TrumpetRhapsody

Where do you get the graphite ones? On energy suspension's site they ask what color you want, but "black" is "accept special order", whatever that means.

That's the best price I've seen. I think I may go ahead and snap that up... Read up on the TC rod polyurethane bushing concerns though.

That sounds like it's worth a try. Must be like some sort of epoxy. Hopefully it works sideways. Where did you get it?

I could definitely use a few of those then... thanks! I'll see if I can find some. I'm guessing it's like a heli-coil where you have to drill out the hole and such?

Another weekend of work concluded. I didn't get as much done as I wanted, nowhere close, but I did get some important stuff done. Some ups and downs though... Like I mentioned before, I adjusted the back carb's float and cleaned up the needle valve. Now it no longer spews fuel out the overflows. The carbs still drip fuel out the throats after you turn the car off and there's pressure in the lines, but all I have to do is turn the pump off before the car and let it relieve the pressure. Good enough for now. Instead of starting body work I tore into the electronics, and figured out that I have a short in some of the wiring. Finding it will be difficult, fixing it is probably going to be nearly impossible, I'm not looking forward to it. Today we also got my exhaust welded up. The 2.5" pipe was cut for a turbo manifold, so I had to cut it shorter for the headers and weld up the flange. It took my dad and me about 5 hours to finally get it right. Unfortunately, in the process of bolting the headers back on I broke a stud and stripped out a bolt. Joy, more work for later. I didn't get to hear it run b/c of that. I still need to get the 3" adapter for the muffler and get them welded on too.

Awesome!

Congrats! I can't wait to see it in person sometime (hopefully). (That's Fayetteville Arkansas, not North Carolina)

Like the title says, I have a short in my wiring somewhere. I rebuilt the combo switch, so that's not the problem. I also took out the fuse box, and it looks OK. My hi-beams work, but not the low beams. The low beams, dash lights, and running lights are all on the same circuit, and that circuit's 15A fuse is blowing. I tested and I have a complete circuit between ground and the green/white stripe line that feeds those systems, which obviously shouldn't be happening. I don't really know what to do to track down the short. I did notice that I had some mouse activity at some point, a chew hole through the back right strut tower cover. That's conveniently very close to the wiring harness to the back, so I'm thinking maybe I have a chewed wire back there maybe? As far as I know, that harness is between two sheet metal panels, and I don't think I can get to it. I've searched for similar problems, and most problems were fixed by rebuilding the combo switch, where as my problem seems to be a short. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the tips Daeron... Yeah i've been up at the shop for the last 3 hours or so trying to track down the wiring. The first thing I did was the combo switch cleanup procedure (found via search at some point). It wasn't bad enough to be causing a problem, but I'm glad I did it. I'm actually blowing the 15A fuse for the dash lights, low beams, and running lights. I tested for continuity and I'm getting a complete circuit from ground through the green/white stripe line that supplies positive to the circuit. It's pretty obvious I have a short somewhere, which is wonderful, lol. I was wondering if synchromesh might be worth a try. I'll do some reading. It looks like I'm slowly loosing oil out the front seal, so I'm probably going to have to drop it and replace that anyway at some point. That explains the tranny being dry when I got it though. Thanks for the lead, I'll search around over there for that writeup.

Well after eating some dinner, I felt a little better about it, and went out to survey the damage. I got REALLY lucky. It broke off with enough sticking out for me to grab with some vice grips, and I was able to get it out pretty easily. The stripped one I'll have to address later. To be honest I think it's been on its way out for awhile, and I just pushed it over the edge. Here are a couple pics, one of the shift boot and knob, and the other two of the broken bolt.

Well talk about a day that went from good to bad real quick. I got the fenders set on the car, and found out that there are a few broken off bolts that will have to be removed, and that I'm missing the ones that attach the bottom. I also tested out the headlights, which don't work except on bright (not even that bright really). I pulled the car back into the garage, and wondered why it wasn't sounding right. I noticed I had left a papertowel plugging the back carb from when I was cleaning up the inner-fenders. When I pulled it out and started it back up I noticed something ticking quite noticably from the valve cover region. I pulled off the valve cover and the #5 intake lash pad had come off. No idea how that would've happened, but I got it put back on and re-adjusted the clearance. When I went to torque down the valve cover, the back right bolt snapped off, and the one in front of it stripped out. Mind you I was barely tightening them. So that's where it stands. After all that I've lost the heart to work on it anymore tonight.

Woohoo! Just got back from the drive, and it went great! Two things though: Anytime I tried to shift into 5th it popped right back out, looks like it's shot, great, and my battery tried to escape a couple times, so I'll need to get a tie down strap for it. As far as driving, it felt awesome, but I need to work on the throttle. It's really stiff right at the beggining, then loosens up exponentially, so it's really hard to only barely give it any throttle. Also the front carb's linkage is still sticking open a little and not letting the engine rev back down. Thought I'd fixed it but I guess not. The tranny seems to like having fluid in it, lol. Decelerating I still heard/felt a little bit of something, but it was MUCH better. Now it's time to get to the real work, rust neutralizing.

So after filling up a gatorade with fuel overflow today, I decided to rip apart the float bowl on the back carb. After making adjustments... twice... it no longer spews fuel out the overflows. Both carbs do still drip fuel out the venturis after the car is turned off, but all I have to do to avoid that is turn off the fuel pump and let the car run down the bowls a little. No biggie. I'll take a test drive after lunch, then get to work on the rust so I can put the fenders back on and mock up the front end tomorrow.

Lol, I doubt you'd want to dave. You're seats are too nice, a scuff would be... unfortunate. Today's Progress: Ok so I'm officially an idiot. So yeah that weird feeling and noises I was concerned at from the transmission on the first drive... No fluid. The tranny was bone dry. I sure hope I didn't kill it. I put 64oz of Lucas 80-90w gear oil in, and it still lacks about 1/4 inch to fill it to the fill plug (knew I should've bought another one). I checked the plugs, and the front three looked to be running lean, so I richened up that carb one notch, and the back three varied. I also gapped them down from .040 to .035, and it seems to like that better. I re-sync'd the carbs by ear, and was able to get it to free-rev up to 6,000, which was a first. I'd been too skiddish to rev it that high till now, but it felt good. I got my shift knob and rubber boots installed. I had to pull the center console to get the rubber shift boot put in right, and I had to remove the slave cylinder to get the stupid tranny one in right, but now they're both in and I officially have a shift knob. Gotta be the most satifsfying progress yet... a shift knob. I'll take it for another spin tomorrow and see how it feels.

Really?? I thought the version MSA sold was slightly different. Just by the pictures that's the way it looks. I dunno...

As far as the style, it's not bad. I personally prefer the xenon equivalent because of the smoother edges and overall shape, but that one is a close second in my book. If you're going for a more "square" edged look it's perfect. It all depends on what aspects of the car's design you want to emphasize.

By temp engine I assume you're referring to the one that overheats? It's really not to bad for having the problems you mentioned.

Nice vid, need the numbers though!

looks great by my standards! so did you just tape off all your chrome and such, or actually remove it?

Or perhaps because that's the way you said it a couple posts back

Such irony...

Congrats!

"Stop drooling" would fit

But nothing beats listening to some good rock (or techno if you're into that) while cruising around some curvy's. The engine still dominates, but it's like you have a soundtrack.

That's one computer literate wife you've got there. Kudos