unimogjohn

Tuesday, April 12th. All loaded and ready to go tomorrow. Off to Kiawah Island, SC with the Jag. Joe Hopkins (packick) sent me this link for a early Stoddard Dayaton at an upcoming Mecum auction. Asked Greg about it, and he know of the car and its owner. He said that he did the engine. Small world. https://www.mecum.com/lot-detail/SC0516-243338/0/1907-Stoddard-Dayton-Model-K-Runabout/3-Speed/ I also asked Greg if he was enjoying his new four post lift. Here is what he said. "Enjoying the lift? How about spending a couple days beneath the maroon Avanti with solvent and a brush, cleaning accumulated gunk and looking for noises, etc. Now that I can see where the leaks are, I realize I need to swap out the power steering pump, maybe a couple hoses. Lots I can do now that I can see from another angle. Getting that lift made a lot of work for myself."

Sunday, April 10th. Cold this morning, only 26 degrees, but the sun was up and shining brightly. By 10 AM it was 40 degrees. Not too bad. So the Avanti headed to the little local cars and coffee event. Folks started showing up two or three at a time. I guess we had about twenty or so cars come. I was happy considering the cold. It scared a lot of cars away. But the coffee and home made donuts were great. And we had a great time talking to all the folks attending. And Camaro Steve was very happy as lots of folks were looking at "Barney", his 53 Ford F100. He was really surprised that folks were interested in it. Here are the pics I took.

It is Saturday, April 9th. Going down to 23 degrees tonight, about 25 degrees below normal. Brrrrrrrrr. Tomorrow we have a little cars and coffee at our local market, we are still going, but I think the turnout will be very light. Camaro Steve brought Barney (the 1953 Ford F100) over today. He has no rear lights, turn signals, etc. So we tore into it and fixed it all. There was lots of extra wiring that we cut out. Some wires were pretty crusty and we replaced them. And we got rid of the "house" connectors and put everything together. Still only had about half working. Turned out that the lights had been full of water and the light sockets were all rusty. With those fixed, Barney had all its lights working.

It is Friday, April 8th. Heading out to fuel the Suburban for the trip to the concours, and will then hook it up to the trailer. Plan to have it all packed today and ready for the trip on Wednesday. Camaro Steve is coming over tomorrow, and we will begin to replace some of the wiring on the 1953 Ford F100. And if you have the time here is a great little video based on photo based animation. It is called "The Old New World". Neat suff.

It is Thursday, April 7th. The Kiawah Island Concours http://islandconnectionnews.com/kiawah-island-motoring-retreat-returns-island/ is next weekend. The Jag is all ready to go so I decided to pull the white enclosed trailer out of the pasture and onto the farm driveway. Of course I had to back it out through a gate. I took my time and maneuvered around a couple of trees, and got it out without running into anything. With raining coming today I decided I better put the Jag in the trailer. She is in and all strapped in, ready for the 440 mile trip. We will be leaving bright and early on Wednesday, and plan on make the trip in one day of driving. Thursday will be a sightseeing day or us, Friday is a tours and lunch with the other show cars, Saturday is the regional car show on the show field, and Sunday is our day on the greens, and then the drive home on Monday. Should be a very good trip. We are excited to be going. In the meantime we have a cars and coffee to attend at our local gathering spot in Orlean, VA. on Sunday Going to be cold, but not raining. Hope to get a few local cars to attend. Our Avanti is going, and plan on taking the 23 McLaughlin Buick if I can get her cleaned and started over the next couple of days. So that is what I am doing, and here is what Greg has accomplished. " Well, time to come out from under my new lift to make a progress report. Now that I have the ability to stand beneath a car and take care of issues that have accumulated, the maroon Avanti is first up. The usual exhaust pipe rattle was located and adjustments made. Easy fix with stainless steel under there. Another very annoying and hard to locate rattle was coming from what sounded like a rear shock absorber. The Konis have been under there since Steve put them there over forty years ago. My previous attempts to remove them had failed, even when I didn't know that I minded lying under a car on stands. Now that I can really get at them, they still resisted extraction. A week of soaking with penetrant proved wasted time. All manner of persuasion to free the upper bolts had failed. The top mounting is secured by a 7/16 bolt that passes through a frame channel and a steel bushing that's in a rubber grommet in the shock eye. And all this is in a hump over the rear axle.Big wrenches, small wrenches, more penetrant, impact gun, breaker bars, small vise grips, anything to try to turn the bolts that were siezed in the bushings. Heat from a torch's flame would likely have loosened the bushing's grip, but fire in a fiberglass tunnel that was the only separation from a tank full of gasoline didn't seem like the right thing to do. After a week of this, I decided the shocks were coming out! Bundling things up, I then used a right angle die grinder with a cutoff wheel. Even after removing the exhaust tail pipes, there wasn't room for this, but with patience and vocal persuasion I was able to gnaw through the steel bushing and bolt. I was forced to sever the bushing on each side of the shock eye. Then after the shock was dropped out I tried to knock the bolt from the 1/4" of bushing that remained. Impossible . I then resolved to gnaw through again beside the frame channel. Only then could I free the bolt. Ditto for the other shock. Of course I had to replace the butchered bushings , only done with steel bar and lathe work. That was last night. Today I found time to clean the shock bodies, press the bushings back into their grommets, repaint the shock bodies, hit the NAPA store for more rubber bumpers, clean and prep the mounting hardware and hit the hardware store for new 7/16 through bolts. Tomorrow I should be able to reinstall the shocks and get old Seabiscuit down out of the air. And oh yeah, remind me to really, really slobber those bolts with nickel anti-sieze compound. And then a little more."

It is Tuesday, April 5th. Cold here, only 28 degrees this morning and spitting snow. Remember a few months ago I helped move the Wright Brothers airplanes around the airfield? Well, here is the "rest of the story". http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/02_on2015-wanted-wright-collection-home-180956606/

Monday, April 4th. Spent most of the day cleaning the Avanti and the 1923 McLaughlin Buick. There is a local little cars and coffee show at our local market on Sunday. Since it is only a few miles a way I want to see if I can drive the 23 to it. Alice will take the Avanti. Of course I positioned the 23 behind a wall so had to move the 28 Buick up and then put a jack under the rear end of the 23 and pull it over with the tractor. It is now in a position where I can start the engine and maneuver it out of the garage. I last ran the 23 in October of last year so will have to spend some time getting it ready to start and run. Plan on doing that tomorrow. Here are a couple pics showing the move of the 23 to the garage door. Sure wish I would have build a bigger garage now.

Chris, Greg and his son have rebuilt the engine (R3 clone) of the black Avanti after the first one built wiped a cam on start-up. Greg has just replaced the power steering hoses while the engine is out. He expects that he will have the engine back in the car soon. But it still needs lots of clean-up and detail work.

Thursday morning. Looks like Greg has achieved "lift off". " Got the hydraulic fluid, a contractor's grade extension cord and after some circuit breaker problems, was able to lift the lift. Seem to have the release rods working and this morning I was able to lower onto the casters, and manhandle it into the building by myself. Now it is parked with a Dodge on it. Thanks for your help, glad that's over with."

Joe, it is about two feet taller than the normal 4 post. Hopefully, both of us can get our really old cars under with the tops up. And for the "rest of the story" here is a report from Greg on his uplifting experience. " Yes, been busy taking advantage of the Spring weather with some heavy lifting. I've decided that it's just not fun anymore to lie beneath a car on jackstands. Because it isn't, some things just don't get done. I deserve a lift like John Feser and Rob Burchill. Did some research and decided on a four post type. They are free standing and don't need to be anchored to the floor. Drive the car on, push a button. They are also convenient for added storage when used for double decker parking. They also come with a castering attachment to allow moving it around. A call was made with a Social Security check in hand. Delivered by truck freight, it took five or six of us to uncrate and unload it piece by piece. Shipping weight heading towards a ton. So the past few days have seen me working on the hill where it is being erected outside where there's room and with help today from John Feser and Scott, it should be ready to rock and roll. Now to make room for it inside the tin barn. Hasn't been much time for anything else. Need to get it indoors before the rumored rain tomorrow evening."

It is Wednesday, March 30th. Spent the afternoon over at Greg's place. Helped him assemble the new four post lift. Everything went smoothly, and in about three hours we had the decks installed, cables run and power station installed. Had fun, but of course everything was very heavy. Had to use various jacks and lifts to help us out. Greg only has the hydro fluid to put in the motor and install the unlocking mechanism controls, and then he will be ready to use the lift.

Tuesday, March 29th, PM around 4. The Suburban is finished and she actually runs. Took my time today so spent about five hours on finishing the job of putting in the knock sensors. The new sensors had a much tighter rubber sealing ring for the sensors. I was happy about that. Cleaned up the intake and started to put on the new gaskets. Opps, wrong ones. Totally different than mine, so off to NAPA. They had them for $48. Everything else went smoothly and I got everything back on without damage or breakage. The big air box went in sideways and was able to get it to drop down moving it an inch or so at a time. This was a big job. No wonder the dealer wanted $700 in labor for it. Oh, and my oil pressure gauge in the dash now works correctly. Now I am happy. I also got some reusable spill stuff for the garage, and a hand held infrared temperature sensor.

Still Monday, just a quick afternoon update. The new knock sensors are in and the protective dam built. The dam is so water cannot go into the sensor wells, the water is diverted around them and out of the back of the intake. This is the official GM fix to the problem. And I took ten minutes and put in the Jaguar clock. It is ticking away.

It is Monday, March 28th. Camaro Steve came over yesterday morning with is 1953 Ford F100. We spent some time looking around and determined that he has 1980 Bronco running gear, not 1977. Also he has a ton of play, like 20 degrees on the wheel. I could see the steering gear mount flex and move. I am sure that it is some of the movement issue. I think I have him convinced to take the truck to a professional truck performance shop for an evaluation and recommendation of the repair necessary. And I got back on the Suburban this morning. Everything is all clean and I removed the oil pressure sensor and the two knock sensors. The back one was toast. A rusted mess. It was entirely filled with water to include the electrical connector. No wonder it failed. I also have a new sensor wiring harness, so I do not have to use the old one. I also removed the foam dam from behind the intake as per the service bulletin and will put in the RTV dam around the sensor plug holes to deflect any water from getting to the sensors. I also taped up all the loose wires in the loom. Plan on doing more work this afternoon.

It is clutch itself in backwards? Just a guess on my part. I put in a clutch backwards and it would not release.

Friday, March 25th. Well, I wish I could report that the Suburban was all back together. It is not. Alice has me painting the house while the sun shines. So I am praying for bad weather. Did get the Jaguar clock back. It will go in tomorrow, going to sneak some time.

Oh boy, just got a note from Greg. He pulled the trigger and ordered an Atlas extended four post lift. It may even be here tomorrow. I was able to do a little cleaning on the Suburban engine, hope to do more today. Hard finding some time with all the farm chores that I have been ordered by the boss to do. Also Alice has decided to paint the house so getting the old sprayer out, cleaned and ready to go took considerable time. She says that she is going to do it. Has already pressure washed the front of the house and did the calking too. Ready for paint today. Looks like the house if going to be battleship gray with white trim.

The forums have been going through an emergency update. Things are slowly being fixed. I can post and see my pictures, but others I cannot. I guess we will have to wait a week or so before everything is sorted.

Tuesday, PM, March 22nd. Camaro Steve and I took a long road trip today. A couple of hundred miles or so. But we had a good time and Steve came home with is new 1953 Ford P/U truck. Certainly a modified truck, but not much money. A good running engine too. It is a minus driver quality truck, but with some love and attention and maybe $2K, it will be a great driver.

Still Monday PM. Avanti Greg stopped by to take a look at the four post lift. He is going to pull the trigger and get one. And taking a 200 mile road trip with Camaro Steve tomorrow. We are going to look at a 1954 Ford pickup sitting on top of a 89 Ford Bronco frame and drive train. Looks great in pics and the price is right. We are going to haul up my open trailer just in case. Steve says he will have cash in his wallet. I love to help others spend money.

It is Monday, March 21st, PM. Well I spent a few hours on the Suburban today and was able to get the intake off. Tomorrow I will start the clean-up. I will replace the oil pressure sender, which is buried under the intake on the back of the engine (brown case two wire switch in pics). I have also ordered a new intake gasket and one for the throttle body. Glad I did after looking at the original. I was surprised to see the intake runners so dirty. Will attempt to clean them up with carb cleaner. Everything was a tight fit, but just took my time to get the manifold off the engine. So far nothing broken. Took Corvette Wayne's advice and ordered a new wiring harness for the knock sensors also. He said that his old one was brittle. Here are the pics from today, to include all the nuts I found on top of the manifold. I am going to tape up the wiring harness bundles also. No clue why the factory did not do it. Also Greg is coming over to take a good look at the four post lift. He is thinking of getting one. He is getting tired to laying under cars also.

Standard or Master car? And do you have a list of parts and prices? Also where are you located?

Bernie, is it going back home to France?

Robert, here is how I start my 23. You may have to prime the vacuum tank if the car has been sitting. Also you choke may be a pull on type rather than turning a knob. Hope this helps.

It' Saturday, and snow is coming. Thankfully, not much, just an inch or two by tomorrow. I spent about four hour working on taking off the air intake of the Suburban's 6.1 engine. Down to the point of actually removing the intake. Had to disconnect the wiring harness, many plugs, fuel injector wiring, etc. Now for the fuel lines and the intake. Found a couple of issues so far. The main wiring harness goes across the top of the engine and is wrapped in black tape except where it goes under a cover, which holds it in place. The wiring that is exposed is starting to chafe so am going to wrap that portion before I put it back together. Also, there is a small coolant line, which attaches to the throttle body, has been dripping. That could be the cause of the knock sensor failure. The wiring for the injectors was tough to figure out the removal process. But was able to get them all off without damage. Here are pics of yesterday's work. And found lots of hickory nuts in the intake valley. Great storage area. And I received lots of help from YouTube also.