The New Project: Part Deux!

[njsteve]

My daughter recently asked for lessons on how to drive a manual transmission. Today was the day for the "road test."

It was a rather hysterical time. It was as if Mel Brooks directed the whole thing. Everywhere we went some strange animal would pop out. It included two completely unrelated flocks of turkeys with a dozen chicks, deer that climbed up trees, groundhogs, flying squirrels, blind joggers, and a dead skunk.

She actually did very well, only stalled a couple times, and remembered to press in the clutch when she got to a stop, most of the time.

Now it's time to go take the car apart and replace the clutch, again.

Here's a shot of one of the turkey flocks impeding her travel and forcing a down shift.

[njsteve]

I spoke to the guys at Restoration Specialties and they commented that I had the clips installed wrong. The attached wire is supposed to be bent back upon itself to serve as a retaining spring. Once you do that, the shiny replacement clip does in fact work properly. I bought 30 of them and the accompanying nuts.

[njsteve]

Took the daughter out on another driving lesson. She did much better. This time it was rabbits. On our 20 mile drive, four different bunnies (well, maybe it could have been the same rabbit stalking us) ran alongside us and then tried to dart out in front of the car.

We even tempted fate and drove past a local ranch where they raise bison and cattle. I fully expected Alex Karris A.K.A. "Mongo" to be blocking the road riding on the back of a Brahma Bull.

[SS427]

Glad it worked out for you Steve. This is where that master cylinder belongs. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

I finally found an R12 recovery machine so I didn't have to waste the 60 ounces of Freon in order to replace the oil-spraying compressor. I found this Rotunda Ford machine on Craigslist 30 miles from my home for $80. It actually works!

It came without any instructions so I hunted and all I could initially find was the EPA reference listing the R12 recovery units approved by the EPA for 1992. So I pulled the side panels off and found that there was a Murray part number, which ended up being a Sun part number originally sold by Snap-On, which lead me to the Snap-On Tech Assistance hotline. I called them and the tech guy was actually quite surprised when he found the 24-page instruction manual on file. He emailed it to me and I was back in business.

The good news was that the contraption was able to fully download all the R12. The bad news was that until the tank gets filled with 5 pounds of R12, it won't allow you to refill from the tank. You can manually route the tank to your car's system but I decided against that and ended up using some spare cans of R12 given to me from one of the guys on the board here. (Thanks again!)




BTW, I went to Advanceautoparts.com and ordered a remanufactured A6 compressor. Before hitting the check out button, I always google the phrase &quot;advanceautoparts coupons&quot;. I lucked out this time and found a $50 off a $125 purchase coupon. The compressor was $139 minus the $50, which brought it to $89 with free shipping!

Despite the spewing oil, the system never lost any R12 and was putting out 39 degree air right before we drained it. I installed the new compressor and we vacuumed down the system, installed the R12 and the car is pumping out 37 degree air now.




The compressor that was in the car was a new compressor (25 years ago) when the car was put into storage. It turned out that the front bearing had too much play (you could rock the clutch hub side to side about 1/32&quot. So the wobbling probably took out the seal.

Now I am just waiting for the new compressor decal to arrive and she will be looking good as old.

An added bonus now is that the belts no longer squeal under acceleration from the oil that was getting sprayed on them. Ah, the little pleasures in life...

[mockingbird812]

Very.....<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">cool!</span></span>. Well done Steve. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

Well, it took all of 7 days and 75 miles before the new compressor started seaping oil out of the front seal. At least it is just a small amount. I guess there is no getting around this seapage as has to do with the seal design and how it lubricates the sealing surfaces.

Oh, well...at least it puts out really cold air. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/mad.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

In a strange turn of events that began two weeks ago, I ended up with my Grandfather's 1971 Lincoln Town Car Golden Anniversary Edition, which joins my Grandmother's 1975 Firebird that I have had for ten years now. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbthrea..._a_L#Post539151

Then one week ago, thanks to a timely tip, I found an 18,000 mile 1973 SD455 Formula here in Jersey and bought it. This left me no room for all the cars I had, so something needed to be offered up for adoption.

I'm a firm believer in Karma and doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. One of the PerformanceYears members, &quot;BentwheelBob&quot; tipped me off that the SD455 had just popped up on ebay on Labor Day morning. If it wasn't for him posting that heads up on the board that morning, and me running across it at 9:00 AM and then calling the seller here in Jersey, I wouldn't have the Super Duty I'd always wanted. So I owed Bob a debt that needed to be repaid. And he offhandedly mentioned that if I ever wanted to sell the black car, he would like to be put on the &quot;short list.&quot;

So I gave him a call that night and he said yes (after asking his wife [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]) So the car is now in his garage with a new set of friends.

Here's is Bob's announcement from yesterday:

http://forums.performanceyears.com/f...=1#post5018348

[mockingbird812]

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] Wonderful! (can't read the link here at work) Karma....it's not just for breakfast anymore!

[Xplantdad]

That's great Steve!!!