Freddie comes alive!

[Luva65wagon]

Have been hard at it - though with a few interruption days mixed in. Mostly a lot of cleaning and painting things to prep them for reinstall. Here's a few pics with text explaining them.

Here's the steering column being repainted, and then installed with some major reworking on the turn signal wires - as it seems they had been routed into a much smaller hole up top. Once I redid those the rest went quickly. New rubber sheet at the floor made from an inner-tube I had.

steeringcolumn1.jpg steeringcolumn2.jpg

Also repainted the shift lever and turn signal lever.

shifturn.jpg

I then shifted to putting in the new brake lines and master cylinder. I'm converting to a pedal mounted brake switch to eliminate the hydraulic switch under the hood. It's in pictures like this I think I should have employed my firewall/engine bay secret weapon (AKA Gene).

enginebay2.jpg

I cleaned up the horns and one didn't work, so I studied it a bit and made the repair needed. Both work now.

enginebay1.jpg

Then I thought I need to fix that cutting torch hole in the shock tower, so I made it rounder to fit this plug.

hole.jpg

And I stripped the fan and gave it 4 coats of 7777 Satin Black. Not powder coat I know...

fan.jpg

Today I rebuilt the carburetor and determined the things that were done to it. I left the change Patrick made, for now (lacking a pair of new brass 6-32 set screws to drill), but did go back to the #51 jets as a new starting point. It was running ultra rich when I got it, so this will get a new set-point to move forward from.

carb1.jpg

Mounted the dashpot and operated it with no "mechanical" issues. It functions as a dashpot should. Did seem the kick-down was set way early too, so that was adjusted. Need to run the cable to the pedal again and make a heater hose bracket and tower brace strap - as I'll be running the heater hose between the carb and valve cover.

carb2.jpg

You can now see from this angle the wedge plate keeps the carburetor level relative to the angle of the motor.

carb_level3.jpg

After I mount a few other items I'll be moving to the wiring harnesses and reworking all of them to fit the new arrangements being made.

[pbrown]

Today I rebuilt the carburetor and determined the things that were done to it. I left the change Patrick made, for now (lacking a pair of new brass 6-32 set screws to drill), but did go back to the #51 jets as a new starting point. It was running ultra rich when I got it, so this will get a new set-point to move forward from.

I'll pull out my small carb tools and blanks so you can tune the idle circuit. You can use my wideband O2 tool as well. Gary had an O2 bung welded in for this purpose if I remember correctly. I think Gene still has the wideband tool.

[Luva65wagon]

Thanks Patrick. I assume you have "blank" 6-32 set screws or know where you got those from? Do you know the stock hole size? According to Gary I would need to just go smaller one size, which I take to mean # drill size.

And yes there "was" a bung, but I'm redoing the exhaust so right now there is nothing under there. I will put one back in, and yes, Gene mentions often of still having your wideband tool.

I just wish Holley gaskets didn't have glue on them. You can no longer pull them apart without using all new gaskets.

Also, though I think we debated this long ago, there were two screws missing in the base plate on this carburetor. I noted when pulling the secondary plate off the back side the large cavity behind those plates was fuel logged. The missing screws were just below this and the similar spot up in the front. These screw holes were also in the vacuum paths. So... I put some in. May have no bearing, but should have really plotted that out WIWAI.

[Luva65wagon]

Also, though I think we debated this long ago, there were two screws missing in the base plate on this carburetor.

I guess I should have Googled. These screws are left out because they could fall out into the engine. Hmm!

[Luva65wagon]

I guess I should have Googled my Googling. The screws that were missing on Freddie were those holes circled in RED, whereas the ones they say to leave out are those holes circled in Yellow. So I will pull the carburetor and verify what is really exposed. And, as you can see, the ones in RED are right in the vacuum paths and may have (I suppose) allowed for some vacuum leaks, or worse. Will need to study that more.

Image off Internet, not Freddie's.

remove_baseplate.JPG

[pbrown]

I have a box of carb tuning parts and tools in my car. I'll bring them to the meeting tonight. Hopefully they can help you get this thing dialed in.

[Luva65wagon]

I have a box of carb tuning parts and tools in my car. I'll bring them to the meeting tonight. Hopefully they can help you get this thing dialed in.

Hopefully. Thanks again.

I did some vacuum checking with a vacuum tool to see if I could pull a vacuum on the two holes that should have had bolts, but didn't. I could on the secondary hole, but not on the primary side hole, which means it, being where it is, was a source for a vacuum leak - a big one. And I think it feeds to where the power valve is too, so who knows the effect of manifold vacuum on that spot. So I removed the two bolts with the red X and left the others.

carb_bolts.jpg

I then moved to the shift lever at the transmission, which has been bugging me. I hadn't looked too close at it until today, but what I was seeing from above was confirmed; they may have extended it as Gary asked them to, but what a stupid mess. They were enlisting only friction to hold this lever in place - and though I have one nut off, you can see on the end of the lever they didn't tighten the bolt behind the Heim joint. So it was a sloppy mess. Just a mess.

shift_lever_yuck.jpg shift_lever_yuck2.jpg

So I used the extension they made and welded dog ears to it to wrap the edge of the transmission lever to keep it from ever rotating. And bolted it hard to the lever. I may shorten the bolt, but couldn't pull it out easily. It's not interfering with anything. I then used the shortest setup I could for the other hole. After a few adjustments, and new grommet in the shift lever on the column, it is working OK now.

shift_lever_yay.jpg

The extension was a bit too short so the lever was centered in neutral to offset the error somewhat, but it goes into all gears good. The pawl in the column and the pointer marker is for the 2-speed automatic, so it's all relative anyway.

What next....

[pbrown]

Thanks Patrick. I assume you have "blank" 6-32 set screws or know where you got those from? Do you know the stock hole size? According to Gary I would need to just go smaller one size, which I take to mean # drill size.

And yes there "was" a bung, but I'm redoing the exhaust so right now there is nothing under there. I will put one back in, and yes, Gene mentions often of still having your wideband tool.

I just wish Holley gaskets didn't have glue on them. You can no longer pull them apart without using all new gaskets.

Also, though I think we debated this long ago, there were two screws missing in the base plate on this carburetor. I noted when pulling the secondary plate off the back side the large cavity behind those plates was fuel logged. The missing screws were just below this and the similar spot up in the front. These screw holes were also in the vacuum paths. So... I put some in. May have no bearing, but should have really plotted that out WIWAI.

I have plenty of blanks. I don't remember the size. I have a set of tiny drill bits and a pin vise. I also have a set of Holley style reusable gaskets. Maybe they will fit that carb. You can check.