We worked on the Vair until 2:30 this morning, and boy, am I exhausted. If I were any more tired, I think I would have a stroke. My eyes get shifty, my hair is a shock, I feel cranky, I get bored easily, and I have lost the spark in my step. I'm so tired that if I could go to bed right now you would not even be able to get me to turn over.

Hey, I'm killin' me.

Unfortunately, there is no Underground Zone or ClarksMart around here so I was unsuccessful in locating the correct exhaust packings yesterday. In the naive hope that we would have the car on the ground and running last night, we fabricated packings by splitting two of the undersized ones I have and adding a small piece of a third one to fill the resulting gap. I know this sounds cheesy, but Kamins Auto parts is supposed to have the right ones today, so we were just trying to get through the night with that.

We put the exhaust on the car, and I took some pictures of the completed drivetrain, with only the muffler heat shields missing. I left these off because I figured they would just be in the way for lifter adjustment anyway.

After that, I did a few shots of the Clark's powertrain dolly per Steve Oxford's request.

Once done playing with the camera, I took the air cleaner parts off the motor, jacked the rear of the car about four inches higher in the air (moving the jackstands up as well, of course) and slid the powertrain under the car. We let the car back down to its original position, and started raising the motor. With a few minor scrapes, it went just like it was supposed to be there.

On the floor:

Going up:

The Eagle has landed:

Once the motor and transmission mounts were bolted up, we started hooking stuff up. Jeff worked on top, connecting the engine compartment wiring harness, the battery, the shroud seal (by the way it went in fine from the top, no problems at all), radio grounding straps, the coil, and the vacuum line for the vacuum gauge. Meanwhile I rolled around on the floor, which was fun since the temperature got down below 30 deg. F last night, and my barn is unheated. I hooked up the clutch, shifter, back-up switch, accelerator linkage, heater hoses, starter, fuel line, and the flux capacitor. We worked together to get the axles back in. By the time we started on the strut rods it was getting pretty late, so we decided to call it a night, but we wanted to try to start the car. I probably pumped the gas too much and it didn't start. Thanks to Del Patten's recent comments on defective fuel pumps, the fuel pump did leak considerably, however. This was cured this morning by tightening the screws on the top, and no, I am not starting a class action over this incident, Del.

We also verified that we have spark this morning. The distributor is set at the mark that was made in the housing and distributor with a chisel by the first guy who rebuilt the motor, so I know it will run in that position.

So, today we are going to get the correct exhaust packings. Also on the agenda is installing the strut rods; from the shop manual I gather that we are going to have to jack up the rear wheels to get them to line up properly, which is a puzzler because they did not seem to be under tension when we took them out. We need to lube the u-joints. Then I think I might give it a light fog of starter fluid to break the flood, and see if we can't get it to start. Next, adjust the lifters, and then return to earth.

I welcome any suggestions about getting the car started.

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Back to Part 18.

On to Part 20.

All images and text copyright Norman C. Witte 2002.