Getting 0248K Back On The Road
Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2018 8:21 pm
I bought this car pretty much sight-unseen off of eBay 3 years ago. Everything was there, the chassis was good, and it ran. But there were issues:
- the voltage regulator was shot, to the extent that it wouldn't charge the battery or run the car
- several electrical circuits had issues: headlights, turn signals, horn all were inoperative
- the steering flex joint was shot
- the doughnuts were shot
- the cooling system could not handle idling in the Oklahoma heat, it would overheat in a few minutes
- the distributor and carb settings were questionable: there were flat spots during acceleration. The car as new had Federal emission controls, and some of those were gone, but the PO owner couldn't say what the current state was
- it sounded terrible, basically had no muffler, just a Cherry Bomb welded on and cantilevered out past the tail pipe
- the steering column housing rotated in it's mounts
I made a long list and started ticking off the items as I could fit in the time with the rest of my life.
- addressed the regulator by replacing it and the generator with an alternator from Dave Bean
- spent a lot of time under the dash to patch the wiring, and lock down the steering column
- replaced the steering flex joint with a universal joint
- replaced the Cherry Bomb with the stock Sprint muffler
- rebuilt the clutch hydraulic cylinders after I went to start it up one spring and saw hydraulic fluid all over the floor.
- replaced the doughnuts with CV joints from DBE
- replaced the stock radiator with the 26R version from DBE
- replaced the throttle cable after a barb on the end caused the old one to stick and over-rev the engine for a bit.
- clamped down the hard plastic fuel line onto the short rubber line just in front of the tank. The original wasn't clamped, and somehow came out, causing a no-fuel situation that confused the heck out of me for a time.
- sent the carbs off to Joe Curto to be refreshed and set to home market specs
- sent the distributor off to British Vacuum Unit to be recurved to home market specs
- installed a set of exhaust headers from DBE
Now that all that is done, the car is very reliably driveable, vs barely driveable. It starts easily and accelerates strongly. Here's a few shots of the results so far.
Still lots to do before I start taking it on longer trips. The top snaps on the windscreen pillars are missing, I've got to figure out how to attach replacements. The driver's door window isn't in it's tracks, so doesn't raise up - that has to be sorted out. Several electrical issues still left - the brake, handbrake, indicator and courtesy lights are all inoperable. The radio doesn't work. The bonnet fitment isn't the best. And the driver's door needs a bit of adjustment.
But now I can tool around locally in good weather - it's a blast to drive!
- the voltage regulator was shot, to the extent that it wouldn't charge the battery or run the car
- several electrical circuits had issues: headlights, turn signals, horn all were inoperative
- the steering flex joint was shot
- the doughnuts were shot
- the cooling system could not handle idling in the Oklahoma heat, it would overheat in a few minutes
- the distributor and carb settings were questionable: there were flat spots during acceleration. The car as new had Federal emission controls, and some of those were gone, but the PO owner couldn't say what the current state was
- it sounded terrible, basically had no muffler, just a Cherry Bomb welded on and cantilevered out past the tail pipe
- the steering column housing rotated in it's mounts
I made a long list and started ticking off the items as I could fit in the time with the rest of my life.
- addressed the regulator by replacing it and the generator with an alternator from Dave Bean
- spent a lot of time under the dash to patch the wiring, and lock down the steering column
- replaced the steering flex joint with a universal joint
- replaced the Cherry Bomb with the stock Sprint muffler
- rebuilt the clutch hydraulic cylinders after I went to start it up one spring and saw hydraulic fluid all over the floor.
- replaced the doughnuts with CV joints from DBE
- replaced the stock radiator with the 26R version from DBE
- replaced the throttle cable after a barb on the end caused the old one to stick and over-rev the engine for a bit.
- clamped down the hard plastic fuel line onto the short rubber line just in front of the tank. The original wasn't clamped, and somehow came out, causing a no-fuel situation that confused the heck out of me for a time.
- sent the carbs off to Joe Curto to be refreshed and set to home market specs
- sent the distributor off to British Vacuum Unit to be recurved to home market specs
- installed a set of exhaust headers from DBE
Now that all that is done, the car is very reliably driveable, vs barely driveable. It starts easily and accelerates strongly. Here's a few shots of the results so far.
Still lots to do before I start taking it on longer trips. The top snaps on the windscreen pillars are missing, I've got to figure out how to attach replacements. The driver's door window isn't in it's tracks, so doesn't raise up - that has to be sorted out. Several electrical issues still left - the brake, handbrake, indicator and courtesy lights are all inoperable. The radio doesn't work. The bonnet fitment isn't the best. And the driver's door needs a bit of adjustment.
But now I can tool around locally in good weather - it's a blast to drive!