Well, with driver's school at Laguna Seca only one
week away, I've begun burning the midnight oil on the
Redcar prep work again.
I identified about 5 things that I absolutely had
to do before school; fit a temperature gauge, replace
the tie rod ends, fit a wide-panel mirror, re-install
the roll cage, and fit the unfittable- the panhard bar.
I decided to attempt the easiest-appearing project
first, and so jumped on the temp gauge. What I found
was that the sending unit (mechanical) fit the block
thread-wise, but absolutely would not seal up tight. No
matter how tight I got the nut, the capillary tube was
loose & would leak. So at first I thought I'd just
replace it with an electrical unit. After getting
prices ranging from $45 to $70 for the whole
electrical shebang, I decided to try to seal the old
one up one more time. I assumed that mine was leaking
because I was missing some small part/adapter, and was
finally confirmed on this when a helpful parts clerk
produced a SW adapter from the back room. Very cool.
And what, the part only costs $2.75 and I can pay w/my
ATM card ? Even cooler. And when I get it home it fits my
sending unit perfectly, and doesn't even come close to
fitting my block ? Big bummer. Two more trips to the
parts store and I still didn't have anything that'd
fit. But I know all about thread types & flare
fittings. I finally struck paydirt at a fitting supply
store, where after showing them what I was trying to
do, I was told I'd have to either tap my block for 3/8"
pipe thread, or tap the flare adapter for 3/8" SAE.
Apparently the A-series block is tapped for 3/8" SAE
and the only adapter that fit the Stewart-Warner sending
unit was 3/8" pipe. Hmmm. The upshot of all of this was
that they comp'd me the the fittings I'd need to use.
A quick trip to Orchard Supply and I was the proud
owner of a 3/8" pipe tap. Back home and the block temp
sending unit port tapped out perfectly, and 5 min. later
all the components were in place & no leaks were apparent.
It's amazing how having accurate info makes things so much
simpler. One down, four to go.
Last night was the tie-rod ends. Fighting the urge
to succumb to the shipwright's disease, I just replaced
them. No surprises there, and a little late-night
reading in my Bugeye workshop manual, and tonight I'll
shoot for centering the steering rack & setting the
toe-in.
More later-
dstone@sc9.intel.com
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