Uh oh another free 124 Spider

They're old "real" jack stands, 5 ton, 1 pair is from Snap On, the other is almost identical but from another old company.
 
I got the brakes on and kind of working (fronts bleed ok, but they drag, rears don't bleed all the way). I ordered a few more parts to fix those issues. And I got the new timing belt and idler on, the carb back together, filed the points, filled it with water, and it runs. Neat.

Still lots of work to do...for example, the oil pressure gauge thinks it has pressure when it doesn't, but the idiot light works properly.

 
I managed to bleed the rear brakes a little more, it has most of the pedal now. Went for a drive around the block, and made it home again. There's some oil leaking out the back of the engine. might be from the rear main seal, or might be from something higher up, I have to investigate further. Clutch cable seems sticky, or maybe it's the pedal? it doesn't return all the way. Turn signals don't work. But lots of things do work, including the oil pressure gauge and the temp gauge, tach, and speedometer.

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Leaking rear main seal would not normally leak oil on the outside of he motor. But some of the exhaust manifold studs thread into holes that go all the way into the cam box and have been known to leak oil
 
I don't see anything coming from the exhaust manifold area. And it's also likely that there's more than one leak, so the oil on the outside might not be related to the puddle on the floor.
 
The nice thing about oil leaks is the oil will work it's way under the floor at speed and act as as a rust preventative! Seriously, Get some engine cleaner on the motor, a lot easier to find oil leak sources when you start with a clean motor.
 
Looking at it a bit more it appears the oil on the outside of the engine might be coming from the head gasket, at the front and rear oil passages on the pass side. (it's leaking up front also, no pictures of that yet).

I intend to pull the cover off the bottom of the clutch housing and take a look in there to see if I can tell where the puddle might be coming from, too.

I took a longer drive, I need to replace the front calipers...
 
It wouldn't be a project car if everything worked right. I bought my 76 in the fall of last year and I'm just now starting to drive it on the road. I think my oil mileage is worse than my gas mileage!
 
Yeah, I expect most things to need attention!

I was running the engine for a bit, got it warmed up, was wondering if the cooling fan would come on...but then the starter quit working. Good thing I have two spares.
 
I replaced the starter, which led to having to replace the radiator (I had a spare), then the clutch pedal broke on the test drive. I also was curious and checked the battery voltage when running, it was 18v, so I replaced the voltage regulator. On a positive note, I got the new front calipers in, the brakes are working OK, still have to replace the rear compensator valve and bleed the rear brakes again.

but now I'm working on the clutch pedal...the pedal off the parts car had already been repaired, note the weld and only slightly bent fingers on top.

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A lot of us just delete the rear brake compensator on our spiders. You can chuck the whole compensator assembly and take the steel line from the MC to the compensator and bend it around to go directly into the rubber hose that goes to the rear axle.
 
I went ahead and bought one, it wasn't very expensive, I'll see if I can install it...if not, I'll keep that in mind. Hardly any other old cars even have such a part, so I know it's not totally necessary, although if it's not there, the rear brakes could be more likely to lock up when you really don't want them to.

I got the clutch working again, and went for a longer drive...made it all the way to the parts store this time, which is a significant milestone :)

Tinkering with lights now, the right rear stoplight was not working, could not get it to work, replaced the entire light housing with one off a parts car, now the tail light on that side refuses to work...I'll pull the light assembly off the other parts car, and try it, and if that doesn't work, I'll start drilling out rivets and replace individual socket(s).

There isn't enough room for my big foot to fit between the brake pedal and the transmission tunnel. Pretty annoying.

The temp gauge is not reading very high now, the engine seems to be up around 160-180 after a drive, so I think the thermostat is not stuck open? I'll have to do more investigating why the gauge only shows a little over 100 degrees.
 
I got the tail light working again, drilled out rivets and put a good socket in place of the bad one, held in with 4-40 screws/nuts. And went for a longer test drive. After getting the idle speed up where it needs to be to not stall, it drives pretty well! The steering has some looseness somewhere, but it goes down the road straight, stops, accelerates (much more slowly than my old Chevys), and pretty much behaves like a car. yay!

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Also, the oil leak from the engine seems to have healed itself, which is nice...and yes, it's full of fresh oil. The cooling system isn't holding pressure, might need a new cap, as I don't see any leaks, but then I haven't looked for them.

The engine now...
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I even survived a trip to Bisbee, which is about 30 miles away. Drives ok on the highway. It did get warm climbing the hill in old Bisbee, I stopped after the fan went on and checked the head temp with an IR gauge, it showed about 220, with the temp gauge up 1/4 of the way. I need to fix the gauge.

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Tinkered some more this evening. I figured out a few electrical problems. The clock has a bad lens, so I got the clock out of the "low mileage" parts car, which only was used for 5 years and 61k miles. It works! amazing. Then I got the charge indicator light to work. After tracing the circuit, and doing some tests, I discovered the relay for it was bad, substituted a good used one and it works properly. This is kind of important to me, to have a working idiot light for the charging system. I don't need a volt meter or ammeter, just a light to tell me if the fan belt went away, etc.

The turn signals didn't work at all. Some testing revealed that the flasher can was getting power and working, but the switch on the column was not producing voltage when activated. I disconnected the plug for it, and used the DVM continuity buzzer to test it, and it was working just barely occasionally...so after some more manipulation it worked a bit better. I connected it back together, and it works for left turns, but not right turns. The meter showed it working both ways...I'll keep playing with the switch, it might start working better. The left side is working consistently, just not the right side. Oh well. Also while testing that, I accidentally grounded the horn button wire with the test light, and heard a loud growing sound! so I played with the horn button more, and got it to make the motor run. Doesn't sound like it's making any air, but at least the electric part is going.

I think it was an hour and a half well spent.

I suppose tomorrow I should call the lady who gave me the cars, and give her a visit....see if she'd like to drive it some. I think it's working well enough.
 
I've been driving around, it mostly works.

Got the new cheap ebay top tonight, set it in place, it needs some sunlight to let it relax?

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