Thursday, September 15, 2016

Little pieces of progress stack up like coins so that someday, I'll get to redeem them for a result

The engine is getting moved on Monday for an overview and tuning-my current schedule isn't allowing me much in the ways of time to be able to tinker on the car.  Fortunately, I have a local source for outsourcing the job and knowing that it'll come back in expected condition.  It should be back by next weekend since there isn't a lot to do on it and I might be able to drive the car a bit before ol' man Winter comes howling along.  The tie rods are probably going to need to be replaced and since I've drained the fuel tank, now might be the time to replace them.  The inner left is good but the other three are 'old' NOS.  Pulling the seals on the new 'NOS' and repacking the grease is to be done before they're put on the car.  I need to find a way to eliminate the steering wander and I'm quickly running out of parts to replace.

One thing I noticed on the pressure plate on the engine - it's the 3 arm type.  I've never liked that type so I bought the diphragm version, which I find to be much smoother.  As with so many other things, they're no longer made in Germany.  This one is made in Brazil.
 Clutch disc is made in Korea
Throw out bearing is made in Germany.

I already had one of these but the kit was such a good deal (little over twice the price of this bearing alone) that I went for it - leaving me with a spare TO bearing.

I bought a few spare parts as well - extra clips, etc.

I still need to check out the lever action now that the engine is out of the car to ensure that the weird hang is most likely to be in the clutch pressure plate actuation but I've been wrapped up in a professional certification process so the car has not seen much of me lately.

I got a bunch of other really small and seemingly insignificant parts as well - mostly screws and hardware.  I'd post up photos but I've already put them away.

Saturday, September 10, 2016

When a 'little' equals a lot

So...this happened today.  I pulled the engine out of the car after waffling back and forth about it for weeks.  I'm going to put the 1500 S engine back together and tune it, replace the clutch and the throw out bearing and stuff the engine back into the car.
The good news is that the clutch is 200mm diameter so finding replacements should be simple.  There was a fair amount of debris inside that's now mostly gone.  There's been something not quite right about the clutch since the first day and I'd like to figure out what the issue is...now that the engine is out, I'm going to test out the pedal action to see if it may have been the pressure plate.  If the weird 'hang' persists, then I'll swap out the heim link clutch cable with a different style to see if that improves things a bit.

While the engine is out, I'd like to explore a better way to wire up the hard start relay so that the bulk of the odd wiring is under the back seat vs. suspended in air over the starter.  There's got to be a cleaner way to wire it up.

I discovered a bit of gear oil on the inside surface of the left side wheel - I'm hoping that doesn't turn into a full blown axle rebuild.  I'd be tempted to replace the drum set up with disc if so...

Background Tune: "Good Mistake" by Mr. Little Jeans

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Focused on steering

Passively looking for steering box parts, I stumbled upon a NOS housing and two worm rollers for less than $200 shipped...so I bought them - I'm on a bender to get two near NOS or completely NOS steering boxes built - the rebuilt units available are garbage and the TRW boxes are even worse.  These are going to be shipped West with some other parts in the near future to be built up.  I'm going to have two boxes built - one will go on the car and the other will be kept as a spare.  I can ship out the three or four steering boxes I've got here to be used for parts, eliminating one more box of parts that have been sitting around collecting dust.
This box of steering box plugs is packed with a small group of other parts (shims included) and enroute.  I can then eliminate this as one of the variables in the handling of the car.  Solid, NOS steering boxes should resolve my front end issues until the front beam is built.


Speaking of the front beam, I found this set of upper and lower bakelite bushings for about $60 shipped...I'm short of the lower right control arm in NOS condition and the upper bearings - then I'll have an all NOS front beam, all the way out to the spindles.

I have NOS tie rod ends (late 80's manufacture), tie rods, and ball joints.  Seems like the front beam is about done with parts sourcing.

I can soon go back to obsessing about the little parts inside the car soon.