Broken bolt in block

Once finished with the heater box I again started working on getting the engine ready to go back in. I started on the motor mount "ears" when I noticed a broken bolt in one of the bolt holes for the motor mounts.

I remembered that I knew about this broken bolt and I had asked the machine shop to remove it when they rebuilt the engine. Apparently I didn't tell them or they didn't do it. I soaked the bolt in PB Blaster before I headed off to town.

I had broken my last screw/bolt extractor a few years ago so I decided it was off to Sears for some of new fangled bolt extractor Bob was yacking about on TV. First at Lowes they had the new fangled style for nearly $30. Over to Sears, at least they sell things that can break by the piece.

At sears the set was $12 and I picked up a couple of the old reverse screw style.

So I try the old style - and to my amazement the bolt back out with very little effort. My best guess is the bolt was broken during tightening and not removal. At last a bit of good luck.



Now I just need to find an O-ring and the nut for the oil cooler.

*&#$ forgot the heater valve tube

Well I had the heater box installed but I for got to install the capillary tubing for the heater control valve.


So I take the box out, run the capillary tubing in along the core and install the valve in the firewall. See how nice it went in with a new gasket at the firewall.



Now I thought I was finished with the heater box. So I move onto getting some things bolted back on the engine when in a bag labeled as holding engine parts I find I discovered those little spring steel clips that hold the doors closed. So out again comes the heater box. I am beginning to get good at this.

Now I notice that when I assembled the box the capillary tube was crushed. *&%@, however it looks like the internal brass colored tube was intact - I hope that is the one that matters since new valves run about $150. So I splint the 1/8 copper tubing with some 1/4 copper tubing split and then crimped around the damaged capillary tubing. I hope this works or I'll have to remove the heater box for the 4th time now. (1st time to get the box powder coated, 2nd without the valve tubing, 3rd without the spring clips)

Note the nice new gasket for the fresh air intake & for the heater box to the firewall:



Hints for those trying to remove the heater box: Drop the heater control valve. Unbolt the heater box from the firewall, unscrew the freshair intake from the heater box. Slightly cock the upper edge of main heater box and then slide the fresh air plenum towards the battery box (remove battery).

Heater box installed!

After many weeks I finally got the heater box put back together and installed in the firewall.



It wasn't that easy to get the main box and the fresh air plenum installed so I hope I don't have to remove the heater core anytime soon. At least I had it boiled and flow tested while it was out of the car. The heater box was powder coated and I got some new rubber parts & gaskets.



So now I I'll have to have a look-see in the transmission for burnt bearing or worn gears. At least I found the gaskets.

Nuts & Bolts

I am nearly ready to bolt the heater into the car, I have the sheet metal screws, gaskets, rubber bumpers in place. I just want to check a few things before putting some sealer on the two halves and hopefully I will never need to open the heater box assembly ever again.


I also have gotten my blot bin mounted - about 50 or so bins and loaded so I won't have to goto the hardware store as often. Ok that's the theory anyways - I must have $30 in nuts & bolts so far. I made labels to help find the right size. Most are grade 5, with some standard grade 2 and some grade 8 washers (they don't seem to stock grade 5 washers, also Farm & Fleet doesn't stock grade 5 nuts only grade 2 & 8 so for but Rural King does). BTW they sell loose nuts & bolts by the pound so that is how I am able to stock up.

Heater doors

I used a thin coat of polyurethane glue to attach the foam gaskets into the channels of the heater doors.

To provide bushings for the door shafts to the heater casing I decided to use hollow wall anchors trimmed to about 1/4 inch in length.

Pictures may follow in a day or two.

Slow and steady progress on the heater core (i.e. they built the car around it)

Not much news on the 1800 project front, I have been getting some more parts coated and I ordered some gaskets and rubber parts for the heater assembly. Should be getting the heater core installed and the heater unit back in the car in the next week or so.

oil, wash & wax

It was time for an oil change, wash and wax for the Madza, the weather was great (high 70's & low humidity) a prefect day to get it done.



I had to remove the bug shield for now as just two screws were holding it on.

The sad news was I noticed some rust bleed through on the rear passenger side fender, still at 9 (& 135,000 miles) years old the truck is running fine.

Of Power and Powder

Now with the air compressor in good working order I can get to sandblast some parts for the engine compartment for powder coating. (I finally got a metal air line run to the automatic compressor drain it won't blow when running hard so I am ready to blast away.

Here are the results: 

 

I won't go into details but among the parts are:  the fan, brake booster bracket/choke cable block mount, battery hold down bracket, transmission mount, center carrier holder.  In the foreground is the exhaust/muffler bracket - the coating that reamins on it wasn't easy to get off - finally I gave up - if after 37 years the paint won't come off when sand blasting then it is good enough for another 30 years.   (It is just an exhaust hanger).

Now with clean parts and ready to powder coat, now I need to get the the oven wired in.  After much deliberation I had decided to place the oven in the basement rather than the garage due to space concerns in the garage.  I could always move it back to the garage at some later point.  The problem is I am out of space for new circuit in the main box so I needed to run another distribution box to make room for more circuits.  

The good news is that I wanted to add some outlets and a better overhead light in that room anyways and along the center wall.  So I had to remove the water heater breaker to the new box along with the oven.

So after that job was done I could finally get some parts painted (powder coated) - another week and $75+ in materials for the new distribution box I can now cook powder coat parts.

Maybe soon I'll start bolting things to inside the engine compartment...




 

Air compressor now 220V

I rewired the compressor motor to run on 220V rather than 110V since at 220V it will start easier and draw less amps when starting & running. Before at 110V it would almost stall when approaching the turn off pressure or when restarting.

Of course I forgot to rewire the pressure switch, so after "trying to fix the switch" I bought a new one and then I noticed when wiring the new pressure switch - dolt - I had forgot to rewire the switch.

Now the compressor works great - starts fast and easily even under full load (90 to 100 psi).

I connected the automatic compressor drain to the pressure unloader line. The automatic drain releases any accumulated water from the pressure tank each time the air signal is interrupted. The only problem is that the plastic tubing doesn't holdup under the high heat generated by the compressor continues to burst in use. So I'll have to replace the plastic tubing with copper tubing - a pain but not a major problem.



At least I have the hose reel mounted now so once I get the new copper line run it will be good to run.

I was almost able to get the fan & water pump pulley blasted before the plastic tubing burst again.

Next is going to be to wire in the oven/stove for curing powercoating - in the basement shop not the garage - I just don't have enough space in the garage for an oven.

Garage Fixups

Today I started off just wanting to clean my garage windows and ended up with an A/C installed in the garage.

Once I started to clean the glass I noticed that I better prime the sill to protect the wood from more water damage.



Once I had the sashes out I decided to prime & reglaze them too. I got to put the high speed drill & putty cutter/chaser to use - it does a much better job using a high speed drill.



So once the putty & glass was removed I scrape the sills and primed them too.



Then I got to thinking - first was I should really mount them on hinges so they could open and maybe put in a screen to keep the bugs down. Then I though, I have that 5000 btu A/C that is still sitting in the basement (I bought it used last year and Calvin hasn't shown any interest in helping me with running a new circuit to the front bedroom to power it) so I decide if it would fit, I would install it in the garage. It shrinks down to 19 inches and the opening on the garage windows are 20 - bingo.

While the paint is drying I head out for hardware - hinges for the garage windows & plumbing parts for the cistern pumps.

We get an inch and a half of rain but my cistern didn't fill up that much - damn now I am going to have to clean the gutters & drainage pipes. More on the cistern job tomorrow - if it isn't raining.

Now if I ever find out who shot BB's at the garage windows (plus several others around my house...) - 4 of the 8 panes had holes, and one was cracked. I only broke one removing the glass but it already had a BB hole in it so that doesn't count. I installed three good panes and one with a hole not cracked (I am saving the one with the BB hole along the edge to serve as the model for the 5 new panes I'll have cut soon to finish the other sash.

I popped the A/C in - cut some scrap 3/4 plywood - glued some white plastic to the exterior and mounted the other sash on hinges. So now I got A/C - well it's an uninsulated garage but it will likely be better than having the doors open where Daisy can escape and bugs can get in - it's not like I am planning on leaving it on 24/7.

Garage Cleanup

I have finally gotten the garage cleaned up enough to start working on the 1800 again:



With the wheel casters I can move it around to sweep the floor...

Now that I have the electric panel I installed some new lighting on cables - an idea I got from the back page readers suggestion page in successful farming for flexible area lighting.



Here is a 360 view of the cleaned garage -

Back, east wall

South


FYI 15 cuft fridge for sale, 7 years old, clean with factory ice maker - makes a great garage fridge:

Southwest - about 1/4 of the boxes of parts...

Northeast