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

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!)