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.

Yeah, It HAS Been a While

It's been aver a month since I last had something postable. Since then, it’s been work, work, work … on a bathroom. Finally, last weekend, the lovely Loriann informed me I had completed the renovation work I was responsible for – she’d do the rest. So with the installation of the marble threshold I was free to work on cars again.

I wanted working with Mikhaila on her car to be the first project I got back to, but that wasn’t to be – she was sick Sunday. Instead, I spent the afternoon re-hanging Glinda’s muffler, replacing an exhaust clamp, installing the Pertronix Ignitor II and Flamethrower II, and adjusting the clutch linkage. Now I just need to get her back on the street and see how much of an improvement those changes made.

In preparation for the holiday time-off I’ve got in a week, I bought some parts from Clark’s and Amazon. I’ve got a bunch of carpet and convertible top samples on their way as well as heater/defroster hoses. Since Clark’s was out of POR-15, I got the quart of semi-gloss from Amazon instead. My hope is that, by the end of the year, Mikhaila and I will have the engine running and the interior ready for carpet.

Money Still Being Spent

While I may be ignoring Glinda and her issues, it doesn’t stop me from I was perusing the entries in the CorvairCenter forum when out jumped one entitled, ‘for sale " Pert 2"’ A Pert 2 (actually called a Pertronix Ignitor II) is an electronic ignition module that fits under a stock distributor cap and replaces the points and condenser, and I was going to buy one with THRaF money, but a change in priorities made that $117 purchase unfeasible. Anyway, I clicked on the link and found the seller was only asking $50 for a slightly used one. Cool! I don’t mind used as testified by my Craigslist tendencies. A quick message to the guy, and I was hooked up. I will, however, need to buy a new coil (a Flamethrower 2), but I was going to do that anyway given Glinda’s rough running at higher rpm.