Friday, May 23, 2014

Nigel's story, et. al.

 Packed and shipped the tires to Iowa today.  Wrapped in kraft paper, taped and then wrapped in shrink wrap and taped again.  I'm pretty confident they'll arrive in excellent condition.
This is most, but not all, of the turn signal arm collection I've somehow started.  Three on the left are Koln, three on the right are SWF-but two different styles.

I also received another NOS DV profile ignition switch.

A little more time was spent trying to adjust the timing to get the engine to run correctly to no avail.  There's a little more 'knock' in the engine on the right side than I'd prefer and the right side carburetor isn't happy.  I think it's time to bite the bullet and swap the engines.  I have to swap the fan housings, chokes, coil, and heater boxes/exhaust when the engine moves over.  The fan housing is the most complicated part.

I also have the axle boot seals on my list of things to do since the pair on the car leak.

Spent a little time digging through the paperwork that was left in the glove box and found registration for most of the years of the car's function up until 1978 when it was parked until extracted last year.   I have the California registration from 65 until 78, skipping 1976 when the car wasn't driven.

Looks like the first owner bought the car in Germany, brought it to the US via New York.  He then drove the car from New York to California where he lived in Beverly Hills and promptly sold it on 24 October 1964 for $2200 to the second owner who lived in Ventura, California.  The second owner used the car for hunting and fishing-found several forest maps, hunting brochures and various pieces indicating that the car was used in these adventures.

The car was parked at some point until 15 October 1977, when the owner got a permit from the State of California to move the car.  After that, the story is that the car was parked due to an issue with not being able to get the car running after an engine rebuild (when the 1500S was bored to fit 1600 cylinders).  The owner claims that they couldn't get the engine running again and parked the car until it was pulled out and put up for sale last year when the third owner bought it.  I am technically the fourth owner.

I suspect that the fried wires in the original ignition column are the culprit, not the engine as the PPO expected.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

A day of accomplishment finds me

 Step 1: Get the car up on jack stands.
 Crammed 10 tires, 6 wheels and myself in my wife's SUV to get the tires swapped.

Note the rather large difference in width between the radials (right) and the bias plys.
 Rust.  Ahh, the Midwest...

I'm scratching my head at how the speedometer is working since the cable isn't secured as it should be.

Something for the next work day's list.
 Happened to notice the old school two piece front wrap around seals.  I think this is another 63 model year carry over.

These are roached - dry and brittle -but I'm leaving them alone for now.
 Turns out, there IS a dual circuit master cylinder under there...but it's being fed via a single hose with a "Y", which kind of defeats the purpose of dual circuit systems.

I've got a few 67 reservoirs that I need to mate up for fit.  I'll get one popped in and it'll look as close to stock as possible.

I also wound up pulling the brake plunger for adjustment because the brakes were so tight that I couldn't turn the front rotors by hand.
 The first thing I noticed when I took the front wheels off.  Mountains of brown crud.
The right side after being cleaned a little.  I couldn't get the floor wet so the cleaning was 'dry'.  I managed to get most of the crud off the beam and arms.
I discovered that one source of the binding was the accelerator cable.  The front loop and the replacement pedal assembly didn't get along.

I installed original parts and the pedal action is super smooth now.
Swapped out the Legoland creation and installed the correct cable, linkage pieces and fittings.

It's nice to see NOS parts being put to use.
 Did a little cleaning in the engine bay while I had the door off.
 Let's come back to this Lego masterpiece one last time.  Make no mistake, this is some MacGyver'd holyshitI'mstuckonthesideoftheroad kind of creation.  The accelerator cable was likely an original with the larger loop style connection for the Z arm accelerator pedal.  I pulled it out and replaced it with the correct length later model cable since I used a later style pedal cluster.
The installed Vredstein tires.  They're much wider than the bias plys and black wall.  I debated long and hard about white walls and decided that I'd prefer the black wall tire with the trim rings and hub caps much more.

I also replaced the dash lights with LEDs, replaced the fuel gauge cluster bulb holder due to a broken fitting, swapped out the column and installed the NOS Koln column and fixed a few sketchy wires.  I changed the timing slightly and the car starts faster now.  There's still a misfire or something similar that I can hear while it idles...and that knocking sound.  I adjusted the gear selector and found 2nd gear and reverse after about an hour of screwing around with it.  Hopefully this means I don't need to swap the transmission as a result.

I got a lot accomplished today although it wasn't as much as I'd hoped.  I was rather ambitious with my goals and most of them were realized.  I think one more day and I'll be happy with driving the car.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Boom...sold!

Posted up an ad for the bias ply tires in the classifieds.  Less than an hour later they were sold.


Tuesday, May 20, 2014

On the porch...

 The radials arrived today.  I'm planning on swapping them out with the bias ply tires on Thursday.

One way or another, I'll sell off the bias ply tires and recover most of what these cost.
A shoe box of goodies arrived today from Belgium.  A spare set of heater vent tubes for the 64 S, 5 NOS oil deflector plates, two NOS Variant engine lid straps, a pair of grey seat knobs, a NOS Koln turn signal arm, cupped window winders, a NOS breather tower cap, a NOS preheat tube and a set of straps for the heater couplers.

There are a few other shoe boxes on their way here...then I have to make some tough decisions about what to keep and what to sell.  I plan to keep everything I can for right now.  I'm rather happy that I've got enough parts to build a second Koln column-I didn't think I'd find all of the pieces.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

When curiosity and opportunity meet in a dark alley

 I was super curious about the condition of the internal bits of this column...and in an odd twist of fate, I also had some time to do it.

Having time to work on things and a clean space upon which to work are usually mutually exclusive...but this time everything worked out.
 First up was to remove the rear connection plate.
 Next I popped off the turn signal arm to have a look at the contact plate.  Dirty but in great condition.
 I did a quick cleaning of the contact plate with some electronics cleaner.  I'm sure that stuff is great for the skin...good thing too because I wasn't wearing gloves.
 The pile of pieces once I'd taken it all apart.  I had it completely taken apart in about 15 minutes.  Practice makes it simple.  I've pulled about 20 of these apart over the years so I'm familiar with the order of operations.
 The black wire on the ignition was fried.  Not just fried in one or two places, it was fried from tip to tip.  It got so hot that it fused to all of the other wires touching it and the black sheath as well.  The P wire (for side marker lights) was melted to it and when I pulled them apart, the grey wire was skinned.  I have to replace the grey wire and the black wire, end to end.
There were at least three shorts in the wiring in this column.  The black/red wire was shorted out at the column behind the ignition switch.  I'm positive this happened because the screw that is supposed to hold the switch in place on the lock block wasn't just loose-it wasn't in the hole at all.  The screw was what I heard rattling around in the column.  That screw not being in place allowed the ignition switch to be pushed back against the wires, which are right next to the column housing.  Push real hard a few times and the wires short out.  It's a rather common situation with the early columns.

The only negative thing that happened is that I lost the tension spring for the turn signal arm in the trash can next to my work bench.  I was cleaning the arm and heard the spring pop off and then ricochet off the side of the bag.  99% of the time, there's nothing in this trash can, but it's full of leaves, Mazda brake parts, rust and dirt.  Should be fun to sift through in the next day or two.

The connection plate cleaned up nicely with some metal cleaner.  Took two rounds but this looks much better already.

All told, the column is in pretty good shape.  I just need to dig out my bin of spare wire to replace the two fried/melted wires and send the ignition switch off for a rebuild.

Then the fun of putting it back together begins.

Everything we do is dictated by motive

 I received the original ignition column from the 64 S today.  I traded it for the YOM California license plates.  I don't need the license plates but I did want the column.  I was hoping that I could repair the switch and put the original column back into the car.

The SWF arm is in great shape and the cancellation action is smooth.
 The column is in pretty good shape overall.  The connection plate is original and in nice condition.  No hacked wires.
 The back of the ignition switch is in perfect condition.  Bakelite is unbroken and in great shape.

After inserting the key and moving the column around a bit, it appears that the internal mechanisms of the switch have self-destructed.  There's a lot of loose crap rattling around inside and it makes me wonder if there's anything to fix.  I'll pull it from the column and send it off to see what the diagnosis is for the switch.
I did, however, find one melted wire, so the arm will need some minor surgery to replace the burned wire...and given that it's part of the harness, I'll also have to replace the wire sleeve as well.

In the end, I think this column is in rather nice shape and it shouldn't take a lot or cost a lot to get it into clean, functional condition again.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Progress - Day 2

Another day of organizing the garage and working on the car yields a functional fuel gauge (the photo is the one that was removed), installed trim rings and hub caps and a slightly better engine tune.  The fuel sock in the fuel tank is collapsed so I opened it up a little with a screwdriver as a temporary fix.  The engine idles much smoother now, albeit a little on the high side.

I'm going to wind up pulling/swapping the fuel tank and then digging into the steering system.  There's an odd scratching sound when I turn the steering wheel-like there's a cat where the steering damper should be...and this cat doesn't like sharp turns.  I thought it was the new tires rubbing on the inner fender but that turned out to not be the case.

The speedometer situation worked itself out-literally-as the speedometer stopped functioning today.

The clutch pedal still hangs slightly somewhere.  I can't quite tell if it's the pedal assembly striking something in the tunnel or if it's the rear arm on the bell housing.  The transmission has a curved clutch arm and the action isn't quite as smooth so I'm going to swap it with a straight one which should solve the issue.

I took the car out for a 4 mile tour of the subdivision and, while imitating the sound of an angry typewriter, the engine is strong, transmission shifts smoothly and the feel is quite a bit better.  I'm sure the front end is going to need some attention-that much crud on the beam means it's been a long time since it's seen an adjustment or grease.  I won't at all be surprised to find worn out ball joints or tie rod ends...

My next steps:
  • Swap fuel tank, install new tank sock and tank nipple
  • Clean, lube and adjust front beam
  • Install new speedometer cable (or fix existing cable if I have the clip for the end)
  • Check plugs for wear
  • Check valves
  • Set timing
  • Check body to trans ground
If the minor engine tweaks don't solve the idle hunt and ticking noises, I'll pull the engine and swap it for the 1500S in the garage after I swap the fan housings.