These last two weeks have been a little slow, mainly due to the cold weather, but I have managed to rebuild the Z shaft that is part of the clutch mechanism.
Here is the shaft after cleanup with the new parts to be fitted. The grease that normally sits in it was completely solid and I doubt was providing any lubrication at all.
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Quite a satisfying job to do and it fitted straight in. The engineering is perhaps a little crude but it works really nicely and the action is very smooth without any play. I'll take simple and effective any day. Fitted it looks like this - although the felt seal and the little plastic cap to keep the grease in the shaft are missing at the moment - more items for the snag list. The chassis bracket needs some TLC but once the weather warms up a bit ....
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The distributor has been sitting in a box for the last three years but even so it was a little rusty and very dirty.
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Stripped and with a few new parts it was much improved. The original points and condenser looked new so were kept. BHCC, who sold me the car, said at the time that they had tried (and failed) to start the engine and I think they must have fitted these as part of that effort. The vacuum advance was tested with a vacuum pump and it failed due to a slight leak. The mechanical advance was cleaned, lubricated and refitted. Afterwards it looked like this..
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The outside of the distributor shaft was painted with a high temperature paint and then everything was reassembled with the points set to a default gap....
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All the hinges were fitted ready for the front clip to be reinstalled - doors will be necessary for alignment and fit.
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However, most of the time has been taken cleaning the instrument loom contacts. There are probably 60 or 70 contacts that need to be stripped, cleaned, greased and reassembled. Most are of the type that are pushed out by bending a small tang on the top of the contact. I used a modified screwdriver for this...
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I used a WD40 contact cleaner as the solvent and a medium grade wet-n-dry paper to clean up the copper. Both together they worked very well. A dielectric grease was applied to try and stop any further corrosion. The tang then needs to be bent out again to catch inside the plastic moulding on refitting. I've got another 5 or 6 contacts to do in the main fuse box next week and then this loom is ready to be refitted. Most of the relays have been tested and amazingly are ok - the only item that doesn't seem to work is the ignition switch buzzer, which will need to be replaced. I have already replaced the radio part of the loom with a set of ISO connectors to make it easy to upgrade the radio. The Corvette (Pioneer made) radio has an eardrum busting 3.2watts per channel at 5%THD. I'm probably not going to be using it much but even so it's going to sound pretty poor compared to a modern set up so it might have to go. I'm assuming that it actually works of course - which is unlikely - but the ISO connectors will make replacement really easy.
Next weeks job is to finish this loom and fit it. Then do the same thing to the engine loom. I also want to hang the doors and trial fit the front clip. The weather is dry for another week so this looks achievable. The bonding adhesive will need a temperature of at least 15C so my plan for getting the front clip fully installed by the end of January was probably a tad optimistic and will have to wait until it gets warmer.