How do you make it rain in California?... buy a speedster.

Congratulations Ted! Now we can truly say,

 

 

WELCOME TO THE MADNESS!!!

Thanks! I'm pretty excited. I feel like dancing a little jig here in my office.

 

Thanks for your help along the way. I really appreciate it. Did you ever get out to the mailbox?

 

I can't wait for the Frau to arrive in the garage. I may sleep in the garage on Wednesday.

T

Good one, Ted.

 

Have fun with it!

OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!!

WTTM X2, BUDDY.

 

Classic Speedster, perfect.

 

You're right about Jim, Nobody in the hobby more encouraging, positive, or willing to jump in and help.

Way to go Ted...didn't you say you didn't want black? 

Congrats on the car Ted...Looks Great!! 

Jim...You Da Man...plain & simple 

Hey Rich, I think I did! LOL!!!

 

That was my party line, right up until the second I saw a black one, then I couldn't think of anything else!  It just looks right. I think the 'Bad Speedster' out of Reno, NV was the one that turned the tide for me. That car is spot on 100% out of sight.

 

Thanks for the well wishes,
Ted

 

 

Fan-freakin'-tastic, Ted!  Now we just gotta get you to join Musbjim with us in Carlisle.

Ted;

 

Great news, good luck with your new speedster.  Nice pipes btw.

 

Art

Hey Art!

I think those pipes are coming off soon. I'm going to order up a set of Kadrons and an A1 Sidewinder from the Kaddie Shack.

 

I'm also going to put some wide 5 disks up front.

 

Is it spring yet?

Ted

Cool car and I think Jim is the same.  He posts some cool videos of Speedster life out West and always welcomes new SOC'ers. 

I'm flattered by the bromance abounding here! 

 

I told Ted that there are a lot of guys on this site that would do the same if the car were in their area. That's the kind of gearheads we have on SOC!!

 

Looking forward to meeting up with Ted and his 'new' Speedster at the 2014 West Coast Cruise in San Luis Obispo!! 

Hey Jim, XOXOXO, it was a year ago today you were willing to almost chauffeur me halfway across the greater LA area...YOU ARE THE MAN!

Ted

Congrats. Happy you found a nice black car. Now the madness starts.

Stephen

Ted.  Why are you buying an A1 Sidewinder from anyone other than directly from Tiger at A1, where they are made?

Jim,  I enjoyed your post on the Sidewinder.  But I also noticed in the vid, a very smooth shifter,  who's is it?  I have an Empi and it reminds me of a 1976 Volvo I had.  Thanks,  Art

Congrats, Ted! That means one more from NorCal at SLO.

Uh, Jim...in the last photo there looks to be an open pizza box sitting in the right seat.

Would you care to divulge the variety?

Let me guess, Hawaiian?

Great news!   

 

As John Muir said,

 

"Love and good roads!"

 

http://www.ratwell.com/mirror/Muir/closing.wav

 

Huh?! I wasn't aware I could do that.   Great idea. I'll use the search button to find out how.

 

They aren't any cheaper going directly to Tiger are they?

 

Ted

I told you a little patience and it would pan out.  Now you owe me beer!

-=theron

Thanks, Art! I have only a stock VW shift stick. I just gots mad shifting skilz! 

 

 @Ted - I don't think A-1 Performance has a website. They are located on Grand Ave, Santa Ana, CA. Tiger is the owner proprietor and is very a knowledgeable & cool dude! 

OMG JIM!? The mere thought of peperoni and fish heads made my skin crawl. Full body goose bumps! I know you were kidding, but DAMN dude.

 

I searched the interwebs and found the number for A1. I called Tiger directly. He set me straight. It turns out that the version being offered by the Kaddie Shack isn't an ORIGINAL A1. It's a reproduction. Apparently not always true to form. To be fair, Jeff didn't say it was an 'A1 Sidewinder', he said "Sidewinder".  I'm the one who assumed it was an A1. Shame on me. I didn't know the cost of the original until Tiger told me. The difference was a huge indicator that something was amiss. As such,  I went ahead and dropped the coin for the original.

 

I work in an industry were our work is 'knocked off' all day long. I believe in giving the original artist their due rewards. If we don't pay for the R&D that went into the original, there is no motivation for others to create new goods and services.

 

I'm still going to upgrade to dual carbs and ratio rockers.

 

The madness has officially taken hold,

 

Ted

Yes, yes I do.

 

I'll set up a time to hook up once I get my car all dialed in.

 

Ted

Ted, just out of curiosity, what type of lead time did Tiger give you?

For the version that I ordered, 10 days before it would ship. The main delay is the ceramic coating process.

Ted

Congratulations Ted.  Best of luck with the new speedster!

So I'm gonna reiterate, Ted, that you should join us in Carlisle.  I can think of no more fitting intro into the Speedster Madness than that.  Seriously consider it.

Ted,

A-1 Sidewinder=good bang for buck.  Made big difference on my stock VS 1915.  Plus it looks good (and intimidating) from behind.

 

Hey Tom!

 

Thanks again for letting me bend your ear while I was looking. Much appreciated.

 

I thought the looking was hard. The waiting is killing me!

 

 

I talked to the shipper at 6:00 when I was leaving the office. He said he was about 100 miles out.

 

I'm thinking that he'll be here before 8:30 or 9:00.  You know what's funny? Any noise outside sounds like an 18 wheeler crawling up the hill to the house. My wife thinks I've lost my mind. She may be right.

Ted

You are too funny, Ted! Many of us have been through the same thing!

 

Make sure that fridge has plenty to drink and snack on, because once the car is dropped off and in the garage (I bet a dollar you take it for a quick spin around the block first), you'll be spending the rest of the night staring and gawking at your new ride from every angle possible and probably fall asleep in the driver seat! 

Hey Ted...your poster looks good too!!! 

It's here!  I present the Schwarz Fräulein:

 

 

 

WOW. There she is.  My face hurts from the giant SEG. l drove it around our little town and back up the hill.

 

I'll dig into it a bit more tomorrow after work. She's really dirty and has a burned out tail light. Other than that, just as Jim described her.

 

Thanks, Troy for the info on the shipper!

Thanks, Jim for the excellent brokerage!

 

I think I might sleep now. I'm exhausted from all this anticipation.

 

Ted

SWEETNESS!!! Congrats again Ted!! 

You're younger than I thought...

Ted,

Send some pictures of the interior please. I may have owned that car in the past.

Seriously!

-=theron

The guy I got it from has owned it since 1998. Al something or other. The interior is basically overstuffed speedster seats and black carpet. Kirk did a bunch of work on it in 99 and 2000.  He did a little bit more work on in 2014 too! 

 

I need some SPEESTER logos and a new rear deck grill. New tail light rubbers, etc.

 

Dr Clock - what do you have in your pile o bits?

 

 

 

 

Thanks gang for all the well wishes. I'm beat. Going to bed.

 

Jim - I received the title and the doc you shipped. I owe you a few rounds at SLO.

 

Thank you, and good night... (Elvis has left the building... you can find him in the garage sleeping in his car.)

 

P.S.

I fixed the tail light. It wasn't burned out, the connections were corroded. Just cleaned 'em up with a little emery cloth.

 

 

And with that you have now made the car yours.  That first repair is an important one.

 

Congrats, Ted! 

Ted, Nice ride

 

Boy I wish my garage floor was clean like that.  A soon as it gets into the mid forties the hose, soap and squeegee are coming out  

Yea, I did some little things last night. Front plate,  gone. PO condo parking stickers, gone. Tail light contacts, rub out a few scratches. Lots of little stuff to keep me out of trouble for the next few weekends.

       
       


I'm out of state on work that weekend. Maybe I catch a flight over that way! Oh man, my wife would have my hide. Ha! I'm trying to ease her into the SLO weekend. We will see how that goes.

Glad you finally found what you are looking for.  I notice it doesn't have heat.  Is that on your list of mods?

Yeah, she has no heat. I didn't think I would need it, but the drive into the office this morning had me thinking it'd a worth while upgrade.

Speaking of the drive in, I noticed a bit more fuel smell than I was comfortable with. I opened the deck lid and found that the fuel line from the tank to the fuel pump was 'sweaty'. It's sweating fuel from where it exists the body, clear down to the fuel pump.

Need to replace that tonight/tomorrow. I'm going to take it easy going home tonight. It's not so bad that it's dripping, but still - not something to mess around with. (Step 2, get a fire extinguisher put behind driver seat.)

 

The dual carbs should arrive in a week or so. Just go with a standard rubber fuel hose for now? What's the preferred long term hose?

 

Had it die twice when I had to come of the gas quickly and onto the break. Sudden stops. Goes to idle and dies. Not sure what that's about. Couple of back fires out the pipes with sudden transitions.

 

Other than that, runs like a champ. Brakes are great. I'm looking forward to stepping up to front disks.

 

Jim - thanks for picking out such a great car.

 

I'll start cleaning the body/paint this weekend.  Initial signs show it should clean up nicely.

 

Ted

Oh, another oddity.

 

THe 'trip' counter doesn't work. The 1/10 mile number works as expected and the larger 'odometer' works, but the numbers to the left of the 'white' dial - they don't ever increment.

 

Must mean I have the cheap knock off gauges?

Ted

Yeah. That part of those gauges breaks.

 

NICE CAR!

 

Congrats. 

 

Your backfires could be a small exhaust leak. Look at the preheat pipes and see if they aren't corroded through, and lok at the exhaust pipes and the heads for that tell-tale soot line that indicates a leak. Easy fix and will probably solve your stall/idle problem too.

Ed, what would one seal up a small leak with? I have no welding skills.  I think my CMC like Ted's has small back fires.  thanks,  Art

Hey Ed,

 

Thanks for the kind words. I've ordered a replacement exhaust, carbs, and distributor. I may even replace the dog house shroud for a 36hp dog house without heat ducts not sure yet. As Troy asked earlier, Heat is a really nice luxury.

 

Here are some photos from the night the car arrived and over the past week:

 

 

 

Cleaning up the paint:

 

Lots of orange peel:

 

Took 'er out for a drive last night:

 

 

 

 

I really need to raise the front end up. I tried, but the avis adjusters are at the full 'up' position. The front suspension has 0 travel. If I push 'down' on the front fender there is 0 play. If I jack the car up the there is a ton of down ward travel in the arms.  I'm wondering if the PO removed some springs up front? of if maybe it was put together incorrectly?

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks for letting me share,
Ted

 

Ted;

 

Nice period correct plates!  What size tires are you running?  Is that Lexington Reservoir in Los Gatos? 

 

Art

Hey Art!

 

Thanks. The plates were one of the first things I did. The Gilroy DMV was excellent about getting them registered and on the car. In and out in 15 minutes.

 

The reservoir is Anderson Dam in Morgan Hill. About a mile from the house. Before all the talk of the drought, there were going to drain it to retrofit the dam. Looks like they are going to put that off for a year or two.

 

 

 

Ted - with those conditions as described, I'm guessing you may be right about the front missing at least one of the torsion rods (?). Not sure what's involved in inserting the correct number of torsion rods. Car looks great! 

I can't remember the correct number of torsion bar plates in the front, but it's made up of something like 6 or 8 of them in a particular lay-up configuration to fit into the keeper in the center of the tube as well as into the notched tube in the trailing arms going to the wheel hubs.  It's an all-morning deal to check them, since you have to remove the shock, then remove the trailing arms and then count the number of flat bars you see, both top and bottom, and then decide what to do next.  You can check them by pulling the trailing arms off of just one side, but if you want to add torsion bars (if some are missing, now) you'll have to pull the other side as well.

 

If it's a ball joint front end, this is best done by popping apart ONE ball joint so then the trailing arms are independent.  Then, with the trailing arm neutral (no pressure on it) loosen the locknut and then remove the grub screw on the trailing arm (you can keep the locknut right on it) and then jiggle the trailing arm off of the torsion bar to see what you've got.

 

 

Cool tip, Gordon! When it comes to 'been-there-done-that' tech tips, you are like money in the bank my friend! 

Art, I'm running 185 65/ R15. Nothing crazy.

So I put the car up on jack stands and found the right front trailing arm grub screws and lock nuts are almost falling out. Not even finger tight. I also found that the car has no front sway bar. Something tells me its been apart before.

The car will remain off the road until I figure out what's up. The suspension, as it sits, is beating the crap out of the car and driver.

The images above, where I am cleaning the paint - the right side has been cleaned. The left has not. I just used a very light cut. Followed up with a quick foam pad and swirl remover. Nothing drastic, yet. I may get it blocked to cut the orange peel. We will see.

Ted- To expand on what Gordon said, a ball joint torsion leaf stack will have 4 large flat bars stacked together, and on the top and bottom of the stack 3 small bars (2 side by side, 1 on the outside). One stack in the top tube and one (identical) in the bottom. Before the select-a-drop and torsion adjusters were invented guys would pull some of the small leaves out to achieve that Cal Look stance.

 

What they look like (pics stolen from the Samba)

 

 

And.....There is one set of those stacked-up bars for both sides of the front end.  The stack-up is inserted into one side of the torsion bar tube and pushed in to slide through a hole in the center anchor ( that moves with the adjuster ) and all the way to the opposite side.

 

The trick to getting them through the center anchor is to grease them up liberally with regular automotive grease and then put a small rubber band on one end, about an inch from the end, to hold them all in place.  Push it in, make it align with the hole in the center and then push it through.  The rubber band will just slide along the bars and then be captive in the middle and be harmless.

Thanks gents. I'll get a ball joint tool and tear into this one night this week.

I can't imagine Al drove the car much with the front end bottomed out like this.

Let's say ole crazy Al pulled a few springs. Should I buy a new beam or buy new leaves? Do they sell just the spring steel inserts?

Thanks again,
Ted

If the beam's in good shape all you need is the missing leaves. If you were closer I have some I could give you. You can drive up for them if you want; and no, my wife won't let me meet you half way...

 

The car's lookin' good, Ted.

Beam has some surface rust, otherwise in good shape. The seals at the torsion arms are pretty worn out, I should replace them if I tear into this. I will look for replacement springs locally.

EIS has them, too.

 

http://www.eisparts.com/111411...KEmr0CFchZ7AodFGcAHA

Ted- Just a thought; see if you can tighten the grub screws into their appropriate dimples in the torsion leaves and drive it. I don't know if it will help or not, but it's worth a try. Al

 

If you end up looking for torsion leaves, check Craigslist for people selling VW parts. If you can find someone close they should be really cheap. I think the leaves for a ball joint beam may be different than ones for a king & link pin front end.

Ted: I second ALB's advice. But I modify: If the screws were loose already, first pull the arms off and see if they were on straight. I put one on whacked 30 degrees out when I pulled springs out of my car. Almost didn't notice, but the grub screw wouldn't seat.

 

So you might have just loose arms. Or you might (unlikely, but maybe) have trailing arms that are on wrong. Or you might have dropped spindles with beam adjusters that are designed to drop it further--a common error, I'm betting.

 

What you will want are either 

 

1. 2 inch drop spindles and a beam set to stock height, or

 

2. Stock spindles with a beam set to be lowerable about two inches.

 

Now a word on the torsion springs:

 

The VW comes with (as pictured) four "big" leaves and six smaller ones stacked in each tube in the beam. These were designed to be removable to adjust the spring rate, depending on the amount of weight riding over them. The Beetle is a bit on the heavy side, being made out of steel. Your car (and mine too, I know this cuz I did it) might just be about 200 pounds lighter over the front wheels than a stock Bug was/is.

 

For this reason, taking out some or all of the small leaves might give you a better ride.

 

You don't want to do it if the car is too low already, as less springs will take it down further. But the ride on my car was dangerously stiff before I pulled all six small leaves out of both tubes. With just the four big ones, it is right.

 

So look hard at what you have. If you have drop spindles and the kind of beam that only allows you to lower the car, you should still be able to adjust it to "stock" height at the beam, which would leave you about two inches lower than stock in front. And that is just about perfect for these cars. 

 

Personally I prefer the stock spindle and the lowering adjuster, with fewer leaves. That setup works on my car.

 

Oh, and: fixing an exhaust leak is usually a matter of gaskets and washers and tightening nuts. I mentioned the carb heat tube because I had that problem too--the engine has maybe 250,000 miles on it, and this sort of thing happens. Fixed it with tape, temporarily. Pulled the engine in favor of a Subaru, but the right fix is to just replace that one part. Cheap and easy.

 

 

 

So this bit caught me and stuck in my head.  I say this because I think something is off with the grub screws in the center adjusters. They don't go in very far at all. Should there be an 'indent' or pocket in the stacked springs for the center screw to seat into? Currently, when I put the center screw in, it only goes in a tiny bit before it bottoms out on the spring pack. I bet it's put together wrong.

 

I'll dig into it in a few days and let you know what I find out.  I'm getting ready to leave town for work next week. Then I will be on vacation with the family for another week. I'm not sure I want to tear into this before I'm set to gone for two weeks.

 

On a brighter note, I did just receive a box full of badges from Sierra Madre! Unfortunately I forgot to order 3 different gaskets (hood handle front and rear gasket, new rear deck lid grill gasket). I'll call 'em up tomorrow and order 'em up.

 

Carbs should be here tomorrow! Distributor too!

The MADNESS has consumed my friend Ted! Poor bastard! 

 

Wait 'til he & Alexis meet the other SOC knuckleheads in SLO....shenanigans will know no bounds!!

True to his word, look what Tiger sent me today!

 

 

 

Not completely installed (no gaskets!?) - I only finger tightened the nuts to see how it would look. Looks like it hangs lower than the old exhaust, but the reality is that it's 1.25 / 1.5" higher than the old rusted scaly original empi 4 tip monza. Best part? No more scraping when I pull into the garage!

 

The carbs were supposed to be here in 7 days. Tiger said 10 days from order to deliver.  Tiger beat the carbs. I called them last week and they said they would ship Saturday. I think someone has some 'splaining to do.

 

Ted

Looking good Ted 

You should wear shoes in the garage...

 

Ha! That's my 9 year old daughter. She was ready for bed and decided to come out to see what I was doing.  Yes, the little stinker should have on shoes.

 

 

Tiger said 10 days from the time I ordered it, to the time it would ship. I ordered on the 4th. It arrived yesterday. Turns out to have been about two weeks, including weekends and shipping. Not too shabby. AJ Sims said 4 to 7 days on the carbs. I ordered those the same day I ordered the exhaust. I still haven't seen those suckers show up. They said they would ship them this past Saturday.

 

I'll give them a call today and see what's up.

 

Now I need to figure out what to do about the existing dog house shroud. It has heat stacks on it, but I don't have heater boxes yet. Part of me wants to get the SCAT 36hp dog house without heat tubes (and internal cooling veins)  - just to keep it clean and tidy back there. I'll get the existing shroud cleaned up for when I'm ready to install heat. I just worry about the 36hp shrouds ability to keep the motor cool.

 

Any suggestions are welcomed,

Ted

I hope you don't have any problems with AJ Sims.  He has had some problems in the past getting items to clients on time.

 

The 36 hp shroud will cool your engine fine.  The internal vanes are needed for proper air distribution and if you're going to run your car without heater boxes block off the heater box air tubes with something like this: 

 

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDe...uctCode=ACC-C10-5439

Hey Ron,

 

I hope the same thing. I'm going to be grumpy if that's the case.  Regarding the freeze plugs in the shroud - I have those in the existing dog house shroud that's on the motor now. I think I'll go to the 36hp shroud without the heat tubes for a clean sanitary look. Especially if it will cool just the same.

 

I'm going to call AJ after my 9:30 call.

 

Ted

 

 

Yeah, looks like there was some truth to the warnings I received.  I ordered the carbs on the 4th and was told that they would go out in 4 to 7 days. I didn't receive them by the 14th so I called and was told they would go out the very next day. I asked TWO TIMES "Are you sure?... I can get a nice set of baby dells TODAY if you're not sure... " - their reply was "We're sure..." 

 

I called back today and was told that they shipped and that I should have them. I asked for a tracking number and was given one. Turns out that they shipped them YESTERDAY. When I asked about that I was just told "oh... yeah... I'm sorry about that."

 

Long story short - Tiger was true to his word. The guys at Low Buggit were not. Lesson learned. Won't do business with them again.

What's so hard about being honest regarding shipment dates?

Ted

 

 

 

 

Tiger is THE MAN!  I recently stopped by his shop for some scheduled muffler work, and his dad's shop, in the same building, did some radiator work at the same time.  The best of all worlds: American company with skilled American labor, and a family business to boot! 

Ted, I'd go with the 36 hp shroud without heater tubes too.  They look nice.

 

Tiger makes a quality product.  He screwed up my order (made my header without an 02 sensor) and I had to wait an extra couple of weeks for my exhaust system, which was no big deal, since my car has been off the road for a (long) while.  Still, he felt bad and threw in a quick release coupler/pipe so I can take my muffler offin a couple of minutes.

 

What disadvantages are there for the 36HP shroud, no heater tubes, (obviously no standard VW heater). And other than aesthetics, what advantages?  I have to pull my engine, to put tins in, so "while I am at it" (BTW the 5 most expensive words in house remodels) what do I gain?

 

And the more I read about  Tiger looks like he's a first cabin supplier.

The grub screws should fit in dimples. When you pull the trailing arms you will see. The arms need to fit on the springs just so. When all the springs are present and accounted-for, there is no way to get it wrong. But if you remove the small springs, and are stupid and careless (like me) you can get the arm on there wrong. Then you gotta hammer it off. I used a two pound sledge with a piece of 2x4 as a shield. Two or three whacks.

 

I am told that very hard driving can do this to the arms as well (again, if the small leaves are removed). For this reason, the smart and very careful (racer-type) people fill the space left open by the departed small torsion leaves with either A. cut off bits of torsion leaves or, B. something metal that is the same size. 

 

The good news for you: If you have a couple of wracked torsion arms, chances are good you can just put them back on right and forget about them.

 

Good luck.

 

Oh, nice pipes!

Hey Art,

 

I don't know that there are any direct disadvantages, other than nothing cools like an original stock shroud. I will most likely buy the scat shroud, without heater ports, just to clean up the engine until I get some heater boxes. A clean engine compartment is a must have for me. What I have now is the opposite of that.

 

Ted

 

 

GREAT MOTHER OF GOD! The pile of parts that arrived today...

 

So, AJ came through. He has a 14 day guarantee that he will deliver. He delivered in 15. I'm not going to break  his balls over a day.

 

Currently sitting on my work bench:

New tuned Dual 40mm Kadron carbs

Dual carb Linkage
Compufire Electronic ignition

SVDA Distributor (some sort of custom mapping?... snake oil... whatevs!)

Complete new SCAT 36hp engine tin (all of it...)

Fuel pressure regulator

New Sierra madre rubber gaskets for the hood handle

New Sierra madre hood emblem

New Sierra madre side "Speedster" emblems

New Sierra madre front and rear PORSCHE emblems

New Sierra madre rear decklid Grill

New Sierra madre rear decklid Grill gasket

New mirror gasket

New Sierra madre rear 1600 emblem

New fuel hose

New engine tin screws

New tie rod ends (x4)

 

Some other stuff I'm forgetting...

 

Here is the punch line - I leave Monday for a week long work trip, then I return and I'm heading on vacation with the family for a week!?

 

Schwarz Frau will be all alone in the garage for 2 weeks!!?  It hardly seems right.

 

Hopefully I'll get the motor pulled this weekend so can start to tear it apart before I leave for two weeks.  

 

T

 

 

The Madness is strong in this one, Obiwan.

It's interesting getting to know the new members. It starts off with the vision of a guy at his computer feverishly sorting through the SOC, eBay and Samba ads and asking all the questions...all consumed. Then you find out he actually has a job 

Ted, I thought your speedster was a CMC? Has your rear decklid been modified to accept the grill? Every CMC I've encountered has the one-piece hibachi grill.

 

       
       


Yup, my car is a CMC. The deck lid has not been enlarged yet. But that's the plan. The hibachi just looks klunky to me.

I've been out of town on business so I haven't had much time to spend with the speedster lately.

 

I did manage to pull the motor last Friday, clean up the engine compartment a bit, paint the tin and start the reassembly.  Photos below.

 

 

Saturday Morning:

There was a good puddle of goo (oil? Trans oil?) in the bell housing there. I'm slightly alarmed as I don't know why it would have been there.

 

 

Sunday morning:

Engine tin's painted and the carbs starting to be mocked up for final assembly. The oil filler housing was always chrome (I'm not a fan) - I just found out it was chrome after starting to clean up the motor a bit.

 

 

 

The trans issue has me a bit bugged, but there was no sighs of dripping or oozing anyplace. The clutch looked good.  I will address it when I replace the trans with something more geared for highway speeds.

That's how she sits for now. I return home on tomorrow. I'm hoping to button it up a bit more before I fly out again on Sunday.

 

Slowly but surely,
Ted

Make sure you get the full set of tins in there.  You should not be able to see the ground from the engine compartment.  Just like the package for a McDLT, the tins keep the hot side hot and the cold side cold.

Hey Lane,
Yup yup. I have all the correct tins. I was simply letting them dry. When it's back on the road, it will be all sealed up proper like.

Thanks for lookin out,
Ted

DANG, Ted! You certainly aren't f'ing around getting that ride in order! Great progress, my brutha! 

 

Brother Jim!

 

Yeah, I'm not one to piss about. I'll jump in with both feet.

 

I decided I don't like the argent silver engine tin. I'm going to redo it with more of a platinum or graphite. I've never had a lot of luck with straight silver paint. Hard to get it to lay down right.

 

I think the graphite will provide enough contrast with the natural aluminum parts.

 

Ted

I agree about the silver color.  Graphite or black would be my color choices.

"Saturday Morning:

There was a good puddle of goo (oil? Trans oil?) in the bell housing there. I'm slightly alarmed as I don't know why it would have been there."

 

Ted- If you don't have it all back together yet, stick your finger in the puddle. Trans oil smells different than engine oil. Replacing the mainshaft seal (it's behind the throw-out bearing) isn't really hard; you can pull it out with a flat-blade screwdriver if you're careful. You want to slide it in along the shaft and pry it out, but not so far as to score the seal's mounting surface. Replacing the flywheel seal is a little more involved, as you need a flywheel lock and 36mm nut and breaker bar to remove the gland nut, but that can be done at home. A flywheel installer (or correctly sized socket or pipe) is a big help as well. Guys do install it with a hammer, but it's really easy to f##k it up this way. Yoda out.

A cheap flywheel seal installation tool is a PVC pipe coupling~

A man after my own heart Doc.....

I would also look at the drivers side axle shaft boot, it looks like there is oil on it, maybe it is split. Easy fix with the engine out to replace the boot, I would do both sides and be done for the long haul.

Gwan - will do.

I just wanted to report back that it's alive... ALIVE!..I just wrapped up cleaning up the tins, installing the dual carbs, linkage , etc.

I eyeballed the linkage best I could to get it to idle. I squirted some fuel in the carbs and turned er over. Once the bowls were filled up she coughed to life. A tiny bit more noodling and she now idles enouge for me to start the car, exit the vehicle and get around back to fiddle with the throttle by hand. It's idling on its own now, a little higher than I'd like, but it's alive!!!

This weekend I will get the carbs and linkageball dialed in. Then it's on to the new distributor and electron ignition. One that's wrapped up I'll turn my attention to the front suspension and install the rotor skinns and new front disk brakes.

Slowly but surely, she's getting there.

Ted

^ Woo Hoo! Great progress, Ted! When you're done it will be a totally different car in both performance & ride! 

Excellent! Great to hear it Ted. As Jim said, once it's all dialed in it will feel like a different car.

Here is the motor back in. I changed the color of the tins from the argent silver to a graphite color. Now that it's back in, I wish I had a bit more contrast. The silver had too much contrast. This, not enough. Oh well.

 

Making a trip to the parts store today to pick up the front engine compartment seal, a set of boots for the swing and some grommets for the fire wall:

 

 

 

I still need to tidy up some wires there on the left & replace the rusted bolts on the engine decklid hinges & maybe paint that rusty chain. 

Still also need to put the final adjustments on the linkage and carbs. 

 

I'm pretty impressed with how strong it sounds already!

Ted

I know it serves a purpose, but I don't like the spiral alternator wire.  Otherwise, the engine compartment looks great.

looks awsome ted but i second ron on the altenator wire.

 

Yeah, I agree. It was 'there' when I bought the car. I'm not a huge fan myself.  Ideally I'd replace it when I 'tidy up the wires'. I will most likely go with something simple... like a high quality straight wire that runs up from the bottom/side. No sense it hanging it over the top of the motor. I will also run some sort of 'cover' over it so that it's not exposed.

 

I have NO IDEA what that wire 'hook' is for. It was there when I bought the car. I was going to remove it but didn't want to remove it if it served a purpose.

T

Took the ole girl out for a spin. WOW, she runs like a new car. So awesome. Sounds amazing tons of power. I'm in love. I can't wait to put the new distributor on now.  The car was back firing a tiny bit here and there. I also need to adjust the idle a bit. All in all I need to tweak the carburetors adjustments tiny bit more. It's my first time noodling with duals, so it's an earn as you learn kind of thing.

 

I doubt I'll notice the difference with the new distributor, but it'd be sure cool if I did.

 

Oh,  yeah... so... I took it out for a drive and got carried away. I loaded it up around a corner and it started to sputter and cough.... then it died.   Wouldn't start. I had a neighbor tow me home. I fiddled with the linkage. Tried to figure out the carb adjustments. etc. Pulled the air cleaners off, and flipped the throttle a bit. No fuel out of the nozzle on the left carb. Same... on the... right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turns out I ran it out of gas!...

 

 

BWAHHAHAHAHAHAH!

 

(come on, that's funny stuff right there!)