1978 Pickup, giving her some love...

Started by Jims5543, January 20, 2014, 08:22:02 PM

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Jims5543

I am going to pull a plug or a couple of plugs this evening and look at them, I suspect my problem is being rich.

I say that because she starts up real easy with no choke now. 
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

94touring


Jims5543

Quote from: 94touring on June 18, 2014, 12:15:32 PM
Your lights are new to me  8.gif
I was told at the British car show I attended that they were very old and rare. I am not sure if the guy was talking out his ass though.


Also, any clue as to why no gas or temp gauge all at once suddenly?
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

94touring

Maybe you're out of gas.  Ha.  Umm...check fuses, grounds, ect..

Jims5543

Well, color me surprised. The plugs were very light grey, not what I was expecting at all.

The weather is dreadful this evening so I hope to mess with it tomorrow and give it a test drive.


I have to say, from the day it arrived here to now, it is a hugely different truck, it was probably running on 3 cylinders when it arrived, and needed a lot of mechanical love, driving it around last night, I was amazed how hard it pulls when you wind out the gears.

I also tossed a ball bearing in the fuel pressure regulator and that seems to have fixed the knock at startup, it is still there but lasts only a second and is gone, no matter how long the truck sits.

Oil pressure at idle cold is 60PSI and once warm drops to 40-50 at idle. This is indicated and I am still not sure that is a real # yet. I hope to have time to put the gauge I bought on there to see.

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

Jims5543




The good news. I fixed the sticking throttle. The bad news?  She shit the bed again.  Not sure what is wrong yet. Sounds line the new rockers are not rocking. She lost power and started backfiring out of nowhere. Then died. Whenyou try to restart it loads up at 1 cylinder like it is locked up .

As luck would have it my cousin was on duty in the town I was driving in (a few miles fromnmy house) he stopped and we chatted for about 30 minutes while I wait for AAA once again. 
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

Jims5543




I am wondering  if I should buy one of these trucks for when I decide to drive the mini from now on.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

94touring

Hmmm.  Pull the plugs and see if you have coolant or anything going on.  Otherwise you have a new dizzy, your carb is rebuilt (holding up and not leaking?) and your rockers are new (check clearances again).  Was the coil new, can't remember?

Jims5543

Nope, how about the brand new fucking rockers?

Man, when that bolt broke I knew I should have left the old ones in.

A scathing email is being sent.


Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

94touring

Crapola....I hope my set holds up.  11.gif

Jims5543

When I showed the broken bolt to my aviation mechanic buddy he told me not to install the rockers.

I wished I listened to him, I am filing this under, you get what you pay for, those rockers were 1/2 the price of everyone else. I now know why. I am hesitant to even take another set from them if they offer, I think I want my money back and I will go with a more expensive set.

It really sucks when the new parts are falling off the car. I am really at a loss here, in all my years of working on cars, I have never seen something as pathetic as this.

OK OK There are some rotary tuners like Brian Cain that fit this bill but these are parts not service.

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

94touring

Brian Cain rings a bell but refresh my memory.   I'm so far out of the rotary scene.

tsumini

Do you have a closeup pic of the fracture surface? Are they cut from single billets/barstock?

Jims5543

I will get a better pic for you when I take it off. I do not want to even look at it right now.

I spent the day on the boat. Now I am drinking.

Maybe mid week.

IIRC the metal looks like pit metal fullnof air and really cheap looking inside. I am not impressed at all by the quality. Putting the stock back in for now hoping to get my money back then buying more reputable rockers.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

sparetimetoys

I zoomed in on the photo and what jumped out at me is how clean of break it is. It's almost like it propagated from a scribe mark or scratch across the top of the rocker. 
Home of Global Warmer Racing. Saving the smog one car at a time.

tsumini

Fracture surface should show the origin of the fracture but harder to see if the part is cast as porosity may indicate. My guess is that the thread area near the lifters have the greatest stress and may have originated with a flaw in the threads. My sensibilities are that the rockers should be forged and shot/glass bead peened after machining. 
Too often the dimensions of a part can be duplicated and work functionally but will so often have substandard metallurgy and finish flaws. Aviation is littered with "bogus" parts like this often with catastrophic consequences. Fortunately it doesn't look like there was additional damage?
If I had a set of these I probably would pull them and crack check. Those with access to aircraft shops may have a zyglo or spray on crack check. Also look at how the threads are made. A sharply cut thread is inherently less durable than a manufactured or "rolled" thread.
I can fully relate to your reaction to just walk away for a while.

Jims5543

Thanks for the insight.

I will probably pull the old rockers mid week, it seems I have to answer 100 questions from Minisport before they will deduce that the problem is in their part and not my car.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

Jims5543

As I mentioned, Minisport is being difficult.

My friend, who I mentioned earlier has offered a alternative solution. I am sending him the rockers.

QuoteAnd regardless of what they say, that looks like bad metallurgy in those pics.

IN FACT - I have some parts that are going for NDI testing next week.  If you ship the rockers to me, I will be happy to send them in for testing.  Hell, why don't you tell them that you are going to send them in to an independent, Federally licensed testing lab.  See how they react.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

Jims5543

I should mention, I am not a cheapskate, my RX7 was a rolling example of what you can do with a car when you are willing to spend some money on it and do it right.

This rocker fiasco is a lesson to me, keep doing what you did with the RX7 and you will be fine, when someone has parts for 50% of their competitors, it is a good bet those parts are shit and stay away from them.

I am willing to eat the cost of these rockers and have them tested to prove what I already know, the materials used are substandard.

Minisport wants me to tell them the following:

what size is the engine ?
what camshaft is fitted ?
has the cylinder head been modified or machined ?
if the head is modified or machined, what valve springs are fitted ?
do you know what clearance you have between the coils of the valve springs at full lift ?
has the cylinder block been machined ?

I can only answer one of those questions, and that is what is the clearance between the springs at full lift. Which they warn you to check upon installing and I did and it passed.

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

Mudhen

Wouldn't almost all those questions be irrelevant once you set the proper gap?  Seems like just the valve springs would be a possibility; and is the rocker really that delicate that it would break if you had some sort of crazy competition springs?  I would have bought those...taking them off my list right now!

Going to be wicked cool to hear what your friend says.

Jims5543

I emailed Minisport yesterday.

QuoteWhen installing these rockers I checked the clearance between the coils as I was warned to do on an piece of paper in the box the rockers came in. They passed the clearance test and I thought I was good to go.

When the one adjusting nut broke I was very weary of this rocker assy. As soon as my car broke down, I knew what it was without even taking the engine apart.

My aviation friend has offered to send my rockers off to an Independent Federally Licensed testing lab where he is coincidentally sending some of his aviation parts for testing.

We both feel, just by looking at the parts that have failed, there is a metallurgy issue at play.  I really do not want anything from you anymore. I am more upset with my wasted time than the money spent.  My time is little and very valuable to me. The 1.5 hours I had to wait for a flatbed to get my car was more bothersome than the cost of this part.

Thanks anyway. When I get my report back on this I will be sure to share it with you.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

94touring

Getting ready to email the guy who's car I'm building and minisport.  We also bought the same rockers.  Guess what broke on me today...




Mudhen

Quote from: Jims5543 on July 25, 2014, 03:53:47 AM
I emailed Minisport yesterday.

Quote
Thanks anyway. When I get my report back on this I will be sure to share it with you.

[and the Internet]

Man, it was one thing when Jim broke his...look at the size of the guy.  But you, 94?  Skinny little pilot dude, barely able to tie his own shoes?  Yikes, no question over-torquing wasn't a problem there...gotta be a real issue... :-[

(time for me to re-up my restorationmini site sponsorship monies - feel like I can throw a couple fun jabs and get away with it   77.gif )

94touring

Ha nice!  And wasn't like over torque was an issue even because the tip broke off where you screw it with a tiny flat head.  I'd expect the screw driver to break first.

sparetimetoys

Did you get the tip before it went anyplace it could really screw stuff up?
Home of Global Warmer Racing. Saving the smog one car at a time.