Fifty Fotos In Forty Hours

[Amskeptic]

Let's Begin.

This beautiful landscape is not yours:







. . . but it is sooo beautiful, I want to paint it. NO!
Sketch? Just with a little pencil? NO! :







FINE! So I drove up NM 550 to the more welcoming San Ysidro Reservation:




This is the side view of that red rock outcropping, looking like a land breaker here:










Oh look . . . clouds:




Oops, looks like a thermonuclear device accidentally went off up in Los Alamos:




Oh, it was just the camera explosure (haha, sorry, e-x-p-o-s-u-r-e) getting faked out by some unseen force against its exposure meter? Like my finger, perchance?







In the trees now, nicely thinned by humans, I believe:




Not here, though, this here spot up towards the caldera is thinned by fire:




The clouds may mess up my Project List if they decide to let loose, but this is pretty:




Decided to jump over the hill towards blue skies on this very very steep dirt path:







Could NOT get the car going here. Elevation is rich city and low compression city. Wasn't going to get tough on the clutch. Backed off the hillside shoulder and found a little dirt ramp. Advanced the timing horribly. Got going:







Good little cow takes a breather and a timing re-adjustment. Santa Fe to my left and Albuquerque to my right:




Heavily filtered here so you can see that I was on top of the world. :







Somebody lives out here. Must be anti-social:




Same spot, less telephoto'ed:







This tree had a remarkable silver/pewter sheen that the camera tried to capture:







Pow! Cow!




Chloe's pale sister, stuck up in this Nowhere No Pasture while Chloe forages all over the country . . . . :




ANYWAYS, here is the right valve train/ cylinder head surface at 13,000 grueling miles.. .. .. :




.. .. .. because here is where I decided to repaint the valve covers. Please note that I wiped a little stripe through a grey deposit that has been slowly darkening the inside surfaces:




Then the rain found me, so I put on these lovely pewter valve covers and clambered down the hill . . .
(to be cont.)

[Jivermo]

Zeke and I were out in the caldera in May. That 2011 fire burned a staggering amount of forest...158,000 acres in the Jemez Mountains. I had been there before that, and it blew me away to see the extent of the burn this past spring. From a downed power line, I understand. Not from someone's neglected fuel lines, thank goodness.

[hambone]

It looks a lot like Eastern Oregon. A long way from there.

[Amskeptic]

Let's Finish . . .

This whole demented little tour was about finding the beautiful spot that I hung out in in June 2014 . . .

viewtopic.php?f=68&t=12116

I knew there was a view and a steep hill and a little road visible at the bottom and a beautiful mountain cliff far off.
Well, I never did find it.




I am pretty sure that I was on the road that I could see three years ago from on high, but I never found the little dirt road that would lead me up there. Bummer, I said to Chloe. 55* ambient said Chloe back, we're good. This was so magnificent, the sunlight on the far hills, the rainbow that my camera decidely ignored . . . :




Descending quickly here, that's my road down there, yes it is:




Later, much later, I am here in San IlDefonso Pueblo way down the caldera and out across the valley in seek of warmth and to get out from under the stupid rain. Just down the hillside is the what used to be a closed electrical something building. A couple of years ago, I did Chloe's tire rotation in the parking lot. Look at all that rain I dodged .. .. .. :



.. .. .. until 10:00PM.


At sunset, things were looking pretty good. Chloe photographs well in the southwest evenings:




I was planning for the morrow's valve cover paint, tire rotation, undercoat on my nicely cleaned undercarriage, and even the re-installation of the crank pulley. The rains came drumming in and they stuck around long enough to tell me that the windshield is leaking like a sieve. Happens every year. The heat expands everything past the compliance points, then the early autumn contracts everything and water just drips right on in.


Valve covers painted:




Cleaned out all the known drainage-challenged areas:






Scraped, brushed, taped, and ready for undercoat:













Here's a new look. Can you see clearly how closely the engine is mounted towards the rear axle? I was surprised to realize, after decades of drawing and painting these things, that the engine itself is located pretty much within the rear wheel well opening:




And, dehydrated, speckled like a BP Oil Spill robin's egg, and damn good and sore, we have rotated tires, lubricated suspension and ball joints, fresh valve covers, undercoated chassis, and new lung/brain damage:




And the piece d' resistance:







That's your fifty fotos . . .
Colin

[wcfvw69]

Alright... share! How do you get you valve cover bails up w/out tearing up the paint on your freshly painted covers?

It looks great BTW.

[asiab3]

Alright... share! How do you get you valve cover bails up w/out tearing up the paint on your freshly painted covers?

It looks great BTW.

I get mine with grease and photoshop.
Robbie

[wcfvw69]

Alright... share! How do you get you valve cover bails up w/out tearing up the paint on your freshly painted covers?

It looks great BTW.

I get mine with grease and photoshop.
Robbie

I powder coated a set of original valve covers. I wasn't smart enough at the time to recognize the bails were rusty and coated in dirt, rust and other crap. When I pulled them up to secure the covers, I scratched the crap out of the powder coating.. Duh!

Were the bails originally when new? Where they zinc plated ? Were the simply painted? I think I need to blast and zinc plate my bails then try a dab of grease to see if I can not damage the paint.

[Amskeptic]

You will necessarily scratch the paint on the valve covers. I do use grease to season the skid tracks. I think the bails were painted from the factory. Mine are sanded down to the metal and clear-coated for a decent "brushed' look.

p.s. a group of turtles is called a "bale". A compressed pile of hay is called a bale, but we have a hoop much like those used in buckets, and they are called "bails".
Now bail me outta here so I can go bale, or I shall afix upon you a most baleful stare.

Off to replace all of my ball joint boots AGAIN, this time in a (couple of parking lots - see below-ed).
Colin

[Amskeptic]

More photographs. I have been busy at various parking spots. Here is the newly re-repainted Commemorative asiab3 mom's Radially True Pulley .. .. .. :




.. .. .. with handsome new matching crankcase seam mark:




.. .. .. and a festive little splash of Diet Coke red as I re-shimmed the heat exchanger collar:




This, is this an ugly car, or am I just falling behind the times? It just irritates me to look at it:




Next up was to stop the continuing cuts through the hole in the carburetor spring bracket and throttle lever hole. All of this mountain driving has been wearing these holes out.



I wanted to sleeve the holes with a roll pin or perhaps two rivets, but then I realized that I could not guarantee that the roll pins would stay in place, and the rivet idea just would not hold up, seeing as rivets are made of sooper-soft soggy aluminum. So, I decided to just drill out the holes a little and force in two small bolts for the spring to arc around. Much more surface area for the spring metal to now wear out half as fast, and the upgraded engineering looks . . . discrete:




The weather forecast suggested that I work on asphalt. Took out my collection of ball joint boots. Somebody sold me a wrong set and I cannot remember who . . . follow the green line, the correct height for our Extremely Articulatable Ball Joints:







Pressing the lower stud out:




Freeing the lower ball joint from the spindle by jacking up the lower torsion arm:




Rinsed out the lower ball joint socket with a grease gun application and spinning the joint as I articulated it. Installed new boot and used a little single strand 18ga wire as my new retainer:




Same deal with the driver's side. Note (on the upper arm) that the plastic ties from August 30, 2012 in Michigan held up just fine:

viewtopic.php?f=66&t=10947




The boot retainer wire was snugged with a pair of needle nose pliers and the ends were twisted five times and stuck in the notch of the torsion arm. I WILL let you know if they hold up:




I heard a blast of thunder while the left side was still in total disassembled disarray. Baffled, I stood up and walked out into the parking lot. Another "pop-up" thunderstorm had "popped up" and set me to rushing this thing back together:




Up in the mountains again, I did an engine oil change, a transaxle oil change, and a survey of my dominion:




I have to filter the photographs because the atmosphere is so dang opaque. What is it, western fires? New Mexico monsoonal humidity?




The next couple of days will be several badly required hikes to stave off this impending old-age, and a whole new program of lubricating the clutch pedal/accelerator cable, and e-brake cables. We are at 203,250 miles. Chloe and I will have gone 100,000 miles since I bought it by the time I get back east.
Colin

[Amskeptic]

This is not a clutch, accelerator, or heater cable. It is my Generator Spring Replacement Test Mule:




Generator light came on last night. I could only use a worn brush to give the tormented spring half a chance to work, and the combination of a damaged spring and a short brush turned out to be inadequate for headlamp use. Here, read this of not so long ago, to see how chaotic it was:

viewtopic.php?f=76&t=13420#p226595


It is not easy to interpret through a mirror what orientation needs to be realized to slip in a new strong generator spring in place of the one I over-extended and "sprung". With reckless joyful stupid abandon, I skidded the damaged spring right off the generator in as dumb of a stranded spot as any . . . but this time, I was ready, I was in-charge, I was not dumbfounded this time. That damaged spring was allowing sparking in the generator when the headlamps were on, and that can destroy a copper commutator in very little time.

It only took a couple of tries to trap the new strong spring in a sufficiently coiled-up, properly aligned insertion tool aka needlenose visegrips:




It was still diabolical to get that thing muscled into the lower window of the generator and align it with the spring post and drive it on, but I was not ranting and swearing in 106* heat this time:




Undercut each commutator stripe with my sharpened awl. Each one. Each and every one:




Hand-sanded the commutator, both brush screws, all generator shims and belt contact points on the generator pulley, washed the commutator with gasoline (as suggested in the Bentley), put it all back together:




The engine started without any questions from the generator light. I await nightfall for a load test, but this is the first time since I have owned this car that I have two good strong brush springs. Perhaps tomorrow, I will get to the clutch cable, the accelerator cable, and the heater cable lubrications . . .
Colin

[asiab3]

Gasoline in the generator as per Bentley? I need to go read that!

Nice looking brushes! I'm glad that was my spare spare set. I pulled into a pizza parlor last week with a glowing light. Found my upper brush almost worn down to the wire. Replaced it on the spot, and did the lower yesterday. There was quite a bit of sparking when I installed the upper brush; a quick press and wipe of my grandpa's old commutator cleaning bars made the commutator shine and the sparking subside. A few flashed off here or there at idle, but after a 20 mile drive it's dark inside once again.

You've mention seeing a glow from your brushes before; I am curious how the clean commutator and new brushes will end up looking in the dark…

Robbie

[Amskeptic]

Gasoline in the generator as per Bentley? I need to go read that!

Nice looking brushes! I'm glad that was my spare spare set. I pulled into a pizza parlor last week with a glowing light. Found my upper brush almost worn down to the wire. Replaced it on the spot, and did the lower yesterday. There was quite a bit of sparking when I installed the upper brush; a quick press and wipe of my grandpa's old commutator cleaning bars made the commutator shine and the sparking subside. A few flashed off here or there at idle, but after a 20 mile drive it's dark inside once again.

You've mention seeing a glow from your brushes before; I am curious how the clean commutator and new brushes will end up looking in the dark…

Robbie

Glad you asked, because I was going to ask you to do a test of your properly functioning generator.

Night time. A few minutes of high beams at idle (you running the H4s?)
Go to the back and rev the engine to about 3,000 rpm.
Do you see eerie electrical lightening? I might have to wait for the new brush to bed in, because it certainly is well-lit in there when I rev the engine.

Very amused to read the factory factory manual this morning, "do not take apart regulator, do not file points, any touching of the internal parts of the regulator can cause severe damage to the electrical system'. Yeah, this I read with my regulator apart after cleaning the dielectric grease off of and sanding the contacts.

Colin

(p.s. my custom clutch cable end (July 3rd, 2012) is holding up beautifully)

[whc03grady]

Dumb question maybe, but why not remove the generator to do all this work?

[Amskeptic]

Dumb question maybe, but why not remove the generator to do all this work?

Our generators run the fan. The fan is nestled in the fan housing below the intake manifold line. To remove the generator, you need to disassemble the thermostat, remove the oil cooler ducts, remove the carburetor, release the generator hold-down strap, jack up the fan housing enough to clear the intake manifold, remove the generator/fan plate from the housing and draw it rearwards.

I preferred to fiddlefrick with the mirror . . .

[whc03grady]

Forgot all that (I mean, I knew the fan was attached to the front of the generator; the rest of it I forgot).

Sometimes it slips past me how few Type I engines I've dealt with over the years. Type III...now there's an easy generator removal.