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The never ending mission of trouble - *UPDATED*

Well the project is travelling like lightning. The body work is all done and the car is now ready for “Gapping” and preparing for paint. There is a small delay while the “Shed” is completed. Fingers crossed that the project will be in colour by the end of summer. (Not sure which summer)? If nothing else, it is back in control and moving forward. Debut “All Ford Day” 2013.

 

Thanks to Michael and Romano “All car Restorations”. Some new metal work was put in but it was minimal. Most of the metal work related to the Left to Right conversion. Yep, she is changing to an easy driver for the purpose of more cruising than show. Disc brakes are fitted and some other small mods so Mr. Gullible is hoping for “Vehicles of Special Interest” to get sorted. A competent driver can still look like the original car on the road and be safe as well.

For those at the January meeting, an American supplier of Ford parts had seen our new bright and top rate web site and has offered his services to our members for American parts. chapmanindustries@yahoo.com. Well I am giving him a go and so far he has found some bits I have been looking for and is getting a deal put together.

Let’s see how this all works out. Don’t forget that this is Mr. Gullible trying this out. So who knows what will happen.

 

The Shed

This needs its own heading now as the Mr. Gullible curse strikes out and grabs an innocent helper. There was just about 2 days work to get the area set for levelling and floor base. An FOCC member who obviously felt that Mr. Gullible needed a hand, stepped forward and offered to help sort out the sheds base. Bless his cotton socks.

Finding someone to erect the shed however has turned out to be difficult. There are a few people around who specialise in this work but after nine contacts and two enormous quotes and one that seemed right, Mr. Gullible was looking at action at last. But the chap with the good quote ended up in hospital so what could Mr. Gullible do? Put the shed up by himself of course. Could this be trouble? Does Mr. Gullible understand the meaning of ‘square’? Come on even I know you just bolt it together. The plans are so vague for a reason. To thwart Mr. Gullible! Now recall I said someone was going to give a hand! Well three weeks later it came to fruition and 50 ton of rubble turned up. No, not at the shed, you should know by now that big trucks can’t get up the driveway.

Delivered 2 km from site it was. This was all sorted until the helper went to get the small tipper we was to be used to get the rubble the rest of the way. The chap sold it the week before and neglected to tell him. Yes, the curse of Mr Gullible has struck an innocent person.

 

And if you think that is it hold on to whatever gives you a thrill because although the shed materials were delivered, well almost except for the drag down the driveway, the materials checked one by one matched the manifest. Ah umm, the manifest was wrong! No problems, give the supplier a call and it will be sorted. Well it would be but this is for Mr. Gullible. The supplier has just been through a divorce and would you believe one of the things that had to be sorted in his divorce was the business. Yes it has been liquidated. That’s enough, I need a break!

 

 

Now for the truck

Ongoing engine problems, a learning curve for the novice. (Not idling and vibrating).

Now how far had we got. The mechanical physics were correct TDC, Valve timing Crank alignment, Harmonic balancer correct, Plugs now the correct heat range, Points set to standard, checked spark found to be yellow (should be blue), and replaced coil and dizzy cap. Hang about, I missed something here. After talking to Steve Bonython there may be an issue here.

If I have the wrong coil it could produce a symptom called spark plug wash. If the ignition system has a resister to eliminate premature point where the coil may be wrong. It turns out that the coil was wrong in the first place and it is only 6 volts at the coil not 12. To test, a relay was fitted to put 12 volts to the coil. Hurrah I can now set the timing to 10 degrees before top dead centre.

Problem solved …. No. I still suspect a vacuum leak but where and why not when on Gas. The advice is that the gas is actually already under pressure and is pushed in so a small leak will not be noticed. A correct replacement inlet manifold and Carter carburettor is sourced and the old one comes out. What was found? Nothing obvious! There was a break in the gasket at number 4 but it was minor as goo had been used it would have reduced it to a very small leak. I don’t like the way the Carter carbies fit. There is very little seal between faces but how did it go?

Started first time, some fiddling with the choke butterflies needed but she idles ok and runs ok. Problem solved but a few test drives needed to sort out final tune. One day rego sourced and a trip to the All Ford Day and back said she is ok and ready for Regency check. What was the earlier problem? Something I missed. Yes! The vacuum gauge is a suspect for leakage. So the tool to check the system was possibly the error.