Well I guess this day was as good as I could expect.
As part of my plan, I set out with several exhaust parts, and my tail shaft this morning to get them checked off my list. Before I left, I wanted to see how hard it was gonna be to get that U-joint out of the drive shaft.
I removed the spring clips, found a socket to use as a driver, found a bigger socket to act as a receiver, and gave the thing a whack.
It didn't move.
I got a bigger hammer and did the same, only this time, it was moving. After pounding on it for 30 seconds, I got the thing to move about 3/8" before the body of the u joint hit the yoke.
Now what am I sposed to do?
I decided to say "f that" and turned the shaft over and started beating it back together..it was somewhere between there and where it ended up that I realized that I had managed to free up the sticking u joint by whacking it. I believe that it was jammed a little too far to one side and was binding up slightly, causing it to stick.
So,..the day started off costing me nothing, while at the same time fixing something.
After that I got in the car, and went to AAMCO. Told the guy that works there that I needed a bushing installed and asked if he could do it for me. He said that he could, and that it might take a couple of minutes. I tell the guy no problem, and that I need to go across to the bank to get some money so I can pay him,......
He says it ain't gonna cost me nothin' and not to worry about it..
Excellent.
I get the part back, thank the guy, and move on to the powder coater.
I get to the powder coater and show him what I need ceramic coated. This is the same guy that coated my headers earlier this year.
I have the merge pipe, the turbine housing, the down pipe, the headers, and the charge tube that needs done. The headers have been hurt by wrapping a couple of tubes, and where they made contact with a wrapped tube, have turned orange. They needed to be redone.
Last year the guy charged me 270.00 to do the headers. This time he's charging me 270.00 again,.........to do everything.
Again,..it seems like free to me.
I leave the stuff with dude. I'll have it in a couple of weeks.
I get back home,...I gotta deal with the crankcase vent. The voice inside my head says,..." You got the engine out,.....you may as well pull that pan to see what kinda funk is in there..at the very least, it'll be piece of mind"
So I remove the pan to find.........nothing. The pan is clean.
It did serve to give me piece of mind,...it also did two other things.
#1. Now that I could see firsthand, I came to realize that the distributor hole would be a disaster as a choice to vent the crankcase......Why do ya spose?
The disc you can barely see is the bottom of the expando -freeze plug. Removing that thing would have exposed the future vent hose fitting to an oily distributor cam gear centrifically
flinging oil directly out of that hole.
No! said the Monkey fightin' Finger.
#2. So,..despite Hot Foxes advice,..the pan got the fitting instead.
It's a 90. Pointed down, and between crank throws lined up the the #3 main. It's high enough to be out of the oil, and on the down side rotation of the crank. Any oil that makes it up that tube will gravity drain right back into the pan. Hopefully this works.
I cleaned up the throttle bodies, and recalibrated them...Each throttle body has to be loosened, and the shaft has to be held in the closed position. Then one at a time, each tb has to be rotated closed, and set. Then one tb is opened with its set screw, and each tb is opened one at a time until all slack is removed between them.
Mine are all really close now.
I removed one seat, and was able to get one bracket completely built and painted
I used the old pro car seat adjuster sliders, and was able to make it fit beautifully. The adjuster lever had to be cut, bent, and welded to pas by the front seat bolt.mthe pic makes that look all bent to hell, but it's an opto-illusion....it's perfect.
The valve cover is back to vent mode...I got rid of those aluminum discs, and was able to bandage up the holes with sealed rivets..I should be good.