37 zephyr update

Hello All,

It's a while since I posted any progress on the UK side of the pond, I have had the ignition coils rewound, by Jake Fleming, many thanks Jake, lovely job, I fitted the new points and generaly cleaned up and checked the distributor, all appeared to be OK, till I sent it to Colin Spong, who had kindly offered to set it up, apparently there was a problem with wear on the cam, anyway Colin had a one, and when fitted everything was OK,thanks Colin, new plugs, plug leads, and condensers fitted, runs like a dream, but not road tested yet. I have got the new glass in the rear opening quarter lights, and the passenger door, I overhauled the window regulator and door lock, while everything was stripped out, the screen is still to go back in, but I found a lot of perforation around the fresh air vent, so that's the next job before the screen, and overhauled wipers go back in, I have almost finished fitting the new wiring loom that I made, I quite enjoyed that job, hav'nt made a one for a while, battery on tomorrow and test, everything, (fire extinguisher handy), the rechromed parts should be back next week, and a set of new tyres should be arriving shortly.

Had a look in the trunk tonight, it's the first time I have been in thier, I took the fuel sender unit out to clean it and check it over, it seems OK, I think it was suffering from a bad earth, (I ran a separate earth from the unit to the chassis), incidentaly, I have added earths to all the lights, and brought them back through the new loom to the chassis, not standard practice I know, but I like it that way. While in the trunk, I had to hold the lid up with a piece of wood, I noticed what looked like ratchet devices on the hinges, are these in place of return springs? I didn't have much time to study them.

another little job I found, the exhaust is rubbing on the fuel tank, well I suppose it's better than rubbing 2 sticks together to make a fire.

Well, Onward and upward.

Regards

Peter Smith

Dear Peter,Thanks for the update,always enjoy hearing of someone gaining on a project.I have never heard the term EARTH used before,learn something new EVERYDAY.Take care.diz

Good grief, Dale, lift your bonnet and you'll see there is an earth for your block!

"Two nations separated by a common language."

Pete - I really envy you and the progress you've made. I've been in line for my bodywork for a few years now, but at least the end is in sight...

Hello all

Well I have had a busy day today, fitted the trumpet horns, and wired them up,they sound very nice, I got these horns from Texas, as there were non on the car when I got it, when they arrived they were covered in mud, and I thought I had backed a loser, but the mud was oil based, and once washed off, they were like new, not bad for 11 dollars, it cost a fortune to get them back, they were off a Chev I think, and had been mounted facing down, under one of the fenders.

I tried a battery on the car today, all the lights were OK, but all the gauges except the ammeter were doing strange things, I had 50 lbs oil pressure with the engine not running, no fuel gauge, and the temparature gauge showing red hot, with the engine cold.

I stripped the fuel sender out again, and popped the cap off it, everything looked OK, but there is a little carbon resistor in there, looks like a tiny fuse, I removed that and cleaned the copper contacts on the ends, replaced it and re assembled the unit, I then took the gauge out, and cleaned and checked that, I wired them up on the bench, and set them up to show empty when there was about a gallon left in the tank, refitted them, and they are working perfectly.

I thought the oil gauge sender was broken, but when I removed the wire, the gauge was still going up to 50lbs, so took the gauge out, cleaned it and checked it, and everything looked OK, on re assembling it, I noticed that the mounting plate has slots cut in it to pass over the terminals, these slots have a bridge piece in them less than 1/16" wide, if you move the mounting plate sideways you can make the terminals short out on these bridges, and I think this is what caused the problem, effectively giving it a full oil pressure signal, I cut the bridges out, re assembled it, and it is now on zero, I havn't had the engine running yet, so don't know if it's fully cured, but always something to bear in mind, if you ever get a runaway oil gauge.

The temparature gauge is tomorrows job, I have had enough for today.

regards

Peter Smith