Drilled a couple more holes in the body and put in these license plate lights that I've had for over a decade. The taillights haven't lit up in 9 yrs but everything works, I must of got everything put back where it belonged.
With all the wiring finished and working I was able to mount the fuel cell permanently I took a couple inches off the fill tube I made so a rubber hose will work easier, just need to figure out how I want to run the vent line now. With the fill tube a foot higher than the fuel cell I need to figure out how to not over fill it and maybe use the vent tube as an indicator where the level is.
Fuel side is done, barring there's no leaks, decided to run the vent tube like this Also decided to get rid of the only piece of rubber, just a 4 inch section and I quickly realized why I used rubber the first time around. The way the filter is indexed in the bracket doesn't provide a straight shot between the two. I tried doing a short curved line but managed to kink it trying to get the fitting on. So I re-indexed the filter using a spare bracket I had, all was good until I went to install it then seen the bracket on the car was upside down. So I pulled that bracket and indexed that one too, so now I have two lines into the filter then a single to pump That aluminum line that replaced the rubber was a total of 3 inches before flaring, tough to make everything fit in the flaring tool.
Made up the battery cables and alternator charging wire back to the cutoff switch, this company is great to deal with. https://www.batterycablesusa.com/ Then got them all mounted to the frame, next was locating and mounted the battery box, electrical is pretty much done now. Next I bent up the transmission lines, haven't ran one to the radiator in awhile, mostly just use aftermarket coolers, but hey big 4 core radiator, why not. Even found a use for an old tube sock so as to not scuff my paint lol I put a gallon of gas in the tank before installing the transmission lines to see if it leaked, found a couple fittings I forgot to tighten. Big test for the rewire, clicked on the battery switch and nothing melted down, turned on the fuel pump and the rear carb is having issues. The float was stuck for some unknown reason, both carbs have fresh rebuilds, and the float bowl screws are leaking. Tightened them up still leaking, they had new gaskets but I drained the bowls and put another new set on, still leaked, drain the bowls again, swap a float bowl screw off another carb with it's old gasket, that one stopped but another started, drain the bowls again and swap out all screws from the other carb. Still weeping (and so am I at this point), drain the bowls again and remove them, swap all the new guts into another set of bowls and put it all back together. Tomorrow I'll see if I accomplished anything other than stinking the place up with raw gas, it did sound good for the couple seconds it ran with the weeping bolts before I shut it down after noticing a transmission line at radiator leak, that got an extra half turn too. Nothing looks funky around the bolt holes
You'll get there Phil, everything you have done has been right on the money...sometimes these old cars get cranky..... can't wait to see Bad Moon at a cruise
ol Bad Moon is alive again ! Hasn't ran since 2014 and has never had a big block in it, still needs further tuning and a couple leaks addressed but I'm thinking it may be a handful with it's 100 inch wheelbase.
My old Blue Point flaring tool is letting me down, I put a test piece in the radiator to see if it was my flare or the radiator, no leaks. So I cut the flare off and flared it again, again I had trouble getting the fitting to slide down to the flare, gets hung up on the part of the tube that gets clamped. I filed the tube, sanded with 220 and sprayed wd40, finally got it to the flare but again hard to spin. Well it leaked, not as bad, but still leaked, the tube is getting oblonged or something, I put the tube in there and you can see daylight around it. I tried doing different variations of tightening the tool and it either pushed out or contorted it, so I gave up and ordered a hydraulic flaring tool. I also locally couldn't find the fiber gaskets for those pesky float bowl screws, so those got ordered too. Since I can't stop the leaks until my mail-order parts arrive, I figured it's a good time to drill the hole in the new trans tunnel and hook up the shifter, that went pretty smoothly at least. I did stand on the front frame rails and gave it a bounce test, stiff as a prick, looks like I'll be taking another leaf out of this thing and that might force me to put the tie-rod behind the axle off the lower spindle bolts. The springs are really close to the tie-rod, maybe a spacer will work to drop it a little.
Since the last update the fiber gaskets stopped the float bowl screws that were leaking. Turns out the new radiator was the issue with the transmission line leaks, so I put a stand alone cooler in front of the radiator and bent new lines to go to it, no more leaks now. Removed the electric fan and put a manual one on
When measuring the front brake hose for length I decided it's a good time to remove some leafs to try and free up the suspension, which in turn would also lower the front, calling for a shorter brake hose. Those kind of jumped right out of there when I dropped the axle I now have the main, #2 (longest loose leaf) and #5 (second from shortest), it seems to have movement now but the springs are resting on the tie rod now. Earlier I had mocked up my extra steering arms to see if they would clear the caliper and allow me to move the tie rod to the back, that'll all work out. I'll also need to trim the length of the u-bolts to compensate for the missing leafs, they interfere with the axle tube now Shackle angle still looks good It dropped the nose a couple inches, which I'm fine with too, I always thought it came out just a bit high and possibly thought I may do a dropped axle at some point in it's future, maybe not any longer.
Really looking good Phil. Nice work on every part of the upgrades. Stance is perfect. Lots of changes over the years.
Looking good! I have never had any luck with those plastic bowl screws Holley supplies now with their rebuild kits. I had to search out some fiber ones a while back, and like you, problem solved. Devin
Chopped up the new steering arm since I don't need that part when moving them to the rear. Gave them a coat of paint and loosely installed them since they were a bit tacky yet Those to long u-bolts Chopped them up too, my cardiologist would be proud I got the blood flowing hacksawing all eight of those things
Short...U-bolts at the front axle... Maybe should have locking nuts ? Either nylock or steel lock nuts, but something. Better than any type of lock washer. Mike
Tie rod behind now, drag link runs uphill since I removed the leafs, I'll keep an eye on that but can always trim the spacer to make it level if needed. Called Speedway's tech support to figure out brake hoses and what is recommended, now that I can get a measurement at it's new ride height. The kit comes with a banjo fitting with a -3 nipple but I wasn't really finding anything on line, the tech had a recommended line that's 16 inches, banjo fitting one one end and an adapter to get to 3/16 on the other. I won't get them till next week, hopefully they work out.
I still have a pesky trans line drip it's catching, but I do like me some cool whip on some pumpkin pie
Parts came in but were missing the adapters to go from -3 to 3/16 brake line. Called Speedway and they priority shipped the missing pieces at no charge, but still took another couple days. Grabbed some aluminum angle I had on the shelf and made the brake hose brackets. full droop and full turn Then started bending up the lines, the line going forward will need to go on the inside of the shock bracket, outside of the steering bracket, dip down and under the radiator before making it across behind the front crossmember then to the other side.
The Jalopy Journal
