These are the Times that Try My Soul

Going backwards is not fun, but that’s what’s been happening. When last I blogged, Glinda was nearing roadworthiness, and by the end of Friday night I’d hooked up the rest of the underside linkages and hoses, and drove her down off the ramps. After a spin around the neighborhood, I was confident I’d fixed the two major issues of clunking/catching clutch and stumbling engine. I even went ahead and put the electronic ignition stuff back in before calling it a night.

Saturday morning Mikhaila and I spent a frustrating couple of hours testing, removing, rebuilding, and reinstalling Scarlett’s blinker switch assembly. While we were successful in our endeavor, it was a shame we spent all her garage time on one small task. Next on the list is bolting on the exhaust and starting up the engine. Maybe we’ll make that momentous milestone some evening this week rather than wait until the weekend.

After she went in the house, I crossed another item off the to-do list when I undid the oil gauge line at the back of the gauge, pushed the tiny ferrule back up the nylon tubing, cut off a half-inch from the end, and reattached the fitting to the gauge. After firing up and revving the engine, I was satisfied that I had a drip-less connection, so I cleaned the oil spot from front carpet. I then removed the non-functioning backup lights (the switch on the transmission was never hooked up), and replaced them with factory blank plates. These were only offered on ’65 Model 500s, but I somehow ended up with them.


One sad thing happened when I went to turn the car on that afternoon – the spring in the ignition switch broke. I now need to manually turn the key from the Start to the On position once the engine is running. Not a big deal, but it’s just one more thing that needs to be dealt with. Irr #1.

Sunday morning I had a very enjoyable windows-down drive to and from church, winding out Glinda’s 110 at each shift and loving the sound and performance. I could hear a slight exhaust leak, so, after changing into grungies, I backed her up onto the ramps again. With the engine still running, I slid under the engine and began tightening nuts on the exhaust pipe flanges. Just about the time I got rid of the leaks, the engine’s rpm increased and then, almost immediately, stopped. I got out and cranked the engine only to now discover the fuel pump wasn’t getting gas to the carbs. Irrr #2. I pushed the car off the ramps and primed the carbs directly with gas out of a can – no luck, still no gas being moved by the pump. A quick R&R with a GUP off the shelf and the engine was running again.

Irr #3 (and it’s a big one) occurred yesterday evening when I was driving the car home from a church event. The clunk/catch came back. When I got home, I told the lovely Loriann that I’m through. The level of frustration I felt after all those hours on working the drivetrain ended up being for naught was too much. I am NOT going through it again. I’ve decided I will drive the car as-is and if something breaks, at least I’ll then know what was causing the problem. If nothing breaks, I’ll learn to live with the clunk/catch. Oh yeah, here's a photo of the relocated oil pressure gauge setup.