When we brought the car back to salem, we arrived just shy of 2 AM on a Sunday night. Needless to say, we were tired as all get out, and MiDi still needed to drive back to P-town. We rolled the car backwards off the trailer and into the street only to find that the front right brake would lock up when we tried to roll it forward.
A floorjack took care of that problem!
We got it in place, hauled the trailer back to the rental, MiDi dropped me off, and began his drive back to Portland.
The next day, my father, his friend and I took about an hour of cleaning activities to the outside of the car. It ended up looking something like before, but much much shinier, and without grease stains all over the fenders.
Over the course of the next week leading up to Woodburn, I worked on it as I could, limited by injuries. I got to the point where it didnt need much to be a runner. Friday night rolls around and Ceej decided to take a quick trip up to my house in the Diesel to help me out with some stuff.
We installed all new parts into the '65 points dizzy and gapped it appropriately (.020), installed power steering pump, tightened bellhousing bolts 1 last time, installed exhaust, installed alternator, and installed all the wiring (what like... 4 wires?
). That night, we tried cranking her over for the first time since the accident. Hooked up the battery, stuck in the key, trickled some fuel down the carb... (prayed to the SL6 gods that my motor was OK)... 5...4...3...2...1... Ignition!
She sputtered to life on the first try! Albeit not for long, and the timing was WAY retarded, but she fired! The fuel gauge was working at the time... it pointed at "E"
... 4 gallons of fuel plus a timing adjustment, and she was purring away just as well as before!
The following day....
Installed radiator, then replaced radiator (mine had pinhole leaks
)
Hooked up transmission lines and filled transmission (4.5 quarts...)
Set initial timing to 11.5 degrees BTDC
Set air/fuel
Set idle speed...
Started dumping brake fluid into the empty master and still had no pedal. I pumped the pedal for probably about 3 minutes and finally started to get some pressure. I topped the master and kept pumping the pedal. after about 5 pumps, I heard a *pop*, and saw fluid on the ground under the rear driver wheel. So, up goes the rear end, off goes the hubcap only to find 2 lug nuts barely holding on to the studs. The other 3 were snug, but not tight.
Hmmmm........
Removed the wheel and brake drum... found an empty housing, save for the wheel cylinder, which had *popped* apart.... Grrr...
Drove the ovloV to Wildcat, got the parts I needed from Ed, spent some time with MiDi and Ed both, came back home and it was too dark to really do anything.
Today:
Got the rear brake assembled. I called DusterIdiot and asked him if he felt like doing some pedal pumping while I bled the brake system. He was at my house within 15 minutes with the Tie-Dye powered Space Duster he owns and we proceeded to flush all of the crappy brake fluid, air and grime out of the lines.
Get this.... I have 3 different sizes of bleeder valves on my car....
The rear has 8mm (No standard size fit properly), the front passenger has 7mm (Same reason) and the driver front has 5/16".... WTF? A frustrated THOR, laughing head-shaking DusterIdiot and 1/2 a bottle of brake fluid later, we finally had brakes!
Now, to sort out that charging system issue...
I purchased a new Solid-State single field regulator which didn't seem to work, so D.I. and I looked it over and decided to replace it, at a later date. It will maintain battery voltage, but it does not "charge" above battery voltage. We think the regulator is bad, since I replaced the alternator with a known good one, and had the same issue. I also bypassed the non-funtional ammeter, to no avail.
Yes, the regulator is properly grounded... twice over just to make sure...
In any case, its enough to keep the car running at a stable 12.2 V which is plenty for day driving.
I still need to replace the leaky pan gasket on the transmission, and get that charging system debacle situation cleaned up.
I took "Madeline" for her maiden voyage tonight really slow around the neighborhood because I am still not sure of the integrity of the braking system. It seems to work fine at anything under 20 mph, since thats the fastest I went. The transmission seems to be fine, shifts promptly into gear, and shifts smoothly, though you can feel the shift even at a minimal throttle opening, which I also take to be a good thing.
I may venture out and drive her to work in the morning, its about a 10 minute drive, so we shall see.
Anyways, thanks everyone that has helped me with this car, I am sure glad that I've got it, and I shall treat her well.
I will take a video in the next few days once I feel safe driving over 20 mph, anything under that is kinda boring....
Updates will come as I make them!
~THOR~
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