Salt Lake Suntans (more pics 7-24)
Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 9:08 am
Colin arrived with the coffee machine ready with a fresh brew for him, and we went through the plans for the day.
Primary aim was getting Harvee running well - well, after getting him running full stop.. He last ran back in around October, and then not very well.
So we delved into him. First order of business was the non-CA-spec distributor that Colin sold me. We disassembled it, cleaned it, lubed it, reassembled, and reinstalled correctly, with the correct 0.016" points gap. The vacuum unit on the distributor had the vacuum advance outlet pointing in the wrong direction, so we swapped over the one from my original CA-spec unit. Fitted the rotor arm, and then the cap with the rotor arm pointing to #1 plug's lead.
We set the static timing to 0°, then the centrifugal dynamic timing to 28° at around 3,400rpm with the hoses off. We then checked the timing for the vacuum advance and retard, and looked good.
Test drive! We drove around for, I don't know, 20 minutes or so, and all seemed well, once we'd cleared some rust spots from the RF brake rotor. There was some good hill work in there too, rising up about 6-700' and then coming back down.
Next up was the gas tank sender - the gauge hasn't worked in the 2.5 years I've owned Harvee, and when a rebuilt engine was fitted, I took the opportunity to replace the sender with a new one. Luckily, I kept the old one, and as the wiring looked OK to the sender, we removed the wires and re-attached them to the original sender - success at the gauge! Colin adjusted the tabs on the sender to calibrate the gauge, and then set it aside while he finagled the fitted sender out of the tank area without dropping the engine etc. When we connected the wires up to that sender, it had some movement at the gauge but not much. It never read a tank level though, due to this:
Yup, that appears to be gas inside the float, presumably holding it to the bottom of the tank all the time...
The tank had about 2.5 gallons in it, so we went down and got an additional 4 gallons. Keep note of these numbers...
So, as my original sender (Made in Germany ) gave better results than the newer one, Colin guided it back in above the tank from the spare wheel side and refitted it. After reattaching the wires, we checked the gauge and it wasn't showing where you would think it would for around 5-6 gallons in the tank, so we buttoned the firewall back up, reattached the S boot, AFM and air filter housing, and drove down to the gas station. Colin wanted to watch the gauge as I filled, so I slowly added has: 1 gallon, no change; 2 gallons, no change; dammit, fill it - so I did and first click on the pump was just short of 10 gallons.
Hmm, 14.6 gallon tank, 14 gallons added that day, on top of the circa 2.5 gallons added on Saturday, less any expended in the test drive etc. That math doesn't quite add up, does it...
On the way there and back, the engine was hesitating a little, so we thought vacuum leak. All hoses were attached, but when we took the connector pieces off from the various hard points, all of them had split - these were from a new vacuum hose kit from German Supply in 2012, if I recall correctly. Luckily, I had a length of the hose for the connectors, so we cut new ones and refitted them. WE also found that the oil breather hose (bought at the same time) had a split at one end, and the brake booster/decel valve 'Y' piece had a split on the outlet to the decel valve, so those will have to be sorted.
After all that, and having refitted the firewall and engine surround seal properly (apart form the styrofoam on the bottom of the firewall), we restarted and it sounded better, albeit still hunting at idle a little. Colin then played with the oxygen sensor, mixture screw etc and we found that it ran better without the oxygen sensor attached, so that wire stayed loose.
That just about reached the end of our day - we had sufficient time for Colin to dive underneath the front and work out what I need to have in for next year for the steering (center pin bushing kit) and that with the steering box set to dead ahead, the wheels are pointing slight to one side, so that'll need adjustment too, along with the camber for the LR wheel.
My job for the next year includes buying gaskets fro the fresh air hoses form the blower to where they go through the tinware, plus probably the thermostat cable seal to stop exhaust gases getting into the engine area, to be blown through the heat exchangers, and to also look into a couple of leaks towards the tailpipe end of the muffler.
Harvee is in for his annual safety and emissions test today......
Primary aim was getting Harvee running well - well, after getting him running full stop.. He last ran back in around October, and then not very well.
So we delved into him. First order of business was the non-CA-spec distributor that Colin sold me. We disassembled it, cleaned it, lubed it, reassembled, and reinstalled correctly, with the correct 0.016" points gap. The vacuum unit on the distributor had the vacuum advance outlet pointing in the wrong direction, so we swapped over the one from my original CA-spec unit. Fitted the rotor arm, and then the cap with the rotor arm pointing to #1 plug's lead.
We set the static timing to 0°, then the centrifugal dynamic timing to 28° at around 3,400rpm with the hoses off. We then checked the timing for the vacuum advance and retard, and looked good.
Test drive! We drove around for, I don't know, 20 minutes or so, and all seemed well, once we'd cleared some rust spots from the RF brake rotor. There was some good hill work in there too, rising up about 6-700' and then coming back down.
Next up was the gas tank sender - the gauge hasn't worked in the 2.5 years I've owned Harvee, and when a rebuilt engine was fitted, I took the opportunity to replace the sender with a new one. Luckily, I kept the old one, and as the wiring looked OK to the sender, we removed the wires and re-attached them to the original sender - success at the gauge! Colin adjusted the tabs on the sender to calibrate the gauge, and then set it aside while he finagled the fitted sender out of the tank area without dropping the engine etc. When we connected the wires up to that sender, it had some movement at the gauge but not much. It never read a tank level though, due to this:
Yup, that appears to be gas inside the float, presumably holding it to the bottom of the tank all the time...
The tank had about 2.5 gallons in it, so we went down and got an additional 4 gallons. Keep note of these numbers...
So, as my original sender (Made in Germany ) gave better results than the newer one, Colin guided it back in above the tank from the spare wheel side and refitted it. After reattaching the wires, we checked the gauge and it wasn't showing where you would think it would for around 5-6 gallons in the tank, so we buttoned the firewall back up, reattached the S boot, AFM and air filter housing, and drove down to the gas station. Colin wanted to watch the gauge as I filled, so I slowly added has: 1 gallon, no change; 2 gallons, no change; dammit, fill it - so I did and first click on the pump was just short of 10 gallons.
Hmm, 14.6 gallon tank, 14 gallons added that day, on top of the circa 2.5 gallons added on Saturday, less any expended in the test drive etc. That math doesn't quite add up, does it...
On the way there and back, the engine was hesitating a little, so we thought vacuum leak. All hoses were attached, but when we took the connector pieces off from the various hard points, all of them had split - these were from a new vacuum hose kit from German Supply in 2012, if I recall correctly. Luckily, I had a length of the hose for the connectors, so we cut new ones and refitted them. WE also found that the oil breather hose (bought at the same time) had a split at one end, and the brake booster/decel valve 'Y' piece had a split on the outlet to the decel valve, so those will have to be sorted.
After all that, and having refitted the firewall and engine surround seal properly (apart form the styrofoam on the bottom of the firewall), we restarted and it sounded better, albeit still hunting at idle a little. Colin then played with the oxygen sensor, mixture screw etc and we found that it ran better without the oxygen sensor attached, so that wire stayed loose.
That just about reached the end of our day - we had sufficient time for Colin to dive underneath the front and work out what I need to have in for next year for the steering (center pin bushing kit) and that with the steering box set to dead ahead, the wheels are pointing slight to one side, so that'll need adjustment too, along with the camber for the LR wheel.
My job for the next year includes buying gaskets fro the fresh air hoses form the blower to where they go through the tinware, plus probably the thermostat cable seal to stop exhaust gases getting into the engine area, to be blown through the heat exchangers, and to also look into a couple of leaks towards the tailpipe end of the muffler.
Harvee is in for his annual safety and emissions test today......