For reference to the title of this post, see here.
Anyway, when the wife bought her rat-rod wagon, I told her that one of the things it needed sooner rather than later was a tune-up. We’ve also subsequently discovered that the valve cover bolts have either vibrated loose or they hadn’t been properly secured to the heads in the first place, and the gaskets were now “blowing out” in small bits along with copious amounts of oil. Minor repairs, to say the least, but time consuming and a greasy PITA.
She decided that yesterday afternoon was going to be the day we would correct these agenda items. So the day before she got to visit the local auto parts store. I may be married to her, but just as with the women before her, she doesn’t get to sit about whilst I work on their cars. I wrote down what she needed, she told the counter guy and she bought the parts. I was there for moral support and to make sure the parts were correct.
David gave me a call yesterday afternoon to discuss our reservations at Trib’s Place for Boomershoot 2008 (BTW, if you want to go, you’d better go register now. Spots on the firing line are going very quickly). He woke me up, but it was only about 30 minutes earlier than I had planned to get at the beast, so I was rarin’ to go.
As you can see, there were at least two different sets of wires there. And as you can’t see, the cap and rotor were mismatched. The were in OK condition, but new is better. It turns out that it does still have the points/condenser set-up, and I don’t know how the previous owner did it, what with everything else he seems to have half-assed, but they are very high quality parts and installed and gapped exactly right.
I set her about her first job, q-tipping silicone gel into the plug wire caps, while I marked the firing sequence on the new cap for her. The only real problem, other than the greasy mess from the blown gaskets, was that dingleberry previous owner put no anti-seize on the plug threads, with the result of having 4 plugs stuck in the heads.Â
You should have seen how big The Wife’s eyes got when I went back into the toolbox for my breaker bar, a 36in piece of 1in pipe. After slipping it over the 18in 1/2-drive ratchet, I had 42 inches of leverage. Broke those four stuck bastages right the hell out.
Cracked a 6in drive extension at the tip too. However, I was smart enough to switch to an old “no-name-brand” one that had somehow made it into the travel toolbox before grabbing the breaker.
Anywhooo, new plugs in, valve covers off, and of course, fuckin’ cork gaskets. Grab the razor blades and scrape for 10 minutes, being careful not to get any of that crap in the valvetrain. New rubber goes in, covers go back on, and time for plug wires.
Abra-kadabra, ala-kazam 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8 and done.
Wifey went to wash up, came back and fired it up, and off she went to get Blizzards. Snickers for me and Banana Cream Pie for herself.
Sorry for the lack of “during” pics, but I decided against washing up three to four times and/or getting grease all over the camera. Maybe next time. The wife won’t be having to help with Grimm and Walker then (though she is too short to see over Grimm’s grill to take pics), so we’ll see.
Jeez, there’s just so much … empty space … under that hood. It’s like the designers actually wanted you to be able to work on the car!
Note to Phil…next time, use a rotohammer drill. Better inspect those plug hole threads, you may have wiped them out getting the bastages out of there with a huge force like that.
Note to David: nothing like the room in the back of that beast, either. Got my first nookie in a ’59 Chev wagon of the same size, and she taught me ALL the positions. They used to make air mattresses (stout rubber-filled canvas ones) for the back of those wagons, and you just couldn’t bust one (of course, I only weighed 150# then). In 1961, when everyone else had to follow the Dicta Gaia, and get chomped by the critters, me and the sweet-thang had an airconditioned wagon between us and the bugs.
Getcherself a little bottle of milk of magnesia. Get the el-cheapo house branded stuff. Shake it up real good and smear some on spark plug and exhaust system threads. Cheapest dang antiseize on Earth. And you can always pull a swig when you get heartburn from eatin’ them greasy enchillydaddies. Or when you get all plugged up.
Thankee for the tip, Gerry. Never heard of that before.
Yes, David, lots of room. However, probably not enough room for a rotohammer, even with the extensions and u-joints. I’d rather just run 90 degrees with the bar.