Dateline – 01/02/2016 – Did a lot of fabrication in the engine
bay this weekend. Fabrication always
takes a long time and it never feels like I get a lot done after an eight hour
day, but the reality is that I do. So
what did I fabricate? A bracket to keep
the heater hoses from resting against the battery. A bracket to move the transmission fluid
filler/dip stick away from the wheel well to clear the heater hoses and a
bracket to hold the new, generic fit, windshield washer tank/pump. All required, templates, cutting, drilling, filing,
sandblasting and painting. Like I said,
a lot of work, but well worth the effort.
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| Bracket to keep heater hoses away from battery (hard to see but its there!) |
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| Bracket to move transmission oil filler/dipstick way from wheel wheel to clear heater hoses |
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| Windshield washer tank and pump installation |
I also installed a new battery ground cable and put rubber
hoods over both the battery ground and positive cable to clean them up.
I finally tore apart the old voltage regulator wire harness
and realized that none of the wires are used at all, so pulled the regulator
off and attached the harness to the wheel well for safe keeping.
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| Voltage regulator wire harness bundled out of the way. |
I also finished the electric cooling fan installation. It required another run to the hardware store
for longer bolts and a bit more drilling.
Last but not least, I installed all the vacuum hoses inside the
engine bay. I’m using the original A/C
Overflow tank that is installed in the left wing as a reserve vacuum tank which
is recommended with the vacuum actuated cruise control. The vacuum out port on the manifold has two
pipe fittings. I used one for the vacuum
advance on the distributor, the other for the vacuum to the cruise control and
to actuate the vacuum motors that control airflow in the car. The car originally had a vacuum motor controlling
the vent/re-circulation gate, so there was already a port in the firewall to
allow the vacuum hose to pass through, so that was pretty easy routing.
So, what is left? Not
much actually!
- Finish wiring in the windshield washer motor
- Finish wiring in the battery cutoff relay and bundle up the wiring harness
- Finish wiring in the electric cooling fan. I think I’m going to get a temperature activated fan controller so that the fan only come on when the radiator gets to a set temperature. That will probably get rid of the relay I have mounted now.
- Wire in the Distributor to “hot from ignition.” I need to find a wire inside the car for that.
- Final wire harness bundling, holes in firewall filled and cleanup.
- Exhaust manifolds.
