Captain Obvious

If the cap is free floating and isn't glued down, taking it out isn't bad at all. I don't remember if it's necessary, but taking the steering wheel off first makes it easier. A warm day helps too. If it's glued down, you're on your own.

I'm not sure if this is a typo or not, but you've said it twice now... You're happy with 5-10 minutes of clock error per DAY? To each his own, but I would not be happy with that. I'm thinking you meant per week, or month?

Yes, in theory, if you never loosened up either of the tie rod ends, then the alignment should not have been affected. Steering wheel position could shift, but basic alignment should still hold. That said, if I replaced my bushings, I would not be surprised at all to find I changed the alignment some. "Shouldn't" change, but...

Oh, and Yes... There are some high impedance points in the ECU design... Like MegOhms high. So it's perfectly conceivable that dust and/or other contaminants which have accumulated in these areas over the years could slightly affect operation. :bulb:

As a matter of fact, way back when at the factory, they probably were cleaned with water or alcohol after soldering. Back then? Probably alcohol. Just make sure they're thoroughly dry after cleaning before you put power on anything. (And I would not recommend compressed air to speed the drying process...)

Haha! Bring it on! That would be excellent.

I've thought the exact same thing. I suspect that if you take it off there and put it back on there you run the risk of changing the door alignment. But, if you take it off at the "normal" location, I can guarantee that you'll mess with the door alignment. So, I'm hoping someone has the answer...

*Cough* *Cough* Why limit yourself? *Cough* LM317 *Cough* *Cough*

I know you have said it's not a fuel issue, but I'm having trouble coming up with any situation that would be strictly confined to just the front three cylinders. Everything else would be common to all six cyls. Humor us? Try what FastWoman suggested:

What carbs do you have on the car? The original flat tops, or has it been converted to round tops? Also, how did you ensure that the carb(s) were getting fuel?

There should be one plastic washer on each carb, and best as I can tell, that washer exists simply to prevent metal to metal contact when and if the piston rises all the way to the very top. When the piston reaches end of travel in the upwards direction, that's where contact is made. About the sizes... I don't think the thickness is that critical. If you've got one in the other carb, can't you just measure the thickness of that one?

Right... I was just talking about the temperature of the air that was exiting, not the location of the exiting air. It is normal for the air that comes out of the dash and center vent to be unheated. However, it may not be normal for there to be air coming out of the dash and center vent at all. That depends on the position of the slider on heater controls.

Stuff like that burns me up. Sometimes you buy stuff and everyone knows it's a "kit", and part of the fun is the finish work. But I'm assuming those manifolds aren't marketed like that... Anyway, it sounds like the changing of the mounting hole threads went well. Let's hope that a stiffer linkage and better end bearings make the necessity for a center mount a moot point. Get the torsion springs on for the return and you may not miss the center point at all.

That's normal. The air that comes out of the vents in the dash is not heated. With some of the air conditioning set-ups, those vents may be cooled, but they are never heated.

So about that third center mount... I assume that the direction of "problem" you were originally having was fore/aft (as opposed to up and down), since the rod ends have adjustable height. I would HOPE (and assume) that the manifold manufacturer located and drilled all those holes on a machine capable of holding a suitable tolerance to use all three mounting points. You are threading a non-precision shaft into a (hopefully) precisely located hole, and then locking it in place with a non-precision nut which may or may not pull straight up on the shaft. I'm not surprised you can't get three of them in enough of a line to have the shaft rotate smoothly. How about a thin tapered washer under the center mount lock nut to cant the rod a little in the direction of your choosing? You could test the concept using by slipping a feeler gauge under the nut on one side and snugging up the nut. But before you do any of that... It looks like they did not machine the top surface of the mounting bosses? Make sure there isn't simply a thread burr kicked up or something that is preventing a perpendicular face. Me? I would have machined the tops of those mounting bosses normal to the threads. Just throwing out some ideas... Maybe something will stick?

How about modifying the threaded portion of the new 3/8 rod ends down to 5/16 instead? Drilling & retapping the manifold is hard to undo, and you could always buy another set of 3/8 rod ends. Lathe would make quick work of that. In a pinch without access to machine tools, you could probably even use a file to cut them down to size before running a 5/16-24 tap over them. How good is your eye? Nice pics of the linkage BTW.

I don't get any pics... Just this: I'm assuming there's a problem on my end?

Yup. There they are! Thanks Blue. I gotta assume from the lack of input that these aren't highly thought of?

Getting an accurate reading with those IR guns can be difficult. Not only the distance from the target, but the accuracy also depends a whole lot on the emissivity of the material being scanned. Shiny stuff like intake manifolds, aluminum head, or stainless headers can be trouble. You can read a bunch here about how to take more accurate measurements: Noncontact Infrared Temperature Measurement | Emissivity Measurement ? Raytek.com Emissivity of Materials | Thermal Emissivity*? Raytek.com

Nobody has ever seen anything like those before? Have I got a one-off custom here?

Was removal of the original fuel pump always part of adding A/C?

I don't remember where I found it, but I've got a chart that lists the part numbers for the ECU's from 75 through 83, and according to that chart, there was no distinction between California ECU's and the rest of the states until 1980. By that, I mean... in 1980 and later years, the ECU used for California was different than the ECU used elsewhere, but prior to 80, that's not the case. Note that it was not unusual for them to use different ECU's between auto and manual trans cars, and of course between turbo and non-turbo.

So any luck with a photo detailing just the linkage as it stands today?

Looks like a nice car, but I don't like it when people say stuff like this... Rug on the dashboard? Steering column clamshell off and sitting in the passenger seat? Aftermarket puffy armrest on the center console? and... Where are the flat-tops? 73 should have flat tops! For $12K? 100% original? I mean, I wish mine looked that nice, but... Original what?

I like that idea. That would remove the tangential component of the spring completely. Just like so many other throttle return springs. Mill some flats onto the actuator rod or drill a cross hole... Anything to get a grip on it. Attach some brackets to the rod to accept a hook on one end of the spring, and then hook the other end of the springs to the mounting points.