There were some bugs. Lots of little bugs. But bugs I can handle, at least it's running. Now I can pick away at the bugs till they are all gone. There was a couple of exhaust leaks. The timing must be way off because it cranks fast and then slows down to a crawl for a revolution. It also runs real rough, but I know the carbs have to be synched up. The biggest problem right now was that I couldn't find a gear. Joe Nepsa had stopped by, so he set himself to work on trying to figure out that mess. In between helping him, I worked on the throttle linkage which wasn't moving very smoothly. Joe had to take out the remote shifter and put it back in a couple of times and mess around with the clutch adjustment until he finally got the gears working. I fired it up and backed it out of the garage. It moved under it's own power! But now, when I tried to go forward, a horrible noise came out of the rear end. The whole car would shake as I tried to move forward. I had Joe try it as I watched. The rear wheels were vibrating as the car reluctantly rolled. Maybe this is why the car is hard to push! Something was way too tight in the rear end department.
Oh well, it's thrash time! I was determined to drive it TODAY! We pushed the car back in the garage and jacked up the back end. Wrenches flew, bolts spewed all over and lube puked into the oil pan and in about an hour, I had the pig (I don't know why they call the differential assembly a pig, but in this case it certainly applies) sitting on the work bench.
I had installed a cam and pawl posi type differential that I had purchased from Dennis Duncan. I thought it was OK, but apparently it was not, so now I just grabbed a regular, non locking differential, cleaned it up, bolted the 3.7 gear to it and put it all back together. 3 hours start to finish! Not exactly Woods Brothers, but not bad. My hands were sore, my arms were tired, but I was determined! I scrubbed off the grease and fired it back up and backed Tina out of the garage. Still got some problems. Sounds like garbage. Big time exhaust leak around the head. No power, something funny going on in the front end. NO MATTER - AROUND THE BLOCK I GO! It runs. Barely, but it runs. It ran so poorly that my 12 year old almost kept up with me running along side and my 10 year old outran me on his bike! No matter, it RUNS! My wife took pictures as I coaxed Tina around the block and back into the garage. I had a look of exhaustion on my face. Basically because I was exhausted. What a relief What a long strange trip it's been. What a mess in the garage. Oh well, take a shower and go out to barbeque with the family.
