I actually worked on the car quite a bit today in spite of healthy rain
through mid day from Ivan Revisited. I was able to get the gas gauge
working. It's amazing what a little cleaning on contacts and terminals with
a copper brush followed by a liberal application of petroleum jelly will do
for conductivity. ;>) The electrical system is really in very good condition
but I do want to clean up some ground connections and add star washers to
them. The star (serrated) washers cut a bit into the pieces being connected
and improve the quality of the connection.
Not so good luck with the timing chain. The upper tensioner is secure and
there's right at 1/2 inch distance between the tensioner body and the back
side of the "foot". However the small bolt that should be securing tab on
the carb side upper chain guide to the front cam tower has gone walkabout
and the chain guide is leaning forward maybe 1/8 inch and in toward the
engine centerline a bit. What worries me most is that the bolt hole in the
guide is noticeably above and to the right, looking from the front, of the
hole in the cam tower. Way too far to get a bolt started I think as I didn't
have the correct thread bolt handy to try it. I also tried to measure the
head thickness with my inexpensive dial calipers and got something in the
mid 4.4xx area, but had the cam cover back on at that point so I'll check
the measurement again as best I can tomorrow.
If the head does measure thin I'll probably try moving the cam up with
shims, but I'll want to pull the head and check the cam tower bores as well
as the head surface to make sure everything's straight and parallel.
Probably won't hurt to have the chambers cced, too, if I do all that to see
how big they are and if they measure close to each other.
Aren't cars wonderful? Are we having fun yet? Actually, yes I am, but it's a
good thing that this one's a toy that I don't HAVE to get back on the road.
Ron
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