by "Pixel" (Improbcat)
Published 05/26/2017 at 10:05
by "Pixel" (Improbcat)
Published 05/26/2017 at 10:05
Tags: Oppo rally
; Race to Oppo Rally
STARS: 13
( see prior day here ) Yesterday I had everything staged to finally get the engine in the truck, and my partner had called out of work so she could help me with it. So of course I awoke to pouring rain.
I dragged an ancient easy-up out of the shed, patched the worst of the holes with duct tape and set it up to give us whatever protection it could. We then took an empty engine compartment:
And stuffed an engine in it...
Next the front clip went on, as it holds the battery and some vital wiring.
At this point we started hooking things up. I was going to re-use the ignition & starter wiring harness from the old engine, even though it wasn’t great. But further poking showed it was a horrible rats-nest with wires that made no sense.
So instead I decided to swap the older-style distributor from the original engine and use that wiring harness, this is when I ran into a bit of a starter issue . The old starter was for a 168 tooth flywheel & bolted to the bellhousing, the replacement flywheel I’d gotten (the only one that fit the “correct” 10.5" clutch and the crankshaft) was a smaller 153 tooth and needed the style starter that bolted to the engine block.
Fortunately I was able to find one in stock, unfortunately the old-style bellhousing interfered with the snout of the newer starter.
Some angle-grinder fun and I had clearance.
And the starter was bolted in.
Some modifications to the covers and this bit was done.
At this point I could bump the engine over, and get the new distributor in place. Which meant I could test-fire the engine.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
We then got virtually everything else hooked up.
And started bleeding the brakes. I chased leaks for a bit (which may or may not be sorted), and eventually used up the fluid I had. It has something that distantly resembles brakes, but isn’t anything like safe to drive.
The three big things left are to install the driveshaft, get the brakes bled and get the alignment. If I can’t get the brakes working well enough to drive across town before the alignment shop closes I won’t be able to take it to the rally. But if I can do that I can keep messing with the brakes all night. So I’ve bought a vacuum bleeder and a bunch more fluid to see if I can get a decent enough pedal today.
And of course, it is raining even harder today.
"cletus44 aka Clayton Seams" (cletus44)
05/26/2017 at 10:10, STARS: 3
You’re a machine!
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
05/26/2017 at 10:11, STARS: 2
I assume the door logo-ing was to go with the trailer, etc.?
"Pixel" (Improbcat)
05/26/2017 at 10:14, STARS: 0
Yep. :)
I’d made the stencil to do the trailer, and at the end of the night of trailer painting looked over at the truck, grinned and found some black spray paint.
"vondon302" (vondon302)
05/26/2017 at 10:16, STARS: 6
Damn dude. You’ve done more wrenching this week than I’ve done in a year. Good luck this has been fun to follow.
"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
05/26/2017 at 10:35, STARS: 1
That is a killer amount of progress! You can do eeeeet!!!!
"deekster_caddy" (deekster_caddy)
05/26/2017 at 11:49, STARS: 0
I am definitely bringing my flatbed trailer. But I have no idea what we’ll do with your little trailer if we have to tow you across the finish line!
"Pixel" (Improbcat)
05/26/2017 at 11:53, STARS: 0
I don’t have the little trailer, I sold it last fall.
"deekster_caddy" (deekster_caddy)
05/26/2017 at 12:42, STARS: 0
Ok. On closer inspection of my trailer, it needs a lot of work before I could safely haul it on a jaunt like this... shackles and bushings, new tires etc. so i’m going to leave it home. Worst case scenario we could pick up a tow bar from somewhere!
"Pixel" (Improbcat)
05/26/2017 at 13:29, STARS: 1
I’m got AAA gold, so I can get home if things go horribly wrong.