Oliver Fuel Fun

Boo had to work on Easter, so I had a Sunday to work with. Knowing others around the neighborhood were celebrating Easter with their families, I wanted to keep my noise and smoke to a minimum. So, I started slow, throwing Oliver onto a charger and then doing inside stuff. By 11, I was mowing the front lawn with the electric mower. With hand tools, I fixed the gates to the fence by lowering the little swivel wheels and re-setting the patio block they set on. Now, the gates sit mostly level and mostly vertical. By 2PM, most of the family gatherings were breaking up, so I felt I could make engine noises and such. So, I headed out to the shop. Engine noises. Ha. Such optimism.

 

No Start

fuel works

I am sure this comes as no surprise, but my first attempt to start Oliver was not successful. I really didn't expect it to, tho. I had a little over a gallon of gas in a jug that I poured into the tank, but I noticed that the fuel pump noise never lessened. So, as I walked to the rear of the car, I expected there would be no fuel in the filter. And there wasn't. The series of things the fuel needs to pass through before arriving at the pump is: fuel level sender / pick up tube -> flexible fuel line -> clear plastic fuel filter -> flexible fuel line -> fuel pump. From there, it travels, at pressure, thru another flexible line, through a short section of 90* hard line, more flexible line and then to the hard line that runs along the frame to the engine compartment. That's a lot of junctions. I started at the pump, testing with a MityVac vacuum pump, working my way back towards the tank. In retrospect, it would have been smarter to work my way forward from the tank all the way to the carb. Lesson learned.

 

Fuel Shower

upper one is bad

One of the short hoses was bad, but there was nothing visibly wrong with it. The picture on the right here is of those 2 lines. The top one cannot hold vacuum; the lower one can. This serves as a great reminder for those driving gravity-fed fuel system'd vehicles like the old VW bus. Fuel lines fail, sometimes not that long after you've installed it and sometimes you can't tell from looking at them. For a gravity feed system, you discover the leak after you've filled your tank, and it gushes onto the ground it you're lucky. Onto your hot exhaust if you're not.

 

While looking for the cause, I cracked the fuel level sender on the tank to confirm that I had enough fuel. I did. Once the one short line was replaced, I went up front, turned the key and started looking for another leak. I did not have to look very far. Immediately forward of the fuel pump, I had fuel going everywhere, running down the rear differential.

 

I concluded that it was another short hose, but noticed that the combination of short hose, weird 90* hard line, longer hose made little sense. I think I did that when I installed the fuel pump because the outlet of the new fuel pump was not clocked the same as the original and I didn't want a kink in the hose. If I remember correctly, I had already cut that longer hose, and solved the wrong problem. Or solved the right problem the wrong way. I think, that 90* bend was from the original system to go from the sender to the pump, and in this installation, I have a clear plastic fuel filter serving that function. Regardless, I corrected this time with a longer hose that runs from the pump to the long hard line. The longer hose was long enough to have a gentle arc, preventing a pinch in the line I was probably trying to avoid with the weird combo of parts. In the bottom picture, you can see that I have a small fuse for the fuel pump. This was not there stock, but I felt that with so many things living on the switched circuit, having a fuse around the fuel pump was probably a good idea.

 

Still No Start 

fuel pump

With the rear end lines set, I turned the key again, and the fuel pump quieted down after a few seconds. I looked under the car and no puddle was forming. There was not a drip at all. I went to the engine compartment, and there were no leaks there either. So, I tried to start it. No love. By now, it was approaching 5PM, and I had to get dinner started. But first, I wanted to know if the hard line was blocked or if there was fuel at the inlet on the carb. I removed the fuel line and gasoline dribbled out. Win. We have fuel at the carb. I put everything back together. Before heading inside, I checked the lights and hazards to give myself a little "well that works" energy before calling it a day.

 

Wrap Up

That's as far as I got on Sunday. After the random home-repairs, I had left myself more than enough time, had Oliver actually started, to give him a deep cleaning. That still needs doing, but first I need for him to run. I rebuilt the carb a couple of years ago, and the engine ran with it on there, so I don't think the issue is fueling, but it still could be. I will start with the spark plugs next time, and confirm I have spark. It is absolutely possible that something worked free during the move into the shop. If that does not bring me the start I am seeking then I will re-examine the carb. Maybe some gas residue became a thin varnish holding the bowl float, or is clogging a jet or something. 

 

That's all for now. Thanks, as always, for following along- 

The Ghost of GoRo

I have been coming off of an illness, having been sick for almost a month. Yeah, whatever that thing is going around got me good. In the meantime, we have gotten some headway on the shop doors and I got to start thinking about what's next on Oliver to get him on the road for the Summer. Today, though, is a cautionary tale about selling a car, no matter who you sell it to.

 

What's GoRo

GoRo

I'll back up a little bit first. Back in June of 2023, in my "Small Fence, Big Difference" post (link here) I mentioned in passing that we had sold GoRo, our 2009 Audi A4 to a guy down the street. We told him multiple times prior to closing the sale that he really did not want the car, that there were weird issues with the transmission, interior plastic bits were breaking off and that it was a generally crappy car. He would not heed our concerns, saying it was for his daughter, he could get the mechanicals fixed up fine, etc. There was still a couple of months left on the existing registration, and he was going to have to drive it to his mechanic, and then over to Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to get registered. So, Boo with her ever generous heart, let him take the car with the tags on it. We went inside and recorded the sale with the state of Oregon immediately.

 

Sales Daisy Chain

Of course, we were right. He took the car and within a couple of weeks he had sold it. But, he didn't tell us, nor did he remove the tags that we had left on there for him. In Oregon, you have a month after buying a car to change the registration. Since he hadn't had the car for a full month, he was officially in the clear, but whoever he sold it to also sold it within a few days, and we lost the handle on the ownership after that. 

 

Ticket Parade 

Why is all of this important? Within a few days after our

barn door

neighbor sold the car, we got our first of many speeding or other moving violation caught-on-camera ticket, followed by parking tickets and toll-lane charges. We got tickets from Montana, Texas, California and Colorado. In each case, we sent copies of proof that we no longer owned the car. For the tickets which came from legitimate state, county or city governments, the tickets were waived. In the case where the ticket was for not paying a toll on a "private road", the charging entity did not care that were were not the owners and could prove that we were not even in the state at the time of the violation. Instead, they sent the ticket to collections, dinging our credit. To prevent further damage to our credit, we paid that one. Most of these tickets arrived within the first 6 months after the car was sold.

 

Final Straw

This week, we got what we believe to be the final ticket. GoRo had been impounded in the City of Merced and would remain in their custody until we came down to their office and paid the bail on parking tickets. We don't care and after a while they will put the car up for auction, and it will be someone else's problem. I just hope the auction house or the City of Merced removes the license plates before handing it off to another sucker.

 

Buh Bye GoRo

barn door, inside

By the time we sold off GoRo, Boo and I pretty much hated the car. The seats were stiff like bleachers, increasing internal switches were failing, plastic bits were falling off, the transmission shifted funny, etc. It outside looked great, but wow, what a lemon of a car. The lesson here for us and for you: even if you're selling the car to your friend, remove the tags. If you are all down for the sale and want to be generous, drive over to DMV and remove the tags while your friend is getting temporary plates. Once that car leaves your possession, there is no telling what will happen to that car. You could find yourself with a big pile of tickets from uninterested parties who only want money, and are willing to hammer your credit to get it.

 

Car and Shop Stuff

I mentioned at the top that we have made headway on the doors on the shop. Recall, I have 4 openings which need closings. Over the past month, our friend Ray has built barn doors for the large opening facing west using extra siding I had added to the order for the shop so those doors could get made. It is a 10 foot wide opening, so the doors are each just over 5 feet wide. They totally look the part and glide open/shut easily. We also installed a "people door" on the north elevation or facing the farm house. This leaves a 8 foot wide doorway on the backside and the main large garage door next to the people door. I have been saving for the big door. While that doorway is a standard 16' wide, it is 10' high (just in case someone comes along with something really big, I guess). So, it is a semi-standard door.

 

On cars, I have Hapy about as ready to visit Justin as I can make him. Since he hasn't really driven since I put him back together, I really would have liked to have driven him a little more. With Diesel hitting $6/gallon around here, I all the more do not want to be driving with a fuel leak. So, his next drive will be to Justin's place.

 

voltage gauge upper right

To keep my hands busy, I have been looking at Oliver, the 1978 MGB. I couldn't get him to start when I went to move him into the shop and I didn't really look into why at the time, I just hauled him. I slid under the rear end and discovered why: I had drained all of his fuel out the last time I parked him. If I remember right, I put that fuel into the lawn tractor and the rest into Astra. Antyway, I test-fired the fuel pump with 12V directly from the battery and the fuel pump works. So, if it does not come on with the ignition key-turn, it's a wiring issue. After messing with that, I removed the voltage gauge from the dash and will be sourcing switched power for that. I had simply used the always-hot 12V for the clock I had replaced, but that runs the battery down eventually. I hope to have some time this weekend to finish the voltage gauge, put some gas in and see if I can get him to run, and idle. Then maybe I'll back him out and give him a long overdue bath and a drive-around.

 

Well, that's it for today. Keep your license plates when you sell your cars, and thanks, as always, for following along- 

Diesel Dumping Discontinued

In my last post, I discovered that the injection pump was leaking fairly badly. Today's brief post covers my replacing the 2 top seals.

Symptoms

If you don't open your hood very often, especially while the engine is running, any leak may not be obvious. With the engine under the rear deck, and the rear deck often having stuff on it, I hadn't seen the leaks evolve. On my last few drives, I had smelled diesel fuel, and I had made a mental note of it. Honestly, I thought it was related to the now-not-operational furnace which still had a diesel line filled with diesel running to it. I suspect I fueled with something which was not B20 and that caused the seals to shrink. Recall, I wanted to run the air out of the new heater so I popped open the rear-deck engine lid (I cut in years ago) and fired up the engine. I walked to the back of the bus and could see fuel dumping down the sides of the injection pump. I dashed to the driver seat and turned off the engine. Returning to the engine bay, I added coolant, but tried to figure out where the fuel was coming from. It looked like it was coming from the black plug on the side, and maybe out of the edge along the top on the opposite side. The top seals had finally shrunk to the point of being compromised.

DieselGeek

There are lots of sources for seals and seal kits, but IMHO, the best is from DieselGeek (like here). The operator is a TDI owner and only sells things he actually uses. His opinions are highly regarded on Fred's TDICLub forum too. The kit is complete; and you will want to include an anti-tamper socket (here) to get that one fastener removed. His product page contains a link to a complete how-to (also linked here) that will take you through the process. Since it is so well documented, I will not repeat it here. I will only highlight things that I discovered that either differ or underscore that documentation.

Clean and Mark Pump Location

After ordering the kit, I went out to Hapy and cleaned outer case of the Injecion Pump with degreaser. I paid special attention to the seams where the seals would be replaced. Once clean and dry, I applied the JB Weld (as instructed) on 2 corners of the pump covering the lower seals both above and below. This will allow for a more precise re-location of the pump after the lower seal has been replaced. I also took a chisel and made a clear mark that crossed the seam. For good measure, I added lines with a Sharpie. Although diesel fuel can remove Sharpie lines, I did not suffer that fate.

Top Seal

Following the instructions, I replaced the top seal first. Before I started, I wrapped the Injection Pump below the lower seal with a ratty old towel to capture spilling diesel fuel. This turned out to be an unnecessary precaution, but when I need to replace these seals again, I will do the towel wrap again anyway. Better to be safe. I left the return fuel line attached and tilted the cover far enough so I could reach the old seal. With a watch-repair slotted screwdriver, I picked out the seal. It looked fine, but I did notice that it was practically flat with the edge of the cap, so I could imagine how it could be leaking. Once removed, the groove was perfectly clean. I gave it a cursory pass with a paper towel anyway and the new seal slid in perfectly. Before returning the cap to the pump, I noticed some gunk buildup on the black-plug side so I carefully scraped it off with a razor blade and then wiped it clean with a paper towel. It is little things like that which can prevent a complete seal.

Bottom Seal

The lower seal is a little tricky, but, again, the instructions were spot-on with only one exception: The Torx bolt holding the corner directly below the fuel return may not be easily addressed, depending on your tools. The picture below-right illustrates the issue. My Torx socket fits a 1/2" ratchet so it's rather thick. It is also kind of stubby, so the socket itself needs to occupy the space where the fuel return is. So, either have longer throw Torx sockets or do what I did: Remove the cap to remove and install that once fastener. Yes, that's a pain in the butt, but I found no alternative other than loosening the banjo bolt, and after the power steering debacle with Flash all those years ago, I want nothing to do with a banjo bolt if I can avoid it. I just went looking for the post and I can't find one. I can't believe I didn't post on the saga of replacing Flash's steering rack, like, 10 years ago. The banjo bolt was nearly the death of me; my thumb swelled up from applying pressure to get things bolted together... it was a nightmare.

Similar to the upper seal, once the unit was unbolted, the TDIClub documented process was spot-on. Even the "smack it with a bit of wood to crack the JB Weld worked as written. I did not remove the hose from the fuel return line, however. I just tipped the unit back far enough to remove the seal without fear of something dropping into the top of the pump. I also found some gunk build up along one side on this piece, like I did on the cover. So, I did the same thing: slowly scraping it clear and then cleaning the metal with a paper towel. With the seal in place, I again followed the instruction to make sure the little drive stick entered the hole on the piston (you can feel it locate) and set the unit in place, using the fracture lines in the JB Weld to position. Because of how thick the new seal is compared to the old one, there was some wiggle space in the fractures, so the extra marks, bot the chisel and the Sharpie, were necessary to get the unit in the right spot.

Because of the Torx socket challenge, I got 2 of the fasteners on, then removed the cover, put the other Torx fastener in place. At this point, I re-set the location of the top unit comparing the lines again. Then, I tightened down the 3 Torx bolts hand-tight. Since these are brass bolts going into aluminum, the threads can strip, so mind your torque settings (less than 8 ft-pounds). Content, I put the cover back on, added the anti-tamper bolt and the cover Torx bolts.

Testing

At this point, it is recommended to prime the system with a MityVac. I read some comments by users who did not need to do so. I thought I would try starting before getting into the hand-vac, and Hapy fired right up. I walked around to the back and there were no leaks, and he idled nicely around 903 rpm like always. The test for whether the little drive-stick is in place is simply to try the accelerator. If the engine RPM's change, it's in there. Success. So, we took a quick drive around the usual test loop. Hapy was responsive and slowly warmed up. As part of my test drive, I tried the heater.. that worked too! I could feel warm air blowing up through the defroster.

When I got home, I noticed that Hapy was having a harder time maintaining a consistent idle. He would drop down around 875 and go up around 950. I vaguely remember this being a thing for him and a quick tap on the accelerator settled him down. I don't know why this is a dynamic for him, but with the seals replaced he is acting exactly how he used to... without dumping fuel.

That's it for today. I hope to get after the furnace next. We'll see what the future holds. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Hapy Heat Repeat (Part 2)

Continuing the efforts on creating some cabin heat in the old microbus, today's post covers sourcing the air for the heater from inside the bus.

Grounding

air sourcing from inside

In the last post on this topic, I mentioned that the prior attempts, and the original heat, for that matter, all pulled in air from the outside. The original heat pulled from the engine bay, sent it through heater-boxes (insulated boxes around the exhaust manifolds) and then up to the front of the bus. There was even a booster fan to push air when the engine speed was too low to push air. Years ago, I added a bilge-blower fan mid-stream to help get the air forward, and replaced large sections of pipe with insulated hose. In the end, the original system at-best, delivered warm moist air when it was raining (again, it's Oregon so that's 8 months of the year). When not-best, we got cold moist air that smelled like oil or exhaust.

When I did the ALH-TDI engine swap, I removed the original system rear of the front frame, setting a Vanagon rear-seat heater against that frame crossmember. While it didn't leak for a while, it started leaking again this past year. The unit was really never up to the task, and since it was only designed to heat the rear of a Vanagon cabin, I was probably asking too much of it. Still, it was a significant improvement over the original and bilge-blower-enhanced systems. The air was warmer more often, and exhaust-smelled less often. Overall, though, it was not "warm" in Hapy from the use of the heater, and the issue with moist air remained.

Fast forward to the Maradyne heater I just installed. Unlike the Vanagon rear-seat heater, the Maradyne is a 3-row heater core and it is almost twice the width. The core alone could provide considerably more heat. The fan is way more powerful too, so moving that heat into the cabin will be that much more  effective. What remained, however, is the air is still sourced from below the bus, so the wet roads will provide an endless supply of moist air to fling onto the inside of the windscreen. I hope I resolved that with the changes below.

Maradyne Heater Prep

purists love this

In the last post on this topic, I described how the heater was installed on an angle to minimize the ground clearance impact and so the outlets point more directly at the original air pipe. This orientation, however, meant that the brackets were hanging into the space where air intake hoses would go. So, first order of business was cutting those brackets down with the death-wheel (angle grinder). Once cleared, I could easily see that the coolant outlet jutted too far into the same air-hose space so I cut it down as well. Last, I changed the hose from the outlet from a straight hose to a 45* angled hose, routing the coolant above and away from the air inlet. While the inlet is not completely exposed now, it is considerably better. The inlets are 3" diameter and have a lip that's maybe 3/8" for a hose to fit onto. I had intended to add something more substantial for the hose to attach to, but once I got into it, I concluded that the original fan housing could hold a hose and clamp. Time will tell, and I am retaining the extensions I bought for this purpose in case I need to add them in later.

Holy Bus

Well, more like holey bus. In order to send air from inside the bus to the air intake on a fan system that is outside the bus, I need to add a hole or 2 for the air to pass through. I did not want to put air intakes in places where I would accidentally spill water (or other beverages), or get dirt and the like into it. I also did not want the air intakes to be so close to the front that the fan was effectively pulling the warm air right out of the outlet vents. I applied some cold-air-return thinking and chose to put one intake inside the rock-n-roll bed base cabinet. This cabinet is probably the coldest space in the bus (second only to my feet) and the vacuum created by the fan will draw air from the front to the back, creating room for the warmer air to enter the bus more freely. Of course, it's not like a 50+ year old microbus is sealed, but my 70+ year old house isn't either and once I tied the cold air intake into the house system, the house grew measurably warmer.

From underneath, I considered where there was a space without structure nor pipes to interfere with the air intake plumbing. With the radiator, wiring, original stuff and everything else, it is quite busy under there, but there is a space just behind the rear cross-frame (think: rear jack-point) but in front of the rear wheel well that is inside the cabinet, nearest the front outer edge. I tested a few spots with a drill to make sure that I could fit a 3-1/2" circle without hitting something neither underneath nor inside the cabinet and found a good spot. I cored a 3-1/2" hole with a hole saw. Why 3-1/2"? The inner diameter of these hoses is 3", and I felt that leaving a little extra room for wiggling was better than having it tight as would have been with a 3-1/4" hole. This turned out to be a wise decision. Once the hole was cut, I shot it and the support brackets with paint to delay (can it really be stopped when it rains 9 months of the year?) rust.

Fitting

cabin air intake

Once the hole was cut, I was on the home stretch. I found what look like air outlets with metal grills that fit a 3" hose to act as an air intake screen. I a-fixed one end of the hose to the grill, cable-tied it to be double-sure and passed the hose through the hole from above. The hose barely fit. It was so tight, I had to cut off the cable-tie because the cable tie end prevented the grill from sitting flat on the floor. Anyway, I chose an orientation that pointed the grill away from the center of the cabinet so things don't accidentally fall in or over it and then screwed it down to the wood floor of the cabinet. From underneath, I stretched out the compressed hose, stretching it along the side of the radiator, and turning it towards the fan.

I had initially planned to have 2 air intakes, one per fan intake, but after cutting the passenger-side hole, decided that I had 3" of outlet, so having only 3" of inlet was actually a fair balance. So, rather than run 2, I added a 3" wye along the passenger-side frame rail. I sent the stretched and then cut hose into the base of the wye and shifted to the fan inlet on the driver side, knowing it would be the harder of the two. I can always choose to add a driver-side inlet, but with the furnace on that side, there will be additional complexities.

The driver-side was definitely harder, but simply because the coolant outlet hose still ran across the air flow path. I twisted and bent the air hose and jammed it onto the inlet lip. I added a hose clamp while pressing the hose onto the lip, threading the clamp until it was quite secure. Content, I stretched out the hose, threading it behind the fan housing, but in front of the radiator intake to the passenger side. I added a cable-tie on the driver-side to hold the air hose in place. I cut and then sent the other end of the hose into the wye. It got another cable-tie up to the underside of the bus before it entered the wye.

The section from the passenger side air intake to the wye was a little over a foot, and was the easiest part of the install. I attached to the fan intake first, adding a hose clamp, of course. Once stretched and cut into the wye, I cable-tied the wye up near the floor of the bus, mostly out of sight. I cable-tied the passenger-side hose as well so there would be minimal pressure on the hose clamp. At this point, the air intake for the cabin "climate control" sourced from the inside of the bus.

Testing

ground clearance mostly unchanged

All that remained was testing the system, both for air flow as well as coolant. I started with the air flow, accepting that I could confirm that without running the engine. As expected, the fan blows hard, and draws through the inlet. Because the inlet is inside cabinet, it make less noise than it might have had it been placed elsewhere. Still, I will need to be aware of it when we pack things so it is not even remotely blocked.

Satisfied, I exposed the top of the engine and started it up. I had expected to simply add coolant/water while air bubbles appeared but 2 things interrupted that plan. First and worst, the injector pump started leaking all over the place. Now, to be fair, I had smelled diesel on my last couple of drives, so this was not 100% a surprise, but it still was a little bit. Second, air bubbles did not really appear. I will need to bleed the heater core segment, once I replace a seal or two in the injector pump. A seal set has been ordered, so until the kit arrives and is installed, Hapy will sit.

That's where we are at this point. I may try to bleed the heater while I wait for the seal kit, but it will depend on the weather and my workweek. Thanks, as always, for following along. More next time-

Fare Well, Nemo

Brief post today.

Nemo Departs

This past Spring/Summer, I thought I had sold Nemo (1997 Audi A4 Quattro) to our friend Garry. After repairing the driver rear bearing and replacing the axle with it, the power steering blew a hose and he lost interest. So, it came back. Truth be told, Nemo never left the driveway; Garry did the repair here. I figured I would do what was needed to get Nemo through smog and then figure out what to do. So, I repaired his exhaust, replaced the catalytic converter, downpipe and O2 sensor. I was ready to take him to Oregon DEQ when  the NewOldHouse purchase happened and so Nemo just kind of sat. Fast forward a few weeks and I get a text from Garry, now living in Idaho. His friend expressed interest. So, I shot some pictures and video with my phone and sent them on. 2 days later, he is here, with a friend, a truck and a tow-dolly. They crawled around on Nemo for a while, took him for a drive.... paid me cash and drove away with him. Just like that, the herd is thinned my one.

Mom Moves

With my Dad's rather sudden decline and then final departure early this month, my Mom lost the person who had eyes on her 24/7. Her health has been an issue for some time, so having her living alone in a somewhat basic assisted-living facility was no longer safe for her or the facility. So, she is moving to a stepped-care facility 4 blocks from here. That move is today (29-Nov). Since her space is significantly reducing, we will move her and her most treasured belongings to the new place. Everything else is moving here, so it can be gone through with heat and beverages and comfortable seating.

NewOldHouse Update

Since my CoViD battle ended, I have returned in earnest to the restoration of the NewOldHouse. When the flooring guys were here last Summer, they removed all of the 1/4-round. As they removed it, they clumped it by room and taped the clumps together. Unfortunately, some of that careful work was undone, and some of the 1/4-round went to the dump. What remains is semi-documented. I have been puzzling-out which pieces go where, re-marking them and then shooting them with BIN primer. Once dry, I set the pieces where they will be re-attached to the baseboard. Prior to priming, they get the nails removed and then a good cleaning. I have a small pile of un-matched pieces and a larger pile of not-yet-attempted pieces. I will be continuing this game next weekend.

Other than playing with 1/4-round, I resolved the canopy catastrophe, consolidating 2 damaged canopies into one viable one. You can see things are back to "normal" in the picture on the right, with the "Jerry" canopy restored. If you look closely, you can see stacks of 1/4-round under the canopy on the left (Phil). I have also cleaned, rust-converted and painted the heat vents. We decided that the original vents could be salvaged, and if they were painted a color that roughly matched the floor, they would sort of disappear into the wood floor. For the most part, this turned out to be correct, though I don't have a good picture to share.

The bathroom progress was temporarily halted by the discovery of the sub-floor damage. Boo crawled back under the house to see how extensive it was.. and it is really quite contained. There are 3 1x4 (sub-floor) boards that rest between the top of the beams and the wood floor which need to be replaced. But even then, the section that needs replacing is only between 2 beams, and the beams themselves are in great condition, showing no damage from the leak.

As part of the preparation for a bunch of mom's stuff appearing here, I tore down the living room stereo equipment and moved it out of the way. While this isn't terribly interesting stuff, it does further prove that life is either Tetris or Monopoly, and today it's Tetris.

With each passing day spent at NewOldHouse, it feels more and more ready for occupancy. Sure, we don't have a functioning bathroom yet, nor will we have a functioning kitchen for some time. Still, we believe that we will be moving into NewOldHouse by the end of January. I guess that's it for today. I know there isn't much car content these days; that is also true of my life, and I feel it. The sooner the house is ready, the sooner I will be back wrenching on Hapy. Thanks, as always, for following along-

MGB - Brake Booster Replacement

In my last post about Oliver, the 1978 MGB, I mentioned that the brake booster was the cause of a vacuum leak in the engine. This vacuum leak was causing cylinder #1 to run very lean compared to the others. Fortunately, Oliver has not seen much road time, so the engine should be fine. Regardless, today, I cover the fun of removing and then installing a replacement brake booster.

I would like to note that the body work on Zed came to a full stop when the Oregon weather predictably shifted back to cold-wet. For those who don't live here, we experience a wonderful donut-hole of beautiful weather in April/May smack in the middle of the cold-wet. The cold-wet returns for the month of June, usually lasting until Independence Day. So, I entertained myself with other projects, like this, while we waited for the weather to change back. After yesterday's high temps, I suspect the cold-wet is over until October.

Booster in an MGB

We start with where the booster lives in the small engine compartment of the MGB. The brake master cylinder, the clutch master cylinder and the brake booster all live together, attached to one another through the "pedal box": a rectangular steel box just in front of the firewall on the driver side. Closest to the rear is the clutch master cylinder. It is bolted to the back of the box with a lever extending into the box and attaching to the clutch pedal with a pin that is held in with a cotter pin. Attached to the front of the pedal box is the brake booster, with 4 1/2" nuts. This has a lever passing rearward, attaching to the brake pedal with a similar pin-with-a-pin design. To the front of the booster, the master cylinder is attached (2 nuts either 7/16" or 1/2"). Into the master cylinder a rod is passed from the brake booster.

You can imagine the brake action then: pedal is depressed which leverages against the clevis pin to press the lever into the brake booster. The brake booster converts some engine vacuum into more braking force which is then applied through the rod to the master cylinder.

Booster OUT OF an MGB

booster out

The Bentley manual has a step-by-step instruction for removing the brake booster, but I found the instructions to fall down. It started with removing the cover on the pedal box. I agree with that. It then described removing the clips for the brake lines leading to the master cylinder within the engine compartment. I agree with that. Then, it instructed to remove the bolts holding the brake master cylinder to the front of the booster. I also agree with that. At this point, the brake master cylinder can be slid forward off the booster-rod. By doing it this way, no air is introduced into the brake system. I likey.

Then, the instructions said to remove the cotter pin holding the clevis pin for the brake pedal to the leaver on the brake booster. This is not possible for anyone with adult male (and probably female) fingers for width and no one with child fingers for how deep you need to go. The gap between the side of the box and the partition which runs front-to-rear is not wide enough for fingers. I tried long needle nose pliers, but I concluded that even if I got the cotter pin free, and got the clevis pin off, I would not be able to re-install this way. So, I started my own path from here.

My plan was to remove the pedal box with the brake booster still attached and remove the booster from the pedal on my bench. Unlike the brake cotter pin, the partition is much wider on the clutch side, so my average-thickness fingers were able to remove both the cotter and clevis pins without too much difficulty. So, with the pedal disconnected, we remove the clutch master cylinder from the box by removing the 2 bolt/nut combinations that attach it from the rear.  Once removed, the clutch master  cylinder can be pushed rearwards out of the way. Next, we focus on the pedal pox. There are 2 bolts from the top, along the outer edge of the box nearest the centerline of the car. There are 3 bolts from inside the driver footwell going up. Last, there are 2 bolts from behind the dash running forward. Once all 7 bolts are out, the box is only held in place by gravity and the seal. Some light upward pressure on the brake booster and the unit pops free. Getting the unit out of the car took some wrestling, but I think this was more difficult because I could not see where the pedals were dangling. I found that by rotating the unit 90* clockwise helped the pedals to make it through the hole. had I read my old post about removing the pedal box (See MGB - Master Cylinders (Part 1)) or the post about the install afterwards (See MGB - Master Cylinders (Part 3)), I would have known to loosen the bolt fastening the clutch pedal so it dangled a little bit more. This would have made the removal much less of a muscle effort.

pedal box upside down on
workbench with old booster

Once the pedal box was out, it was a simple matter to remove the cotter pin and clevis pin between the brake pedal and the brake booster.... from the underside. I removed the remaining nuts on the brake booster, and started the install by performing the steps in the opposite order: attach the brake booster to the front of the pedal box. Thread the clevis pin through the lever and pedal, minding to include the washer before re-inserting the cotter pin.

Booster Back In MGB

With the unit in the same relative state of assembly as it was in when it was removed, I returned to Oliver to install it. I approached the install in the same manner as it was removed: rotated 90* so the booster was pointing across the engine. The pedals didn't fit, but with some rotating of the box and squeezing the pedals together, I could get them to fall through. Then, I wiggled and rotated the box, checking for cables wires and tubes from getting underneath until it settled in place. I decided that I would do the hardest first, so I did the clutch pedal/master first. I bolted the clutch master cylinder to the rear, after wiggling it around to fit, setting the lever alongside the clutch pedal. Then, I attached the pedal with the clevis pin and cotter pin. I found there was more play that I expected at this joint point, and concluded that I got the clevis pins backwards between the brake and clutch. Food for thought if you are doing this: the longer clevis pin is for the brake.

new booster in

With the clutch master cylinder tied in, I added the brake master cylinder to the front. This is much easier to get to. Once fitted, I started fitting the pedal box to the body. Because of the brake and clutch hard-lines, the pedal box is reluctant to move. I found that putting the 2 bolts through from the dash forward into the rear-most part of the pedal box allowed me to move the box into position. Once the bolt holes along the inside edge (2 of them, one 1/2" one 7/16") aligned, I set those 2 through. Last, I got back on my back inside the driver footwell and sent the last 3 7/16" bolts through the outer edge of the pedal box.

Brake Booster Hose

With the new booster on the pedal box and the pedal box in the car, all that remained was connecting the vacuum hose. I had oriented the booster upside down from the original so the vacuum nipple is on top, rather than below. I did this because of the significant heat source below the booster (exhaust) that is less present above. Also, the hose is much shorter and straighter from intake manifold bung to brake booster nipple. Wanting to avoid any possible issues with the original one-way valve on the intake manifold, I replaced it as well.

Re-Tune and Jetting

Because the old booster was creating a vacuum problem, I re-did the ColorTune tuning steps. Similar to the first time, I tuned using cylinders 1 and 3 but achieved a nice blue in both banks this time. I did swap out the idle jets (50F9 jets), but in order to find blue, I had the idle mixture screws further out than 2 full turns. I will drive Oliver around a little bit, but I think I may need to go up to 55F9 jets if the instructions in the SK Racing manual are to be followed. I noticed that the SK Racing product page describes the "pilot jet" in the carb set-ups they are selling today as 55. Assuming this is the idle fuel size, that's more support for trying 55F9 idle jets.

Since these SK Racing carbs are so similar to the side-draft Weber, here's another tuning link I found specifically for Weber. Notice how that article indicates the starting spot for the idle mixture screw is 2.5 turns out? That is about where mine are now. Curious. One last link, again on the much more plentiful Weber DCOE, but this time about some recommended jet sizes. It recommends the 50F9 idle jets for a late B like I just put in, so honestly, at this point, it will come down to a road test.

under the jet cover plate

Swapping out jets in this carb is seriously one of the easiest things I think I have ever done on a car. There is a cover plate on the top of the carb which is held in place with a slotted bolt. Once the cover is removed, the 4 jets (one idle per side and one main per side) are held in with slotted jet holders. The idle jets are the ones further from the engine / closer to the air filter. The holder threads out, and the jet is held in the holder basically with friction. The old jet slides out, the new jet pops in and you thread everything back together again.

The engine tune did not meaningfully change after the re-jet, so I concluded that the air-fuel mixture from the old jet was virtually the same. So either I removed a pair of 50F9 jets only to put in new ones or the old ones were a similar enough combination that they provided the same air-fuel at idle. At least I know what they are now.

All that is left is a drive... but wait! I didn't hook up the brake light switch. Well, I did, and after a few days of head-scratching trying to get the lights to illuminate, I realized that I had plugged it in wrong. The source 12V arrives in a dual plug, and the signal to the brakes departs through a single plug. I had thought the single plug was from the old carb-preheater, so I had failed to send either side of the switch to the brakes. Instead, I simply wired both sides of the switch to the 12V supply. Hahaha. Simple fix. Once the cars were shuffled so Oliver could get out past the herd, I did a longer test-loop. It did not take long to get the engine to normal operating temperature and he ran great. There was a slight stumble (bog) from dead stop, indicating that he was still a little lean. So, once back in the garage, I turned the idle screws about 1/8 a turn more rich. When I rev'd him from idle, I could not note a bog so I figure he is fairly close to tuned now. More road testing will confirm, and I expect I will fiddle with these screws as weather and altitude factor.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

MGB - Finding Vacuum Leak

Following my last post about Oliver (the 1978 MGB) when I got his timing square, I knew I needed to get his carb tuned. Today's post covers those efforts. This continued in parallel with the body work on Zed (until the weather turned, when Zed work stopped). These spring days, when the sun doesn't go down until 9PM creates LOTS of play-on-cars time. Love it.

A-typical Carb

We start with the most basic learning: what kind of carb is this? When I bought this car, the prior owner had been executing some improvements. For the most part, I can't complain about any of them... except the hack-job on the exhaust. Honestly, he could have been just making do until he had the cabbage to do what I did. Anyway, one of the improvements was to eliminate the stock dual Skinner Union (SU) carbs and swap in a side-draft carb. This isn't your standard Weber DCOE, though. Instead, the prior owner went with a SK Racing carb. The SK Racing (now known as OER Racing) side draft carb was (according to Dog283) one of the best engineered side draft carbs built, just as carburetors were falling out of favor for the new computer-assisted fuel injection systems. Dog283 continued "(the SKRacing side draft) combine(s) the best of the the Mikuni Solex PHH, the Weber DCOE and the Dellorto DHLA". That's a fairly strong statement. Unfortunately, the implementation on Oliver had fallen out of tune, so our MGB was not getting the lofty results this statement describes.

We start with looking for, and ultimately finding, a shop manual for the SK Racing side draft carb. If you have one of these carbs and need a copy of this manual, I'll happily share it. Near the back of it are the set-up steps detailed in the image of the page on the right. Basically, set the idle speed screw so it is just barely touching the tang, thread the idle adjustment screws all the way in until they just barely seat and then rotate them back out 1 full turn. Start the engine and get it to normal operating temperature. Then, tune the adjustment screws first until the engine runs smoothly, then set the idle speed. I did that, but I still got sporadic backfires when I rev'd the engine. I was starting to think that all that ignition work was for nothing.

Exhaust Leak Checks

Before I started investing time in the carb, I figured it would be a good idea to see if there were any leaks in my exhaust which could account for the backfiring. There were. To test, I started by cleaning out my shop-vac (washed out with a hose) and grabbing a squirt bottle of soapy water. I thrust the exhaust end of my now-clean shop-vac up the tail pipe and turned it on. This created backpressure through the exhaust. The tail pipe was not completely blocked so lots of air rushed right back out, but there was enough pressure to execute my test. I started up front, in the engine compartment and shot soapy water on the mate-point between the header and the head. No bubbles. I then got under the car and hit every joint, and found some bubbles. I concluded that I created leaks when I added in the catalytic converter. I turned off the shop-vac, loosened the joints, slid the pipes apart and applied some copper exhaust gasket maker and then re-connected the pipes. I nutted them back down and re-checked with the shop-vac. Things looked fixed (no bubbles at all but one joint where there were very very few), so I moved on to tuning, expecting my backfire issues had been identified and resolved.

Gunson ColorTune

Back when I was doing the other work on Oliver, I kind of expected difficulty with getting the carb to adjust. So, before I finished getting the ignition installed, I ordered a Gunson ColorTune. These things are pretty neat, but not terribly useful, I suspect, for the computer-controlled fuel injected systems. The kit includes a looking-glass spark plug, a lead, a tube with a mirror and a brush. I only needed the glass spark plug and the lead. The looking-glass has a solid-center where the spark is produced, with a ring of glass around it. The glass ring is then encircled with threaded metal so it can be threaded into an engine. The tube with a mirror is for spark plug holes that are hard to see. To use the kit, you remove one spark plug and thread the looking-glass plug in it's place. You connect the spark plug lead to the end of the lead from the kit, which is threaded onto the glass plug. Then, you start the engine and look at the color of the combustion in the chamber through the glass. If the color is orange or red, your mixture is too rich. You want the color to be "Bunson blue" = the color of a Bunson burner, from, like science class. The images on the right, here, help lead you to a good tuning. Notice that light blue or white-ish is not on here. If you are in the white-zone (Airplane, the movie reference here), your tune is too lean.

I was unable to get cylinders 1 and 2 anything better than a very light blue even after adjusting the idle mixture out past 1-1/2 turns. Cylinders 3/4 did not do much better. Based on the manual, I believe the idle jets may be too small, so I ordered a pair of 50F9 jets ($7US each). If I am correct, the current idle jets are 45's and this change will allow idle-mixture within 1-1/2 turns of fully seated to sit in the Bunson-blue color.

Still, I kept going, wanting to get the tune as good as I could. While looking through the glass I increased the fuel mixture incrementally, but the misses and backfires persisted. I could see the backfiring through the glass in cylinder 1, and concluded there had to be a leak somewhere. I also figured that backfires within a cylinder that has a glass plug was probably not a good idea. I had already looked on the exhaust side for leaks, so that left the intake.

Intake Vacuum Leak Checks

There are not many places where a leak could appear in the intake: the mating point at the head, the mating point with the carb, the carb itself and the brake booster. With the engine running, I carefully sprayed some WD-40 onto the various mate points. If there had been a vacuum leak, the vapor would have been drawn into the engine and the RPM would have bumped in response. Spraying something flammable onto a hot engine is dangerous. I strongly urge you to keep a fire extinguisher handy if you do this. In my case, the engine did not change and nothing caught fire.

So, I shut everything off and considered the brake booster. I removed the hose from the check valve, which is threaded into the intake manifold heading to cylinders 1 and 2. I checked the vacuum of the brake booster through that hose with the MityVac. It would not hold vacuum. I removed the check valve and cleaned the valve and the intake manifold where they met. Then, I put some copper gasket maker on the threads of the check valve and threaded it back in. I figured if that was the leak, I just solved it. I jabbed the hose back onto the check valve and hose-clamped it tight. Then, I eliminated the brake booster by threading a bolt into the end of the hose which had previously been attached to the booster, and started the engine. Oliver ran great! I could rev him up and down without any backfires demonstrating that the brake booster was my vacuum leak.

check valve in foreground,
intake in background

I wanted to prove it for sure, so I hooked the booster hose back up to the brake booster and started the engine again. I rev'd the engine up and down... the back fired returned. I pinched the vacuum hose with a pair of pliers and I could hear the engine RPM's settle. Neat. Rev rev rev... no back fires. Remove the pliers, RPM increases... rev, rev, rev... backfires.

Fortunately, these brake boosters are being manufactured now. I didn't realize these were not available until recently, so as much as I would like to self-blame for not replacing the booster when I replaced the brake and clutch master cylinders, it wasn't available then and they are fairly expensive now (~$200US). As of today, they are not available through Moss yet. I had to go through another vendor (EnglishParts.com, they're lovely). I concluded that any carb tuning I had done would need to be redone once the brake booster swap was completed. 

That's it for today. I will install and post about the brake booster when it arrives from the MidWest. Thanks, as always, for following along-

A4-ward Progress

Apologies for the late publish. Not sure what happened; I'll chalk it up to user error. Anyway, a few weeks ago, I mentioned that in a charitable move, I bought Nemo (the 1997 A4 1.8Turbo) from T (See If You Love...). Today, I go through the fixes I have done to get Nemo ready for someone to proudly drive, while avoiding work on Zed, the 280ZX. In an earlier post (See Dust Dodging), I mentioned the replacement of the window and the front side marker. I did a few less obvious things that I'll cover today. Before I begin, Hapy belated Labor Day to my US readers. Traditionally, this is the start of the most productive period in our calendar year: from Labor Day to Thanksgiving. So, if you feel like you're working a ton over the next couple of months, it's probably because you are.

Oil Leaks
Old Volksies like to mark their spot with a little oil. Old buses and bugs do it. Now that Jettas and Passats have been around long enough, they do it too. It seems that VW's German brethren, Audi's, mark their spot as well. For Nemo, there are a few sources. I focused first on the leaking motor oil. I slid under the front end, and after having sat for a few days, the oil that had been flung up from below during a drive had dripped away, leaving fresh oil only where it was actually leaking out. There was a nice big droplet at the oil drain, so I checked the torque on that bolt. It was a little loose. Next, I could see fresh drops on the cross member under the oil filter. It was hand-loose. As in, I was able to twist it tighter with 2 fingers. I think we found our main culprit. With oil filter pliers, I tightened the filter snug.

The power steering rack has a leak, and before I do another steering rack removal and re-install, I am trying the Lucas Power Steering Stop Leak first. This has been leaking since T bought Nemo, and T had been managing the level regularly with just topping it off with regular fluid. I intend to eliminate the leak. The steering is still really good and tight, though I expect the upgraded suspension helps with the road grip and cornering on rails. I looked back through my blog and I can't believe that I never posted on the steering rack remove/replacement I did on Flash, maybe 4 years ago. I think my dislike of the banjo may have started with those banjo bolts. It was a really tough job, so I'm all the more puzzled that I didn't post on it. Weird.

Dented Front Fender
With increased confidence from my efforts on Zed, I wanted to tackle the dent in the passenger fender. I pulled the front side marker, following the process I described in Dust Dodging. Through the hole presented when the light was removed, I fed a pry-bar. I did NOT leverage against anything, I just pushed/pulled outward and the dent popped out. My efforts left a small convex ding, but it is much better than the cereal-bowl sized dent that was there.

Under-Dash Panel

this is from an auto-trans, but similar

With the outside looking fairly good, but needing a wash, I started looking at the interior. There are a few things that need improvement, but I'll really only get after a subset. I started with the under-dash panel. T had removed this panel to replace the clutch master cylinder and had not re-installed it yet. We had the panel, but lost the fasteners. I made-do with things I found in the garage. During the install, I discovered that the remote trunk opener button was faulty, so I will need to replace that. Otherwise, the install was about what you would expect. The panel should be held on with 3 bolts, 2 through the front and one from the side, near the fusebox. Threading the bolts from the front is a great opportunity to practice patience. Gravity is working against you, and you can't see where the bolt needs to go once the panel is in place, so breathe deep and expect it to take many attempts. Once bolted into place, these panels are supposed to have 2 pop-in covers which fit over the bolt holes. I only found one so I'll add one of those covers to the junk-yard list.

Passenger Sunshade
The last thing I got after in this car-fix session was the passenger-side sun-shade. This was sitting on the floor since T bought Nemo. It looks fairly simple to mount. The plastic hook-looking thing goes in with the hook facing towards the rear, and you press up and back until it rotates flat, leaving the mounting hole near the hole in the steel above. At least, that's the theory. The prior owner had replaced the headliner and when he did, he mis-routed the wire for the light on the mirror. Instead of routing the wire through the hole in the steel where the mirror "hook" goes, it was left just dangling below that steel. So, the options were: don't hook up the wires to run the lights, return the route of the wires so it passes it through the steel from above -or- hack something. I didn't want to not hook up the light. I tried to figure out how to re-run the wires, but it appeared to require removing a considerable section of headliner because of the shape of the steel ceiling, so that left me with some kind of hack.

I took my hacksaw (aptly named) to the sunshade housing that, when installed, disappears into the ceiling. I cut a channel for the wire to slide down, reducing the mount of wire that would be pressed between the plastic and the steel ceiling. This actually worked, and I apologize for not taking a picture. Hopefully, you can see the shape of the mount from the picture on the right, here. With the wire pushed into the channel, I plugged the wire into the plug hanging from the hole in the ceiling. I pushed the rest of the wire into the headliner, and then followed the "theory" I described above. It pressed into place with not nearly as much effort as I expected. Once rotated around, I threaded a bolt through, and the sunshade is not in-place and operable.

The other bits of the interior that need to be resolved include fixing the cover on the driver seat cushion, and replacing some of the brittle plastic bits. I may not get to those items, but I think I will try to get the AC working; it probably just needs a charge. The next most important thing to resolve is the trunk is stuck closed. I'll get after that the next time I choose to focus on Nemo.

Thanks, as always, for following along.

MGB muffled

Continuing the saga of getting the MG summer-weather ready, today's post covers some fun with the exhaust system. I started this post a few months ago and forgot about it, so recognize this was before I got through DEQ. So, I was doing things that were lowest possible cost in case I needed money to get through DEQ (think engine rebuild, etc).

Quiet You

In each of the test drives where I verified my fixes, I couldn't help but notice 2 things. First, the MG was loud as #$%!. Second was the unmistakable sound of an exhaust leak (pop pop pop). Out of curiosity, I pulled out a decibel tester app on my phone and checked. Parked in the garage with the doors open, sitting in the driver seat, I started the engine, and pushed the revs up to 3k and back down. I peaked at just shy of 100dB. According to the application, that's as loud as a blender. In the driver seat.

When we had the donorZed, I noticed that the exhaust was the same smaller-diameter piping as the MG had: 2". In the interests of getting every usable part off that thing, I cut off the rear muffler (which was surprisingly not that rusty), and the catalytic converter (cat). I figured that one of the two cars could use one or both of those parts, and with DEQ smog a part of ownership of these cars for the foreseeable future, one of them would eventually have use for the cat.

So, with the blender-loud exhaust reality in my face, I decided to start with the muffler going onto the MG. One would reasonably think that the crazy-bending exhaust plus muffler wouldn't "just fit". And, it sort of did.

Soup Can Exhaust

Most of the exhaust system on the MGB is coated with rust. The pipes, the little cherry-bomb mufflers, even the exhaust manifold. There is deep rust everywhere. This makes welding replacements all the more difficult because you have to get to clean steel to have a good strong weld. Fortunately, there are no-weld joiners available for most standard diameter sizes. These are somewhat simple in their design with a straight section of pipe with an integrated band clamp at each end. You put 2 cut ends of pipe into each end of this thing and tighten. Simple. It reminds me of the old-skool way to patching a hole in the exhaust: cut a soup can into a patch and get it to hold on with hose clamps.

All of this leads us to my noise reduction. The MGB had 2 cherry bomb mufflers in sequence which were not really muffling noise at all. So, I cut off the one on the back and fitted the one from the donorZed. With some careful cutting, I was able to get the 2 straight sections to abut, but there is not an off-the-shelf no-weld joining thing to connect them. So, I went back to the old-skool roots and cut up a small can, and hose-clamped it together. Yeah, I'm not that proud of that, but remember, this was done before I got through DEQ.

I re-used the hangers that were there from the cherry-bomb muffler, and it was ready for testing. Total cost: $0. I tested the noise level the same way: car in with the garage doors open. dB levels hovered in the low 90's, so I shaved up to 10% of the noise just by putting a bigger muffler on. Truth-be-told, the muffler from the donorZed looks an awful lot like the stock MGB muffler. During the test-drive, it became clear that the rubber had completely dried up, so I had to resort to holding the center section of pipe off the ground with bailing wire. Yeah.. not too proud of that either.

I'll get after the backfire in another post. For now, the exhaust is quieter, if not in a better long-term disposition. My thinking: don't attract unwanted attention by the tester at DEQ. That includes disconnected things under the bonnet and a super-loud exhaust which might imply something non-stock is going on.

Anyway, that's it for today. I'll post on my attempts to solve the backfire and other developments as I do. Thanks, as always, for following along-

MGB leaking leaking leaking

While solving the missing emission control issues (See eMission Control We Have a Problem), I took a few test drives to shake out each change. Today's quick post covers 2 things I discovered on that first test drive.

Leaking Fuel
The MGB had been stuck in the garage behind the donorZed all winter. I didn't have much cash to do a lot of work, so in some ways the winter was kind of lost to the donorZed. Still, with it finally gone, I was able to restart the MGB efforts. So, for my first test drive, after getting it unburied from being stuck behind the donorZed, was to get some gas. The drive there was similar to my last drive last Fall: loud with squishy brakes. Lovely. Still, I was almost completely out of petrol, so I stayed the course. This time, though, all of the signals worked, the brake lights functioned, the temp gauge worked, and the fan came on when I flipped the switch, so things were looking up.... until I started filling the tank.

Here in Oregon, we're not allowed to fill our own gas (but diesel is okay), so while the attendant started gassing, I washed the windscreen. Within a minute, the gas attendant started freaking out about gas dumping out under the car. Neat. I looked under and could see that the fuel level float was leaking. Not one to test drive without a trunk full of tools, I grabbed a slotted screwdriver and pushed it the rest of the way, stopping the leak. The gas man was too freaked out, so we called it "full enough" and I drove home. It didn't leak again, and a quick shot with carb cleaner got the gas off the underside of the tank.

The fuel level gauge wasn't working 100% reliably, and I concluded that the sender was not getting a good enough ground. So, I ran a short wire from the side of the float to one of the bolts holding the tank in-place. Whether that was a factor or not, the level looks much better now, showing over 1/2 a tank.

Leaking Coolant
When I got home, I saw that the thermostat housing was leaking again. Grr... so much for a fun drive about. Instead, I removed the housing, applied more gasket sealer and actually followed the directions: apply liberally, hand tighten and let sit for an hour, torque down to spec and then, most importantly, no liquids or back-into-service for 24 hours. I'm pretty sure I did the first 2 steps and then forgot about the torquing the last time. Duh. The following day, I topped of the cooling system and took a test drive. No leaking at the thermostat. Sweetness.

Unfortunately, a few days later, after another test drive, I noticed leaking coming from the block drain. Apparently, this drain is the source of one of two common troubles: either it is completely clogged with cooling system gunk (rust particles, and general sludge) or it is a leak source. I'm in the second camp, but my leak is special. Usually, the leak is from the spigot not sealing because of a design flaw. No, mine is leaking from around the edge. So, rather than get a replacement drain, I'm just going to remove it, wrap the threads in plumbers tape slobber on some blue gasket-maker and thread it back in. Of course this time, I'll follow the gasket-maker instructions right the first time.

Leaking Voltage
It turned out that the battery that came with the car was 7 years old. After many cycles of short drives, I found that I needed to put the battery on the trickle charger more and more often until finally it just stopped accepting a charge. I went out and got a "gold" battery and new ground cable at Advance Auto Parts. We get most of our batteries from Les Schwab, but their hours are just not well suited to people who have day jobs, so Advance got the business.

Now, the little car fires right up, the gauges all work, the lights and fans come right on... its almost like a "real" car.  The brakes are still spongy, and it is still really loud. I got after those next and I'll post about what I did.... next time. Thanks, as always for following along.