Wallace

[ray_]

You might want to re-torque the head in the meantime. 

 

I think...

 

Cheers,

[majdomo]

SO much cleaning and scrubbing. LA's Totally Awesome does a great job degreasing, bought that and a few cheapo brushes from the local dollar store and got down to business this afternoon. Looks way better, no photos yet but will take some later. Big greasy puddle in the middle of the garage, even though I threw down a bucket. Oh well.

 

Also, because I'm a glutton for punishment (and because it has a very slow leak), I pulled the steering box and it's sitting on my workbench in a vise waiting for a proper beefy pitman arm puller to arrive from Amazon. I managed to mangle the crappy rent-a-tool aluminum one from O'Reilly. 10lb BFH is at the ready, squirted down with PBlaster, ready to get rowdy with some flying parts. Box is smooth and linear, a little bit more resistance at center but I think that's intentional. Got over to IE yesterday for rebuild parts, so that's ready to go. Box itself looks like it came up from the Titanic, so many barnacles and crud. Did a half-a$$ job trying to get at the subframe, the steering box and engine mounts look good if a little bit of surface rust. Plenty more to get after later, may wind up getting that pressure washer after all...

[majdomo]

Happy New Year, FAQ!!

 

More work today - pulled the heater box again, to adjust the heater valve one more time while the coolant is out. I'd forgotten how much of a pain in the rear it was to reinstall the bowden cables after pulling out all the under dash trim and glove box. Was able to get some Tri-Flow in the bowden cables and on the fan bearings to take care of a wicked squeal when running the fan, and was able to open up the box one more time to adjust the cables so that they shut the valve all the way. Also did some repair work on the bracket (was cracked), and bench checked all my work. Reinstalled and ready to go, looks like I didn't do anything but I guess that's the point! Also got after the old gaskets from the intake with some red scotch brite, so that's all ready to go.

 

Big ol' pitman arm puller arrived this afternoon, and after about 3 min of messing with it, the pitman arm came right off the steering box, with no big bang or anything...just slid right off. Splines all look solid, but I've been dumping PB on it and whaled on it with the BFH which I'm sure contributed to the anti-climatic finish. Big plans for the weekend are to rebuild the box, and start the reinstall of everything that's come off the car. I probably won't finish this weekend as I'm trying to not burn out ahead of what looks like will be a really fast start to the year through at least May, but once you get in the zone it's tough to not keep going!

Edited January 1, 2021 by majdomo
BFG, lol.

[majdomo]

Steering box rebuilt, resealed and cleaned up. This was a messy and smelly job, no idea if the gear oil had ever been replaced (69 date code on the box...yikes!) and the seals I pulled were basically solid chunks of brittle plastic. Gears and bearings were all good though. Re-centered the box, sort of a pain but it really only goes back together one way. Helped to mark the center on the worm gear input shaft to line up with the rectangular mark on the top center of the ring around the input shaft, and then do lots of testing to compare the center of the input shaft with the mark on the output shaft and pitman arm. There’s about 1/8 turn of play at the very end of travel on each side, when out of the car, but no play otherwise. 
 

Got rid of all the barnacles with lots of scrubbing, scraping, and finally a small wire cone attachment on the Dremel. Reused the hex head bolts on the rear of the worm gear bearing, as they were just a little shorter than the ones from IE and the ends protrude into the box itself on that side. Cleaned the rear cover and all 3 shims as well. Looks good, for now!

 

 

Finished reinstalling in the car this afternoon, including a prelim recentering of the steering wheel. I’m at ill waiting on the new starter to put everything else back, but did test fit the new intake and excited to get this all done and get my workbench back!

[majdomo]

Well... it's all done, everything's in the car and hooked up. Car is running but can't get it to idle at anything below 2K rpm, with the idle mixture screws about 5-6 turns out and cheating with the idle speed screw in about 2-3 turns. It's running a 50 idle jet but this is way too lean. The DCOEs are 50s as well, but they're different animals and the DCOEs ran a little on the lean side as well. So, have a jet kit on the way to see if a 55 or 60 makes a difference.

 

Getting it out on the freeway returned a similar answer -some very surge-y performance that suggests leaning out at higher RPMs. It's only marginally quieter than the DCOEs, and I really don't feel it come on the mains as I did with the sidedrafts. Not that I expected it to, but I was willing to give up some performance to get a quieter ride. So, Outlaw kit it is! Either that, or I'm going back to DCOEs and undoing most of the work I just did. What a headache.

 

Other than that, the linkage rod I bought from IE needed some serious modification to make it even somewhat work. It was too long, for one, and interfered with the heater return hose that bends down and just over to pass through the intake. I ended up bending it straight, re-forming the bend with a vise, then drilling a new retainer hole to pull it further away from the firewall. It works, now, but only just - looks really janky and I'd rather just get a new one that's made as it's supposed to. I just wanted to see if I could get the car running on the 38/38.

 

All in, it was a lot of work and it's too soon to say if I got what I wanted out of it. Good news is at least my reset on the heater valve worked - I get plenty of heat when it's open, and it shuts off for good now when it's on cold. That'll be nice during the summer.

 

The other thing I got to was cleaning up the wiring harness on the driver's side, which was nice. I got some Tesa tape, pulled the old filthy stuff off the wiring, cleaned up all the gunk from the wiring and re-wrapped in the same grouping as I had before. That looks really good, now, and have been wanting to get after that for months. Also, the new starter spins the flywheel way faster than the old one did, so that's nice to have. It even sounds like the E30 starting up now...which makes sense

 

So not totally wasted, certainly. But it's kind of disappointing to not have it done. I guess will just have to take my time and test jets, to see what that does.

 

['76mintgrün'02]

On 1/10/2021 at 6:45 PM, majdomo said:

It's only marginally quieter than the DCOEs, and I really don't feel it come on the mains as I did with the sidedrafts. Not that I expected it to, but I was willing to give up some performance to get a quieter ride.

 

I was impressed by how much quieter the stock air cleaner made my Weber 32-36.  It also gives the benefit of cool air through the snorkel.  

 

I like the feeling of a little boost in power when the secondary barrel kicks in on the 32-36.  It is fun to watch that happen on the AFR gauge.  I'd think you'd get a lot of enjoyment out of an AFR gauge.

 

On 1/10/2021 at 6:45 PM, majdomo said:

Car is running but can't get it to idle at anything below 2K rpm

 

How much advance do you have at idle?

 

Tom

[majdomo]

7 hours ago, '76mintgrün'02 said:

 

I was impressed by how much quieter the stock air cleaner made my Weber 32-36.  It also gives the benefit of cool air through the snorkel.  

 

I like the feeling of a little boost in power when the secondary barrel kicks in on the 32-36.  It is fun to watch that happen on the AFR gauge.  I'd think you'd get a lot of enjoyment out of an AFR gauge.

 

 

How much advance do you have at idle?

 

Tom

Thanks Tom! The output seal on the transmission I installed last spring is kind of weepy, so I have to pull the center section of the exhaust off anyway - may make sense to have a shop install a bung for a sensor while it's out. Is that where it should be installed?

 

On advance at idle - I had it set at the ball (26 deg) at 2k, or about 36 degrees all in, which is what I was using on the DCOEs and hadn't changed it for the 38/38. I dialed it back to about 32 degrees, but it didn't help get it to idle at a normal speed - it fell on its face even though I'd swapped out the idle mixture screws from the DCOEs (which allow much more fuel) and had the idle speed screw at about 1.5 turns in. New jet kit arrives on Friday.

 

My thought is, if I can get the car to idle at a normal speed, and fix the lean condition at higher speeds, I'll get the AFR installed and see if I can tune it further. If not...not sure what if not. Maybe a 32/36?

 

On your 32/36, do you have an adapter for the stock air filter? It's an oval shape on the bottom IIRC, which is different than the rectangle on the top of the Weber.

 

EDIT - looks like IE sells one for $40. Alrighty then!

Edited January 13, 2021 by majdomo
IE

['76mintgrün'02]

I do have an adapter but unfortunately the one I have is NLA.  It's slightly different than the IE unit.  I showed the differences in a post within this link to that rabbit hole.  I had fun down there.  (The post I linked to in that lonnnnng thread is about mounting a stock filter on a Canon intake, which does not have the tapped screw holes in the end like the original).   

 

 

 

 

It is a bit of a project to install the filter, but totally worth it in my opinion.  I still have some of the oval rings I made a while back that I used to be able to make use of the stock rubber gasket on the underside of the housing.  Last I heard, that rubber gasket was NLA, which is a bummer.

 

I like my 32-36.  I drove a 38-38 once and the difference in pedal feel was huge, making the car seem peppy, but I prefer the gradual transition of the progressive carb.  I appreciate getting better mileage too.  It's not a racecar.  There are many ways to enjoy driving aside from going as fast as you can.  Besides, Toby saw very little difference in track times between the two carbs... so there!

 

Yes, the bung gets installed in the down pipe somewhere in the upper half of the tube, so it doesn't allow water to collect in the sensor.  Mine is almost straight up.  I found one with a needle, as opposed to flashing numbers and I think it fits the age of the car; even though it's a modern accessory.  There are fewer needled options, but they're out there.  I just put mine in a single gauge holder on top of the dash, thinking I might remove it after I'd ironed out the jetting, but I like seeing it there.  The base tilts and swivels, so I can spin it around and see it from under the hood.

 

 

 

I'm not going to drill any holes in the dash, so I just tolerate seeing the wire run up from below.  The pod is stuck down with double stick foam tape.

 

Tom

[majdomo]

So just to remind myself of what I have, I went out to the garage box o' parts and found my stock air cleaner has a round opening for the original early Solex carb. So... and this may be slightly heretical... but I'm thinking of maybe rebuilding that early Solex carb, cleaning up the original intake, and tossing THAT on the car to see how that works. I think it's like $20 for a rebuild kit, maybe?

 

The early air box is in good shape, with some surface rust but it would match the car, anyway. The inside of the box looks really clean. How hilarious would that be, after all this work, to be in for $20 in rebuild parts and an air filter...

 

Also, confirmed that there are no holes on the driver's side of the Cannon intake to accommodate the stock air filter supports. So.

Edited January 13, 2021 by majdomo
intake

[majdomo]

Success today - sometimes walking away and coming back later is best! Within 2 minutes this morning, I saw that there was a pencil-sized vacuum port on the driver's side of the Cannon manifold that was wiiiiide open - put a bolt in there to plug it off and et voila! I get idle! Still a couple of things to fix - need to replace my choke cable, as the old one is too short to reach around the front of the carb, and I have a slight dieseling that occurs when shutting down the car. I replaced the idle jets with 55s, up from 50s, but I have a set of 60s to put in if needed.

 

Other stuff to get after - some photos (durh) and I have seals for the output and gear selector shafts on the trans, so that gets to be my next project along with an AFM sensor and bung. For now, though, I've been out of the saddle for so long that I really, really want to get out for a drive sometime over the long weekend!

[majdomo]

Test drive today proved out a few things:

- The 38/38 is about as potent as the dual side drafts, which is great - and they are a little less temperamental than the 40s. I’ve also seemed to have gotten rid of my surge-y thing when on the freeway, but I’ve said this before only to have it come back. Seems gone but we’ll see.

- It DOES need to have the choke hooked up, to run at fast idle until warm. This is proving to be a problem for a minute.

- Putting in the 60 idle jets made it run way rich - lots of sooty mess coming out the tailpipe. Put the 50s back in, they are bang on where it needs to be, now that I don’t have a stupid vacuum “leak.”

- Looks like some faulty wiring meant that my tach was all over the place earlier. Really hoping I fixed that, and there’s nothing really wrong with the car. It wasn’t like the car performed odd, but I think I’d notice if the revs bounced up from 3500 to 4K and back within a second. Sounds like a bad ground,  replaced some connectors that I’d put in a while back but will continue to monitor.

- Will probably be doing the HG sometime soon. Which means all this stuff comes back OFF... I am getting more coolant tracks down the block, and a bit worse than before.

 

Tried one of those el cheapo choke cables from Autozone, which really didn’t work. 

 

Finally some photos - general view:

 

 

More coolant tracks after some spirited driving, this was clean earlier:

 

 

Looking good from the passenger side:

 

 

The offending vacuum port and bolt:

 

 

New starter and new / old linkage:

 

 

Boogered this up good, but it works...

 

 

Tesa tape, looking lots better:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[majdomo]

More test drives :):) It’s 75 and sunny outside, must be January in LA...

 

 

 

 

 

I should re-center that license plate. And that driver’s side grille looks ready to fall off...

 

My erratic tach is back, but only after I’ve been driving the car a while. I’m guessing bad ground somewhere, so will have to look into that further. I also cracked off the head bolts some, then re-torqued to 63 ft-lbs in the proper order and cleaned off the tracks from yesterday in a bid to stave off the HG replacement, but no dice. Bummer, but I’m not skerred. For @ray_ - I did re-torque a few times to try and get this to quit, to no avail. Got some good drives in yesterday and today, and the weather is supposed to turn here in a few days. Angeles Crest was a mess of gravel from the last snow a few weeks ago, and I’m figuring we have about a month or so of hit-and-miss weather coming, so no problem with the downtime.

 

I’m also researching if the stock 1970 exhaust manifold will be quieter with no major change from the Stahl header on there now. The Stahl unit is certainly a lot lighter than the boat anchor stock manifold. I do need to clean off the stock one a bunch, it’s a bit of a mess, and would need to replace the downpipe between the manifold and center resonator, but that’s available new for cheap from Rockauto. Also, doing some research if I need to pull out the pipes that injected air into the exhaust stream. Certainly would need to block off the air pump pipe inlet, but the little ones that stick into the exhaust ports from the head look like they can be removed...

['76mintgrün'02]

1 hour ago, majdomo said:

I’m guessing bad ground somewhere, so will have to look into that further.

 

Is there a ground strap from the battery to the body along with the big one to the block?

 

[majdomo]

20 minutes ago, '76mintgrün'02 said:

 

Is there a ground strap from the battery to the body along with the big one to the block?

 

There is, yes. But I relocated the ground to body from the upper to the lower rad mount screw on the driver's side. Shouldn't make a difference, but can move it back up as an experiment. The ground strap to the block also went back on in the same location, but it DID ground through the bracket connected to the starter (and likewise all the way through to the block). That bracket doesn't fit the new smaller starter, so I just went without the bracket and bolted the strap up to the same location on the block. Theoretically that shouldn't matter either, but that's the only thing I can think of that would make a difference. Perhaps there is a need to ground the starter / solenoid to the block directly? Fires up just fine, all other electrical works as it should...

['76mintgrün'02]

Those sound like good grounds.  I just didn't see the little strap and figured I'd ask.  Mine runs over to the fender.