Almost Ready to Start It Up

Turned out we could not return the starter, the slight burnishing on the drive gear prevented LBC from selling it as new.  We have contacted a member of our club that can us the starter though and he will buy it for a nice discount.  Here's a picture of the burnishing:


The mechanical fuel pump was rebuilt, pretty easy job and cheap.  We also replaced the cork in the shutoff valve, the old one seemed pretty shrunk up.

The carbs were rebuilt.  We found one carb kit in it's original package, found the second package empty.  But later we ran across an envelope in a wiring grocery bag that contained the parts for the second carb.  Got lucky!  Bought a gallon of parts cleaner to help with this job.  Was a nice job to do on a snowy day at home at my own workbench.  Here's a comparison of the outside with one clean and the other not started yet:


The aluminum parts could also be polished to if we wanted to really make it shine.  Might consider this later, the dashpot and bowl cover are easy to remove and polish.  Got carbs mounted, all linkages installed, and fuel lines attached.




Previously we had filled both the brake and clutch hydraulics with silicone brake fluid.  Silicone is fine when parts are new, and you don't have to change the fluid every five years with it plus it won't attack the paint like regular brake fluid.  Did make sure it was clear it's DOT5 fluid though, you definitely don't want to mix the two.



Installed overdrive solenoid and made sure it was adjusted correctly.  Shop manual refers to a 3/16 inch dowel put into a lever to position the plunger correctly.  After searching all over, finally found the lever on the other side of the transmission!  Here's a picture showing the plunger position with the 3/16 drill bit in place:

Now with the drill bit removed but the solenoid energized:


Sure looks the same to me!

One of the heater hoses was on back order, but finally arrived.  So now the heater is installed, plus all hose clamps have been switched over to the original wire type for authenticity.  System is full with no leaks!



Ready for our fifth parts order.  Nothing real expensive, but does include distributor cap and ignition wires.  After this order is received we should be able to start the engine!







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