Haven’t updated the blog in over a year so I decided to just do one BIG post to cover everything that happened…<\/p>\n
The Baby<\/strong> The Hyundai<\/strong> The Race car (1974 Javelin)<\/strong> With these changes I think it would be worth running the car again. We\u2019ll see how soon I can get all that done.<\/p>\n My First Rambler!<\/strong>
\nYep, near the end of Feb. 2016 my wife delivered our baby boy! That\u2019s why all my car shenanigans came to a screeching halt. It wasn\u2019t until we hit the six month mark that I was OCCASIONALLY able to lift my head up and get a couple of hours here and there in the shop. He\u2019s eleven months now and I\u2019m getting more and more shop time but still a trickle compared to before. He\u2019s worth it though!<\/p>\n
\nThe what? I don\u2019t usually talk about non-AMC\/Rambler cars on this blog but I\u2019ll tell the story of this car as I spent a good chunk of my limited shop time on it this year. I had a 2002 Hyundai Elantra GT. The first brand new car I ever bought. A few years ago I got rear ended and the car was totaled. Took some of the insurance money and bought a 2003 Hyundai Accent 1.6L, 5 speed hatchback with 110k miles on it for $2700 (including DMV reg\/tax\/etc). It was my daily\/commuter and I loved it. It\u2019s small, nimble, gets great mpg (35+). It’s kinda like a more modern Gremlin \ud83d\ude42 It\u2019s also a complete POS that I never lock or worry about. I bought it with 110k miles on it and got it up to 137k miles and I knew I should get the timing belt changed. But I was busy at work and didn\u2019t have time. Sure enough, one morning on the way to work the belt let go. I was only 15 minutes from home so I got towed back. I parked the car and it sat for a good while. I was working 7 days a week and my wife was pregnant and so it was more than 6 months before I even had time to look at it. I did a little research and found out these are \u201cinterference\u201d motors. That basically means if you lose a belt you probably bent all the valves. I decided to fix it myself as a learning experience. I\u2019ve never really worked on \u201cmodern\u201d cars. So I bought a complete head (cams, lifters) off ebay. I got the car up on jacks stands and pulled the old head. Things stalled for a LONG time. When I finally got back to it I installed the new head, buttoned everything up and tried to start the car. I was nervous but it fired right up and sounded like it was running good. EXCEPT there was a lot of ticking at the top of the motor. I guessed it was lifters but wasn\u2019t sure. Had my friend Doyle come over and take a listen. He said yep, lifters. So I pulled a bunch of stuff back off and we checked all the lifters. This is a DOHC (dual overhead cam) motor so I had to remove both cams. About HALF of the lifters were bad. I was pretty pissed. So I bought a new set of lifters and got them installed. Yes! The noise was gone. I had put the car on \u201cnon operation\u201d so I wasn\u2019t paying registration. but now it seemed like it was time to get this car going again. So I went to the DMV and got the paperwork started. I couldn\u2019t complete it because the car needed to be smogged. But the paperwork included \u201ctrip passes\u201d so I could legally drive it to the smog station. So, the morning I was ready to take it to the smog station I decided to take it for a test drive first. I had let it idle for a while in my driveway but hadn\u2019t actually driven it yet. So I took it on a 6 mile loop. On that trip I felt like I was smelling oil. So I went back to my house just to do another once over. I got out of the car and looked under the front of it and oil was POURING out into a puddle on the passenger side. WTF??? So I pulled it in front of the shop (leaving a trail of oil across my blacktop). I opened the hood, got a flashlight and started looking under the car (while it was running). I saw oil everywhere. I kept looking higher up the motor and then I saw it. Oil was running out from behind the cam sprocket. Then it hit me. There must be a seal I neglected to install. Ugh. So I had to pull a bunch of stuff off AGAIN. That\u2019s when I realized there were FOUR seals I didn\u2019t install. One on the exhaust cam, behind the sprocket. That meant I had to loosen all the cam bearings and remove the sprocket. One for the intake cam which could be put on with the valve cover on. And TWO half moon shaped seals that sit INTO the head. I found the two cam seals in the gasket kit I had bought. But I only found one of the half moon seals. The stock ones are metal and this one was rubber. I decided I\u2019d go to pick and pull and try to find the other half moon seal and a few odds and ends I needed for the car. I got everything I needed and was able to button everything up again. Time for another test run. This time no oil smell. But when I got home, as soon as I came to a stop the check engine light came on. Are you kidding me??? Sigh\u2026 I have a code reader and I checked the codes. It was complaining about the TPS and the APPS (accelerator pedal position sensor). One of the codes said idle RPM was higher than expected. And that was true. The car was idling at about 1500\u2026 I had a feeling it wasn\u2019t a bad sensor but I went ahead and changed both sensors anyway. That didn\u2019t clear the CEL. I did a little internet searching and everything seemed to point to a vacuum leak. Extra air was getting in somewhere and that\u2019s why the idle was high. I ran the car and sprayed some carb cleaner around trying to see if the idle would raise. I didn\u2019t get that to happen so I was at a loss. After a few days of trying to see what else I could try I decided to throw in the towel and take it to the dealer. They charged me $140 bucks to diagnose it and confirmed that there was a vacuum leak. The intake manifold gasket was leaking. They also said they could tell it was the WRONG type of gasket\u2026 So I had them get me the correct gasket and I brought it home and changed it myself. VOILA! The CEL was gone!!! So at my next opportunity I took the car to the smog station and it passed! Then back to the DMV to complete the registration and the saga was over (or so I thought). The car now runs and is current on registration BUT it is both leaking and burning a LOT of oil. One of things I did when I was working on the car was pull the oil pan, clean it and reinstall it. There is no gasket for the pan. Hyundai just uses an RTV type sealant. I think (hope?) that maybe I didn\u2019t do a great job with re-sealing it and that\u2019s the source of most of the oil leaking. So the story continues. When I can find time I am going to try to figure out where the leak(s) is\/are. <\/p>\n
\nLast time I had the Javelin on track was Nov. of 2015. I\u2019ve got a post\/video about it. It was a test day and on my last run of the day the steering arm bolts on the drivers side sheared\u2026 So I only had the passenger side wheel able to steer\u2026 Where did this happen? Turn 10 at Sonoma (the fastest turn at that track). I usually come through that turn between 85-90 mph but it was my outlap and I was only doing about 77 mph. I was incredibly fortunate to keep the car out of the tire barrier and get it off track. After getting home I realized that I couldn\u2019t simply replace the bolts and continue running the car. I needed to do something to give me confidence that this wouldn\u2019t happen again. So I made a few phone calls to different people looking for advice. Got some different suggestions but none that I felt great about. Then I got the opportunity to talk to Ron Sutton. Ron\u2019s a bonafide race engineer with decades of experience. I explained the issue and said I was looking for a quick fix to make the car safely driveable until I could do a more permanent upgrade of the suspension. He came up with a plan in seconds that made total sense to me. He said I should drill\/tap the spindles for \u00bd-20 (they are 7\/16-20 stock) and replace the bolts with some he said are stronger than grade 8 (he pointed me to a supplier). Finally he said I would need to replace the bolts on a schedule. So that\u2019s what I\u2019m doing. I got the spindles tapped for \u00bd-20 and bought the upgraded bolts he recommended. I will run this way and after a certain number of sessions I will replace the bolts. The other thing I hope to do it to RAISE the motor an inch. This will let me also raise the steering rack an inch which will let me shorten the bump steer spacers which are currently 1.8\u201d and I believe are a big part of why the bolts failed (the long spacer acts as a lever allowing the bolts to stretch\/fatigue at a faster rate than if there was no spacer\/a shorter spacer). I hope to run the car a couple of times in 2017 but I only want to get back out there after I\u2019ve made enough changes that I think the car has a chance of being decently faster (1 to 2 seconds). So the minimum I\u2019d like to get done before running again:<\/p>\n\n
\nThe last thing I needed was another project. When I first moved up here and got the acre and shop I was like \u201cfinally, I can buy\/drag home all the orphaned AMC\u2019s I see on craigslist but had no place to put before\u201d. And I did, for a couple of years. I bought a 2nd Gremlin, a road race Matador shell and a \u201871 Javelin SST (for the 401 motor in it). That brought the car count up to 6 and I finally realized I really needed to stop and TRY to focus on all the cars I already had\u2026 BUT, then this car came up. I had purposely stopped cruising craigslist for cars. BUT I still looked in the parts section. And there it was, not in cars for sale but in the parts section. A complete 1962 Rambler American 400 convertible. I have had a soft spot for these \u201861-\u201963 Americans for a long time now. It was on my bucket list. I actually would like BOTH a coupe (to make a track car out of) and a convertible (as a family go for burgers and shakes car). Well this convertible showed up literally 10 minutes from my house and for $500. Sigh…. went to look at it and decided to drag it home. Got my friend Matt to come with me and help. The car had been parked in a back yard about 32 years ago! Tires were all dry rotted, flat and square. We carefully jacked the car up a corner at a time and put on some rims Matt had brought. But the car wouldn\u2019t roll. We rocked it for a while and managed to get it rolling. We got it pushed near a gate in the fencing and backed my trailer partially into the back yard. Then we used my winch and snatch block to pull the car, at a right angle to the trailer. After a lot of maneuvering we managed to get the car lined up with the trailer and winched it on. Got it home and got a little bit of time with it here and there. The convertible top had long since disintegrated and the interior and trunk was filled with all sorts of debris. Got it all cleaned out and then tried to get the hood open. It was frozen shut. A lot of working it up\/down inch by inch and I finally got it open enough to get some liquid wrench on the hinges. Drivers side freed up pretty good but the passenger side is just tight. Finally I managed to get it up using a 48 inch crow bar. 1962 was the first year for the OHV 195.6 L6. That\u2019s what\u2019s in this car. The non 400\u2019s got the flathead motor. This is my FIRST RAMBLER ever. I\u2019ve had a Rambler tattoo for 25 years but I\u2019ve only owned AMC\u2019s so far. Now I have an actual Rambler. I was worried about the DMV paperwork as ownership was a bit convoluted. The woman who owned it signed it over to her brother. He never did anything with it. Finally he died and his son is who sold it to me. Anyway, went to DMV and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get it titled in my name. It\u2019s not REGISTERED yet, just titled. But hopefully when it comes time to register it\u2019ll go smoothly since I have a title in my name now. I\u2019ve got a tarp over it now and hope to have it running in about 3 years.<\/p>\n\n\t\t