Everyone has had "one of those days where nothing goes right". How often
do you have a day where everything goes RIGHT!
Well today was one of those - everything went GREAT!!!
I got out in the shop about 9:30 am. The shop was at 60 deg. and we had
quite a breeze blowing. As the day wore on the temp in the shop and outside
stayed in the low 60s, and the breeze died down quite a bit. Only had to
wear a T shirt and a light long sleeve shirt.
I started my day, finishing a project I started yesterday. In the rain, I
pulled the carb (a Holly 2 bbl) of the 65 Rambler, ScottE - my youngest son,
and I are trying to get running for him. A couple of weeks ago we did a
tune up on it - point, plugs, condenser, dist. cap, rotor, and plug wires.
But the eng. would not run after we finished. (That's a longer story, so I
won't bore you with the details of that.) The other day I thought I
might not be getting an fuel, as nothing was happening when I worked the
accelerator linkage. So as I said, I pulled the carb yesterday, and cleaned
it, and put a "rebuild" kit in it. When I woke up this morning, I had the
great idea to fill the float bowl with fuel and see if the accelerator pump
was now working. It wasn't. Took the carb apartwe're trying to figure out
why not. After spending about 1 1/2 hrs. on it, I got it working! Success
#1.
I then turned my attention to my Bricklin. I've just gotten the air system
(to open the gullwing doors) all plumed and working. Yesterday I turned on
the onboard air compressor on and fully charged the system. Then I turned
it off. This morning I turned the compressor back on, expecting it NOT to
run. Unfortunately, it came on, and took about 6 min. to charge the system.
This ment I had a leak and that over night it drained all the air out of the
system. So not that the system was recharged, I went looking for the air
leak. Found it rather quickly - the schrader valve for externally filling
the accumulator was leaking. I tightened it up, and all was well. The
compressor didn't cut on for the rest of the day while I was working in the
shop. Success #2!!
About this time, my neighbors oldest boy, Jeff, stoped over. We got shooting
the bull, and he asked if there is a special tool for putting the torsion
bars in the trunk of a car to open, and hold open, the trunk lid. I told
him I didn't know of one, and that we should take a look. After about 1 hr.
of playing with different ideas, we had them in, and his trunk was working
great! Success #3!!!
By now, ScottE was finally up - about 1:30 pm. He'd had some friends spend
the night, and his big brother (JohnC) was home from college for the weekend.
I asked ScottE if he wanted to try putting the carb on the Rambler. He said,
"sure". So I let him put that on. As soon as he hit the ign. switch the
eng. sprang to life! Success #4!!!!
However, there was still a problem with the gear selector and he had to giggle
the slift lever to get the neutral park safety switch to make contact. I'd
already been over most of the circuitry a few weeks ago as the starter
solenoid wouldn't fire. So I told him that we needed to adjust the shift
linkage. We jacked up the car, and crawled under. I showed him the linkage,
and we adjusted it. Now when the shift lever is in "Park" it fires right
up like it's supposed to. Success #5!!!!!
When we bought the car, the PO said that the emergency brake wasn't working.
So while we had the car in the air (on jack stands of coarse) we adjusted
that cable, and now the emergency brake is working! Success #6!!!!!!
I've had problem with the emergency brake on the Spitfire not working, too
loose, so we jacket it up and in notime, we had it adjusted and the emergency
brakes working on the Spit also! Success #7!!!!!!!
Now how often do you have a day like that? 4 cars, 7 problems, and all
fixed. No if only tomorrow goes like that! Still got lots of cars, and
lots of problems to fix. The Bricklin is still in pieces, need to get the
Spit State Inspected, the Rambler need new front brakes, and the list goes
on and on. But today was one hell-of-a day!!!
Hope you all had as much fun as I did.
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 48 #4 Midget 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V
75 Bricklin SV1 77 Spitfire 71 Saab Sonett III
65 Rambler Classic
Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org
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