Phil’s Collection

Last Thursday I drove down to Phil’s house and met his brother, Bryan. Not surprisingly, he’s a very friendly guy with great stories to share just like his brother. After I extended my condolences, we began chatting about cars and planes as avid motorheads are prone to do. Before I knew it nearly two hours had passed. We had walked around the yard and into the garage with me inspecting and photographing each of the cars in Phil’s collection.

As we walked, we talked, and Bryan agreed that most likely only the ’62 wagon in the garage was restorable, while rust had eaten away too much of the rest of the cars. The 4-speed Monza wagon sitting in the garage seemed to be in quite solid shape other than the floors. The front valance was holey, but a new replacement panel was sitting on the floor in front of the car. The drivetrain had been removed, but there were a couple engines in the garage, so rebuilding candidates are available.Sadly, the most valuable of the Corvairs, a ’66 Corsa convertible (one of only 3,142 made that year), is in very rusty condition. The rocker panels – the backbone of these cars – are swiss cheese. The car may be savable, but would take someone with lots of welding experience and lots of time. I didn’t check the serial number of the 140 engine residing under the engine lid, but the four-barrel intake setup topped by a large-looking Holley indicated this one had been modified. The other convertible in the collection may (and it’s still a big may) end up being Mikhaila’s project car. While it has some rust-through in the passenger door jamb (never an easy fix), the rest seemed solid. The rest of the ‘vairs will more than likely go to the Corvair Ranch donating their good parts to other people’s projects.

At the end of our walk, I confessed to Bryan that I was the typical Corvair owner - perpetually on a tight budget. Therefore, while I couldn’t offer them any money for the Corvairs, I would make sure each was put to its best use. I’d haul the part cars to the Corvair Ranch and I’d find good homes for the restorable one(s). This way I felt I was keeping the promise I made to Phil to help him get rid of his “Corvair stuff.” Bryan said that he would pass my offer on to Phil’s widow and get back to me. Additionally, I offered to post the photos of the ’38 Nash and ’41 Buick on the web and pass on to him any reasonable offers that come from that. I’m not in any hurry to take on the task of moving the cars since I’m still trying to finish up Ringo, but I told Bryan that once we had a deal, I’d make sure the Corvairs were moved as quickly as possible. I can only imagine how the sight of them sitting in the backyard is painful to Phil’s widow.

Currently, I’m patiently waiting for a response from Bryan. It’s fine with me that I haven’t yet heard from him since I must finish Ringo before I can afford the time required to move Phil’s collection.

Another Short Ringo Update

When I tightened the hub retaining nuts, I crossed off vibration to make the to-do list only three tasks long. Last night I tackled all three starting with the oil pressure in the engine. As promised, I took some photos of the install I rigged up. At the engine is a 1/8 NPT male to 3/16 flared tubing adapter. Into that is the 12 inches of brake line ending in another adapter. Next is an all 1/8 NPT female T. Finally, into that goes the tubing fitting for the gauge and the stock oil pressure switch. To keep things from vibrating to death, I added a bracket attached to the aft alternator bolt with the T zip-tied to the end. I fired up the engine to check that there were no leaks of either the electric or petroleum variety. All joints were good-to-go, the idiot came on initially and immediately went off with first few revolutions of the engine.

On to ridding Ringo of his veering tendency while under braking. With his right rear up on the jack, I pulled off the wheel and brake drum and gave the adjuster wheel a couple revolutions in the tighten direction. The drum slid back on revealing only a hint of contact with the shoe liners. The wheel was bolted back on and a twist of the jack screw and the car settled back onto the floor.

Finally, I masked off the trim and body around the leaky corner of the backlight before squirting some silicone RTV into the joint between the stainless trim and body. With a latex glove covered hand, I forced the goo into the joint as deeply as possible before pulling off the tape and calling it a day.

Today I noticed right away there much less pulling when I hit the brakes during my commute. Another turn or two and I should have the car stopping true. Once I arrived at the lot and pulled into a parking space, I watched with bated breath to see if the TEMP/PRES light would illuminate once Ringo came to a complete stop and the rpms were at their lowest. Lo-and-behold the light stayed off. Yippee. I got out and took a gander at the gauge anyway and saw it was hovering right around 7-8 psi. Borderline, but with the switch off, I’m calling it a victory. I’ll probably squirt some water at the backlight tonight to see if the silicone created an impassible wall or not.

Ringo Update – Oil Pressure and Other Miscellaneous Frustrations

First of all, I apologize for the recent lack of photos. No excuses and I'll attempt to rectify the situation this evening. I have been driving Ringo as much as possible to wean out all possible issues before turning him over to Ariel. The last time I posted about him, I noted the TEMP/PRES light illumination as I pulled into my parking spot at work. Well, the light did the same thing after my commute home that day, so fixing this moved to the top of my to-do list. First of all I needed to make sure there really was a problem and not just a bad switch. I had bought a used oil pressure gauge sometime in the past, but it didn’t come with any of the fittings or tubing necessary to install it. A trip to Pep Boys yielded a kit that supplied all I needed. At the curb that evening I removed the alternator to gain access to the oil pressure switch. With the switch out, I screwed in the adapter and plumbed up the gauge using the tubing and fittings from kit. Since the tubing wasn’t long enough to route all the way to the dash, I chose to mount the gauge on the rear inside wall of the engine compartment. My intention is the gauge is only temporary until I’m sure all is right with the engine’s oiling system. Once the now-connected gauge was mounted to the wall using one of the license plate screws, a lockwasher and nut, I fired up the engine and watched the needle climb to 30 psi. Not bad, but not as high as I’d hoped to see. I knew from a posting on the CorvairCenter forum that the switch goes off at around 7 psi, so at least I was above that.

The next morning I made my morning commute of 20 minutes with the last 15 being at highway speeds. After pulling into my spot, I pulled hard on the parking brake, left the shifter in Drive, and headed to the rear of the car to view the gauge. Sadly, it was only reading a little over 5 psi. Crap, the switch was accurate. I went inside and posted of my woes on Virtual Vairs. I received many responses; most were nice and helpful, although one guy actually kicked me when I was down by insinuating I got what I deserved because I hadn’t used all parts. Anyway, the recommendation easiest to implement was drain the 10W30 oil out of the crankcase and replace it with 10W40. The higher viscosity might just get me above the magic 7 psi mark. I did that this last weekend and after this morning’s drive, the gauge registered nearly 10 psi. It was cooler this morning, so I’m probably on the ragged edge of acceptability but time, and warmer weather, will tell. While the issue could be with the pump, the probable cause is the bearings. I should have laid out the two hundred dollars for new bearings, but the old ones looked okay and measured within spec. Oh well, live and learn – again.

With the desire to keep the gauge for the near future and have the switch back in the system, I went to NAPA on my lunch hour and bought some fittings and a brake line that I plan on installing tonight. The intention is to run the tubing from the hole on the rear engine cover straight back to the rear wall of the engine compartment, screw on the T with the switch screwed onto one outlet port and the gauge plumbed to the other. Then, if the light comes back on, I can hop out and check the gauge. Before giving Ringo back to Ariel, I’ll remove all this excess and put things back the way Chevy had designed it.

The other problems that have manifested themselves were a vibration above 50 mph, brakes that badly pulled to the left, and leaks in the backlight seal. The first one was corrected while dealing with the second. While adjusting the brakes I found that I’d neglected to tighten the four nuts holding the left rear hub to the control arm. TYL that I didn’t hurt anything or worse. The drive in this morning was vibration-free. The brakes, however still pull so I did not fix that problem.

I had read someone’s method for finding leaks online and attempted to implement it this weekend. I taped closed two fresh air vents and all the side window and door joints after sticking the end of my shop vac hose thorugh a wing window and taping that all closed. Then, with the other end of the hose stuck in the exhaust of the shop vac, I went hunting with a spray bottle of soapy water. After much fruitless searching for the leak location, I asked the lovely Loriann to come out to the garage and assist me. Within a couple minutes, she’d found the leak, but not by finding bubbles, but by feeling for escaping air. Smart woman. It’s in the lower left corner of the backlight, and I’ll mask of and fill it tonight with silicone RTV.

Some Children are Too Accommodating

I am blessed with wonderful daughters. Sometimes they are wonderful to a fault. I was very fortunate to land the two father-daughter project cars that were both affordable and exactly what Brianna and Ariel wanted. When it came time to shop for Victoria’s, she decided she wanted to be different and chose a LM convertible. Months of searching for the right candidate yielded nothing – the affordable ones were rust-buckets and the solid ones were WAY out of our budget. Then, by the extreme generosity of a fellow Corvair club member, we were presented with the opportunity to get Glinda for basically free. While she was a late model, and she ran, and she’d had a recent brake overhaul, and she was a beautiful color, she was not a convertible. I didn’t want Victoria to settle, and she convincingly told me she wasn’t. She really liked the car, so Glinda joined the fleet. Subsequently, I’ve come to find out that Victoria does enjoy Glinda as her daily-driver, but she’d still rather have a convertible. Hopefully, we can fix that with one of Phil’s.

Now I’m going through the same thing with Mikhaila. As I’ve shared, for a while she insisted her dream car was not a car at all, but a truck. She was meeting the requirement of our project vehicle being a Corvair, but she wanted it to be a Rampside. While her mom and I recognize the safety technology in the 50-year-old cars her sisters drive is archaic, we had to draw the line at letting a sixteen year-old (or later by the time our project is completed) operate a vehicle with less than a foot of front-end crumple zone. Mikhaila’s second choice at the time was an EM convertible, “like Brianna’s.” Then, a few weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to purchase a ’64 4-door for a VERY favorable price. I showed Mikhaila photos and she told me she really like the look of the EM 4-doors with their overhanging roof and lots of brightwork. The lovely Loriann was quite surprised her daughter would be happy with a 4-door. I went back to Mikhaila and asked her directly, “is a 4-door REALLY, TRULY what you want?” Her response was, “No; she really wanted a convertible.” I appreciated her honesty, especially since I was on the verge of hauling home a car that I’d be the only one to care about. Next, I drug her to the computer, where I’d arranged photos of LM ‘verts and EM ‘verts, both top-up and top-down. “Which one?” I queried. Without much of a hesitation, she pointed to the LM. “That one”

Now, I’m shopping for two LM convertible projects.

On the Road Again

After another evening in the garage, Ringo was ready for commuting duty this morning. Last night I finished the starter replacement, installed the four pieces that close off the engine seals (including the rear grill), put the air cleaner assembly back on, and gave him a bath.

This morning I drove him on the highway for the first time. The upshift point does feels a little higher than I'm used to with my other PG cars, but shifting is smooth and it would downshift at 35 with the throttle floored. The only surprise (read: disappointment) was the TEMP/PRES light came on when I stopped in my parking spot. At this point, the engine was idling in Drive and it had been fifteen minutes driving at 55-65 mph. As soon as I shifted to Neutral and the rpms came up a couple hundred, the light went off. I'm thinking (read: hoping) that all I need to do is install a new sender or, at the worst, a thinner gasket under the oil pump cover. I will, however, hook up a pressure gauge and see what’s truly happening before doing anything more. I know, thanks to a post on the web that the light should not come on until the pressure is 7 psi or less. That’s what I’ll be looking for.

Ringo Can Upshift

Saturday I took Ringo out for a short cruise at speeds up to 50. I didn’t dare go too far since the tail/brake lights still weren’t operating. While it seemed like the transmission held itself in Low a little longer than we’re used to, it did smoothly shift into Drive. It also looks like I was successful in stemming the flow of ATF leaking from the shifter cable. While there was a dangling drop of fluid, there were no puddles. Saturday evening I was out in the garage replacing the starter and finishing the reinstallation of the engine seal pieces. I should be able to finish that tonight and I’m hoping to drive him to work in the morning.

I Like the Easy Ones

Yesterday afternoon I received a text from the lovely Loriann. “V’s got a dead driver’s side brake light.” Once dinner was done and we’d walked around the neighborhood, I tackled the issue. Armed with a flashlight, a GUP bulb, a jumper wire with alligator clips, and my voltage tester, I popped open Glinda’s engine lid and began diagnostics. After ensuring the metal socket was properly seated in its plastic housing (it was), I replaced the bulb, connected the ground clip to a good ground on the body with the jumper wire, and pulled on the hazard light switch – no blinking bulb on the right side. I removed the bulb and probed the contacts of the socket with my tester. Nothing at first, but then, after scratching through a light layer of corrosion, the tester started to blink. I shut off the hazard switch and used the end of the tester probe to clean off both contacts in the socket. After the replacement bulb was reinstalled and the socket back in place, both the blinking and taillight elements of that light functioned.

Lucy’s Back on the Road

Yesterday evening, I took Ariel back up to school and included with her baskets of now-clean laundry were a ½ inch wrench, latex gloves, a rag, a couple plastic shopping bags, a container filled with speedy dry, a Clark’s filter, and a jug of 30 weight Rotella motor oil. Upon arriving at her complex’s parking lot, I spread most of the speedy dry over the oily mess Lucy’s engine had made. I wrapped the bag around the offending filter, and after removing the oil filter bolt and carefully maneuvering the filter out of the engine compartment, I found the seal ring stuck to the filter adapter not to the filter where it belonged. I bolted on the replacement, topped off the crankcase, and had Ariel start the engine. The GEN/PRES light went off and stayed off, and the ground beneath Lucy’s engine didn’t get any oilier. Job accomplished, I packed up my stuff, hit the road and was back home by 9:30. Sadly, it was too late to deal with Ringo, so the next installment of Ringo’s Powerglide saga will have to wait.

On the car acquisition front, there are two bits of news for you, my loyal blog reader. First, Mikhaila, my youngest, and I have an appointment to go look at a ’64 Monza 4-door Monday evening. A friend of mine at work has one that’s been sitting in his father’s garage for many, many years. It’s got front end damage from a collision hence the reason it was parked. Since I’m not afraid of bodywork anymore and the price is right, we’re going to go check it out. If the rest of the car is as good as he described, and the body’s not tweaked (I’ll be bringing a tape measure), we’ll commit to the purchase.

Second, the guy that gave me the Cut-up 4-door succumbed to cancer about three months ago. Sadly, he passed WAY too early and left behind a VERY sad family. He also left behind a collection of cars, parts, and tools that his brother will be finding new homes for. While Phil was alive and battling, I told him I would help in any way possible with the liquidation of his Corvair stuff. The stuff includes a Lakewood wagon, a ’64 coupe, and two LM convertibles, and a lot of parts. Since the cancer took him so quickly I was never able to help him, but I’ve contacted his brother and we’re meeting later this month to review and discuss what to do with Phil’s Corvair stuff. Since Victoria has some money now that she’s joined the working world, there may be an opportunity for her to get the LM convertible she’s wanted.

The Transmission Makes its Maiden Voyage

Well, I wish I could write that everything is perfect with Ringo, but as you’ll read in a bit, it’s not…yet.

I got home early yesterday afternoon, donned some grungies, and headed to the garage. The weather was beautiful so I had the garage door open. Sadly, that didn’t last long since the descending sun shone directly into my eyes as I crawled under Ringo to finish his drivetrain reinstallation. I had rummaged through a reject box at work and came up with an assortment of large diameter heat shrink tubing that would hopefully fit over the shifter cable flange and then shrink enough to seal over the leaky sheathing of the cable. Only the largest would fit, but fortunately it was a piece long enough. After slathering RTV at each end of the tubing, I applied the exhaust of my heat gun, but the tubing wouldn’t shrink down to the much smaller diameter of the sheathing. To try and make things leak resistant, I cut pieces of rubber tubing and used tiny hose clamps to close off each end. Next I removed the transmission oil pan and installed the shifter cable end into its receptacle in the Powerglide (PG). Everything looked good so I smeared a light coat of RTV sealer on one side of the pan gasket before placing it sealer side down on the pan’s flange. A light coat of grease was spread over the exposed face of the gasket followed by bolting the pan in place following the manual’s specified torquing. Wanting to let the sealer harden some before exposing it to fresh ATF, I moved on to reinstalling the filler/dipstick tube for the trans, speedometer cable end, axles, hot air hoses, and rear wheels. Then the fuel hose was re-clamped and the battery hooked up before lowering the rear down off the jackstands. After a dinner break, I poured in about a gallon of ATF, checking for leaks all the while and had Ariel turn the key to start the engine. Sadly, there was no response from the solenoid. I verified there was 12 volts at the purple wire when she turned the key, but still nothing at the starter. I hot-wired the purple wire directly to the battery’s positive and the engine sprang to life with no untoward noises emanating from the transmission. Again glancing under the car to check for leaks, I was greeted by the sight of dryness – YES! I had her snick the shifter to Drive and lo-and-behold the reassuring slight lunge of the car and drop in engine speed signaled that the PG had gone into gear. I then had her move the shifter back to Neutral and then to Reverse and all went according to the General’s plan. After running it for a while in both Drive and Reverse, I checked the fluid level and topped it off before sending Ariel and her car on their way for a drive around the neighborhood. She came back and reported that it seemed to stay in Low longer than she was used to. She never took it out on the main street since I hadn’t yet hooked up the ground wires, so the car was brake and taillight-less. I still needed to adjust the throttle linkage which directly impacts shift points and I added about a pint and a half of ATF, so I’m optimistic it will behave correctly the next time he’s on the road. The grungies were WAY too grungy to be placed on a seat, so that “next time” will have to wait a day or so.

It's ALWAYS Something

The lovely Loriann and I spent this last weekend sampling the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Philadelphia. While enjoying dinner Saturday evening at our very favorite Thai restaurant, Loriann’s phone rang. It was Ariel. To make a long story, well just not so long, Lucy’s oil filter blew out as Ariel was pulling into her apartment parking lot. Once she saw the TEMP/PRES light go on, she immediately shut off the car and coasted into the nearest parking spot. She got out, walked around to the back of the car and almost slipped and fell in a big puddle of oil getting bigger by the second. She looked into the engine compartment and found the oil filter coated. She was planning on driving home the next evening, so Loriann and I changed our route home from Philly to swing through Millersville. After getting there, I verified that it was indeed the oil filter leaking badly at the housing interface. I’m wondering if the rubber seal from the previous filter got left in place when I last changed the oil and filter. I’m SO thankful the blow-out happened within feet of her parking lot rather than on the highway on her drive home. TYL!

Guessing that was a sign that I REALLY need to get Ariel’s car on the road, I took yesterday off and worked all day on Ringo. First up was re-rebuilding the transmission (this time with the proper gasket/seal kit). There were no issues other than I discovered I was missing the small spring behind the primer plunger. It must have popped out when I disassembled the trans originally and ended up who-knows-where. As long as Ringo’s current one still had the part, I was okay. After going as far as I could without the spring, I lowered the drivetrain and rolled it out onto the floor. A few minutes later, I had the cover off the old Powerglide and the spring in hand. To satisfy my curiosity, I pulled off the front pump of the malfunctioning PG. Lo and behold, a chunk of something metallic was sitting in the bottom of the cavity. I removed all the other subassemblies I could, but didn’t find what had broken. Back to the rebuilding, I installed the spring, plunger, and front cover and then moved on to rebuilding the valve body with new gaskets. The hardest part of that task was reinstalling the e-clip. Finally, everything was bolted back to the PG including the oil pan. I’d left off the gasket since I wanted to look inside the transmission while engaging the shift cable. Only four bolts held the bad PG to the differential and they came off easily. Rolling the transmission jack away from the drivetrain freed the PG and I replaced the bad with the good. I engaged the shafts as I rolled the rebuilt transmission into place and torqued the four bolts. I rolled the complete drivetrain back under then engine compartment and then up into place. After installing the two bolts and two nuts that secure the powerpack, I hooked up the wires to the alternator and then looked at the clock. Since it was nearing ten and I was dead tired, it was time to quit before I did something stupid.

All that’s left is hooking up the gas line and shifter cable, patching the leaky shift cable with heat shrink, reinstalling the rear axles, and bolting on the trans pan and filling it with ATF. I should be able to drop Ringo off the jackstands early this evening if I leave work at 4.

Ringo’s Drivetrain is Ready to Drop

In anticipation of having the replacement Powerglide rebuilt within the next week, I put Ringo’s rear up on jackstands last night and disconnected everything necessary to remove a Corvair drivetrain (wires, heater hoses, linkages, perimeter seal retainers, vacuum line, e-brake spring, and axles). I found a large puddle under his rear which I attribute to leaks in the current blankety-blank transmission.

Prior to starting the evening’s work on Ringo, I dealt with some air compressor connection issues. The previous owner of the compressor had refitted the outlet with a 3/8ths T coupler, but he threw-in the nice, long hose that mated with it. My problem was I wanted to fit my automatic oil in between the compressors fitting and the inlet to the hose. In the box of tools and fittings the PO had included with the deal, I found some fittings, but in trying them they all seemed to leak. I need to do more investigating on this, but in the meantime, I just manually oiled the tool I wanted to use and continued to implement the hose and coupler setup he’d provided.

Lessons in Powerglide Rebuilding

Over the last few days, I’ve learned quite a bit about the GM Powerglide automatic transmission (PG).

First, the version used in Corvairs has smaller components than the PG used in their other cars and trucks. Second, the phrase, “penny wise, pound foolish” can be applied to my decision to save thirty dollars and buy the rebuild kit from a non-Corvair vendor. Third, it’s important to ensure all replacement parts are correct before proceeding with a rebuild. These three lessons became painfully clear when I discovered many of the gaskets and seals in the kit I’d purchased from a Finditparts.com (the one their website said would fit all PGs including those used on Corvairs) were not the right size for Ringo’s replacement transmission. The first seal I tried to install was too large for the groove it needed to fit in so I used the correct seal from an old partial rebuild kit that had arrived at my garage in Glinda’s trunk. Continuing on, I was in good shape until I went to install the paper gasket between the front pump body and the front pump cover. It was about an eighth of an inch too large in diameter. Sadly, the partial kit was missing this piece. At this point I had the choice to just buy the right gasket from Clark’s and button everything up or take everything apart, return the kit to the Finditparts.com, buy the correct kit from Clark’s and reassemble AGAIN the PG. Not knowing whether any of the half-dozen seals I’d used from the wrong kit were incorrect, I decided to go with the second choice. Yesterday morning I placed a call to Finditparts.com for a return authorization (which they granted without issue) and then ordered the correct kit from Clark’s. It should be here by the weekend. In the meantime, my garage time will be spent separating Ringo from his drivetrain.

Other highlights and lessons learned from the weekend of tranny overhauling included:
-Do NOT try to use large c-clamps to compress the springs in a clutch. Instead use a press; even if it’s a jury-rigged drill press, it’ll do the job.
-It takes three different pieces of documentation to fully understand how a PG goes back together (1961 manual, 1965 manual, and a hardcopy of GM’s instructional filmstrip).
-Even with three different pieces of documentation, take copious photos. I referred back to the ones I took during disassembly a few times.
-More than a shower is required to rid one’s hands of the distinctive aroma caused by a cocktail of ATF, solvent, and heavy duty hand cleaner.

I’ve Got Air Again

Saturday I stopped by home of a friend who’s moving to Chicago and doing some serious downsizing. While he’s keeping his beautiful LaSalle and Buick, he’s parting with most of his larger tools. I got a nice deal on the 25 gallon 2HP compressor pictured above and some air tools (1/2 impact wrench, 3/8 ratchet wrench, air hammer with numerous attachments) and fittings. Frank had the motor wired up for 230V, but my outlets in the garage are 115V, so on my way home, I stopped by Home Depot and bought a larger gauge cord and plug. After a half-hour of wiring work, I gathered a fire extinguisher and plugged it in. No sparks and the nice thump, thump, thump of a well-running compressor. It is MUCH quieter than the one stolen.

Wanting to ensure my purchase will be with me for a good, long while, I then finished the installation of the motion sensing light over the garage door. Between that deterrent and the locks I’ve placed on the doors and the boards in the windows I should not be a target for burglars again.

Glinda Trifecta

While I was away for a long weekend visiting my parents in California, two packages arrived with parts for Glinda. Tuesday evening I was out in the driveway installing the GUP speedometer cable from the Corvair Ranch and the GNP pitman arm bushing from Clark’s. A few minutes after I jacked up (and properly supported) the front end, I began to smell gas. Thinking it was from a leaky hose, I searched all around the gas tank, but found no telltale wetness. I worked my way towards the rear of the car, but didn’t find the leak until I opened the engine lid and discovered a significant stream flowing from the fuel pump. My first thought was that the notoriously poorly made fuel pump was leaking from its gasket sandwich, so I snugged down the bolts that clamp the sandwich. No change. So, assuming the gasket was bad, I pulled my wrenches out of their drawer and began to remove the pump to replace it with the known good one to be donated by Ringo. Thankfully, I didn’t get very far in the removal since the first fitting I put the wrench to was very loose. Simply torquing the fitting down staunched the flow of fuel. I love an easy fix.

Back to the speedo cable R&R. The task went easily with the interior end of the cable coming loose from the back of the speedo with just the turn of my fingers. The hardest part of the job was slipping the grommet off the old cable and forcing it over the fitting and onto the replacement. I’d done it before, and was able to stretch open the hole enough to do it again.

On to the bushing. I poured some of my rust-busting homemade penetrant onto the threads of the nut and bolt and carefully spun off the nut. I did NOT want to break this bolt since I had no replacement for this special tapered piece of hardware. A few bangs with my new separator fork (thank you Bill) and the bolt was safely on the ground and the old bushing rubber was free to be removed. With the damaged rubber out of the way, the new nylon bushing (with grease on it) slid into place and the joint was made whole again with bolt and castle nut torqued until I could install the cotter pin.