Some of you with good memories may recall that I have been plugging ahead
on a complete restoration of a 72B. Much of the car now consists of parts
from my old faithful 71BGT that I drove for over 15 years, much of it as a
daily driver.
After assembling the drivetrain, finding the pressure plate was stuck, and
then having to pull the transmission to fix it, I got everything back
together a few weeks ago. Car started up, ran fine, but after a short
excursion (maybe one mile), the front brakes locked up. That plus the car
had a few other disturbing problems - low oil pressure, very high water
temperature.
So I rebuilt the master cylinder first only to find out the rear brakes
would not bleed. So I rebuilt the wheel cylinders and they still would not
bleed. That is when I found a very small pinhole in one of the rear brake
lines. So now that is all fixed and brakes work fine.
Since the oil pressure was low (50 psi max), I decided to go ahead and
replace the oil relief spring and related parts. Perhaps a good move
because the one spacer seemed to be missing and the spring/cap seemed to go
in too easy when I rebuilt the engine. So this time, I got the Moss high
pressure spring and did manage to get it installed in the engine.
The high water temperature problem was weird in that once the engine
warmed up, the temperature gauge needle went to hot, indicating the engine
was overheating. But when I removed the radiator cap, there was a little
steam but no pressure. But I had two spare temperature senders so I tried
both - the second one now shows the temperature just an 1/8" shy of the
redline mark. Temps look fine, no discharges from the overfill line and no
pressure buildup in the coolant system.
So today temps got in the 60s outside and the car (topless!) was ready to
try again. I'm a bit paranoid at this point but all indications are
relatively good after putting another six miles on the car today. But -
1. The temperature stabilizes but never goes over the point about 1/8"
short of the shaded hot area.
2. Gas guage reads high, not that I'm worried but maybe its related to the
temp gauge? I have, at best, a little over 2 gallons in the tank but the
gauge reads half full.
3. Oil pressure - with my new spring (moss says will raise oil pressure
maybe 25 psi?) I got initial oil pressure of 90 psi but ater the engine
warmed up, it stabilized at 75 psi. But at idling, it ran as low as 15-20
psi when the engine was barely idling at 600 rpm. When driving, it
fluctuated between 50-75 psi depending on my RPMs. Is this "normal" with a
new rebuild with the higher tension spring?
So is my paranoia warranted? This was my first engine rebuild in 17 years
(same engine though) so I don't recall what quirks I encountered last time.
Oil is still clean and at the right level, no pressure build up in the
coolant, no leaks, and the car accelerates good/runs smooth. Its just my
instrumentation bugs me - should mention too that I replaced the wiring
harness with a new one and most of these gauges came in unknown condition
with the 72B, oil gauge is the manual type (my 71BGT had the electrical type).
David Councill
67 BGT
72 B - already on the maiden cruise down Main Street
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