So... good news, the transmission is NICE.
All three speeds, firm crisp shifts.
Bad news, it drives like a DUI simulator.
Hope fully an alignment will help... and maybe new rear springs.. maybe.
Rack and pinion was not installed correctly, horrible steering shaft angles and it binds.
Probably needs a double joint and a support bearing.
Also need to flush the PS fluid it is N A S T Y.
Sounds like some rack and pinion re-install is in your future.
Good to see it on the road, just love these cars.
Building the engine was fun.
Lots of clean... lots of new... each step was progress and everything on the stand was good to go.
Then I put it in the car, and we are back to deferred maintenance palooza.
This is brake fluid... sigh.
And the wiring... oh boy. I think I mentioned early on that I removed a pound or two of wrong, and "add on" wiring?
Well I've pretty much fixed all of that now with the next steps having been to repair the proper wiring that remained, augment what was truly missing, and route it all. With that done, I have been finding the causes of original and long forgotten ailments that likely were the reasons that "alternatives" were used.
Like here, the fuse on the right is for the illumination lights that run off of the dimmer rheostat on the headlight switch.
As old as the blown fuse was (mayby 1957) the replacement wasn't much newer.. lol. I bought a ton of old school fuses at a garage sale a few weeks ago.
Lots of things have been fixed... but there are many more to go.
For now I'll just enjoy where Im at!
Man, that's such a beautiful driver.
In reply to golfduke :
Thanks... its getting there.
In reply to a_florida_man :
If I didn't know you were in Florida I could be convinced that the tracks in the sand are in snow and what looks like a concrete pad off to the right also has a dusting of snow.
We've had snow on the ground for many weeks now, can you tell I'm going crazy?
Anyway - great work!
In reply to AxeHealey :
Snow
Four letter word.
You should hear me complain about the low 50's... lol.
I should be grateful to have 'Florida weather', but I find as I get older that when the temperature drops below my age, I go inside.
Just drove it tonight to pick up dinner.
46 degrees, and raining.
Lets just say it's still a bit coarse.
:)
26 miles round trip.
In reply to a_florida_man :
While I'll agree that rainy in the 40s is some of the worst possible weather, I was running around outside last night at 18 degrees with the windchill at 1.
At least you were driving it!
In reply to AxeHealey :
True, but I'll bet you had more confidence than I did that your car was not going to have any issues. And a better heater.
:)
28 miles into work this AM, took her up to 70. Felt good!
In reply to a_florida_man :
And a steering wheel warmer!
In reply to AxeHealey :
lol right?!?
now do it in the Healey lol...
I have driven my Healey in near freezing weather with the top down.
My ears got so cold it made me dizzy.. took hours to recover.
No longer topless!
In reply to a_florida_man :
Took my son to school in it this fall when it was probably 45. We were very bundled and he mentioned his hands being cold by the time we got there which, for him, means he couldn't feel them anymore.
Lookin' great!
Knocking out tons of little things this weekend. I'll update in detail later . For now , here is the new air cleaner. The old 14" round was riding on the wiper motor, even with the carb stud bent forward.
So far this weekend has been good for knocking out stuff on the 57 as I work to make it a true driver and rack up some reliability testing miles...
Changed the brake fluid and bleed the brakes.
Adjusted the rear drums. No automatic adjusters... never had them lol. Manual adjustments only. Tons of brake pedal now.
Freed up the parking / e-brake. Works ok, but the rear cables are pretty bad. Ordered a set of rear brake cables.
Found I had not tightened the transmission cross member to frame bolts.. OOPS! Fixed that.
Tightened the speedometer cable, found it did not have the correct hold down tab, ordered that.
Adjusted the exhaust system. It's all clamped together and I thrashed it together when I put the engine in... I went back with a cooler head and reset and readjusted the connections. Replaced a rear hanger.
Measured the wheels. 15x8.
Replaced the air cleaner... the old one was binding with the wipers.
Replaced the antique ANCO wiper blades with bulk 8mm wiper refills... worked perfectly.
The steering column has been a mess.... I've done a lot to it, from the shifter up, but today I noticed the lower bearing was not attached to the lower column tube. Bolted that back together, a past owner working on an engine swap removed the shift sector, so nothing was actually holding the transmission in park. Replaced that. Overhauled the shift linkage. Connected the shift indicator, found I need a longer shift lever on the th350.... I've got one of those some where...
Worked some more with the turn signal cancel cams and with the horn... better but bot 100% yet.
Notice that the bind in the PS is almost gone, now that the column is about 90% correct...
Fixed some dash lights.
Fixed the glovebox light.
Tested the neutral safety start switch, found it was obliterated. Ordered one.
Replaced the heater core... you can use one from a 64-66 mustang, FYI, they are a lot cheaper and you can get them quicker...
Flushed the PS in preparation for replacing the pump.. more nasty fluids.... started pump replacement, will finish that tomorrow AM.
Thinking about watching Christine... :)
Sounds like its turning into quite a nice driver!
Did I miss anywhere where you laid out your plan for bodywork? Are you just gonna run it, or are you planning on addressing those later?
golfduke said:Sounds like its turning into quite a nice driver!
Did I miss anywhere where you laid out your plan for bodywork? Are you just gonna run it, or are you planning on addressing those later?
No body work plans right now. Its mostly stable and 100% water tight-ish.. including the trunk.
Its a reasonably rust free car overall.
So, I probably should have watched Christine Saturday night.
Then maybe I would have been ready for Sunday.
I'm not saying that the car tried to kill me, but I do feel as if I've been given a stern warning.
Since I started working on cars, I've always made brakes a priority over everything else.
I have also always made a point to severely test the brakes on a car in a controlled manner either when I first get the car or when I do any brake work.
I have never had a car fail a severe brake test with a catastrophic loss of brakes.
Until now.
On a county road, with no one in sight, after several standard brake tests, I did a max pressure full panic stop from 45 mph. The result was complete and total brake failure.
I stomped on the brakes and felt the uneasy feeling of reduced brake action and full pedal pressure, as the pedal quickly went all of the way down.
Pumping the brakes did nothing.
I knew instantly , 'hydraulic failure'.
Subsequent investigation found a small overlooked single pipe on the right front that was rusted. It looked like a sprinkler when you pressed the pedal. When I removed it, it fell apart.
Now most of you here may have noticed that this car had a SSBC front power brake conversion, with a dual circuit modern style master cylinder. With that style, you should not have instant and total brake loss (like with older single 'pot' master cylinders, with the idea that if one of the two circuits fails, the other will still work, In my case I should have had rear brakes still.
Hmmm lets dive in and take a closer look....
So, while the master cylinder does have two chambers on the top, inside the master cylinder they both feed the same bore. The bore is hydraulically subdivided by a series of plungers and seals on a spool.
Here are those parts laid out in order from brake booster on the left to the rear brake chamber (it has a spring in it) to the seals that seperate the front chamber from the rear chamber and then the chamber that serves the front brakes also has a spring).
Looking at the middle seals tells the story. They were shot, and could no longer isolate the front from the rear. You could not feel that they had failed until all pressure was lost in one circuit, causing the pressure to be released from the 'good' circuit.
So there it is. Like most engineering failures, it was not one problem, but a combination of two.
Luckily I had given equal attention to the emergency brake and I was able to get it all under control pretty quickly.
I try not to use the term parking brake, as its better to remember it for its highest and best usage, lol.
So remember kids, love your brakes, and never be afraid to replace things just because they are old even if they 'work fine'.
I've had catastrophic brake line failure like yours twice in modern vehicles, and neither time was the "other" end capable of stopping.
Good for you for finding the problem.
Yeah, same... I blew an undiscovered hard line on the audi last year, and no amount of pumping could stop me... Thank god the breakdown lane was clear and i had an uphill offramp close by... otherwise I'd have had to punt it into a guardrail or ruin a bunch of other peoples' days. It was a true 'code Brown' moment that I hope to never experience again.
Checklist:
All of the instruments work now.
Speedometer was dead on right off the bat.
All of the interior and dash lights work again too, even the glove box.
Ain't no shi!!ers gonna come between me and Ruby ...
IYKYK
;)
I thought to myself this evening, I haven't seen the Vette or the Z pop up in a bit, wonder if Florida man got snowed in, and boom spot this thread. But wait, there's more (cars)!
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