The Adventures of 42137: A Shipwright's Tale

Relays are mounted on existing bolts. Again, no holes drilled for this project. And the factory wiring is still intact.

The flash really lit these up well, they aren't that noticeable. Still I want to camouflage them a bit more with some heat shrink tube.
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So here's the proof. Remember that 8.64 is my number to beat. Battery read 12.22V. Voltage at the headlight wires.....
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The lights look substantially brighter as well. It is hard to take before and after pictures of the voltage difference because the camera compensates for light level but the color of the lights is whiter at higher voltages in addition to there being more light.

 

I forgot the picture of the mounted fuse block. It will be hidden under the battery cover. It also has a clear weather proof plastic cover that snaps on. I have two more open positions for wiring other things. The wire running across the battery with an in-line fuse is my connection for a batter charger. I will move that to the new fuse block as well. That leaves one more position.

Fog lights?
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Welcome, David. Yes, these cars will keep you as busy as you want to be.

I got the correct cam cover gasket in the mail and put it on the engine immediately. I think the engine is ready to go back in the car. I have a little bit of chassis tube painting and cleaning I want to do this weekend and then I will go for re-insertion #2.

 

OK, time for another update.

Brian A came over and we put the engine back in. There was a little back and forth, a little up and down, but eventually we had all the parts in all the right places and got it bolted in place.
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It took a bit to get all of the stuff back hooked up, but when that was all on I started it up. And it ran real nice on seven cylinders. Dang. Clearly one header pipe - #5 - was cold. I had spark, I smelled fuel on the spark plug. I had compression. Hmmm. I replaced all of the extenders with no Kingsborne extenders even though it seems like I have spark. No difference.

I puled the #5 injector and put it in a jar. It seemed a little pathetic. I swapped it with #4 and the problem moved. Well, check that out, apparently I have an under performing injector. The injectors are all steel so they are probably original. I dug around in the garage attic and found the old set of injectors from my other 308 and popped one in.

Now it runs on all 8! It has been two years since it has done that!

I took it for a drive - no engine lid on the car - around the block and to the gas station. The engine feels good, nice and smooth. The clutch actuation feels awful. Something gets rough and grind-y as the pedal nears the floor. But I don't have to push it that far to shift, so it is driveable, at least for now.
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With some help I got the engine lid (hood?) out of the rafters and on the front lawn. With a bunch of degreaser and much scrubbing I cleaned the underside, louvers and screen of 30 years of oil and grime. A neighbor helped me put it back on the car.

I can't find the baggie with the pins that attach the struts to the lid. It will either turn up soon or I will make or buy replacements.

But again, it has been a long time since the car has had this many pieces attached to it. And it feels good!
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The day after the hood is on I went out to the garage to finish putting stuff on. There is a little puddle of water under the right side of the car, right next to the rear wheel, maybe half a teaspoon. I put my finger in the puddle and know from the feel immediately - brake fluid.

The caliper is leaking fluid out of the parking brake arm. Man, it is always something.

On the other hand I have eight new injectors to install. I got seven of them in easily but #3 requires the throttle body to come off so I haven't done that yet.

And I order the seal kit for the calipers. I got two because you know if one needs it the other is probably right behind.
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The rear calipers on this car have always looked really good, like they've been restored sometime relatively recently. The plating is pretty nice, certainly doesn't look 30 years old and looks much better than the front calipers. I feel ok just doing the leaking seal right now instead of going the whole way with a rebuild and plating, etc. Plus I want to drive a little bit before winter rain and cold.

I couldn't find a tool that fit the RIBE bolts that hold the caliper together so I slotted them and used a screwdriver along with the rattle gun on the nuts. The mating surface of caliper halves have engraving on them. I suspect these are markings from when they were rebuilt last and are not factory marks.

The insides of the caliper and pistons look really good. No crud, no corrosion. Once again, I think this all points to these being refurbished once already.
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That's funny. I've lived in Silicon Valley for 45 years. We got about 4 flakes in 1998. Before that it snowed in 1976 and we got 1/2". I'm thinking I'm safe this year.

 

The pulley is fine. I took it apart, cleaned it and lubed it when everything was out. And the cable is running nicely in the groove. I don't know what it is yet, but unfortunately it isn't the easiest/simplest/cheapest component. A local mechanic guessed it was the fork not in the flats of the slidey bit inside the clutch, but he wasn't sure.

I don't know how to check to see if it needs adjustment. I'll go check out the WSM. Perhaps it is that simple -I'm pushing something beyond where it should go.

 

Thanks for the help. I hope to be at C+C. I do have a brake caliper on the bench but it is ready to go back on the car. I should probably get it smogged tomorrow so I'm legal before driving all that way. I'd say 50-50 that I make it.

 

I still haven't found the baggie with the engine lid strut pins. For now I made a couple of passable pins out a stainless M8 socket cap bolt. A simple job on the lathe. They aren't perfect but passable. I'm going to make them more identical later. I'm on a mission today.

Out with the steel, in with the brass - all eight injectors replaced.

The brake caliper is back together. I reused the old bolts that hold the calipers halves together including two that I slotted. I think they aren't compromised structurally, but I certainly marred them aesthetically so I'm ordering replacements for all four. I mounted it and sucked 1/2 quart of new fluid through the line. I'm going to bleed the rest later, but it has been at least two years so it is time.

I've got a full tank of Chevron Supreme with Techron and I've got full bottle of Techron concentrate in the tank. I don't know what the max allowable Techron is, but I've gotta be close.

It has been raining on and off but I'm determined to get a smog check today so I'm legal and can drive to C+C in plain sight. But I have some valve deposits to get rid of. So I take the car through the lesser traveled back mountain roads. The summer tires let me know that it is cool and damp out side if I push at all, so it is a moderate pace. The object is just to get the oil hot so there's no gasoline in it, run the injectors a bit to see if the intake valve will beat the crap out of whatever is making it leak, get the cats all fired up.

It has been a long time since I've driven this car! It is quite an upper-body workout on the tight roads. I did 20 miles and pull into the drive way to do a final check before smogging it. And the shear pin to drive the smog pump is gone. The smog pump isn't running.

I made the pin because the car was missing the pin when I bought it. And I made it fragile on purpose. But a little too fragile, apparently. Making a new is pin easy, I still have the brass rod stock. Just cut to length, add a groove for an o-ring on each end. Last time I did a pretty good job with the lathe, but I'm running out of time so this was a hack saw and Dremel tool operation. Good enough. Getting the pin in and the o-ring on requires removing the smog pump (it's hot!), but after that all is ok.
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California requires the 308 to go to the special STAR smog station. Luckily there is one just around the corner from me. I go there and the guy won't do "those kinds of cars." Well, that's not what I was expecting. Down the road a bit is another STAR station. This one has a line, of course. I don't turn off the car to keep it hot. It is important to keep the cats hot and "lit off" when the test comes. So I let it run. The radiator fans come on and don't turn off. Temperatures creep up. I open the front lid to let more air out. I open the engine lid to let more heat out. I run the heaters full. The expansion tank burps water now and then. Finally I turn the car off for minute here and there. I do this for an hour until my turn comes up.
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