.040

I've regapped my spark plugs to .040 up from .032 to see if it helps with idle smoothness and acceleration. Also hoping it gives it a better high end. I'll find out tomorrow. I'm also looking to connect the valve breather to the carb as it is making a mess on the engine with the filter. Another thing I need to do is get into the valves and recheck gaps. The valve tick is getting annoying at times.

New rear sway bar end links and more tuning

I recently bought some new sway bar end links for the rear of my car since the old ones looked really bad. I never imagined how much it could improve the handling of the car.

These came from Ireland Engineering. Urethane and thicker bolt.

I had some trouble getting the old ones off. The right side one came off after some work. The left one did too but required a little more work.

This is what is left of it. I had to cut it because the metal sleeve that goes over the bolt had rusted to the bolt. I ended up cutting through the washer below the upper bracket to get it to come out.

 

Installation of the new ones was simple and I would have taken the car right out afterward but I decided I needed to move the vacuum advance line and tore the vacuum plug I had. Once I got some new ones and got everything in place I took it out for a run. Handling is much tighter, no more slop in the rear. It feels like the back end stays in place better now as it should.

As for the vacuum lines. Before I had the vacuum advance going to the manifold, apparently it should go to the base of the carb. I do believe it made a difference too. This morning idle was around 400RPM. Too low for my liking. Power was better but I need more so I advanced the distributor a little. It made starting a little easier and there is more power now. Along with that I adjusted the idle screw to bring it to about 800RPM.

New guibo and other shifter parts are on the way now and once those are on I'll finally try to get it up to 65mph.

Running good

So yesterday we got new tires put on the van. The old ones were quite worn and made the van shake and turning was hard. With the new ones on there, it feels like a new van, everything is so smooth. I actually liked driving it yesterday to work at 9:00pm to fix a server problem. I also now feel safer driving it long distances.

As for the 02, it is running great too. The engine is right on with the timing, I'm tweaking the carb still to help with the starting problem and it is getting closer. With the transmission and drive line all straight now there is no vibration, nothing coming loose and I'm almost forgetting that I should still take it easy until I can replace the guibo. I do have a slight coolant leak that I need to find and take care of. And an exhaust manifold stud that leaks some oil, I have the replacement one, just have to do it.

Parts ordered and snow driving

I've got parts ordered to fix the sloppy shifter and replace the slightly torn guibo. Also replacing the rear sway bar end links since the ones on there are toast. Actually they look like squished black marshmallows. I finally replaced the battery the other day after it got into the single digit temps and the 02 wouldn't start. Now I just need to figure out the hard starting problem since the timing is pretty much perfect, I think it is a fuel issue.

In my 75 I didn't seem to ever have a problem driving in the snow, probably because I learned to drive in the snow in it. That was 14 years ago. Now I'm relearning everything about how the car handles and what it can and can't do. It is getting better, but when the streets are complete ice there is nothing you can do. Although a limited slip might help and I do believe from my experience with my 75 I'm pretty sure it had a 3.91 limited slip, why didn't I pull that from the car?! I didn't know at the time I got rid of it unfortunately.

Drive line is better

I have everything straight now, I still think the drive shaft is a tad short and I need a new guibo and to figure out where the fluid leak is coming from. The only other place I can think of for the leak is the selector shaft opening.

Another thing that had been happening was the speedo was jumping all over and noisy. So I pulled the instrument cluster out and sprayed some lube and graphite into the cable and the speedo hole. Reinstalled the cluster and reconnected the speedo, making sure it was seated properly. This morning I got to test it and it works great, no noise and nice and steady. But now the tach doesn't work. I must have pulled the cable for it.

Oh, I did check the nuts and bolts at the guibo and 2 were loose. I tightened them back down. I think any time after you work on something like that, you should definitely check it a number of times in the next week or 2 to be sure everything is tight. Even the diff bolts needed some tightening.

60

Last night I was able to get the 02 up to 60 mph. Barely. I was going into a head wind so I had that against me and I'd realized the day before that the 02 seemed under-powered. It was only for a short run, maybe a mile. When I had to slow down for my turn it suddenly had the clanking sound again. But it went away and didn't come back the rest of the way home. Best of all there was no drive line vibration that I could tell.

So, today I decided to try tuning it a little better. At lunch I got the timing light out and got it so I could see the ball in the opening and put the idle mixture screw in a little more.  I still need to verify that I have the correct vacuum port hooked up. I was told it was right before, but I have to double check on it.

On the way back to work the clanking came back, so I know another bolt has come loose. So I'll be fixing that one tonight. Oh, the other night I got under the car and found that 2 of the diff mounting bolts were loose. Took care of those ones and double checked all the others.