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Three steps forward, one back...
When I took delivery of this pile o'200 motor, and we gave it a quick going through, one thing instantly caught my eye and after a bit of research and a communication with the machine shop -- the head is back at the shop. The cam requires a higher spring pressure and somehow the spring diameter didn't get accounted for (somehow) and so they assembled it with the stock retainer caps and larger diameter springs. So, thankfully, we were thorough and they'll make it good. In fact the shop owner "owned up" to this mistake and didn't try to pawn it off on a Lackie. Good man.
I'll be getting it onto the stand and start the build soon. Got to get my garage sorted into "car building mode" first.
Good to see Jeff, Kenny and Gene again. Hope you'll all be available, as well, to do some of the heavy lifting.
Hey, I ain't no spring chicken no more.
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Update? No, not really...
I know you guys are just gnawing your nails raw awaiting an update on this upcoming project. Going to be awesome. Really looking forward to it. After Jeff dropped off the guts and stuff I got derailed with other things (didn't you too?), but I did get the block unbagged and up on my stand. Very soon I'll be able to focus thusly.
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The Motor. Do they want you building these anymore?
It's been a little interesting building this motor. First hurdle was to discover the rear main seal in the gasket kit was wrong. I already knew they didn't exist (from a previous attempt to find one for a guy who reached out to me to see if I had one in my stash) so I looked at the 289 seal that found its way into the package and after doing some test fits determined I could insert the seal into the cap and cut it to length. Worked like a charm - so much so I may make more of them.
Then when I went to degree the cam - it's like 13 degrees out - out of the box. So we ordered a special gear set to allow some finer adjustment beyond a full tooth, which was 19 degrees. I plan to discuss why a cam is so far out. Is that normal? Rob at Action Machine didn't think so. I will call Clay Smith Cams tomorrow and confirm after checking dot-to-dot with the new timing set.
The other thing I discovered was there being a spacer on the cam nose. We didn't have one anymore. I discovered this is why every time I tightened the cam gear bolt, at all, the cam seized. They're not unavailable, but slowed us down. After a couple calls I found one in Tacoma at a very cool old cam grinding shop. $5 for the part and $275 dollars in gas - and we were back in business! To install the spacer meant pulling the pin, and making a tool that used vise grips, but not use them at the same time.
Not much to show yet, but here's a couple pics.
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Is there anybody out there?
Just wanted to post a quick update on the wagon build. I apologize for the delay in posting. :(
The new motor is in as of today.
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Last week I changed out the worn leaf springs and swapped the 7.25" rear for an 8" 2.79 to go with the Automatic swap. Should be a nice freeway cruiser.
That's when we discovered the dreaded 'leaf spring too short" syndrome. Lot's of chatter about that on the Internet and we confirmed this settles out after the car is weighted. But on a wagon, and a Ranchero, I concluded there is a potential for the leaf shackle to do a reverse flip, which would not be good.
On a car this isn't a problem, but on a wagon or Ranchero the leaf spring shackle is on a step-down platform which can let the leaf go either direction. We discovered a bent rear shackle hanger I believe was caused by this factory phenomenon.
We could not even jack up the car without them wanting to go that direction
So I made bump-stops. Hopefully they never come into play, as is the case with most bump-stops.
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One great discovery was when we tried the driveline he got out of the Maverick that donated the 8" rear end - and it fit perfect! No drive shaft build needed. That deserved a toast!
This is the custom small 6 cylinder air cleaner to 5" air-horn plate I needed to make to adapt the Weber carburetor. We had another Weber adapter to use the small original hole, but it made the air cleaner sit way to high (image on right). It came out perfect.
I think the K&N plate we used was a leftover from a previous club swap meet, so thanks whoever left it with me. HA! I found a old rusty chromy base at a garage sale for a buck and used my new plasma cutter to cut the original base out and then welded it to the chrome base. It even fit the air filter. Mind officially bottled.
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Now that the motor is in place I can look into the various other issues like custom wire harness (not a kit), Duraspark II upgrade, upgrading the wiper assembly to intermittent from an F100 (easy swap) and getting brakes and steering upgraded. Oh and I had a new back window glass for it, and Jeff ordered a new windshield to do While We're At It ( AKA "WIAI?" ).
It'll be done in no time.