The little things

Today was a relief. There have been just a few minor issues to sort out in order to get this thing ready for an inspection when registered. First, there was the major issue of getting into the engine bay. Turns out all my work for a few days crawling around on the ground had been in vain, for within 5 minutes of jacking the front end up for a better angle of attack, we had popped the latch and the hood opened.

I decided it was time to replace the old cable and handle as the old one was obviously beat.

I was just relieved to have the damn thing open. This has been a big stessor in my life for the last few days, and I want to be sure it doesn't happen again. As you can see, there was no saving this old housing. The cable itself was fine, but had too much slack in it, from extending over the years. I'm not sure why all the things that you never think about on this car are popping up, but I'm sure there will be many more like it down the road. Hopefully I will gain experience and knowledge, but I'm afraid at the moment I'm still an amateur in decoding its nuances. There is an overwhelming amount of work to be done still, but I am pledging to get it to a nicer state.





 

I ended up buying a hood latch cable kit from NAPA and a brake line from a local bike shop. The NAPA kit didn't come with a sheath, but I thought I might need the ball end from the bike cable, as that is what the latch mechanism takes. 

We had to take the latch off of the car to work on it. When it came off, it was covered in a nice layer of grease and sludge. I didn't take the time to grab my new iPhone out of my pocket with greasy fingers to show how dirty it was, but it was no wonder it was sticking. After a bath and scrub, I managed to get most of it down to metal. Had I steel wool, I may have done better in this effort. A couple sections had been bent, and the spring connecting the two opposite sliding ends of the mechanism had popped off during one of my previous efforts to pop the hood manually. A little bit of work with the pliers, a nice lubrication, and this is what I ended up with:

 

And reinstalling the refurbished system into the car. You can see in the picture on the right that we (Brock and I) abandoned the bicycle brake type fitting, and instead drilled a small hole and attached the screw down fitting that came with the NAPA kit. This was done a) because the cable I bought from the bike store had the ball end, but not the attachment on the other end of the cable for the pull handle. That is a fitting that has a handle attached. The bike cable would have worked like a dream, but without a handle, it was worthless to this system. This way, the cable is also adjustable, should it gain slack. Hopefully, this system is something I will not have to deal with again, but if I do, I want to be able to fix it without a big headache. 

Now that I have engine access again it was time to throw the air cleaner back on, and also get a tie town strap for the battery. There were the rods, but not the strap connecting the two. I also picked up a rearview mirror and installed it, but forgot to take a picture. 

 

The car is getting closer and closer to being at least temporarily road going. There are still a couple minor issues to sort out, but I have yet to even have a proper drive in this thing. This car deserves all the work it can get, but for the time being, we're going to have to rough it together, until I can start the teardown and rebuild. There is body work, engine work, interior work, and more to be done. I want to have a proper driver that can stand its own amongst more expensive cars when it comes to looks and form. This will inevitably become a money pit in my life, but at least I can say it will be worth it. If not for the financial gain/loss, at least for the fact that I can see this in my driveway:

Title should arrive within next two days, then my relationship with this car can really begin. If the nice weather we've been having keeps up, I might have to treat myself to a drive.

Fuel Pump, Fuel Filter, Carburetor and MORE

The last couple days were spent in cramped uncomfortable positions, trying to get this puppy running. First thing first, I took the old fuel pump off, cut the wires, and went across the street to Autozone and picked up a new pump. I also picked up an inline fuel filter. For some reason, this car didn't have one previously. I'm planning on running high quality fuel in the car, but in case there are any leftover gremlins hanging out at the bottom of the gas tank, I want to play it safe. I also want to treat any new engine components down the road with utmost care, particularly the Weber carb I plan on installing.

Here's the new pump on the left next to the old one. The fuel filter is clear plastic but will eventually need to be replaced down the line with a metal one due to proximity to the road. I want to see how the tank is doing for a while though.

The previous owner had already done all the hard work of drilling holes and wiring things in, so putting the pump in was just a matter of connecting hoses and trying not to spill gas everywhere. I need to clean the wiring system in this car up a bit too. Since there is body work and paint that needs to be done, I plan on doing a total rebuild next winter. For now though I am focusing on mainly mechanical/electrical issues.


Up and running after everything was put back together. Those fins under the turn signals are diamond plate steel bolted to the frame. I'm not sure what their purpose is besides providing me with a tetanus threat everytime I need to get under the frame. I plan on fabricating a bumper for it soon, but I will attach it to the two main points underneath the grille.

Once again thanks to Brock Murphy @ European Motorworks for letting me use his shop and some more specialized tools. He is really a knowledgeable guy that will help you get the job done right.

 

 This afternoon saw a quick adjustment of the carb to idle more smoothly, and a quick drive around the block to see if it the motor is running smoothly.  Unfortunately, it stalled out on me, and refused to start back up, so I had to push it the rest of the way back. Thanks to the two guys that stopped to help me. When I got back to the shop to diagnose the problem,  I was denied access to the engine bay. The cable to pop the hood is jammed somewhere along the line. I tried to mess with it from the inside, but with no luck. I think it is being pinned down by the battery which is unsecured at the moment. Every attempt to force pop the hood so far has been brutally unsuccessful. To top it off, I snapped the spring off from the pivot plate that releases the hood. Sorry for the lack of pictures here but I was racing the quickly fading solstice sun and the cold winds were starting to blow. 

Spending tomorrow going to Phoenix and brainstorming, but come Friday, I will try my luck once again. Going to have a conundrum on my hands if I don't get this figured out. Slowly but surely, this car will teach me its lessons.

FIRST DAY

12-19-11

I took delivery of my 1973 Toyota Corolla TE-27 two days ago. Today was the first day of working on her. First step was to "clean out the cobwebs" and get her idling properly. When I took her off the trailer, she was not wanting to start up. The seller I bought her from said he had the carburetor rebuilt, but he obviously didn't run it recently, as the old gas in the tank was trash. As you can see, we (myself and my trusty Flagstaff car guy- Brock Murphy w/ European Motor Company) made quite a smoky mess trying to clean the old gas out before putting new 91 octane in. The old gas was so bad, the fumes burnt the concrete, as you can see below.

Somewhere in this process, the fuel pump stopped working. We could hear it when the key was turned in the ignition, but then it suddenly stopped working. We tried running some Sea foam cleaner through the carburetor, and the engine would turn over with this poured in, but would then stall due to a lack of fuel. Time to check out the pump.

We jacked up the back of the car (looked kind of funny), and found the pump. It was a newer aftermarket pump, so I assumed it was still in good operating condition. I did however, find something I didn't like. The wires connected to the fuel pump were just spliced together and wrapped in electrical tape. Kids, THIS IS NOT PROPER. Time to check the leads for voltage.

The wires were giving 11 volts with ignition turned, so we surmised the fuel pump must be faulty. Unfortunately, at this point there was still a couple gallons of really nasty gas in the tank, so we used our good friend gravity to get the rest of the gas out.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to pick up a new fuel pump, install it properly, and also throw an inline fuel filter just so I feel extra secure about it.

After that, gonna go register it, and get to drive it around town a little bit :)