MillenniumFalcon

Okay, so I learned that the brake warning light flashes, along with the turn signal indicators, when you have the handbrake lifted. 2 days I spent going through the wiring system on this car, thinking that there was a short somewhere.... all because I didn't have a Driver's Manual for it... pure agony. At least now every damn electrical connection and ground in the car has been cleaned and tightened.

MSD Install- there was no black/purple tach wire anywhere in the engine compartment to attach to the grey tach wire coming off the MSD 6A box... after an hour of peeling back the tape from the engine harness, I run a test lead from the tach to the engine compartment and discover that one of the two shielded white wires in the harness is actually the tach wire, and so it must be spliced into the black/purple tach wire somewhere else in the car...

Tach adapter- I did NOT need the tach adapter for my MSD- the grey lead from the MSD box gives me a great tach signal. I saved $80 by not buying that adapter!

I spent the rest of the day fixing broken wires- it's amazing to watch all the little electrical things start to work in the car- simply by cleaning and tightening connections.

I was setting the timing on the car and I have to ask: why does this engine have such a hard time with ignition advance at idle? It coughed and backfired, as soon as I advanced the timing beyond TDC... very strange. (yes, it has the pop-off valve, and boy am I glad). Never saw an engine that had to run retarded timing at idle.

I bought the cam cover gasket set from Pelican that has the thin line of silicone on the bottom cover gaskets- it leaks horribly on both sides of the engine (everywhere) now. I'm going to try a set of fat silicone gaskets next. The valves are much quieter now that they are adjusted though...

Is there a preferred method for sealing these cam covers, if you are not going to upgrade to the turbo covers? I was pretty gentle tightening them down- not a lot of torque on them at all. Eventually, I did torque them down a little more, because they were leaking. Any help appreciated...

One last thing- can you install the O-rings on the rocker arms with the engine in the car, just by pulling the valve covers? I think I also have a little oil seeping from a few of those..?

I was rebuilding the pedal cluster, and the clutch pedal was frozen to the pedal shaft- after using a drift and a mallet, I decide to apply some heat. I heat it up and give it a good whack, and the pedal comes right off...and the circular piece of the pedal where the shaft passes through stayed frozen to the shaft- I'm going to have to cut it off... new clutch pedal: $90

Transmission- was leaking pretty badly, and I found out why: somebody had broken the threaded portion of the speedo drive casting of the front cover, and filled the speedo cable fitting with silicone and clamped a piece of plastic pipe over the cable between the frame and the trans to help push it against the trans- a poor solution. Since the trans cover is going to have to be replaced, I prepped it and epoxied the cable fitting to the trans with JB Weld- When I go to replace the front over, I will have to buy a new clutch cable, but for now it doesn't leak a drop. And I put a compression spring over the cable that applies pressure on the cable fitting towards the trans cover. It works great, but whenever I can find another cover at a reasonable price, I'll buy it and do the repair the right way...

SO right now the car isn't drivable- the cam covers leak too badly, and I have no pedal cluster in the car (waiting on a clutch pedal). I really can't wait to drive it, because I replaced all the shifter bushings, and the rear shifter coupler had been "rebuilt" by somebody who decided to whittle out two rubber bushings by hand (yes, with a knife!) instead of buying the correct bushings, which are not flexible like the rubber was... hoping it will shift better now.

SiberianDVM

Yep. Not a day goes by that I don't find something else to fix on my '84. Sometimes because I broke it trying to fix something else.