My pleasure. Glad to help.

So what's the deal with the distributor block off plate? Is that just to keep stuff from falling down in there until the distributor is installed, or are they doing some fancy DIZ crank pickup thang?

Just keeping the muddy water out during cleaning process . Never had an engine as gunked up as this one. Putty knife, wire brush , gallons of degreaser

Take a propane torch to the diff cover, fill plug should come out easy once that Aluminum is nice and hot.

I guess a day I can have the garage door open for a while to clear out the stink. Momma doesn't like it when the house stinks up. I did consider that option, but knowing I have to pull out the complete read suspension for bushings and inspect the diff mount , I might just wait.

Buddy had an old fuel pump and bingo we are back in business . I guess running that pump without the spacer did it in.
Also got the plug out Leon with some serious heat.
Now to put the exhaust back in and fire it up


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I had one helluva time with plug until I remembered I had a torch.  My old fluid looked like Sunkist.

I like the cutout valve cover. I have a plan to do the same and seal with plexi or something so I can watch oil flow to the valve train.

On 7/24/2016 at 0:31 PM, madkaw said:

Buddy had an old fuel pump and bingo we are back in business . I guess running that pump without the spacer did it in.
Also got the plug out Leon with some serious heat.
Now to put the exhaust back in and fire it up


Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club

Alright, good work Steve!

22 hours ago, jonathanrussell said:

I like the cutout valve cover. I have a plan to do the same and seal with plexi or something so I can watch oil flow to the valve train.

FWIW, I prime fresh motors with the valve cover off (internally oiled cam). Last time I did it, I primed with the rockers removed as to not run them dry. Oil everything up and spin the motor until oil starts flowing from the lobes. It takes longer than you may think.

I use a drill and a long metal rod down the distributor hole to the pump, no valve cover.  Start on low or you'll get splattered when it fills all the lines.  Works good I think.  I've discovered some bad holes on my spray bar before start up thank goodness.  

The rod I'm using now came out of a new clothes washing machine I bought.  It's purpose is to keep the the basket locked during shipping.  Ground one end down similar to the pump/dizzy drive spindle.

Well the front suspension is done and moved on to the rear . Same story as up front with dry poly bushings, and throw in there a totally separated front diff mount . The original arrestor strap did its job and kept the diff at bay. Found a few bolts not torqued and a bad spindle pin, but everything is repairable - and almost done. All new rubber bushings back in and stock mount and strap for the diff. New spindles all around . Hope to have it her own her own legs today, but will see. Half shafts getting new universals and boots with the main driveshaft also with new joints. 

Can say enough about how nice it is to work in a rust free machine. We haven't had to replace hardly any hardware and it still looks good too

Looks good but tough work.  We have very similar work benches, old hardwood doors. 

I recently did some diff mount and strap work on my car, and as part of that work I switched over to socket head cap screws for the front lower diff mount. I found they were much easier to work with than the original hex head bolt hardware if you ever have to mess with the diff mount again in the future.

I've started a thread with lots of details here:
http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/55955-my-new-diff-mount-and-strap-project/

But the summary for the hardware change is that the socket head cap screws allowed me to use a hex drive on my ratchet from the bottom to turn the mounting bolts. Looks like this: