"Therapy" Progress Report With Pics

They just never go back together as easy as they come apart. Cannot for the life of me get the front fenders and grille to line up properly:

 

I had the same problem with mine. If I remember right, I left all the bolts loose, got the hood to close then tightened everything up. HTH

 

I got it in my mind that I wanted to fire the engine today. Four hours later and I still can't get a spark. Tried 2 complete sets of coils, caps, condenser, wires, even distributors. Very frustrated. Heading off to FLAPS.

 

Well, apparently the 2 coils I had that bench tested good with the mulitimeter were not in fact good. As soon as I put a brand new coil in, I got spark. It lit off first turn of the key! Now if I can just get the fuel pressure under control; vents are pouring like a fountain. Could just be the fact the carb sat for 10 months, probably need to rebuild the needle seats.

 

Great to hear it fired right off. Sounds like a float needle may not be working right if fuel is pouring down the carb.

 

So the fountain of fuel was no biggie. Took the fuel bowl off and barely caught the needle and plunger before it fell to the shop floor. Put it back together and it's metering fuel again. Now my problem is running on 7 cylinders. So much atomized fuel in the air that I had to go stand outside for a while and the engine is shaking in the motor mounts.

 

Got it idling good with a 6psi regulator, and sounds awesome up to about 2500 RPM. Next problem is I run out of fuel around 2500-3000 RPM, even with no load. Engine just completely cutting out from fuel starvation. Cranked the fuel bowl level back up, but no joy. Thinking now I must still have the secondaries tuned lean for when it was on the V6. Have to go on the road tomorrow for work, going to lighten up the spring next time I'm home and see what happens.

Can tell already that this thing chugs gas compared to the V6: One trick I do whenever I need to work on the fuel bowl is to disconnect the fuel line and run it into a catch can until the bowl is empty. Keeps gas from getting all over the manifold. The V6 would take almost a minute to run the bowl dry. This V8 does it in about 20 seconds. Yikes!

 

First of all, had a chunk of the day off from work at home - bonus. Second, the wife suggests while I'm having lunch with her for our wedding anniversary that I should get out to the garage this afternoon to work on the HEEP - double bonus (I'm mean, what kind of woman says that on your anniversary!). Third, I find out my 2500rpm fuel issue is a secondary spring - easy fix, had a whole kit on the shelf, triple bonus. I put a new spring in and the engine sounds and revs like a hot rod now without any mufflers hooked up. Fourth, Pandora for the iPhone is one of the greatest inventions ever, and absolutely rocks when hooked up to a garage stereo system - this day kicks a$$. That is all.

 

Happy Anniversary! Great day~

 

happy anniversary Jayhawk...

glad you found all the issues were easy fixes, albeit frustrating ones...

 

It moved under its own power today! Only about 30 ft down the driveway and back up, but it did move!

Now, more problems... It got cold here this week, around 32 deg right now, and it's running really rough at idle. Going to need to adjust the electric choke.

 

Still having choke issues. Fouling plugs at idle. Could use your help if knowledgeable on Holleys:
http://www.earlycj5.com/forums/showthread.php?93121-Holley-Choke-Problem&p=990638#post990638

 

Hey Jay, that sounds great. I was having problems on accelaration where it would choke out. I took it back to the carb shop and the accelerator pump was getting too tight. Turns out those new neoprene pumps still swell up when they sit in a bath of ethanol laced gas overnight. The guy found a leather one and haven't had a problem since. I also still us some ethanol killer additive when I get gas

 

Doesn't look it at first glance, but there's actually a lot going on in this photo. First, my firewall was Swiss cheese due to factory pedal holes and various previous mods. Made a unified floor plate that took care of all the holes, but more importantly provided a solid base to secure the new postal column. The four bolts in a square pattern are where the master cylinder cover used to go. Over to the far right of the picture you can see the new gas pedal out of a Lincoln Towncar. You can also see the original pedal setup has been (mostly) cut down. The final piece to go in place is a steering column floor mount out of a late CJ (not pictured) that will through bolt and sandwich another plate to the engine side of the floor pan.

 

Time to update my life insurance policy: the day is almost here for the first highway test drive. Steering feels *really* nice up to 40 mph around the neighborhood. Still, never know what it's gonna do first time up to 70 and try to change lanes.

 

You got plenty of positive caster? Any shims under the front axle?
They can make a world of difference.

Don

 

6 deg shims, 1/16" toe-in, thinking about adding another 1/16" for the test drive, just to be sure.