I want to pause in my narrative to thank all the people who have taken time to read my posts and comment. I have received many helpful suggestions, and it is definitely making a difference in the quality of this project.

Case in point: in my last post I mentioned that I had to cut the dipstick tube. Ken Hand politely suggested taking the tube out to do this, if necessary, told me how to remove and reinstall it, and along the way showed me how it had been installed upside down. Another case of us paying attention to the guy who screwed up the motor in the first place. Sheesh!!

Anyway, keep those cards and letters coming. We read every one of them.

Last night was mostly fiddling around. Jeff gapped the plugs:

We reinstalled the distributor and set the timing per the shop manual, although I have to confess that I am not 100% confident we got it right. It seems to me that the distributor should turned be farther counterclockwise than it is. Well, I guess we see if it starts and throw a timing light on it if it runs. If not, the distributor will be a suspect.

We also tried our hand at Ken's cold lifter procedure, but as my notes were left behind at the office, we decided that we would make a better effort at lifter adjustment on Wednesday.

Finally, we disassembled the muffler brackets and straps and sandblasted them.

Here's a picture that shows the bottom of the motor:

The forecast for today is warmer but cooling, with rain and snow predicted for Thursday, and rain continuing Friday and Saturday. Let's hope the weatherman is wrong, because I think maybe I might be in a position to drive the car by Thursday (yet another in a long series of ambitious predictions).

There will be another update tomorrow.

Back to Index.

Back to Part 16.

On to Part 18.

All images and text copyright Norman C. Witte 2002.