This is the third in a continuing series of installments on my
TR-8.
When we last left our author, the TR-8 was stuck on a set of ramps
in his garage. The engine could not be started because the clutch
release lever had fallen off of its pivot bolt and was resting
comfortably between the bottom of the bell housing and the clutch
assembly...
I soon realized that any efforts to repair what I had done would be
fruitless since I just didn't have enough room to put everything back
together again. So, I bit the bullet and started hitting every nut
and bolt I could see with penetrating oil. Granted, not everything
needed to be sprayed since a great deal of oil had already penetrated
everything aft of the bell housing due to a leak around the oil pan
gasket! These oil leaks had ruined the rear engine mount that the
gearbox rests on, so that one had to be replaced. The rubber parts of
the rear mount were oil-saturated & fell apart when touched. The heat
shields for the exhaust system were in terrible condition due to
extensive rust and had to be replaced. (Only the right side is still
available, so I had to improvise with the left one.) I soon made an
engine support bracket out of a couple pieces of angle iron, threaded
rod and J-hooks and was able to support the engine with it. (I'll
post my design, if anyone asks for one.)
Starting in mid-February, it became warm enough to start work. By
this time, the penetrating oil had done its job well and most of the
nuts came apart easily (except for the exhaust system--all of those
nuts, bolts and washers had to be replaced due to extensive
corrosion). The driveshaft was dropped after I got the exhaust system
removed, and the gearbox soon followed. After I got all of the loose
pieces out of the bell housing, it went to the car wash to be
thoroughly cleaned up. There seemed to be an oil leak from the top of
the gearbox as well as the one from the oil pan, so a good spray with
the "Super Detergent Engine Cleaner" was necessary to clean everything
up. The clutch release arm went back together quite easily, and I put
a bit of grease on all of the moving parts.
My self-imposed deadline was to get the TR-8 running by April 1,
since that was the date that full insurance coverage was scheduled to
start up again. I was working the afternoon shift during the last
week in March, so I decided that my mornings would be spent on the
TR-8. Getting the gearbox back into position wasn't as bad as I
thought it would be--thank God for hydraulic floor jacks with wheels!
(I don't have a transmission jack). The driveshaft was put back in
place, and all of the nuts were torqued to specs. Amazingly, when I
took the driveshaft out, most of the bolts were loose enough to turn
freely in the holes in the driveshaft flanges, although the nyloc nuts
prevented them from falling out onto the road with possibly disastrous
results. You may want to check these nuts and bolts the next time
that you're under your car.
The slave cylinder went back together with ease and I was able to
fill and bleed the hydraulics quickly. BTW, the Roadster Factory
parts catalog shows a heat shield between the slave cylinder and the
exhaust system which they list as NLS. Does anyone have one of these
installed on their TR-8? I never found one on mine.
The exhaust pieces fit together fairly well. The left side went
together perfectly. The right side wasn't quite the same. The
previous owner had replaced the original RH catalytic converter with
another one which didn't fit quite right. As a result, the right half
of the exhaust system hung down about a half-inch lower than normal,
as well as about a half-inch to the rear. This meant that the bracket
on the intermediate pipe didn't quite fit onto the support bracket
that mounts to the gearbox. In order to get everything to fit, I had
to loosen every nut on both right and left exhaust pipes in order to
get the right side to line up with the bracket. Only then could I
tighten everything down. Anti-seize compound really helped--I highly
recommend its use if you ever foresee the need to disassemble your
exhaust system.
Now for the moment of truth--it was now April 1 and I had tightened
the last nut on the exhaust pipes. I didn't install the heat shields
just yet as I wasn't sure if I would have to take everything apart
again. The battery was reinstalled after being trickle charged. I
decided to remove the distributor and give the oil pump a spin before
I attempted to start the engine. This is one good feature of having a
GM-designed engine--lots of hot-rod shops carry the dog that connects
the distributor to the oil pump, so I was able to fabricate a tool to
connect to my electric drill so I could pump some oil through the
engine. I turned the ignition on and had my fiance look for the oil
light to go out while I turned the oil pump. Sure enough, within 20
seconds, the oil light was out. To our surprise, we also heard a
noise from the back of the car. It turns out there is a contact on
the oil pressure switch that controls the fuel pump in the tank. This
is also undocumented anywhere in the electrical drawings or owner's
manual. I know the Chevrolet Vega had this feature but at least it
was mentioned in the manual (which few people ever read). I
reinstalled the distributor and got the timing fairly close, then hit
the starter. After a bit of cranking, it fired right up. Soon
thereafter, clouds of blue smoke came rolling out of the engine
compartment as all of the residue of the penetrating oil and
anti-seize compound got burned off. I got a few strange looks from my
neighbors, but I'm sure they understood--one neighbor had a '66
Corvair convertible and the next neighbor had just gotten a '74 TR-6
that needs a bit of work all round. Needless to say, I felt
considerably better than I did back in September when that clutch
release arm came tumbling down....
We hopped in and took a short ride up to the Mobil station to fill
the tank, and brought it back home to put the heat shields back on. I
was surprised at how much quieter the car was after the heat shields
were installed--they seem to cut a lot of the mechanical noise down
from the pipes.
Well, that's enough for now--I'll continue this later in another
posting.
Tim Buja Cherry Valley, IL
(email via ccm0b@vm.cc.purdue.edu)
|