Sprocket's Competition

[j2k4]

Aye, that oughta do it.

Awaiting the final/final.

[clocker]

After finishing the install yesterday, she went for a fun drive in traffic.
Forty miles of stop/go in 75° weather and nary a hiccup.
Before the trial, she got a bath...


And the engine got sprayed down to remove all the Mongolian dust...


Sat overnight in the driveway and didn't drop a single spatter of oil...absolutely bone dry under the car.
This is a first, she's always had at least a minor leak somewhere and why it's suddenly all gone is beyond "interesting", approaching "miracle".
I checked the dipstick just to confirm there was actually oil in the crankcase and yes, level is nominal.

Before venturing out this afternoon (going to see Kick Ass!), I'm moving down the punch list and trying to fix the turnsignal switch.
The problem lies in the "clockspring" assembly and I hope it's just a setup issue, not a physical defect.
I've never dealt with one of these before.

Saturday morning the now completely non-useful EGR hardline to the passenger side manifold (visible in the engine picture, dangling stupidly in the air near the wiper motor on the firewall) gets cut off and welded shut.
The fantasy that this car would ever be emissions legal will be officially crushed after this.
When I redid the wiring I culled all the emission solenoid connections from the harness...no going back now.

There are still a plethora of minor details needing attention but I'm hopeful that the hump has been topped and we're on the downside of the project.

Yeah, like I haven't thought that before.

[j2k4]

Looooooking gooooooood.

As they say.

Aye, beware the clockspring - gonna have to maybe deal with that on the Stealth in order to swap in the new ignition switch; my buddy Vern thinks he may be able to brainstorm a way to do it without pulling the wheel and etc.

Fucking switch is attached with those snap-off fasteners.

I predict the French fellow's enthusiasm will be at least minimally refreshed by your efforts.

[clocker]

The clockspring was pretty straightforward actually.
The problem turned out to be the Momo hub Sigfrid had assembled.
Too confusing and esoteric to explain, but once I realized the problem, the fix was simple and the turn signals work normally.
Car again navigated through traffic without a problem.

She's a runner.

[j2k4]

X-kewl.

When is Sigfrid due back?

[clocker]

He returned sometime last night.
Gets the car back this evening.

I've been tinkering about and will post pics of the project as she now stands later today.

[j2k4]

He returned sometime last night.
Gets the car back this evening.

I've been tinkering about and will post pics of the project as she now stands later today.

As well as his reaction, if available.

[clocker]

Jesus, the best laid plans...

Today was an unmitigated disaster, particularly since I was only planning on hosing off the car and delivering it to Sigfrid.
In other words, I figured I was mostly done, maybe a leisurely ramble through the hardware store for some fiddly bits...but no, the car had other ideas.

Started out with a dead battery.
No idea why, just happened.
OK, not the end of the world, I have a charger.

Couple of hours later the car starts, I press down the clutch pedal...

...and it stays down.

Look under the car and sure enough, nice big puddle of fluid beneath the slave cylinder.

Sigh.

Jack up car and unbolt the slave, which is suspiciously dry on the pushrod end.
Corralled a neighbor to press the pedal while I'm below the car watching...get a faceful of brake fluid.
Turns out the braided steel hose has ruptured.
Oh joy.

An hour later I have a new hose in hand and am ready for the real nightmare, bleeding.

"Bleeding" you say, "What's the big deal?"

I'll tell you what the big deal is...there is NO FUKKIN BLEED SCREW ON THE BLOODY SLAVE CYLINDER!
In fact, if you go to GM, they only offer the parts as a complete system- master/slave/hose, preassembled, filled with fluid and already bled.
They DO NOT expect you to bleed it yourself.
Fabulous.

After hours of work, I finally got pedal and the car would go into gear...that is, until you started the motor, then nothing.
At one point it would actually shift but the pressure point was way down at the floor, further bleeding only made it worse and now it won't shift again.
I'm bummed, man...totally.

Fortunately, Sigfrid will be at work too late to take delivery tonight.
See what I can figure out tomorrow.

Bloody fucking hell.

All was not completely crap today though.
Before all the shit hit the fan I made the Mark II version of the upper radiator beauty panel, which also serves as the first part of the radiator ducting we plan on making.
Currently, incoming air can go anywhere it pleases and being lazy, the airflow will choose the path of least resistence, which is NOT through the radiator.
This upper panel will prevent the air from flowing over the top of the rad, subsequent panels will contain/direct it even more advantageously.
This piece is made from 1/8" black ABS, one of my new favorite materials.
Very easy to machine, flexible, resistent to most chemicals/heat (within reason) and cheap...the 3' x 1' piece I started with cost all of $6.





I also rerouted the spark plug wires which were a disaster before.
They now run above the exhaust manifold, out of harm's way and their length makes sense (we had huge amounts of extra length the way Sigfrid/Dan had run them before and they were just draped all over the place).

So, at least that worked out.

[clocker]

So, after almost eight hours today I finally began to get the clutch bled.
I had pedal and the engagement point wasn't right on the floor.
Drove it around the neighborhood even.

Then, sitting in the driveway, engine off...the one day old braided stainless line...fails.
I'm flabbergasted.

So, here I am back to square one.
I exchanged the hose for a new one and decided to start anew in the morning.
Beforehand though I decided to refurbish the master cylinder which had been horrendously cobbled together.
I came up with a new Mazda clevis and pin and turned a new pushrod on the lathe.
The old pushrod was from a Mazda and had a bolt welded on the end (not concentric, of course) which featured some bizarre thread (maybe Whitworth), so there was no jamb nut.
All fixed now.


Yeah OK, not really a big deal but I wanted something to go right today.

[clocker]

Well, I may be dumb but I'm persistent.
Sometimes that's all it takes.

Got the new hose installed and the line bled.
Went to start the car and the starter barely wanted to turn over, a symptom she's been displaying more frequently of late.
Sigfrid had long ago relocated the battery to the trunk and I've never been happy with his execution. I suspected that we had some major current drop over his (undersized, IMO) long battery cables or either the battery or alternator were crapping out (I don't know where his generic battery came from and I pulled the alt from the junkyard, so it wouldn't be shocking if they were bad).

Anyway, I charged the battery again and hit the key...starter still spun very slowly, and then....smoke from the engine bay.
Holy crap!
Checked the usual suspects but nothing was amiss.
Till a wisp of smoke showed me what was really going on...

The clear sheathing on the new oil pressure sender hose was melted off, hose still warm to the touch.
WTF?

It took several cigarettes, a few bowls and a pot of coffee- so basically, about fifteen minutes- for everything to click into place.
We are so bloody dense.

When we swapped from the solid engine mounts to the new set up, we isolated the engine on rubber engine mounts. The motor/starter used to get ground through the mounting plates but when we changed over we took away the ground and forced the starter to find an alternative path.

Which was the braided steel clutch line.
Got hot and the Teflon inner liner melted and ruptured.
Three damn times.

I ran up to Checker and got a $5 ground strap and slapped it on.
Mirabile dictu!, the starter spun up like crazy and everything worked.

Of course it had already melted the clutch hose I had just put on, so I got to do that all over again.

But it's done now.

Can hardly wait to see what new creative method this treacherous bitch finds to stab me in the back...