Saturday AM I marched to the carport armed with high hopes and a bit of
trepidation..... After all was said and done I was left with a bit of
frustration that I hadn't accomplished all that I had hoped. BUT also with
the conviction that this isn't so tough and I feel a lot more comfortable
with the idea of tackling it.
Having never even changed spark plugs before, I started there. That and the
new ignition wires (green ones from TRF) were a breeze. The distributor work
was a bit more perplexing since it took a while to figure out what exactly
the "slot" was that the Bentley manual was talking about using to adjust.
(Still doesn't look like a slot to me). Got the points just right, and
timing fairly good (a LOT better than the PO had it). Now have it on the
money thanks to someone on the list who told us that there was another way
to adjust the distributor other than the fine tuning bolt.
Question #1- When setting points, is there a simpler way to get rubbing block
on the peak of the cam? Must have "bumped" the starter 100 times and was
about to give up when miraculously it stopped where it was supposed to--
maybe one of you sent up a prayer for me at that moment!
The fuel filter change was a bit exciting since I decided to ignore the
Bentley advice to clamp off the hose.... I just couldn't see how gas could
come out without the pump working! I now see the point of gravity feed after
fuel poured from the line! Joe and I looked a bit like Abbott and Costello
as he rushed to the rescue to plug it up with his finger while I hurriedly
attached the new filter. The fumes were a bit heady there for a while!
Question #2: Still want to clean the filter inside the fuel pump and since
it was a bit higher I thought that maybe I still wouldn't need to clamp off
that hose, but as I began to undo the nut on top, you know what began to flow
from the top--- so what do you use to clamp off that little hose tight enough
to stop the flow and without damaging it?
My carburetor attempts were a pretty complete wash out- Uni-Sys wouldn't even
register once I got the RPMs down to where they needed to be. I have very
loose emission hoses though, saw a few cracks and there are no clamps on any
of them- so am now hoping that this might be the cause of the low readings
when RPMs were dropped to normal levels. New hoses are on the way so we'll
see.
Colortune was also not helpful. Turned the trim screw and could never get
any color change from either test plug. Am assuming that this means that my
carb adjustments are too big to do with the trim screw and I need to go in
with a carb tool? Front one was continually white- or was it yellow??
couldn't really tell. And back one was pale blue with white or yellow
flashes. May give up and go to a shade tree LBC mechanic for some hands on
carb. advice. Thanks for listening to me rattle on..... Still love my car---
top down weather here in Louisiana still... Grace
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