Hi all,
A couple weeks ago I mentioned a casual acquaintance was considering selling
his '67.5 SPL311 with U20 & 5-spd, 'cause it hadn't run for over 10 years and
he had to move it out or else. I've run into him several times over the last
few years, and he says he wishes he could someday get it running so he can go
to a show. He mentioned a couple guys had checked it out years ago and
couldn't get it running so it sat. And sat.
So I arranged to drop by with my tools. We cleared away some junk (old dead
roadsters always become shelf-space in the garage) and took a look. This car
has a near-perfect body and good chrome but bad paint, and the interior needs
freshening up but everything is pretty much there (gauges and seats are real
nice). The master cylinders looked new although the fluid was black, but the
hydraulics still worked. Then I took a look at the engine, popped off the
valve cover, opened the carbs, etc. Everything looked NEW! He admitted to not
knowing anything about engines and asked if there was a chance of making it
run! I removed the distributor, and spun the oil pump to prime the engine,
squirt some oil in the right places. I had noticed the distributor was set the
wrong way, so I reset it properly for #1 to fire at TDC (the slot at 11:25
position trick). Put some fuel in the fuel bowls, then we put jumper cables to
it from his other car. Then tried to start it.
Click. Dead. Cleaned up the starter wire connections. Click-click, not so
dead. So I moved the jumper cable from the battery neg. cable to an engine
part and said try again. Roar! Smooth running like you wouldn't believe. My
friend grabbed his young son, they jumped in and took it for a ride around the
neighborhood. They both came back laughing and chuckling like they had the
roller coaster ride of their lives. Now he says he will definitely keep it,
and is happy that he'll finally be able to come to a show with his own
roadster.
This guy was probably going to sell it for a couple thousand because he
thought it was dead. And why? Because of bad battery cable connections and a
distributor that was installed wrong. Moral of the story - get to know the
theory behind tuning up a roadster engine, get to know the specifications and
follow them to the letter. And don't rely on a couple hacks telling you it's
dead, work on it yourself and be sure if it is or not!
Fred - So.SF
BADROC
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