7 minute drive in a 1975 Bora

Here's the next installment in "The life of Bora #932"...

This is 7 minutes of footage edited from a drive I took to continue the shakedown process, a few days ago.. Hope you enjoy it.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Ir5iie7ZA[/ame]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/T_Ir5iie7ZA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Great video, keep em coming

 

Love the sound

 

Thanks for the ride.

 

Nice video!

Ivan

 

Wow, great stuff!

 

Sweet music indeed!

Quick, possibly stupid, question - had you warmed up the engine ahead of time, before shooting the video, or was the video shot from a cold start?

Just curious. I have a similar engine, just a whole lot more car around it, and usually let it idle a little bit until it settles, and then am very gentle on the gas and keep the rpms under 2k until water and oil are 50C or more.

Looking forward to the next installment!

 

Thanks for the question QP3,

Yes, there are two things I do. I employ an electric heater in the engine bay for 1-2 hours before a drive, or overnight if I'm going out first thing in the morning. And then I let the engine warm up fully before it goes anywhere, like you do.

If you look at the video again, wait for the 0:49 to 0:52 second mark and you'll notice the text "let it warm up a bit" followed by a transition in the video. That transition is a 10-15 minute gap where I walked away to let it reach temperature. It's misleading to say I let it warm up "a bit". Better to have written "let it warm up fully."

Warming it with the electric heater lets the transmission warm up too - the temp of which otherwise lags behind the engine. I can tell when the tranny is properly warm or not by the feel of the gear shifts. It gets more precise, and feels "clearer" which gear I'm in when it's properly warm.

You can probably tell from the video - I'm still struggling to up and down shift cleanly, one of my winter tasks is to get the center console off and check the shifter mechanism for proper lubrication and tightness.

Best,
-Art

 

With respect to the shifting, you might want to get a copy of an article I wrote for VCM - MIE's club magazine back in the early to mid 1990's. At that time I had just finished an engine out restoration/upgrade of the engine/transaxle and all related equipment. The linkage ended up working beautifully after I was finbished and it boiled down to three issues.

1. those rubber boots on the knuckle joints are very fragile so I switched to silicone version which can be found in the industrial supply market.

2. The heat shield provided for the portion of the linkage that runs along the block is not adequate to prevent the grease in those slide supports from drying out. The new boots on each end and piece of silicone, small diameter coolant hose inbetween the two joints ensures that the slide joints remains well lubricated.

3. On my car at least those slide needle bearing supports were not aligned to one another because they are independantly bolted to the block. That caused binding and was fixed with some carefully selected shim washers under the mounting points. This really, really helped a lot!

Now adressing this with the engine in the car and headers on the block is probably going to be tedius.

I removed the taper pins in the knuckle joints via having a sacrificial nut on the threaded end of the taper pins, providing temporary support on the backside of the joint with hardwood blocks and then I used a hammer and a suitable drift to punch them out. I used antiseize upon reassembly. BTW back them Dorman supplied pins that fit should you need a new one.

 

Great little drive!

It sounds to me like the power band which uses the idle jets (up to around 3k-3500rpm) is a bit lean, if your very top end is still a bit lean I would install one size larger main jet and that will richen up the entire band. If the high end is good but the lower end is still lean I would just install .05 larger idle jet.

 

Many thanks Bob and John for the expert advice. I'll use your info when I get into the shift mechanisms this winter, and John I might not have to get into the jets once the correct fuel pump has been installed, but I will if I have to. Thanks again!
-Art

 

agree, sounds like a few sneezing carbs.

Overall, sounds awesome, a very throaty V8, i have never driven one but would love to some day.

 

Bob,
Thanks so much for your details on this issue.
1.) None of my u-joint knuckles have any form of boot. I sprayed the exposed joints with lithium grease last week. Not much difference, but i'll see if MIE has the boots and the back issue.

2.) I got under the Bora today because the gear shift is now making brief a howling sound when shifting 2-3 and 4-5 front-rearward across the gate, indicating there is a definite lack of lubrication along the shafts somewhere. The two "slide brackets" at the block look recently serviced: Fresh paint on the brackets, fresh pliable rubber condoms, and some thin-walled hose tight to the shafts that slide independent of the rubber condoms - as if a previous installer read your article.

3.) The rearmost bracket is noticeably loose, and rust-colored grease is oozing from the downslope condom. Seeing this and a few other similar conditions, I think someone pressure washed the bottom of the car and put it away wet for 10 years, so I will get in there and improve that rear bracket per your input.

 

Nice video. Thanks for having us along for the ride.

 

On mine those two brackets were so misaligned that the shaft would not slide and rotate nicely. It was a real problem. I don't know that all of them are like that but the only way to know is to separate that section from the front and rear sections of the linkage and then see how it feels.

It's been a very long time since I've even looked at this and yours is probably more stock than my car as I did what ever was reasonable to allow for better service in the future.
Access to insert shim washers for alignment might be a real b*tch. I did all of my work with the engine & sub-frame out of the car.

Measure the diameters of the knuckle joints and then order the balloon style silicone boots from a bearing supply place. The OEM ones look coll but are just junk unless MIE has re-engineered them?

http://www.mcmaster.com/#bellows-boots/=k3lwhz

Look at the bellows boots but these aren't silicone.

 

Thank you Bob, I just got back from wrenching on this problem.

LOL - Indeed the two brackets line up horribly. As mentioned, my rear bracket was loose. I found the bolts were barely finger tight and felt pleased this was the problem. Far from it. In fact, tightening the bolts of this bracket made the gear shift effort MUCH worse - confirming your statement below. I am now fabricating 3"x3" shims of various thicknesses with a slot for each bolt, so I can easily add or remove them behind the bracket until I have found the "sweet spot" where the gear shift shaft slides well. This can be done easily enough from below the engine.

Thank you for the link to the McMaster boots, they will be helpful long term. I'll ask McM if they have what I want in silicone. Now I get to disassemble the u-joints to isolate that middle shaft. @#$&. But it'll be worth it when it's shifting easier.