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Last night in The Shop I changed tasks to focus on the bikes. After rearranging the shop again (tucking that SBC into the dark abyss since nobody wants to buy it), I was able to get good access to Matts bike. I was able to quickly replace the clutch cable, and the pull has gone from a full hand pull and gritty, to butter smooth and a relaxed two finger pull. Even with the old cable in the bench vise, I can barely cycle its stroke length.
Second task was replacing the leaky seal for the automatic decompression lever in the cylinder head. After pulling the retainer bolt and shaft out, the old seal fell out of its bore. I suspected that it shrunk from age, but when I inspected closer there was a groove on the OD of the seal, looks like it was never driven in far enough to begin with. Two quick fixes, total success.Next up, both bikes need their air filters cleaned and re-oiled. A quick engine oil & filter change on mine, and she’ll be ready for spring time rippin’.
Happy first day of spring. Still looks like a frozen Arctic tundra in Shelburne. -10 degrees and 10cms of snow two days ago. Tired of this winter crap…bring on the springtime mud!
Had a productive night in The Shop yesterday, knocking 3 items off my to do list.
I finished the shifter base gasket install by marking/drilling/filing the last two locating holes. Secondly I separated the Advanced Adapter unit from the back of the TH350 trans. Supposedly a kijiji person is coming this weekend to buy all the auto trans shit (trans, torque convertor, fluid cooler, slap shifter) for $250. I’ll believe it when I have cash in hand though.
Thirdly I removed the very leaky power steering gear, it was so easy to get out as compared to squeezing it into place when the SBC was installed.No pictures from last night, phone was backing up for 2 hours, then I forgot about it haha
I finished welding the tranny tunnel patches Saturday evening, ground the spatter off, and hit it all with red oxide primer.
To finish the task, I just have to install the plate with 4/6 oem locating holes, then mark and drill the two holes into my new plates, then file the holes square.
I am going to buy some seal sealer to cover my welds as there are a couple pin holes that absolutely refuse to close up. As for the self-tapper holes, I’ll simply fill them with seam sealer or RTV.
Grabbed a bunch of parts off @Finn yesterday. I got 4.88s, some rear axle lockers, a CV, some IFS locking hubs, and a clutch pedal assembly.
Noticed my snowblower getting louder the last couple days. This morning I confirmed my suspicion when the heat shield rattled off with the welded bracket still bolted on. Gonna try my best to reattach the brackets effectively plugging the holes, but not replace the heat shield afterwards.
Had a great night working in the shop last night. I got one of the two transmission tunnel patches cut, welded, ground and primed…..while the second patch was only cut and partially welded into place. My welding skills seriously deteriorated after 11:30 for reasons unknown, so i called it quits for the night. I decided that I will just RTV all the self-tapper holes closed from both sides.
I’m looking forward to being done patching this hole so I can move onto a new task. I plan to remove and replace the front diff from 4.10:1 to 4.88:1. Tomorrow I’m heading west to raid the Viking parts hoard.
I hope to sell this SBC soon, I am jonesing to test fit the 3RZ with Chilkoot conversion mounts for the first time.
Made 1/3 progress on my tranny tunnel repair this afternoon while kids are at school.
There were 3 places on the transmission tunnel that were trimmed to make clearance for the automatic trans shifter, however I need to close the gaps around the shifter base gasket.
I got 1 panel fully welded in, arguably the two remaining panels will be easier because I have better access to it. Time will tell haha. Hopefully I can get 1 out of those two remaining finished tonight.
Haha good one Steve, I have proof of penetration here, 3 proofs actually.
I found a pneumatic die grinder in my chest of weapons, and set out flattening the bumpiness and knocking off the spatter. The lumpiness would have interfered with the fender washer that goes on the top side of the body mounts.
Now I’m happy to cross this item off my list and carry on. Thinking I’ll weld up the tranny tunnel while I’m in this wonderful welding mood. Another instance where aesthetics is not going to be crucial to performance 👍🏽👍🏽
Well, it is not the prettiest, but much strength was added to the front body mounts today. It’d look a lot better if I was able to grind the welds down flush (or at all), but I don’t have a narrow enough sander/grinder to fit within the pitch of the body mount. So ugly and bumpy it will remain.
Tonight I will either attempt to remove the front diff, or continue making patch panels, moving to the tranny tunnel next.
Bought some 10, 12 & 14 gauge offcuts from a local machine shop today, should be more than adequate for my patch panels. I think the front mounts are roughly 12 gauge (0.080” or 1.8mm), all I know is that my old washing machine is only 0.060” and far too bendy to be useful.
Pictures uploaded strange, tried twice to put my temp patch panel, but I guess even the Internet was uninterested haha.
Last night I broke out the welder and started repairing the front body mounts that we’re both cracked and torn. I have started by simply welding closed the cracks after beating them into submission. I made cardboard, then very thin steel templates, but I must recut the filter panels out of a thicker gauge steel. I don’t quite need twice the thickness of what I have, but almost twice.
Two successes last night to write about. I got the rest of the exhaust removed after lowering the section from downpipe to tailpipe, after much closer visual inspection I can probably only reuse one muffler, the rest is quite rusty not sure I can weld to it even.
The second success was successfully separating all connections and dropping the fuel tank. I broken out the floor Jack to help myself lower the tank, however as doon d the last boot was out I realized just how empty the tank was. Maybe there is 2 litres of gas left in it. A super slow leak since July of 2021 has practically fully drained it.
Gahhh!! Dropped the skid plate today to find a BB sized failure point in the very bottom centre if the gas tank. (My finger not pointing, but used to show scale). Pretty sure there’s no way to repair it, pretty annoyed to have to replace the tank, AGAIN!
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Spent the weekend participating in a Subaru rally experience, so I got nothing completed in The Shop. Upon returning home I checked in on Redee and got a crazy potent whiff of raw gas, and found a small wet spot under the fuel tank, and the skid plate is saturated in gas **angry face **.
So this week I’m gonna drop the skid plate and try to locate the source. I’m hoping it’s a feed or return line, and not the tank itself which is leaking. That tank was new 4 years ago and shows no physical damage to the sides. Hoping I didn’t puncture or crack the underside of the tank.
