arnulfo de l.a.

water manifold, the part that attaches to the top of the timing cover. arnulfo

Rocky, going to star putting the timing cover, water pump, and manifold back together today.hope to have her fired up by this Friday. I'm anxious to see the improvement in performance. arnulfo

Thanks jason.... Thank god for sunny SoCal ! arnulfo

Rocky Thanks for the heads up. Got the cover off without hurting the gasket ridge. A piece off one of the mounting holes did break off due to a very stubborn bolt. As a matter of fact there is still a piece of the broken bolt in the cover. It should not be a big deal to fix. It was one of the bolts next to the water port (of course...right ?). Im going to take it to a machinist tomorrow. Once i got the cover off there was steel gears and a VERY loose chain. So loose it looked like it was on the verge of skipping a tooth. My heart dropped because the first thing that came to mind was that the motor block was line bored and the chain would always be loose. Well i went ahead and put the new gears and roller chain on anyway and to my delight the chain is nice and tight as it should be. Once i got it all back together i will post and let you know how she runs Arnulfo

those cracks seem to be pretty common on these engines? anyone know what causes them? arnulfo

MAN! just spoke to russ martin and he informed me that the woodruff key on the crank CANNOT come out before removing the timing gear cover and *crankshaft timing gear. the woodruff key is one piece and goes all way through the dampner/balancer and under the crankshaft timing gear.so anyone who plans on changing their timing gear be aware of that.wrench and learn! arnulfo

I cleaned all the grit off the cover a d surronding area first, then sprayed lots of penetrant on all the bolts. The two bolts on the top both right and left broke with about 20 ft. Lbs. max of torque pressure. They were corroded real bad close to the head and thats where they broke. The rest came out REAL EASY. Now im working on getting the woodruff key off the crankshaft. It seems to be seized in there. I plan on cutting a slit down the exposed length of it with my dremel and hope it comes out. Arnulfo

not feeling the two tone ,ports or wheels. i agree with silver arrow. black and lowered is the best i have seen. theres a member here that has a black 65 with buick spokes.i think its a gs. imho that car is perfect! if i had the $$$ i would do the same to mine. but then, im of the opinion that any car or cycle looks best in black especially if the chrome is in good shape. is the top on that car(good guys winner) chopped or are my tired old eyes once again deceiving me? arnulfo

thanks bill, on the 4 core radiator, was that on a 1965 riviera ? i was lucky on the water pump, no broken bolts. i preheated and sprayed lots of kroil penetrant prior to removal. ordered the parts today from russ martin. i will be removing the timing chain cover tomorrow.hopefully it will go as smooth as the water pump removal did. wish me luck men! arnulfo

Rocky Thank you much for the info and pictures. My engine is a 425 nailhead. Do you think the timing covers are similar? Either way i will be vigilant for the things you pointed out. Arnulfo

I'm in the process of changing out my timing chain. No problems with the one on it now , just want to have the peace of mind that comes with having the steel one in. I've got the water pump and water manifold off . I've just finished making a tool to keep the crankshaft from rotating when I remove and replace the harmonic balancer. Anything I should look out for before removing the timing cover? I was also wondering if anyone can tell me why a roller type timing chain is better than the non roller type. I plan on getting the roller type but I'm curious as to the opinions of the pros on this forum. I'm also going to replace my water pump being that mine seems to be a little loose at the shaft bearing. I like that heavy duty cast iron one that Russ Martin sells . Anyone have one? Lastly, I'm considering going with a four row radiator core. What do you men think about using a four row core? Will everything still fit? The car is a 1965 riviera gs Thank you all for your help, Arnulfo

well men, i took off my distributor and located the little rubber stop on the counterweight stud. it was wore pretty thin so i made one out of some hard plastic tubing i had laying around.put the distributor back in , went for a test drive and WOW! I WOKE UP A BEAST! No mpre pinging and GREAT response on acceleration. i am one happy rivi owner. my next mission is to get the idle right by correcting *the throttle plate binding and finding the vacuum leak. arnulfo

got the carbs rebuilt and installed. it made a HUGE difference in the cars performance! the car would hesitate on a turn, crap out while parking , hesitate when accelerating and hard starting in the morning and when hot. all those issues have been corrected. she starts in a flash when hot and cold and does not hesitate under any circumstances.im still having issues with the throttle plates and or linkage not allowing the throttle plates to close completely without giving the gas peddal a quick snap. after reading the opinions of the men that posted about using the bushing kit , i decided not to do it. i do not want to chance ruining these carbs . they are original to the car and upon closer inspection i saw that the excess slop in the throttle shaft is side to side which would not be corrected with the bushing installed. i know there needs to be some side play to keep the linkage from binding but how much is too much? i also had a hard time geitting the idle below 700rpm ( even after snapping the gas pedal to make sure i got the proper throttle plate closure) without turning the center big brass air adjuter all the way in. i got some brake cleaner and sprayed around both carb bases , around both intake manifold to head gaskets, sealed off ALL vacuum ports in carb and intake manifold and got no change in idle speed when i did the spraying. if i recall correctly i think i read somewhere on this forum that there is a plug on the underside of the intake manifold that goes bad. if someone can please tell me if my recollection is right or wrong i would greatly appreciate it. the other issue im having is pinging when i accelerate while doing highway speed. if i ease into the gas peddle ,no pinging. but if i step on it like say to pass a car it pings real bad. im thinking too much advance and i suspect the reason is because i may not have the rubbber or brass counterweight stops that limit the advance under these circumstances. can someone please tell where these stops are located in the distributor and where i can buy them? a picture would be ideal if anyone has one. all in all im having a good time tinkering on this ol classic. its a great example of how our great country built things to last back then. im determined to correct the throttle plate and timing issue. now that im semi-retired i enjoy nothing more than wrenching on my rivi and harleys. thank you all for the helped. arnulfo

Ok Jon that makes sense. How do I determine design tolerance for the shaft clearance? I thought that was determined by the designers. I tried looking for throttle shaft clearance specs but found nothing. Do you know what that spec might be? Thanks , arnulfo

I hear what you men are saying. After im done cleaning everything up, im going to look at everything a little closer and then decide whether to take it to a pro or not. Jz, if you google ZAKO ATS it comes right up. Thanks men, Arnulfo

Ed There are instructions and it seems pretty straight foward . The kit is ZAKO-ATS KIT -ZA-01. What supposedly makes it foolproof for drilling is the specially made reamer Arnulfo

I finally started the rebuild of my primary carburetor on my 65 gs. Back in 08' I posted about the rough idling I was having. Well I have the carb apart now and soaking as I post this. Boy was there a lot of crud inside. I looked for the corrosion that is supposed to be common on the bottom and found none. What I did find,which I mentioned in my 08 post, is a lot of slop in the throttle shaft. The car would require a quick snap of the gas peddle to bring it down to it's set idle. I'm thinking this slop in the throttle shaft is the cause.I've got this kit with bushings and a drill bit that is made to repair this condition. I don't want to ruin this carb .I believe It's original to the car. Has anyone ever used one of these throttle shaft repair kits? I also have a couple of 60's harleys that I wrench on myself . They both have original linkerts carburetors that sometime get sloppy in the throttle shaft area and cause a lean air/fuel mixture. The fix for this problem in linkerts is the installation of Bushings in the carb body where the throttle shaft passes through.this process tightens the fit and cures the problem giving the bike a nice steady ,smooth idle. I know that linkerts and Carter are 2 different beasts but I do believe that they both use the same basic principles. So what say you men on this great forum? Should I go ahead and try to fix the slop in the throttle shaft or leave it alone? Am I on the right track here?all help and advise much appreciated. Arnulfo

Well men I'm happy to report that I got my power steering fixed. It turns out that I had reinstalled the center portion in which the rotating assembly sits backwards or upside down. The manual was a little help in determining this but the wear marks were what really pointed out my mistake. No leaks and my steering works perfectly as before. Lessons learned; 1) no matter how many pictures you take, there is still the possibility for error,2) don't take on any mechanical endeavor if you are tired and hungry unless its an emergency. Life is good in riviland! arnulfo

Thank you Jim. I was thinking along the same lines as you as far as the relief valve being the culprit. Im glad I opened up the whole pump. All the Orings inside were brittle. Now if I can only get it to work!:)I will be taking the pump back off today and give it another shot. If I can't figure it out I may just have to take it to a shop in the e-side of l.a. that rebuilds them. i guess that's what I should have done in the first place but I hate paying anyone to do something that I think I can do myself.i will let you know how it all turns out. One way or another it will be fixed today.This car is my daily driver and here in beautiful Los Angeles a car is a necessity! arnulfo

Greetings all, i resealed my power steering pump and I must say I was extremely careful to put everything back together exactly as it came apart. I even took pictures through out the whole dis assembly process to make sure I got it right. Well it does not work! Not even a noise to indicate that it's trying.Any ideas on what I could have done wrong?is there some kind of bleeding procedure that I should have done on initial start up? My power steer worked PERFECTLY prior to my reseal attempt. I had a leak on the front seal that got real bad. I did a resealed on my 87 el camino and it came out great, so I felt confident that this would be a success also.Boy was I wrong! Well i guess i could say that it was a partial success, its not leaking fluid anymore lol.The car is a 1965 riviera gran sport. Thanks in advance for the help men, arnulfo

I get a lot of heat coming in from the engine compartment.It seems to be traveling up through the steering column. The car is a daily driven 99% stock 1965 riviera gs. Is there something that can be done to fix that? Takes some of the enjoyment out of driving the car especially with the hot weather we've been having. thanks, arnulfo

from lock to lock i have 2 3/4 turns arnulfo

how do i know if i have the H-2 option? would it be listed on the fisher body tag ?

I did like Mr. Bill Stoneberg, took mine out , cleaned the points, added a couple of drops of three in one oil and it works great keeps good time. Once I saw the inside with all the gears ,wheels, springs and how they all work together i thought it was just too mechanically beautiful not to try and fix it. Suerte, Arnulfo

greetings fellow rivi owners, i was working on the cruise control to my 65 rivi and came upon a potentially dangerous fire hazard. it seems the factory wrapped the wires leading to the lighters together with the rest of the wiring loom that feeds the various electrical components to the car. i took the black factory installed electrical tape off right above the insturment panel. there i found the lighter wires had heated up enough to start melting through the insulation of the wires that were next to it. i dont smoke nor allow smoking in my car but i do use the lighter to power up my cell phone. i think the heat was caused from the previous owners use of the lighter. either way i separated the wire out of the loom and put it in its own individual heat resistant conduit. for those of you that are currently doing a restoration, you may want to consider doing the separation during your restoration process. arnulfo p/s my clock started working after i separated the wires that had melted to the lighter wires.