Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Ok, who wants to race?

Race my windows, that is. It took most of the afternoon, but I ran the wires behind the dash and installed the window motor relays. Wow, I can't believe how much faster the windows are. Ok, they're not as fast as a modern car, but they're super-fast compared to how they were. In hindsight, I should have run the wires while the dash was out, but I guess I just wasn't thinking ahead. This relay modification requires a 12 AWG wire run out to each door. I had to sneak it along the other wire bundles as well as through the grommets in the doors. What a PITA. However, I think I'm done messing around inside the doors so I put the driver's side door panel and armrest back on. In looking at the door panel, I realized that the interior window scrapers are missing. On other cars, the scraper is attached to the upper lip of the door panel. I assume that's how it is on this car as well, but I'm not sure. I'll check around to see where I can pick up these parts.



Tomorrow is Thursday and with any luck, the carburetor parts should arrive.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Interior is looking better and better

I picked up another quart of contact cement and set out to secure the vinyl on the targa hoop trim piece. Once that was covered, I was able to attach all the pieces that make up the rear parcel shelf. I don't know if you can actually call it parcel shelf since it's only about four inches wide.



Now that these trim pieces are attached, I can put the rear quarter windows back in, as well as the rear side louvers.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Moving on the interior

This morning I placed a call to Pierce Manifolds and as luck would have it, they had the retaining clip that I lost from the Weber starting circuit. I ordered a handful, just in case I need more. While I was at it, I ordered some bigger idle jets. I suspect that the car is running a little lean, so I'm going to try replacing my size 55 jets with 60 and see what happens.

I decided to stay in the warm house today and work on the interior pieces. The old/new pieces of vinyl are in good shape, so I'm going to reuse them.



Good thing I was working where it is warm as the contact cement I was using needed it to be at least 65 degrees. After hours of drying and lots of pulling and stretching, five pieces are done, and I think they turned out pretty well. There is one piece that is giving me trouble -- the one that goes on the targa hoop. Since it is upside down, the vinyl needs to be secured really well to the supporting aluminum piece. I was running out of cement so I moved on to something else.



I had all the wiring connectors I needed, so I continued working on the window relay modification. I hooked it all up and before final installation in the door, I connected the power to see if the relays actually help. All I can say is, WOW. With the relays, the windows are 500% faster. No kidding, they're like the power windows on a normal car now! The next chance I get, I'll secure the relays and finally be able to put the door panels back on.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Taking care of some small things

Since I've got some time to kill, I decided to work on some other things on the car. The first is to finish installing the relays in the power window mechanism to hopefully speed up the windows. I started, but then realized I did not have all the parts I needed. Fine, on to the next thing.



I noticed a while back that while the driver's door is perfectly aligned, the passenger's door is really sagging. It sags to the point where it doesn't close very well. The first thing I checked was the door pivot pins, as they are known to wear quickly. The pins look fine, and unfortunately there is no other adjustment on the door hinge. The only way to lift the back end of the door is to shim out the lower hinge.



As with all areas of this car, access is tight. The only way I could get at the hex hinge bolts was with a u-joint on my hex socket. Since there's not a lot of room for leverage, I enlisted my air impact hammer. I was able to get them all loose, but destroyed one in the process. I was a little worried since the head started to strip before the bolt loosened, but it eventually gave way. I put two washers under the lower hinge and now the door is lined up and closes like it should. I just need to go out and get a new hex head tapered metric bolt to replace the one I destroyed.

I also did a few other things to close off the front end. A while back, I had to open the brake system to remove the front caliper to get at an old plastic trash bag wrapped around the front hub. I finally got around to bleeding the system again and finally put the front wheels back on. I also installed the headlight louvers. Hey, it's starting to look like a real car again!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Gotta take the bad with the good

After two days of stuffing my face with yummy holiday food, I set out to the shop to organize and find that darned synchrometer. It took a few hours, but I cleaned off my workbench and found the meter.



Ok, that's the good part. After cleaning up, I went to start the engine and noticed something strange. When the throttle is opened, a cam on each throttle shaft activates an accelerator pump which shoots more gas into the carb. The accelerator pump jet is right between the venturis and you can actually see a stream of gas as the pump is activated. The problem is, the pump on one of the carbs did not seem to be working. I decided to (once again) pull the carbs off to see what was the matter. I disassembled the carb and charged up my compressor to blow some air through. In what can only be described as a fit of stupidity, I did not completely disassemble the carb starting circuit before blowing air through it. The next thing I know, a jet of compressed air sends tiny carb parts flying into the dark corners of the shop. This seriously qualifies as a Bad ThingTM. By some miracle, I managed to find all the parts except one -- a spring clip that holds everything together. Pierce Manifolds in CA are the experts on Webers and have a large inventory of parts. I hope that they have this tiny part.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Time to clean up again

At long last, the carburetors are back on the car. The engine runs, but really not any better at the moment. Because the carbs were completely disassembled, everything is out of whack and needs to be adjusted. Because there are four carbs, it's very important for them to be synchronized correctly. A few months ago, I got a tool called a Synchrometer to measure the airflow at each carb throat. The only problem is, I have no idea where the Synchrometer is in the shop. I remember seeing it a while ago, but now I can't find it. Time to organize again so I can find this thing.



Look at those clean carburetors!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Carbs all done

I was able to get the remaining two carbs cleaned and rebuilt today. All I need to is put them back on the car and get them adjusted correctly.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Still at it...

Carb #2 -- done! The thing that takes the most time is the cleaning. I start by putting the entire carburetor into the ultrasonic cleaner for about 30 minutes. Then I take it apart and put the parts back in for another 15 minutes or so. With the help of a toothbrush, everything comes out squeaky clean and it's so much better working with clean parts.





The other thing that takes a lot of time is removing the butterfly shaft bearings. It would be much easier if I removed the butterfly plates and pulled the entire shaft, but I didn't want the hassle of removing then restaking the plate screws. Getting the bearings out involves a lot of prying, pulling and cursing. I'm getting faster though as getting carb #2 back together was faster than #1. With any luck, I'll be able to get the other two done tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Carb rebuild -- part 2

Here is a photo of the "5 screw top" Weber DCNF 40 gasket (on the right) next to the "4 screw top" version. As you can see, they are pretty close, with the only difference being the holes at one end. Glad I was able to get the correct one.



Before I put the carb top back on, I adjusted the float height per Birdman's instructions. Here are the before and after shots -- big difference in cleanliness. Hopefully, the engine will run better with clean carbs. Provided I find time to work on it, the remaining three carbs should go pretty quickly.



Thursday, December 3, 2009

Carb rebuild -- part 1 (of many)

I got the correct gaskets now for the carbs so I decided to dive in. I took the carb apart and put all the pieces back into the ultrasonic cleaner. I used hot water and soap again and the results were actually really good.



Another thing I got was all new butterfly shaft bearings. The original ones are not sealed and can be a source of a vacuum leak. The new ones are SKF sealed bearings with lithium grease inside. I was able to get one old bearing out intact, but destroyed the other one pulling it out. It's a good thing I'm replacing them -- the intact one was pretty much seized up and barely moved.



For being a fairly simple part, a carburetor sure has a lot of parts. I only managed to get the new bearings and the linkage plates installed tonight. Hopefully I'll get a chance to finish it up tomorrow. Then it's one down, only three more carbs to go!