Many MANY thanks to all those who have supported me in my project to get my
"thing" with Mrs.Jones out of the garage and out in the open.
Today was finally "the day".
I appreciated all the responses to "devastating setback". Of course, I was
being a bit overdramatic and I appreciate not being flamed over that header.
Nonetheless, I awoke at the crack of dawn this morning and headed out to
Home Depot and/or Kragen. Kragen had the nut splitter and Home Depot was
out of their $19 die cutter tools for my compressor. I didn't want to spend
$65 on the next model up, so the $8 nut splitter won out. Man, that thing
really saved the day.
Getting the rear drum off wasn't so bad after having done it a few times
recently. A few taps of the hammer and it was off. Finding a replacement
lug bolt for the wheel was going to be the problem. NAPA said "sure, we
have it!" over the phone. I got there and of course, they had 50 others in
their catalog, but not the one I needed. "That British sense of humor", I
quipped to the clerk, as my heart sank. Another list member, John Smith,
generously offered to mail me set as a contribution to my project.
I made several calls to different places which kept passing me down the line
until one of them gave me an 800 number. "Who am I calling?", I asked.
"Victoria British," said the guy. Either way, it looked as though this one
little bolt was going to cost me several more days of waiting.
I ended up getting a return call back from British Masters nearby and the
owner, Eric was in for a few hours today as it turned out. He had a bolt
and sold it to me for $2. I was hoping against hope that the plate was
still good and kept a positive attitude about it. Sure enough, the plate
was fine and the replacement bolt worked perfectly. BIG load off my
shoulders, as replacing the rear hub is an ordeal that I'm not up for
tackling and I wasn't crazy about the idea of driving on three bolts or
having the bad one welded in place.
With the assistance of my older son, Alex, who is 15, I bled the brakes.
Mityvac didn't seem to be working all that well for me -- I was getting
dribs and drabs of fluid out of the bleeder valves. Finally, I told Alex to
just work the brake pedal with one foot, while standing on the other outside
the car so he could keep an eye on the reservoir level. This method worked
the best and I had the brakes bled in no time.
I greased the wire wheel hub adapters with white lithium grease, which I
also sprayed liberally onto the threads of the knock-offs. The wire wheels
look teriffic and after carefully checking for loose tools and so forth
under the bonnet, we were off for a test ride! The gearbox shifts smoothly,
but getting into 4th gear seems to be a bit of a challenge. I was
successful after a few attempts, but I'm wondering if I might have a problem
there. I need to drive it more before I can assess that. Before I can
drive more, I need to fix the one brake light in the rear that doesn't work
(regular light works, but not the brake on one side only) and the left front
turn signal.
On a more serious matter, the car was running very rough, even when warmed
up and had trouble making it up hills. I believe that one my cylinders
isn't firing. Removing the ignition wire from what I'm assuming is the
number three cylinder (second from the firewall), didn't make any difference
at all to the way the car was running. I know the wire is good because I
saw it sparking. I'm hoping that I've just got a fouled plug and nothing
more serious. I'll take it out and check the gap tomorrow. I gave each of
my three kids turns at rides around the neighborhood. They all got a big
kick out of it. The two younger ones are begging me to pick them up from
school in the car this week. Provided I can get that dead cylinder firing
again, I'm apt to grant their requests.
Now, the REAL fun begins!
Best wishes,
Jeff in San Diego.
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