that I had it disconnected again before she was first parked. I’ll be so happy to have those working again!
And that is two months of work. But assuming no more unforeseen trips, illnesses, missing parts, forgotten steps, etc., I might actually have an engine in soon! It would be nice to hear it run before the warranty runs out…