My eBay purchased 74

[Jamiez]

Week 71:

Took the car out for a quick trip around the block making sure the power steering pump didn't explode or anything.  Everything held together so I got back to work on the  original carb I picked up.  A while back I picked up a parts carb because the top end of my original one was so rough.  Here you can see them both:


The top of the photo is the one I will not be using, numerous soakings in evaporust and the like have been unable to remove the worst of that scale.  I've been working on breaking the parts carb down and trying to choose the pieces in the best condition to use in the rebuild.  Fortunately it looks like I'll end up with a lot of spare parts.

[Jamiez]

Week 72:
Managed to take the car out a few times when the weather was nice.  Unfortunately one of those trips was cut short when the Oil pressure gauge suddenly dropped to below "L".   I had never had any issues with the oil sending unit so I had no idea what might be the problem.  However after a quick look around I discovered a female spade connector just hanging around in the engine bay.  I guess it had worked loose from the sender.  I reconnected it and it worked for a few minutes then it stopped.  The wire looked a bit frayed so I cleaned it up and crimped a new connector on it.  The look isn't original so I'll probably see if I can't get a more accurate looking connector at some future point.


But the important thing is now I have a working oil pressure gauge:


I also did some more work on my TQ, just more disassembly and cleaning nothing really worth showing. Hopefully next week I'll be able to start putting it back together.....I hope I remember where it all goes.

[Jamiez]

Just before Hurricane Sandy wiped out the power for a week, I had sourced a 3755486 distributor (the same as the one currently installed on my car).  Because of the power outage and storm damage I didn't get to do anything with it until this week.  I used this article ( http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/techarticles/engine/mopp_0301_mopar_electronic_ignition_system/ ) and the instructions that came with my FBO advance kit to modify the total mechanical advance and the advance curve of this distributor.

Here it is during breakdown:

Further disassembled with the FBO plate and spring installed.  The plate limits the advance to 10* down from the stock 15*,  the spring shifts the RPM curve.

And here it is with the stock plate installed.  You can see how the FBO plate shortens the slots to reduce the total advance.  At this point the stupid wire clip has been reinstalled.  That clip is by far the worst part of the disassembly.


After I finished the reassembly I set the gap to 0.008.  I didn't get a chance to install it on the car and test it, but maybe I'll have time next week.

[CUDA JAS]

preety trick little unit there.

Seems a lot easier then JB welding and filing the slots like I did.

Jason

[Jamiez]

It is rather clever, it has slots for 0, 10, 14, and 18 degree limits.  It's a nice bolt on, adjustable option, so if something changed I could just remove the disc or use a different slot.  It also came with 3 different set of springs to adjust the advance curve.

[Jamiez]

Week 75:
I picked up a rotor to match the distributor I rebuilt.  It was pretty easy to install, until the weather gets better, there really isn't much more I can do with that project.  So I went back to one I had started months ago, rebuilding a ThermoQuad as part of my stock top end set up.  I was just about to start reassembling everything when Sandy hit.  Unfortunately I had to move everything, quickly, I pretty much picked up all the shop towels I had covering the table and tossed them in a corner.
It took a few days but I think I've found and organized all the pieces:

The good news is I have 2 TQs, and 2 rebuild kits so with luck I'll have extra of everything.  Like the 6 floats I have.  The bad news is somewhere along the way one of the float "ears" broke off the better of the tops.  I got some JB Weld Marine (supposedly better in chemicals...like fuel).  and repaired it.


I doubt I'll ever actually run the carb, after working on it, I can see it would be a real pain to tune, requiring a lot of disassembly to even adjust the float levels.  My Holley is so much easier to adjust.  Still it's a fun bad weather project.

[Jamiez]

Week 76:
I finally managed to take all those bits and put a TQ back together.  Thank heavens for all those eBay sellers with nice pictures of thermoquads, I would never have figured out where everything went without those pictures.  After putting it back together I put it on my stock intake just to see how it would look.  I don't have the right studs (ones I used in the photo are stupidly long) but otherwise it all fits.


After reading about items being stole off cars at car shows, I decided to better secure my fender tags.  I picked up a several of torx security screws and replaced the standard phillips head screws.  The screws I picked up were the roughly the same size as the originals,  I just used a tap to widen the hole slightly and clean up the threads.  The holes in the tags themselves didn't need any changes.

It's not a perfect solution, but I figure a lot fewer people are wandering around car shows with torx security bits than with standard phillips drivers. 

[Jamiez]

With the cold weather coming on, I decided to fit the electric choke conversion kit onto the Holley.  The manual choke has always been a bit cantankerous and the install in the car leaves a bit to be desired.  I purchased the conversion kit shortly after I got the car but never got around to putting it on.  Since I've done a lot of work with the carb (a rebuild on the Holley and a complete strip/restore on the TQ), the instructions were a lot less intimidating.

Took about 2 hours to do the swap and the car started right up.     I still need to get it dialed in, clean up the wiring, and remove the manual choke cable.

[MEK-Dangerfield]

You'll love that electric choke for sure. I always had problems with my manual choke not opening all the way because the cable kept binding.   

I found that I had to turn my electric choke to the far right so the choke let's off early. You results may differ from mine.

[Jamiez]

Yeah cable bind was a problem with my manual choke as well.  The bracket that was used to mount the pull inside the car is flimsy as well making it difficult to use the choke when I actually wanted to use.  Most of the time I'd just run with choke plate wide open and just let the car get to temp before driving it.

Since I'm used to driving it without the choke, I've got it all the way to the right as well so the choke comes off quickly.  Still has to warm up longer than I'd like  before it holds idle without stalling, so I'll probably have to rotate the cap some.  Weather is supposed to drop into the 30-40* range over the next few days which should be pretty good for tuning it.

[Super Blue 72]

Nice work, Jamie! 

On my old 5th Ave, my Holley carb was a manual choke.  Too lazy to set up a cable, just went under the hood every time I started the car in the cold weather, and this was my daily driver in the Boston area.... 

Hey, I noticed, is that an Offenhauser intake?  Don't see many of those around, usually a Edelbrock or something under the hood. 

I think I have an old Offenhauser lying around somewhere...it's kinda weird if I remember correctly.  Each intake runner is divided into 4 passages, supposedly to help fuel economy and increase low end torque but I think it was a little restrictive on the top end... 

[Jamiez]

Hey, I noticed, is that an Offenhauser intake?  Don't see many of those around, usually a Edelbrock or something under the hood. 

I think I have an old Offenhauser lying around somewhere...it's kinda weird if I remember correctly.  Each intake runner is divided into 4 passages, supposedly to help fuel economy and increase low end torque but I think it was a little restrictive on the top end... 

Yeah it's an Offenhauser, it came on the car and I've never had it off.  My understanding is there are actually 2 different versions, a normal one and the "Dual Port" design which is what you've mentioned each port is split, with one going to the primary and one to the secondary:

Not sure which I have, eventually I'll get around to pulling it but it's such a hassle in the small block.

[Super Blue 72]

I haven't looked at mine in years but I think maybe you can tell if where the carb sits there are 4 individual holes like for butterflies (dual port design) vs 2 elongated holes for a regular dual plane intake, my best guess...I don't think you have to take off the intake... 

[crazed.ebody.fan]

I love that stance with those nice fat tires up in those wheel wells!!

[Jamiez]

I love that stance with those nice fat tires up in those wheel wells!!

Thanks for the compliment.

I worked more on the carb/choke over the last few days.  After installing it, I started the engine cold and it ran for 15-20 seconds and then died.  Started it again, it lasted a bit longer, 3rd time and it ran until I turned if off.  I did some looking and determined the fast idle wasn't set correctly.  The kit included a new fast idle arm/screw so the initial install was just a guess.  Turns out I had it installed in such a way that the fast idle was lower than the curb idle, so it would just curb idle.  Unfortunately the new choke set up blocks easy access to the fast idle screw so I had to pull the carb off, readjust it and put it back on the car.  This time I made sure the fast idle would engage.

The next day the car fired right up and held, running in fast idle until the choke was off and then switching to curb idle.  I can't express how nice it is to go out, get in the car, turn the key and it just starts and runs.   It's been a long road to get there swapping the plugs, rebuilding the carb, setting the floats, idle mix, curb idle and then setting the timing.  A lot of which I probably would have never figured out without help from the people and posts on this board.   

It was also great to remove that ugly manual choke knob/cable