Mr.Mk1

Not much to report, going for a warrant tomorrow.

Ive always had an issue in the indicator switch..can never have a flasher and a brake lamp at the same time unless you jiggle the stalk. I tried a few things to fix but ultimately got nowhere.

Rock auto to the rescue again, landed this whole unit for about $80nz

The fuckery comes from these 4 contacts and the back of the cancelling cam (rewind a few years to when i replaced the broken one with a rockauto seperate 2 wire unit. Theres enough slack in it that the gravity acting on the stalk at rest pulled it onto or off neutral contacts.

Well this new one was proper Chinese. I spent another hour seeing if i could fix original or use chang one for parts (the alloy stalk pickup was staked into the plastic cancelling cam and original was slid in so i couldnt really cannabalise it without risk of the slop coming back) but in the end it made more sense to run it, so i had to:

-file the slot the stalk locates into from a V to a U while avoiding putting too much pressure on the whole plastic part.

- cut both hazard knobs in half and join with some steel rod as a spine because it worked opposite to OEM and bottomed out on the column shroud, and looked shit

- slice/shave the OEM plug to accept the chang copy.

Was kinda glad i went to the effort of pulling the column apart & half way out to pull and push the loom plug through as i found a bare wire.

I'm hopeful this was the reason i saw a wee wisp of smoke exit the shifter area one day sitting at the lights with foot on the brakes.

So its all back together and works as it should! 
Haven't been able to daily it as much as id hoped cause the boss is being a weird cunt about parking in driveway or out front like i always have and relied on. It doesn't fit in the street parks. Have rocked it any other chance i get though! 

Old boy who mows the lawns at the church across the street runs a solid rig

Rad courier

Mint resto on Enford Spares 3.0 GT

I had Lets Get Graphic re-make my side billboards in proper vinyl..much better! Accordingly the duraseal peeled off the adhesive and then they had to thinners off stubborn glue..oops.

Took it for its biggest run out to rangiora MCM show.. went great until the needles wiggled and it stumbled then the Amp gauge read drain.

Parked it up and left it until the trip home couple days later, it did it again but didnt hinder the journey.

Few hundred metres from home it backfired and the needle came back to life and it was charging again! By the time id washed it and drove back in shed it wasnt charging again.

Tore it open and spotted a broken field wire so i soldered it back on and not change. Weird. Fucked aroubd with tests and bypassing things, external reg tested ok.

Left it with a customer whos a sparky, could tell he wasnt into it but said hed take a look but his test bench wasnt working.

Few weeks passed so i went and grabbed it back. He did say the wire sheath looked like it was degrading and it might be earthing.

Put my pick under the other field wire to tweak it into open space and there was no pull resistance..broken too.

Was a bit awkward but soldered a new wire in between the broken ends and threw it back on, Amp gauge working! Then it stopped.

Decided it was the centrifugal forces throwing it out and the wee bare wire patch was touching so dripped epoxy glue in/on to make a protective sheath and its been great since. Will get another Alt cause its pretty fragile and old.

Spotter spotting w/WRX

V8 Val

Round the corner to find a crusty GT

and a light green metallic Monaro hardtop i didnt get a pic of

and this

Does spotting spotters count?

this chap has a mean Flickr account with heaps of old and oddball cars around chch.

…and if spotting spotters doesnt count, heres a spotto

Made it to an Oldschool meet! Was a nice wee catchup.

We went for the tune up with Wayne at Pitstop Burnside. Started well but ended quick when he noticed the dizzy advance weights were seized so not much point tuning around that or tearing it down after 5pm the week of Christmas. 
Was hooked up to a huge scope what was $45k in the late 80s. Tech as, even used a stylus on the primitive touch screen!

Found my timing was 10deg retarded not 10 advanced.. either my timing light is fried (my mate had an incident when he borrowed it) or the dizzy hold down clamp wasnt tight enough (possible, cause its in a cunt of a place and can only get a click of the wrench each swing if lucky)

Was lean and lumpy at idle + rich everywhere else.

He sent me home and said to get a Bosch GT40R (my rad MOPAR coil was like 30 years young) gap the new plugs tighter and maybe a set of leads (if they show more than a max of 1300 ohms. I tried 10 times and couldn't get a reliable reading.. they aren't old but are an ugly colour and stain easy) After pulling the dizzy apart and lubing up to see if mechanical advance comes to the chat.

Well the next day i was off to get a new coil after work, missed my slot in the 5pm traffic and it got hot. Was stalling, idling at about 250 and really hard to start again and wouldn't run unless pedalled.

One was peaking at 100% panic mode so as soon as it fired i slammed it in gear to keep moving, tyre screeching. Did this 5 times and then saw smoke. Props to the Koba battery, it got reefed on and kept coming to the party.

Decided to slip into (the same carpark i did when the slave cylinder failed in the bluebird) to cool it off and saw a big ole trail of trans fluid.

Hmmm.

I think the lurching into gear fatigued the trans cooler return line brass fitting.

The mrs came to the rescue with the XD and we towed it home on the short rope and it took YEARS off my life.

Next day i rolled under and started taking the cooler bundy off, with all of the 2 inches of space available ,about 2NM exertion and it snapped off flush with the trans housing.

*foetal rocking*

Driveshaft out of pinion, trans mount out and lowered down for some access.

i knew an extractor was a dumb idea cause they use outward force but fully had to try.

Cut itself a new thread but nothing  moved. Then it spun. Oh god.

Air ratchet on reverse with pliers forcing outwards didn't catch.

Big guns employed, drilled a hole in the (welded on) socket and attached slide hammer. Didn't appear to make any headway but when i marked it with vivid it did show outward movement, onward we go then. 

Thank god.

Put a slice in the fitting with a wee cutoff Dremel disc to try and use a blade driver but the brass shattered as soon as you put any pain on it.

Last resort drilled it out but tagged the alloy case and thread a little.

Fuck it, ran a tap through whatever was remaining and wound in a new fitting ( mrs poached from a used trans at her work) with my good liquid thread sealant and left it for 2 days.

Re-installed everything.

Fired up and re-set timing after pulling dizzy down and inspecting/lubricating/gapping.

Topped up trans fluid, none flew out again!

My xmas present was a moon-style bare foot pedal for the dip switch and Im hell stoked! I had one my brother gave me when i was a kid but probably sold it off. Tidys up that area loads

Re-scheduled for the tune up next month. Rapt im not doing any damage, its just not optimal. Knew it but needed to hear it from a pro

The rear garnish was a sticking point. Its a flat sort of anodised finish but parts are buffed off, stained or flatter than others. Im loathed to send it out anywhere so i hit it with some reversible rattle can black then masked out the 2 indents to break it up a bit.

I think i like it! Might be a different story if the bumper was re-chromed 

Done a few more miles, got Automan to have a look at my kickdown cause it wasn't shifting into top until 2300. He said i was on the right track but should change my bracket so it pulls more true. Did so, did some adjusting and its much better but not mint.. ideally need to get the timing and carb bang on before nailing the trans.

It was greasy out so I tried to do a bit of a stall skid, big rev then it started running like a shitty 6 cylinder and barely idled..fine when cruising though. Convinced it was a vac leak i tried all sorts but couldn't find anything, so pulled plugs to check, all 8 good, installed the set of new plugs i had already at the same time. Tried a few things, noticed a choke linkage had over-centred but wasn't until i pulled the dizzy out and re-set the points gap that it improved.. odd cause it wasn't noticeably out. Also took carb apart and cleaned, so much shit in the bowls!

Now its going well again, but found it locking up the front brakes real easy last time i drove it. Backed off the hottest rear drum and shortened the M/C push rod a touch, will test drive shortly.

I grabbed some generic steel-rimmed weather strip and installed between outer of door skin and glass all round to mimic factory. Didn't want to spend the big $ on direct fit X USA. Now the glass doesn't rattle or risk scratches from old clips.

My carpet set showed in Auckland so i shot out and grabbed a roll of underfelt before it arrived on tuesday. Turns out the bloody carpet already has some attached!
Started install last nite, all finished this morning. 

Southern classic spares hooked it up with jellybeans, sticker, air freshener, rego label holder and even new arm rests. The blown out originals are sharp as shit!

Always awesome service and quick.