More fuel madness!

And it is madness! We worked on the fuel system yet again. No fuel at carb. No voltage at pump. No voltage at relay. Jumper the relay and pump runs, but doesn't deliver fuel. It took about 3 hours to work through all of this. The fuel pump relay is bad, and why shouldn't it be, it's just sitting in the drivers footwell with its internals exposed without a case. The fuel pump from Advanced runs, but won't pull fuel. On the plus side, I was talking with a Toyota guy and he recommended using a mechanical pump. I'll check the engine to see if it has the slot to install one. If so, that would fix 2 problems at once and be cheaper!

Welcome to the new addition: 1980 Honda 750

Yes, that's right, I traded this:

For this:

A neighbor is moving up north and did not want to move the bike with him again. It's mostly there, but not quite working. I had to pull the front brakes to push it home, as they were frozen. And I thought I was having problems getting it into neutral. Not quite as sexy as my brother's K750 he had back in high school, but the price was right.

20R Head and Pistons

I picked these up from a local guy thinking I'd use them as spares. Instead, I'm going to source an complete engine as a spare. The head is in good shape. I don't see anything wrong with it, but I haven't tested it or heard it run.

Carb Rebuild, Part III

I installed the carb tonight. I was able to get the engine running for 20 seconds, but then it died. I couldn't get it to start after that. There is fuel in the bowl, but it's just not going anywhere.

So, I pulled some more emissions crap off the car. Does anyone need a slightly used carbon canister?

Carb Rebuild, Part II

Eric got the carb put back together. I played best supporting actor. It took a few tries to get all the parts in. Hey, where's this jet go? Open back up and put in. Just a few times. I'll try to put the carb on the car and fire it up by this weekend.

I wanted to run the car at an autox this weekend in Clemson, but it's not quite ready and this weekend is Fall for Greenville.

I spent some time pulling the Datsun carb off the intake manifold. I put it in the cleaning bucket and soaked it with carb cleaner. I hope it rebuild it in the next week or so. And I have an expectation of how much time it will take.

Carb Rebuild, Part I

Eric and I valiantly worked on the carb last night. There are 106 steps on the dis-assembly instructions. We started at 1 and worked our way all the way to 101. That is where we encountered "The screw that would not budge!" It's the last screw that holds the lower and middle section of the carb together. He's going to take it to work and see if any of the gearheads there have any suggestions on removal. It's not just an ordinary screw, it has a passage through it, so we can't just drill it out. The rest of the break down went well. I snagged the egg cartons from the kitchen, much to Jane's dismay and we organized the parts by numbered trays. Eric would remove a part, I would clean it and place it in a numbered tray. We found several areas that did not move freely. Not a lot of gunk in the bowl, but I'm cleaning the heck out of all the parts.

Hopefully we'll have it apart and on Wed we can put it back together.

I've got a laptop in the garage, so you can watch the fun at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/teamseppuku.

GarageCam

I'm going to move a laptop to the garage when we're working and should have a webcam running. It's through a free service, so take that as you will.

Fuel system delivering!

We were able to diagnose the fuel problem and came up with several fixes. Replaced the in-tank pump with an external pump. I had the lines reversed, so we reversed the hoses. And last but not least, the accelerator pump on the carb is not actually pumping fuel into the carb. I'm trying to get a Weber from a guy in GA, but haven't heard from him after repeated calls. I have 2 choices: get a rebuild kit and fix this carb, or get a weber from ebay. Hmmm...tough choice. One is cheap the other would solve reliability (and emissions) problems.

We're still here!

With vacation trips, business trips, people moving and summer vacation winding down,we've been busy at Team Seppuku HQ and its affiliates. We have another work session coming up the weekend of the 11th. The car will not be ready for Sept 25th at CMP, but I will go down to watch some of the racing.

Circle Track spread on Rockingham

The article will eventually be posted on www.circletrack.com

Short session tonight

I got the last bolt in for the seat. They've all been tightened down and the seat still moves. It's a bit stiff, but it does move.

I worked on getting the running, but something's just not right. The oil pressure switch, fuel pump relay checked out fine. The pump delivers fuel when the oil pressure switch is disconnected as described in the troubleshooting section. I'm kinda at a loss for what to look for next. Carb rebuild? Replace pump? It did look pretty bad, but did run when tested outside the tank.

Oh hey, I got a little bit of work done last night...

I got the tank put back in. Last week, it was pulled and cleaned. It appeared to be dry. I didn't drop a match in it to test it. The fuel pump cover had 1 screw when I removed it. It now had all 7 screws with 3 washers each. The extra washers are there for speed! Well, plus the new screws were too long. I put about 1.5 gals in the tank, but could not get it to turn over. I ran through the last of the starter fluid I got with the car and am into my new can. Yeah, a milestone! I'll pick up another 2 gals on the way home.

I got the seat 90% complete. One bolt is about 1" too short. It has to go through: a washer, seat slider, floor, catalyst heat shield, plate, washer, lock washer and nut. The heat shield is the deal breaker. I'll get another one tomorrow at lunch and see if I can wrangle it in under the seat. I got the under car plates cut and drilled. This is what the bolts go through under the car. This should prevent the seat from pulling out of the car if there is a collision.

No pics. I think I need to hire an assistant to take pics. I'm too busy sweating and wrenching.

Tackling the Tank!

We pulled the tank Monday and cleaned it out. There was about 10 gallons of gas in there! The in tank filter was off and floating around. That will be cleaned and put back on. The pump is in good working condition. It's had some work done to it before. You could tell by the fact that there was only 1 out of 7 screws holding the access cap on the tank,the pump was tie wrapped to the mount and the leads had been resoldered. The tank was a bit rusty. We put some rocks in and swished them about to clean it out. Ran a bunch of water through it and put it under the trailer to dry. Eric checked on it Wed and said it was dry. It will be installed at the next session.

We had to weld one of the original nuts back on the seat frame. It’s still not in the car, but maybe next week will be the week!

I hope I won’t have to use a back brace on the Sparco seat. I’ll send a note to Lemons HQ once the seat and cage are in. It’s a rigid frame seat, so it may be ok. My concern is getting out of the damn thing in an accident. It’s a tight fit and with the back locked in place and I would have trouble getting out.

More small stuff done

Ken came by and helped out again last night. Eric's on vacation for the month of July. Well, vacation, business travel and moving if you want to get specific. We were able to get the important dash pieces installed and the lockout for the steering wheel removed. We started on the seat, but did not finish. The slider mounts are giving us problems and are being addressed. Mounting location and necessary hardware has been decided on. I'm going to get the mounting bolts today. I still have some steel to cut and attach before its complete, but it's getting there.

Slowly moving towards the goal...

Ken from Swede Lil Pigs dropped by to lend a hand last night and we were welcome to have him there. We got the kill switches sorted out. One inside where the driver can reach, final location to be determined when the dash is put back in. The other on the drivers side cowl where emergency personnel can reach. Both tested good. I need to add a hold down for the key so if it comes off we don't lose it.

I installed the heater core bypass. I did not get the core removed, but that's next on the list.

I'm still dreaming of getting the cage installed. It looks like I'll buy one and have someone local weld it up.

Newly Used Battery

Dropped in a slightly used new battery from CL and got the car to crank on the 3rd try. Still having to use starter fluid and the idle is bad. If I don't keep the gas on, it will stall. But it's a promising start.

I'm not going to gloat about my nut loosening ability.

Last night started a bit slow, but it sped up after I clobbered my head getting out of the car. It came with a nice bong sound and cartoon stars floating around. It wasn't enough for tweety birds though, so no 911 call. We have the cowl mounting point for the first cutoff switch drilled. Then we started pulling the AC. This will reduce load on the engine, lighten the car and allow firewall access for the kill switch cables. We got everything out except the heater core. That will be pulled at the next session and the kill switch finished.

I've had a lot of good response to the CL and Lemons forum post. I hope to see everyone that's responded soon. I sent out an email that details the costs and the schedule. My only expectation is that if you want to race, you need to come work on the car. I would rather race with people that I've worked with and have that shared experience, than selling seats at race time.

No pictures from last nights work session, so here's a picture of a old Desoto. I'm just happy we're not working on it.

Porsche Sidebar

I scrapped the left exhaust pulling out of an inclined parking space and it dropped the muffler. I'm not sure what's managled, but I've pulled it apart to get a better look. Hopefully someone on the Renn Tech forums will have an answer. They know everything.

Right side, the good one.

Left side, the bad one.

Sway bar, what happened here?

Plates for the Car

I would like to put plates on the car to drive it around. Here are a few options from the DOT.

Donate Life

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Secular Humanists

Special Olympics. I think this may be the one. Comments?

New site layout

Well the new site layout completely screws up the already screwed up picture layout I had. I wish there were an easy way to put the pics where I want them to go in posts. I just let them land wherever they feel like it at this point.

Car pics

A few shots of the car's current state. Mostly its immobile.

Welding and descuzzification

I installed battery tie down mounts. I cut up an old rusty license plate holder from the Datsun and bent and welded it into place. Not a professional job, but it's solid and works. Couple that with the battery holder I found at LKQ and I have a good solution. Now I have to get a decent battery. I have 3 dead ones at the house.

I also removed the headliner from the car and the remainder of the interior trim. Looks more like a crap can with no interior. The Sparco seat is just a bit too tall, but I'll address that next. It was mounted in a mid 80's Mustang. I can't put it on the Celica seat sliders, as those have the seat angle adjuster build into them. The Sparco seat certainly contains the driver. I wonder how hard it will be to get out of it with a full cage installed?

Welder transport service

After the PCA meeting last night, we went by Ken's house and picked up the welder. Luckily, it's small enough to fit in the Porsche's trunk with the bottle stowed behind the passenger seat. Well, it fit in the trunk with no spare tire. Who needs a spare tire anyways?

More stuff coming...

I ordered four 5 gallon fuel jugs this morning from ebay.

I also ordered a 6 point Racequip harness to go with the Sparco seat I found at LKQ. Did I mention I found a race seat at the junk yard? Oh yes, I did indeed find one.

And Unofficial work session

So I cleaned up the battery connections with the junkyard cables. It looks better and there won't be a chance of anyone mistaking the red wire that lead (past tense used here) to the negative terminal as the positive terminal. That would have been bad.

Now I need to get the battery hold down and shut off switches installed and I'll be done with this checklist item.

Yeah for junkyards!

I really cleaned up today at LKQ.

I found the battery cables I needed, plus some heavy duty amp cabling with fuse. And I picked up a battery hold down bar.

I found two tachs, a speedo and fuel gauge from a 74 fiat. I'm trying to figure out how to mount a tach on the hood like the late 60's muscle cars. Can you have 2 tachs on a car? I guess I would need some sort of cable multiplier.

The big find of the day was in a mid 80's mustang:

Carbon fiber like speed shifting knob

Hood hold down pins

K&N Filter

and a Sparco seat!