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November 9th, 2005
Subject: 1961 Corvair
Monza 900
Steve and Linda's Corvair, a
project that has been ongoing since the purchase in April of this year.
A very wet spring and summer here in Florida has slowed the progress of
this "Restoration".
With a fresh engine and many of
the mechanical replacements having been completed and nearly a thousand
miles of cruising it was time to install the new Transmission mounts
that have been on backorder for months.
The mileage to this point being
considered a "shakedown" of this 44 year old car that had been unused
for almost a decade, that was now backfiring a bit we all thought it was
time to rectify a few of the little annoyances that have reared their
ugly heads.
It was only a day late as far as
the muffler was concerned, yesterday in a few little and ONE BIG BANG,
the seam opened up and let all of the noise out of this horizontally
opposed, air-cooled engine. It to sat in a storage area for a decade
after a rebuild and now needed a little attention. In an earlier
inspection of Steve's alternator modification Ed had noticed that the
Harmonic Balancer looked as though it was coming apart and had a bit of
a wobble, this may be what was the cause of the belt being thrown on the
trip last month to the Nature Coast Corvairs picnic so that was added to
the list of things to be tackled.
This being a Wednesday, the day
of "Duke" Davis' Cruise-In at Magnolia Square, the time was limited and
the other issues like the filler tube hose and heater controls would be
addressed in another "Session".
9:00 AM we all met at Tom's
house, Ed and Tom were already working on a '70's VW Bus that had been a
pain for the last few weeks. Steve McCullough pulled in right after we
drove our rumbling, sputtering and popping Monza into the driveway.
Once the Monza was on the lift
the cables and controls for the clutch, parking brake and throttle were
disconnected. A safe position was chosen for the stand was to support
the drive train for this operation. The cross member attached to the
transmission was unbolted from the transmission mounts above and lowered
to gain access to the fasteners that held the mounts to the frame an air
chisel was chosen to remove the badly corroded and rounded off nuts that
held the the Transmission. Once the old bolts were out the mounts were
removed and the 4 #8 1"x3/8" bolts nuts and lock washers were acquired,
this was only 2 trips to town as i purchased the wrong ones first, the
new mounts were ready to be installed.
While I was gone Ed and Steve
remembered the sticky throttle linkage and noticed it was binding on the
top of the guide on the back side of the "tunnel", once they had the
access panel taken off they noticed that the throttle rod that extended
out from the lever mounted to the floor pan was replaced upside down
after a earlier repair. This was a quick fix after a critical adjustment
and flip of the rod it now moved freely. They also found a short piece
of fuel line had collapsed and was kinked as it went trough it's guide
on the undercarriage of the car near the gas tank. A new 4" piece of
fuel line was installed and took car of this problem.
Once I returned with the correct
fasteners it was only a few minutes before the transmission mounts, that
they had in place before I came back with the wrong fasteners, were
tightened down and the cables and controls were re connected.
A lunch break was taken and Edna
had all the "Fixins" ready for sandwiches. We all enjoyed this break and
vittles. Thank you Tom and Edna!
Now it was time to move on to
the replacement of the Harmonic balancer. Once the grille, stone guard,
fan belt and oil filter were removed and the Monza lifted in to the air
another placement of the stand was chosen near the front of the engine,
The motor mount would have to be unbolted from the motor and the front
of the engine lowered to gain access to the defective part. Using a
puller and just the right amount of air pressure the old part was off
and the replacement part was installed the other parts removed to gain
access were returned to their original placements.
Tom had taken a trip over to
Ed's to pickup a muffler from the parts Ed had managed to keep from
other projects but he could only find a later model turbo muffler. When
it was time to replace the blown muffler Tom remembered that he might
have a used round muffler in his parts stash. A few minutes later Tom
walked into the garage with a round one that he thinks might have come
from a parts van that he had for his Greenbrier restore. Well, after
Steve fought the blown one off the replacement Tom supplied was
installed, it worked out nicely.
It was now time to address the
poor running of the engine, as suspected after this rebuild and a few
miles things were in the need of adjusting. The points were adjusted to
the proper gap, the engine was started and the carbs were adjusted after
a bit of a warm up. Then the timing was set and a bit more of a tweak of
the carbs. During this procedure it was observed that the vacuum advance
was not performing they way it should. It was determined that it was
causing a leak and causing the engine to run rough as it would not hold
the advance. The mechanical advance on the distributor was working
properly. The vacuum advance was disconnected and the hose plugged to be
repaired another time.
The next time "April" is used in
session we will tackle the the Vacuum Advance and the Filler Tube.
After a short test drive around
3:30 the little Monza was ready to Cruise. Linda and I headed out for
tonight's Cruise-In after running a few errands in Saint Cloud.
To Recap today's "Tech Session"
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2 Rebuilt Transmission
Mounts
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4 #8 1x3/8 bolts, nuts and
lock washers (have these before the mount replacement is started)
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4" of fuel line
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1 Used Harmonic Balancer
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1 Used muffler
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1 2" Muffler clamp
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A BIG THANK YOU TO ED, TOM
and STEVE
Here are a few photos
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