Sanity Testing

Here's a few pics of the old starter. We decided to replace it since it appeared to be seized.

We ended up having to have one transferred to our local store from the warehouse. Once we got the new starter in hand, we did a bit of sanity testing using the bench vise to make sure it worked. Using the jumper battery, it did not. I had to use my car battery to "jump start" the starter. Once this was proven out, we went and got a new battery for the car. I wanted to avoid this so we would have a fresh battery when we get the car road worthy, but we got to get it started first. We didn't install the battery, so we could use jumper cables to "kill it" if the engine malfunctioned.

Just getting started

We attempted to start the engine for the first time today. We were able to coordinate to have our friend Steve visit and give us a hand, as well as having Grampy with us for the first start.

We started the day by doing the last minute fill-ups.

• Pre-fill oil filter
• Fill Oil
• Fill Gas
• Check Oil

We removed the ignition coil plug so that we could see how the starter would work, and how the engine would crank. When we tried to start, we got only relay chatter like we had a low battery. Since we knew this was not the case, we bypassed the relay and put it on our list of parts to replace.

The second attempt to start bypassing the relay we got just hum out of the starter. It was seized. We removed it, and clamped it to the workbench to do some tests. We still got nothing but hum out of it. Banged it with a hammer a few times to free it up, but that did not fix it. So, we need to replace the starter. We tried to get one from one of the local parts stores, but they gave us the wrong one. The video includes a short segment where we bench tested the starter before trying to put it in. We had to wait until they could the right one shipped out from the warehouse. The issue was manual vs. automatic transmission use a different starter motor configuration.

In the mean time, we did some work on the gas line, and siphoned some fuel up to the carburetor.

Take a seat.

In preparing to start the car up for the first time, we needed somewhere to sit. We put the original drivers seat back in, and placed some wood over the floor boards where it had rusted through. It's not perfect, but it will work for now.

We filled the radiator with 1 gallon of anti-freeze, and then managed to get about 1qt. of water in before the system was completely full. This is a 9 1/2 qt. system, so we'll need to top it off with water once we get the coolant to pump through the engine.

Lights!!!!

We did the electrical system checks tonight. Here we are with the front lights on! We used a small "jumper battery" to test out the system.

• Interior Lights -OK
• Dash Lights - OK
• Parking Lights - OK
• Headlights - OK
• Highbeam Floor Switch - Needs work/replace
• Tail Lights - Left Side out
• Brake Lights - Left Side out
• Fans Work
• Radio Works!
• Ignition to on position (click heard, probably ready to start)

We wired up the alternator. We put this off when we did the alternator install. We had been more concerned with the belts, and the electrical hook-up was unclear.

• White - Field
• Black/Yellow - Batt
• Black/Red - Ground (Seriously?!! Ground a RED wire!)

 Thankfully we have the shop manual, and it lists the wiring colors.

A little sway.

Now that the oil pan is back on the engine, and we have the fan, and radiator re-assembled the last step is to  re-secure the sway bar that we removed months ago when we were doing the initial dis-assembly, and inspection.

Not much to it, just a few rubber grommets that hold a steel bar into place. It's under the car, so a chance to get down on the floor and look up for a change.

On top of the engine

We installed the carburetor back on the top of the engine block, and then mounted the air filter back on the top of the carburetor.

What to do.....

Short work night, we caught a few moments after a break for a few weeks. We did some evaluation and planning. Here's the list of short term items that we need to take care of:

• Install/Fix Carburetor
• Install Air Filter
• Install Sway Bar
• Install Battery

We're going to need a few supplies for our next steps:

• Air Filter
• Oil Filter
• Oil
• Anti-Freeze
• Battery

Fan and Belt

The radiator was still out from last time, so we first installed the fan, and the fan bolts. Once that was secured, we then re-assembled the radiator. Much easier to get things done when they happen in the correct order.

Once the fan was in place, we put the main belt on and tensioned it up. This will need to be adjusted once we get the engine running, and it's had a few cycles on it.

We re-attached all the radiator, cabin, and carburetor hoses. The engine compartment is starting to look whole again.

Radiator, UnRadiator

We installed the radiator and fan cowling, and then realized that we would not be able to reach the fan bolts to secure the fan. So we had to remove the radiator again. This was a short work night, but we learned something about the order of re-assembly.

Glug Glug

We installed the new water pump. There were a few minor issues lining up the new gasket, and getting the bolts in place, but it was a fairly easy job. We also installed washers on the drive pulley to fill the space of the missing pulley.

Pushing the pulley

We borrowed the drive pulley insert tool from the auto-parts store, and inserted the pulley. We decided to leave out the A/C pulley which stacks in with the drive pulley since we chipped the edge of it when it dropped onto the shop floor while we were removing it. For now we're leaving the A/C out, and will replace the original with a modern system in the future. We tried to secure the bolt, but found that it's too long. We'll see what our options are when we visit the store again.

Alternator

While spinning the alternator pulley, we noticed some slight grinding sounds. It sounded a lot like the wire coils were dragging on the rotors inside the alternator. We priced out a new one, and determined that it was not worth trying to repair. We went ahead and just replaced it with a shiny new one.

Water Pump removal

While we have the belts off, it makes sense to replace the water pump. The one that is in there now should be in pretty good condition. The hassle of removing the belts, and replacing it sometime down the road outweigh the cost of doing it now while we have things apart. Tonight we removed the old one, and went to the parts store to order a new one.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We'll St. Patrick's Day fell on a Saturday this year, and we had a small get-together at the house and remembered Great Granny "Lilly" who would have celebrated her 100th birthday if she was still with us. It also gave us the chance to do another work day with Connor's Grampy.

We installed the valve cover gasket, and re-installed the valve cover. We then installed the oil pan gasket, and the PCV valve.

At this stage we're beginning to do the re-assembly! It is encouraging to start putting parts back in the car after months of tear-down.

Shopping, Ordering, and Parts

We made a list of things we need to buy, and then took a trip to the parts store to figure out what we can get right away, and what needed to be ordered.

Need to Buy Now:

• Carburetor gasket
• Valve Cover gasket 
• Oil Pan gasket
• Windshield gasket
• Alternator
• Carburetor
• Battery
• Belt
• PVC valve

We priced out the items, and ordered a few things, got a few things that were in stock. We decided to wait on the battery, we're not at the stage where we need it yet, and with a 2 year warranty, it's better to wait on that till it will be used. We decided to skip the carburetor for now, it should be obvious if we need to do something to tune-up or fix-up the carburetor. You can see from the list that the theme here is "gasket"

Fuel System Done

We just got a gas filter and hose lines. We installed them, so the fuel system is now done.

Go With the Flow....

We replaced the rubber hose fuel lines tonight. The picture above is looking up at the gas tank, where the fuel goes out of the tank towards the engine. Also in this picture is the fuel gauge wire, which will show F----E on the dashboard. 

There was not any fuel that drained out of the tank when we disconnected the rubber hose, which means that our siphoning of the tank got the level down past this point. This means we did a good job of getting the old fuel out. We also blew out the fuel line from the fuel pump back to the fuel tank. Here's what came out.

It's a bit dirty, and stale, so it's good that we got this out. The idea here is we want good clean fresh fuel going to the engine when we try to start it up for the first time. We'll still probably change out the fuel filter after the first tank of gas. It's easy to replace, and cheap, so there is no reason not to change it. Here's a few pics of us putting in the new fuel filter:

Here's the new rubber fuel line connected to the tank, and the line up to the engine with new hose clamps.

Lastly, here's a picture of the fuel pump, where we replaced a larger section of fuel hose, connecting the pump to the fuel tank.

"Piense con Seguridad"

The other side of the gas can says "Think Safety" so along those lines we got a fire extinguisher before we siphoned off the old gas.

Ok, so it's just a precaution at this stage, we'll need it more when the body work starts and we sand and grind off the rusted out spots. The thought of open containers of gasoline, possible spills, and doing this in the garage with a car we can't just push out into the driveway if things get out of control.... Yep, we got a 5lb. Pro Grade model.

Ok, so onto the real project. Siphon out the old gas from the gas tank. We set up the first 5 gallon can and set up the siphon pump. We got two models, a $4 hand pump, and a $0.67 model we planned to use in case the hose was too short.

We thread the long hose into the bottom of the gas tank, and a few squeezes of the hand pump got the gas flowing into our stale tanks. We then waited and closely watched for 30 minutes while the bad gas drained into the gas can. A few seconds later, we started on the second 5 gallon can, which took another 30 minutes to fill. Then we started the last remaining gas can, a 2 gallon backup. A few minutes later, we're all done.

We can drop the stale gas off at the hazardous waste day at the dump, and then fill up our gas cans with some good stuff to get the engine running.

The next step will be to remove the small rubber adapter hose between the gas tank and the metal gas line up to the engine. We'll use this to get a replacement section of hose, and a bit extra so we can replace the other jumper connections.

Hey Sparky! (Part 2)

Tonight we began the exciting step of putting some things BACK TOGETHER! Since we don't want any junk getting into the cylinders, we left the loose spark plugs in their holes from last time. Tonight we replaced the old plugs with new ones, and put in new wires and a new distributor cap.

The specified gap for this engine is 0.034 so using a feeler gauge we set the gap on all the new plugs, and then for fun checked what the old gap was:

Plug 1: 0.036
Plug 2: 0.018 - We think we dropped this one.

Plug 3: 0.032
Plug 4: 0.034
Plug 5: 0.030
Plug 6: 0.034

Not bad, only one was really out of spec, and we figure something happened when we removed it. All the others were so close, that's all we could think of.

We put the new distributor cap in, and I think that there was a seal or something missing from the old one. It was much looser than the new one, and didn't seem to make an airtight/watertight seal with the distributor housing. The new wires went in easily.

Once we got all this done, we went and scrubbed down the oil pan with a wire brush to get all the old gunk out of it, and to get it ready to replace once we get the proper seal.