Had a great day at the track Saturday. Made 8 passes and my buddy made 20 in his coyote truck. Halloween was big fun too. Removed the tan sport grip cover on my steering wheel.
Had a small dent removed that somehow happened while away from the car at the BCA National show this past summer. PDR guy made me happy!
This will be long and convoluted, but there is a point to all of the exposition. Today was the first full day of my fourth ‘campaign’ with my 1971 GS Stage 1, after travelling interstate on Tuesday and arriving at Richard’s (my brother-in-law, and custodian of the car) house yesterday; he has the car because he has an automotive mechanical business (I can state categorically that if I had to do all the work at my house without a hoist, I would have been driven insane). I had a RH brake caliper and a master cylinder in my bag, that I bought on Tuesday morning (from Ponti-World in Albion Park NSW for any Australians reading this) before I headed to Sydney Airport. Winding back the clock, I bought the car in the middle of last year, while visiting my wife’s family. The first ‘campaign’ on the car was during the Christmas/New Year period, which consisted of looking over the car to figure out what its issues were and beginning the process of installing Australian-compliant seat belts (which, despite how easy a job it ought to have been, turned into a saga that I won’t go into now). The second campaign was ten days during and after Easter, following the arrival of a bunch of parts from the US. The third stint on the car was four days in September, during which I finally completed installation of the seat belts, Richard and I sorted out all of the issues with the rear brakes (another saga that I won’t go into here) and I replaced all of the park brake cables - this prompted by the fact that the intermediate cable was rubbing on the tailshaft. It turns out the intermediate cable I removed had been installed by some drongo (Australian for idiot) who had ignored that it was about fifteen inches too long and had re-routed the cable to get rid of the slack. The tailshaft had worn about a quarter of the way through the cable. Anyway, after doing all of the rear brake work we bled the rear brakes and decided to bleed the front brakes as well, whereupon we discovered that some drongo (see above) had installed a LH brake caliper on the RH hub and we couldn’t open the bleeder on the LH caliper fitted to the LH hub, as it had been modified and was seized shut. That was the state of play when I went home in September. Yesterday after travelling by bus and car, I didn’t get started until about 3pm; I got the car up on a hoist in Richard’s workshop, pulled the RH front wheel off (whereupon I discovered that the sway bar bushes that some previous person had installed, had all age-hardened and were breaking up; these were made of a red polymer whose name Richard told me but which now escapes me), took the caliper off, removed the brake disc, cleaned the wheel bearings and disc bore, checked the bearings, re-greased the wheel bearings and disc bore, refitted the disc and installed the new caliper. Which leads to today. Today * I refitted the RH front wheel, let the car down off the hoist, changed all of the sway bar bushes (purists will cringe to see the aftermarket bushes I installed - we are in a no-traffic-lights town in the Outback and needs must) * lifted the car on the hoist again, removed the LH front wheel, removed the brake caliper with the seized bleeder, removed the brake disc, cleaned the disc bore and wheel bearings * went up the street and bought new bearings from the local engine agricultural supplies business because I discovered that the rollers in the outer bearing had some spalling * knocked the bearing outer races out of the disc, tapped new outer races into the disc, greased the new wheel bearings and re-greased the disc bore, refitted the disc, installed the LH caliper that I removed from the RH hub yesterday, refitted the LH wheel, lowered the car off the hoist * opened the bonnet (hood), opened the lid of the brake master cylinder, sucked all of the brake fluid out of the master cylinder, disconnected and removed it - because at some point some drongo (see above) had used brake fluid that had attacked the seal in the lid and it was leaking all over the inner guard (fender) * partially-filled and pre-bled the new master cylinder that I had bought on Tuesday, tried to install the new master cylinder, figured out why I couldn’t install the new master cylinder (turns out it had a manufacturing defect - the mounting holes had not been properly drilled and the bores had a noticeable step in them), drilled out the mounting holes so they were of uniform diameter, installed and connected the new master cylinder, raised the car on a hoist, bled the front brakes, re-bled the rear brakes, lowered the car off the hoist * removed the steering wheel, disassembled the top of the steering column, removed the yoke securing the steering column to the dash panel, removed the turn signal switch assembly, installed a new turn signal switch assembly, removed the new turn signal switch assembly because I forgot that the wiring had to pass through the steering column shroud, installed the new turn signal switch assembly again, partially-reassembled the steering column * installed a new horn contact assembly, tried to re-install the steel plate and plastic cover that sit at the top of the steering column immediately behind the steering wheel, discovered that I could not get the plate down far enough to install the snap ring that holds it in place against the spring behind it, removed the cover and plate, removed the new horn contact assembly, figured out why I couldn’t get the plate down far enough to install the snap ring, trimmed some plastic off the new horn contact assembly to reduce its profile, re-installed the new horn contact assembly, re-installed the plate and cover * located a suitable spot to attach the ground lug for a wire dangling loose near the control column, removed a nut behind the instrument panel, attached said lug under said nut, refitted the steering column yoke, re-secured the steering column to the dash, refitted the steering wheel * disconnected the battery, removed the crappy aftermarket plastic battery hold-down bar and associated pair of hooked rods, installed a new reproduction battery tray (no existing tray to remove - the battery had just been sitting on the sheetmetal in the corner of the engine bay), installed a new battery (the old battery was rooted - Australian for ‘in poor condition’) with a new reproduction battery hold-down plate * attempted to install a new reproduction positive battery cable, gave up when I couldn’t figure out where the metal shroud on the cable is meant to go, connected the new battery using the existing positive cable (which is black and likely to be welding cable) and a new reproduction negative cable that I had installed at Easter time * filled the windscreen washer reservoir, splashed water on the windscreen, tested the windscreen washer, proved that the electric shocks received while touching the washer switch during previous attempts to run the windscreen washer were due to the wire dangling loose near the control column not being attached to ground, observed water spraying from the open bonnet onto the base of the windscreen * closed the bonnet, tested the windscreen washer again, opened the bonnet to figure out why the windscreen washer was now not working, discovered that the LH windscreen wiper pivot had grabbed the windscreen washer hose that some drongo (see above) had previously installed in a bodgy (Australian for half-arsed, suboptimal) fashion and said hose was now wrapped around the pivot - thus explaining why I had observed a sudden reduction in the rate of the windscreen wipers’ travel across the windscreen * closed the bonnet and called it a day, drove the car to my parents-in-law’s house, discovered that none of the keys turn the door locks, discovered that pushing down the lock post on the passenger door does not actually lock the door * sat down after dinner and searched the V8 Buick forum until I found the information on where the metal shroud on the battery positive cable is mounted And that’s how you end up spending ten hours working on a fifty-year-old car... Tomorrow I shall be figuring out why the new turn signal switch assembly and horn contact assembly are creating a repetitive ‘clicking’ when the steering wheel is turned, that can be felt as well as heard; figuring out why the hazard lights switch in the new turn signal switch assembly doesn’t work; removing the hose that’s wrapped around the LH windscreen wiper pivot; re-routing windscreen washer hoses; and installing the new battery positive cable
Wow RichardandBen, you were busy! I can relate to fixing something and having to go back and do it again, or correcting something else that fixing the first thing caused an issue with!
I reckon I’ve had the rear wheels off at least a dozen times (the downside of having the use of Richard’s workshop - needing to move the car to make way for paying customers’ vehicles, as well as things like finding a leaking wheel cylinder and waiting weeks for a new one to arrive) and the steering wheel off about five times; and I have lost count of the number of times I have cursed “if it isn’t one @#$&* thing, it’s another @#$&* thing”. It seems that every time I look at the car, I find something wrong.... Cheers Ben
New trans pan gasket, new oil pan gasket, new valve cover gaskets and last but not least new radiator and thermostat. Not in one day but past few weeks. Now I can go on a cruise in somewhat feeling of safety.
The solid 560" Tomahawk block arrived Sunday afternoon. Thanks to Aaron Betts for driving from California to Maine for me. I have some medical I'm dealing with, so Doctors said no to me doing the transport... I'll put up pictures soon.
Did a little tuning to the new points combination. May have to put a stiffer spring in the advance to get it to not start coming in at 750 RPM. Right now idle is set at 700RPM in park / 550 RPM in gear. Need a little more RPM before the mechanical advance starts to move...
Installed a set of TA 2 1/2" down pipes. Also disassembled the drive shaft I've had in the corner of the garage since 2008. Removed trans yoke and U-joints so it can go in for shortening and conversion on tail end to correct size 1330 U-joint.
I went crazy wild with the sandblaster for a few days! I blasted the entire underneath, the entire trunk compartment, and most of the interior (minus the dash and such). I sandblasted so much that I wore out the blaster machine and had to go buy a new one lol. It's a project that I've been wanting to do for a couple years now and finally got it done! Progress can now move forward. I'm very happy ! Keith
I had some errands to run at lunch time today and since I am working at home, and the weather is beautiful in the Tampa Bay area today, I took the Buick. Started great hot or cold, ran great, and drove great! Here it is at the salon where my girl works. Got a manicure while there... LOL
Today I didn’t have access to a hoist so the battery cable didn’t get done. It didn’t take long to figure out that the ‘clicking’ was due to the horn contact/cancel cam rubbing on the turn signal lever. After a couple of hours of fiddling and shaving the cam and checking fitment and the steering wheel going on and off the column umpty-um times, it became clear that the only quick fix was to modify the turn signal lever; I ended up grinding down the attachment lug on the end of the lever so that it now sits lower in the turn signal switch assembly and clears the horn contact; and I hated myself for having done so. I unwrapped the hose from around the wiper pivot and installed new hoses, routing them in a manner that looks correct from the wiper motor to the nozzles on the bonnet. I don’t have enough hose left to finish the job, so there’s no connection between the washer bottle and the wiper motor. A previous owner had installed an aftermarket pump on the washer bottle because the pump on the wiper motor didn’t work, so I took the pump assembly off the wiper motor assembly to try to fix that problem. After cleaning off 50-year-old grease and fiddling about and watching a YouTube video and consulting the Fisher Body Service Manual, it became clear that the pump doesn’t work because the four-way cam that connects the pump to the wiper motor is missing. That situation is at a dead end for the moment; it appears nobody sells a replacement cam, so I may have to buy an entire motor assembly. The car was outside the workshop on a concrete pad all day, so I dealt with a coolant leak (more of a weep really) at the thermostat housing that was irritating me. Nipping up the bolt didn’t fix it, so I took the housing off (I changed the thermostat in April, so once again I redid something that I had already done once ); I had to make a gasket so it took quite a bit longer, but on the other hand the gasket paper was a lot thicker than the gasket I had bought to change the thermostat and there’s no leaks now, so RESULT. Annoyed that I had attacked the turn signal lever, annoyed about the washer pump situation, annoyed about having to pull the thermostat housing off again and annoyed about a day of spectacular underachievement in general, I took the car for a bit of a spin; on giving it a kick in the ‘make it go fast’ department, I noticed that it was not performing as well as on previous occasions - it could barely do a burnout. Back at the workshop, Richard figured out that the secondaries on the carburettor are not opening, so that’s another on the long line of ‘two steps forward, one step back’ moments with this car. Looking at parts sites on the internet, it appears that the cancel cam was rubbing on the turn signal lever because it is the wrong one, apparently being for a car with a non-tilt steering column. I don’t know if I ordered the wrong one, or the website of the company I ordered it from got the applicability wrong, either way, hours of mucking about trying to get an incorrect part to function. Ben
I think I've had the thermostat housing on and off my car 4 times to fix the same situation. The last time I put "Gaska-cynch" all over both sides of the gasket when I put it on and torqued it to specs listed in the manual. That time it worked! Keep at it and the issues that annoy you will quit multiplying after a while!
I drove the old bomb to school Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. It’s the latest into the year that I’ve ever driven it. Absolutely beautiful weather.
Sent my supercharger back to California to get an upgraded impellar and checked out. Getting things mocked up for a mid plate and brackets to be welded.Today,I will set the 3 1/2 inch cowl hood on to see how much clearance I have and see if I need a 4 inch cowl hood.
Took my brother's 65 to the body shop for paint this morning. He has been working on this car for 30 years and the end is in sight.
