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

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