Journal Entry

So after all the work to get the engine swapped out, the time to get her out on the road has been rapidly approaching.

To compliment her new engine I sent the distributor off to Jeff at Advanced, for a complete rebuild, and to have the 45D ignition box removed. Believe it or not, the box was actually a big problem. In order to get the timing any where close on the new engine I had to rotate the distributor so far that the box completely blocked the dipstick tube. Well driving without a dipstick is a bad idea as oil was getting flung all over the engine compartment, so as a temporary fix I pushed the cone shaped cap from my 90wt gear oil bottle into the dipstick tube to keep the oil in. Needless to say that solution wouldn’t last for long so I had Jeff remove the box, which I think is dog ugly anyway. When I asked Jeff about this problem he said that the Crane electronic ignition system that I have can cause the distributor orientation to be shifted forward by almost 1/4 turn, and can sometimes cause this problem. Lesson Learned.

While waiting for the distributor to come back I took the opportunity to do a few little projects. On the weekend of the 18th I installed an oil filter magnet called “Filter Mag” that is supposed to be strong enough to pull tiny metal particles out of the circulating oil stream. Sounds king of iffy I know but I’ll try it and see if it works. I also decided that since the car had been sitting for a while before I bought it, I would bleed the brakes. Big surprise, not only was the drivers side drum covered with a paste of dot3 and brake dust, but when I loosened the bleed screw I found out that it was completely stripped. This was a new one to me as I had never heard of anyone stripping out the bleed screw before but clearly someone thought that they had to tighten the 1/4 in screw in with about 50 lb/ft, because when I took the screw out the threads from the cylinder fell out in my hand. So in an attempt to salvage some progress from the weekend I decided to have the drums turned by a local mechanic. $30 later and they looked like brand new drums, ready for new pads and cylinders to come. With the rest of the day I decided to chase electrical gremlins, while my brother decided to tackle an old 1970 steering wheel I had lying around. I have always preferred the look of the earlier wheel with its five hole pattern over the stamped recess of the later 73-76 wheels, and even though its not original to my year I thought it was worth a try to bring it back to life. A few hours with a green scrubbing pad, and some 1000 grit emery cloth and the results were amazing. Not show quality, but a huge difference from before, and certainly good enough for a driver.

By the 25th I finally had all the parts I needed, so I installed the cylinders, shoes and turned rotors, and buttoned up the rear brakes. After a quick bleeding it was time to install the new distributor. I call it new because after I got it back from Jeff every trace of the old dirty lump that I sent away had disappeared, and been replaced by a gleaming rebuilt unit. So I put a little antizeize on the shaft (thanks to everyone for the posts and advice on that one) and dropped it in. Gave her a good basic timing adjustment and off to the streets.

While I am using all of my self restraint to take things a little easy, she is just begging to be run. The 2 liter has tons of torque from way down low, and thanks to the Schlemmerized distributor she revs up the upper range effortlessly. Once she is under way the huge power band and overdrive transmission make it feel like she will never run out of legs.
Next on the list; insurance, registration, and a long holiday weekend with the top down.