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SaxMan's Winter 2016 Overhaul Thread
- Thread starter SaxMan
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Yup both are dark. Maybe I knocked a wire loose under the dash when fiddling with the turn signal indicator?
I'm also having some interference issues with my LED turn signals. When I put on the left turn signal, the right brake light flashes, too, as do the tag lights and dash cluster lights...and vice versa with the right. But, when I turn on the running lights, all lights act normally. Joe Parlanti of Velocity Solutions, who did the LED upgrade, said he'll come back out and troubleshoot this for me. Maybe I can convince him to help me with the headlights if I can't solve the problem myself.
A much better night in the garage.
The headlight issue was me improperly grounding the original harness when I was poking around. Once I fixed the ground, everything went back to normal. Funny how those pesky ground issues can really louse things up. Fan belt is back on all the proper pulleys. Fired up the motor and the generator is working as designed. Spent the rest of the night buttoning things up. I'll hopefully get the carbs adjusted tomorrow. After that, change the fluid in the clutch slave cylinder, lubricate the steering rack and all that's left is cleaning and detailing.
The headlight issue was me improperly grounding the original harness when I was poking around. Once I fixed the ground, everything went back to normal. Funny how those pesky ground issues can really louse things up. Fan belt is back on all the proper pulleys. Fired up the motor and the generator is working as designed. Spent the rest of the night buttoning things up. I'll hopefully get the carbs adjusted tomorrow. After that, change the fluid in the clutch slave cylinder, lubricate the steering rack and all that's left is cleaning and detailing.
Coming down the home stretch: Mrs. Saxman helped me purge the slave cylinder of the older fluid. Then a car wash and some touch up paint on the various chips and scratched the car acquired over the past year. Compounding and waxing tomorrow. Rainy weather today and for a good chunk of next week will probably keep me from giving the car a shakedown drive and carb adjustments until the weekend.
Here's some pics from the latest work:
This looks a lot uglier than it was in person. The old gaskets around the turn signals had completely dry rotted and melted onto the housing. It was a pain in the butt cleaning all this stuff off, and then cleaning up a lot of the crap around the housing
DSC_0115 by David Cohen, on Flickr
Here's the Moss front gasket mounted -- this was also a pain in the butt to get right. Notice the overspray on the trim ring from when the car was repainted.
DSC_0114 by David Cohen, on Flickr
On the other hand, the gaskets for the rear taillights were absolutely perfect fitting. Yes, I got that rust spot cleaned up while I was in there.
DSC_0116 by David Cohen, on Flickr
One of the bigger frustrations during this winter's overhaul was how much time I was wasting digging through my toolbox to find the right tool. Harbor Freight had this tool cart on sale this past weekend, so I picked it up and assembled it. It is SO nice to have organized tools and know exactly where everything is. The one thing I did realize from purchasing this cart is that I've acquired a crapload of tools over the last few years.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/Fgr3BM]
DSC_0117 by David Cohen, on Flickr
[/URL]
Here's some pics from the latest work:
This looks a lot uglier than it was in person. The old gaskets around the turn signals had completely dry rotted and melted onto the housing. It was a pain in the butt cleaning all this stuff off, and then cleaning up a lot of the crap around the housing
DSC_0115 by David Cohen, on FlickrHere's the Moss front gasket mounted -- this was also a pain in the butt to get right. Notice the overspray on the trim ring from when the car was repainted.
DSC_0114 by David Cohen, on FlickrOn the other hand, the gaskets for the rear taillights were absolutely perfect fitting. Yes, I got that rust spot cleaned up while I was in there.
DSC_0116 by David Cohen, on FlickrOne of the bigger frustrations during this winter's overhaul was how much time I was wasting digging through my toolbox to find the right tool. Harbor Freight had this tool cart on sale this past weekend, so I picked it up and assembled it. It is SO nice to have organized tools and know exactly where everything is. The one thing I did realize from purchasing this cart is that I've acquired a crapload of tools over the last few years.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/Fgr3BM]
DSC_0117 by David Cohen, on Flickr[/URL]
Agreed. Having too many tools is like saying that you have too much beer in your house. :friendly_wink:
Jim_Gruber
Yoda
Offline
You should have opted for the 3 cabinet stack roll about. You will soon own enough tools to fill that cabinet.
And we're done! Took Baby Blue out for a shakedown ride this morning. Fairly good run with some minor squawks. The car is slightly out of alignment, just as everyone predicted. It is pulling a bit to the left. To correct this, I think I need to let out a threads on the left TRE and take in a thread on the right TRE? Steering wheel also ended up a bit off center. I've got fluid dripping from the master cylinder...the car always had that leak, but I'm not sure if it has worsened or if this is leftover from the huge disaster from trying to use the EZ Bleed.
I had a heart attack moment when the car completely died on me just 100 feet from the house. It wouldn't start, all the electrics were dead. Popped the hood to find that I forgot to tighten up the positive battery cable when I was playing with the headlight harness. Yup, that will do it. I also forgot to resecure the Tenex fasteners when the top went back up. It was a bit breezy in the car!
Other than those minor squawks, the car performed flawlessly. The motor ran smooth and had no issues either at idle or making a few runs up to 4000 RPM. Clutch and transmission felt smooth. You can definitely feel the difference with the new trunnion bushings as well as having a properly functioning RF shock.
Bad weather is going to shut me down for the weekend, but it looks like we're pretty much ready for another driving season!
I had a heart attack moment when the car completely died on me just 100 feet from the house. It wouldn't start, all the electrics were dead. Popped the hood to find that I forgot to tighten up the positive battery cable when I was playing with the headlight harness. Yup, that will do it. I also forgot to resecure the Tenex fasteners when the top went back up. It was a bit breezy in the car!
Other than those minor squawks, the car performed flawlessly. The motor ran smooth and had no issues either at idle or making a few runs up to 4000 RPM. Clutch and transmission felt smooth. You can definitely feel the difference with the new trunnion bushings as well as having a properly functioning RF shock.
Bad weather is going to shut me down for the weekend, but it looks like we're pretty much ready for another driving season!
With temps in the mid-60s today, it was time for a proper shakedown with the top down.
DSC_0040 by David Cohen, on Flickr
I went to pick up Jessica from her after school program in the car. She was absolutely beaming when she saw that I had Baby Blue. Any time we got up to speed (it was rush hour) she would let out her "happy scream" as we like to call it.
Another couple of squawks cropped up. At times, my tach, gas gauge and turn signal indicators all died simultaneously. However, the exterior lights, oil pressure & water temperature and dash lights continued to work. It seems to be working now. It's clearly some kind of connector, but not sure where yet. I also have to readjust the valves a bit more as one of them is tapping.
I did look up the string method -- seems pretty straightforward. Even just by eyeballing the plane of the front wheels compared to the rear, the left is a bit toed out and the right is a bit toed in.
DSC_0040 by David Cohen, on FlickrI went to pick up Jessica from her after school program in the car. She was absolutely beaming when she saw that I had Baby Blue. Any time we got up to speed (it was rush hour) she would let out her "happy scream" as we like to call it.
Another couple of squawks cropped up. At times, my tach, gas gauge and turn signal indicators all died simultaneously. However, the exterior lights, oil pressure & water temperature and dash lights continued to work. It seems to be working now. It's clearly some kind of connector, but not sure where yet. I also have to readjust the valves a bit more as one of them is tapping.
I did look up the string method -- seems pretty straightforward. Even just by eyeballing the plane of the front wheels compared to the rear, the left is a bit toed out and the right is a bit toed in.
So a little bit of follow up work: Did the alignment last night. String method was crude, but seemed to be effective. Right tire was pretty toed in. The alignment helped put the steering wheel a bit more "on center", but I did have to bump it one spline clockwise, probably from me messing around with the rack while the TREs were off.
Joe Parlanti of Velocity Solutions stopped by to fix my LED interference issue. We replaced the front turn signals with a unit that was better than his initial batch and that cured the intereference issues. (turn signals were on, everything else would blink, including brake lights, tag lights and dash lights). You can't beat having the owner of the company swing by your house to help out when it comes to customer service.
Lubed up the rack. I had to adjust the zerk so I could get the gun on it. It took more than a dozen strokes to get the rack lubed -- it was probably dry. Then the grease gun would not release from the zerk, no matter what I tried. Eventually the zerk snapped. The zerks off the old tie rod ends were in good condition, but the threads were too narrow to fit on the rack. I was wallowing in self pity for screwing this up when I remembered that I had ordered some additional zerks last year that didn't fit the suspension points, maybe they would fit the rack? After digging around, I found them, and sure enough, they fit on the rack. Problem solved!
After that, I reattached the duct hose from the grille to the blower motor. Only thing left is to readjust some of the valves to get rid of the tapping.
In all honestly, I probably should take an inventory of all the extra parts I have so I would know at my fingertips exactly what I have on hand the next time I need something.
Joe Parlanti of Velocity Solutions stopped by to fix my LED interference issue. We replaced the front turn signals with a unit that was better than his initial batch and that cured the intereference issues. (turn signals were on, everything else would blink, including brake lights, tag lights and dash lights). You can't beat having the owner of the company swing by your house to help out when it comes to customer service.
Lubed up the rack. I had to adjust the zerk so I could get the gun on it. It took more than a dozen strokes to get the rack lubed -- it was probably dry. Then the grease gun would not release from the zerk, no matter what I tried. Eventually the zerk snapped. The zerks off the old tie rod ends were in good condition, but the threads were too narrow to fit on the rack. I was wallowing in self pity for screwing this up when I remembered that I had ordered some additional zerks last year that didn't fit the suspension points, maybe they would fit the rack? After digging around, I found them, and sure enough, they fit on the rack. Problem solved!
After that, I reattached the duct hose from the grille to the blower motor. Only thing left is to readjust some of the valves to get rid of the tapping.
In all honestly, I probably should take an inventory of all the extra parts I have so I would know at my fingertips exactly what I have on hand the next time I need something.
Jim_Gruber
Yoda
Offline
And write down your inventory list. And what box it's in/where it's located. With Bugsy I've got 6 boxes of parts in the basement, and multiple boxes in back storage room. I've acquired stuff over the years and then can't find it. U fortunately I don't have a lot of garage space. The bonnet and seats for Bugsy are down in garage at our cottage. Just no room here.
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Classic Motorsports magazine (or Practical Classics) had an excellent article recently on organizing a restoration - they had you lay out the pieces in a box - take a picture - put in box and number box. Print picture and put in book - clever. And no, of course I haven't done it!