(Underneath", installment #20)
Almost done!
The Panhard rod went in fine, and now clears the now-modified
alloy diff cover handily. I was surprised by how much tension there is
in the rod and its bushings, and they certainly are not overtightened.
It doesn't seem like the sort of connection to allow free movement of
the suspension, but then, once there's 2500 pound of car pushing on it,
I'm sure it will 'give'. I sure hope the weakened frame doesn't 'give'
first.
Filling the diff itself was easy enough. I bought a little hand
pump that screws to the top of a bottle. Interestingly enough, not to
the narrow-mouth bottle that 75W90 comes in; I found it _did_ fit the
wide-mouth Mobil One bottles, so I transferred the diff oil to one of
those. The output hose from the pump _clipped_ into the hole on the
cover, then I pumped away until the oil started oozing out. Easy, but it
started weeping a bit from the drain plug at the bottom; I had never
done anything to that plug during the cleanup and rebuild, it took
another 3/4 turn or so and I think it stopped. If not, I'll drain it,
pull out the plug and wrap it with Teflon tape.
I hate brake lines!!!!! After stalling as long as possible, I
tackled the front lines. I got a good message about the front left rigid
line from Bruce McGuire, mentioning that starting - not ending - at
the 5-way connector might be a better idea, and he was right. I was able
to route the line easily along the crossmember, and to the bulkhead
fitting for the braided line at the left wheel.
Then I tackled the right front, although there seemed to be
nothing wrong with the one there save age. I followed the contours of
the original reasonably closely, and ended up aiming straight down
_above_ the tab on the crossmember it connects to. This prompted my
question about whether the flex lines aimed up or down, and several of
your insisted it was the latter. Well, I tried everything thing, but the
NFW-meter was pegged (some of you engineers might not have that
particular tool). So, I called Tiger Tom, and he straightened me out
some. It seems the lines come in lengths that are multiples of 10
inches, and 20" is the closest to stock but shorter. Great. Well,
there's another hole in the inner fender, a few inches lower than the
stock one, and the new line needs to go through that. Ok, I rebent the
line, crowding the end of the upper fulcrum pin BTW, and got low enough
at the end for a 180 degree bend. Cool, but still too short; the new
line ends in a male fitting , and then a screw-on coupling. Then, the
bulkhead fitting attaching to the crossmember tab, which is male-to-male
(watch it!), then the female end of the flex line. The "stack" was just
too much. it wouldn't all go.
I thought about it for hours, then decided to edit out some
extraneous parts. Out came the female-to-female coupling and the
bulkhead fitting. Now shorter, everything went together fine, but the
fit at the crossmember tab was loose; that bulkhead fitting is there for
a reason. Overnight, it occurred to be to make the male end of the rigid
line _serve_ as a bulkhead fitting. So, the next day, I took the
retaining nut off the old bulkhead fitting and ground it down until only
2-3 threads thick. It attached to the male end of the rigid line,
leaving enough room to snug down the female end of the flex line and
leave a little gap. Not a factory-type solution, but I cannot find
anything wrong with it. And, there's a need for a grommet where the line
now passes, but I knew I'd never be able to get one in there. So, I
concluded that Permatex Form-A-Gasket is also, effectively, Permatex
Form-A-Grommet; I shoved some in around the brake line. Not pretty, but
at least I'm protected to 400 degrees. :^)
So, it was time to bleed the brakes. Going round the car, I
checked the snugness of all connections, then asked Susan to sit in the
car for the Pump-the-pedal ritual. All seemed OK until I got to the left
front. I got significant leakage between the male end of the rigid line
and the female-to-female coupling. Several tries at retighteneing the
connection later, I swapped out the coupling for another, hoping it
would help. No, it wouldn't. So, after some vocabulary practice, I
decided to copy my solution for the left front, bypassing the coupling
and the bulkhead fitting altogether. So far, it seems to be holding.
Pedal pressure (I have no servo) is quite firm and there's little free
travel; also, the handbrake only comes up a couple of clicks, perhaps
three, before stopping.
The coolant I drained when moving the radiator to allow
tightening the steering rack was still in a bucket under the car, and it
had picked up a few bugs, acorns, etc., during the past few weeks.
Fortunately, most had settled to the bottom. So, I refilled using a
plastic cup as a dipper until I got rather low in the bucket; then I
inserted a coffee filter in the funnel. That slowed the fill process a
lot but it kept a lot of junk out of the cooling system.
Not much is left; I have to attach the wheels, and lower the car
to the ground. Then I tighten the traction bar bolts (how much?) and
recheck everything. Then, once the battery is recharged and the fuel
pump fixed (see other post) and installed, I think it's time to leave
the garage. During a recent visit, fellow lister Larry Paulick put it in
perspective. "You do know you're supposed to drive these things, right?"
he said. Gee, I'd almost forgotten.
Lawrence R. Wright, Purchasing Analyst
U S Office Products, Mid-Atlantic District
Formerly Andrews Office Products
larry.wright@usop.com (new)
Ph. 301.386.7923 Fx. 301.386.5333
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