I have been having minor frustration with my 73 since I got it in that it
just seems determined to develop exhaust leaks on the DS exhaust manifold.
I nailed it once with a new gasket where the pipe meets the exhaust
manifold. That worked for 4 weeks, and I hardly drove the car! Another
gasket lasted a week.
I then replaced the nuts, greased the threads after cleaning them, and
installed new lock-washers and really went after it with a long-handled
wrench.
That took care of that, but the thing started leaking between the block
and the manifold after I'd replaced that gasket already, too.
I got really tired of it and took off the manifold completely with the
plan of letting my machinist talk to it about being flat and smooth on the
mating surfaces.
Apparently, machinists don't like cast-iron manifolds, because all three
shops that I went to made crucifixes with their fingers at my part and
told me that those parts ruin machine tools. One guy was impressed that I
had a 440 manifold with EGR tubes in it (apparently most do not) and
pointed out that he'd have to remove those to do anything mentionednd
montioned lots of money being involved.
Being a cheapskate has its plusses and minuses. In this case, it helped,
because I decided that I was going to go home and teach it what's what. I
clamped it into my vise and used my 10,000 RPM grinder with 6" braided
wire wheel on it, and removed several layers of petrified gasket material.
The exhaust leak had fried the valve cover several times over, and oil
had been soaking into the various gaskets from the roasted valve cover
gasket (the leak pointed straight at it), making everything black and all
just one big carbon and oil mess.
The wire wheel went straight down to bare metal and a straight edge proved
that the thing appeared true and flat. I then did this to the exhaust
outlet on the manifold with similar results.
I then took the die grinder (air tool) with a 3" wire wheel and cleaned
all the threads and the head surfaces, leaving shiny smooth metal
everywhere.
Lastly, I replaced the rotten, rusted nuts with new ones and lock washers.
New gaskets, serious leverage to tighten everything, and a few choice
words, and Voila! No more leak. This reminded me that I should stop
being a dependent sissy and work on things harder before giving up and
tossing them to "experts" for $90 an hour.
Now that I had the exhaust licked, I addressed my car's timing. I'd had
it tuned by someone that I trust a year ago, but was always hard to start.
The car required multiple pumps on the pedal and 3-4 turns before it
caught. It also tended to "diesel" after the ignition was turned off,
coughing, spitting, and sputtering.
I kept having a hard time with the socket wrench with a long extension or
the box wrench on the distributor bolt that's down there in the confined
space under vacuumir cleaner and all the vauum tubing, and went to the
local tool-palace to see what could be done. They promptly showed me a
"distributor wrench", and I bought it immediately. If you don't have one,
check it out before trying to tighten/loosen your distributor. It's a rod
with a wrencharoundon the end that's bent to wrap arond the funny shape
that the distributor is in its vertical plane, and the wrench was just
like magic!
It turns out that the car had been filled with unleaded regular in it (by
me) when it was tuned, as this is what the previous owner had said worked
fine. I'm a cheapskate, so what the heck, I bought cheap gas. The
mechanic had consequently advanced the timing far enough to stop all
pinging (caused by the cheapskate gas). It turns out that he had it
REALLY advanced, because the car died when I advanced it just a hair more
by mistake, and this should not happen.
I filled the car with 91 octane gas and then tried fiddling with the
timing, and was able to pull the timing waaaay back, settling the car into
a smooth idle, and making it feel right for the first time since I got the
car 3500 miles ago.
It now starts, usually without even choke, stops without idling on, and
has increased power and smoothness.
Moral of the story: Take your car in with "super" gas if you get it
tuned. If your car diesels after shutdown, this is possibly an indication
of too-far advanced timing. They make distributor wrenches that work
really well, and not everyone may be aware of them. Worth the money to
buy one, says I.
This was dieseling condition was asked about here on the IML by someone
else, and the only answer offered was to shut the car off in gear to put
so much drag on the engine that it couldn't continue to detonate without
the ignition on.
-----
What's left?
I need to keep looking for a cheapskate way around the $250 they want to
rebuild my idler arm (steering). These things are just not available
locally (anywhere?) and I have to send mine out for a rebuild, according
to the local parts-shop gentry. Any leads would be appreciated.
I'm looking for a really nice rear bumper, but they all seem to be
somewhere besides California. Please keep an eye out for one with good
chrome that's "around".
Also, when the car is shifted to reverse with a foot on the brake, it
makes a rhythmic knocking sound. It has just started to do this in
forward at rest with the brake, and there is harsh driveline vibration
(perhaps unrelated) drive-shaft 90MPH.
I'm suspecting that it is either a driveshaft in need of balancing and new
joints, or I have a bad set of trans/motor mounts. The engine tends to
move around a bit at idle, so I'm planning to dive under the caappreciate
around.
Been there already and have a tip? I'd appreicate whatever you already
know on this portion of my challenge.
=====
Kenyon Wills
6o LeBaron - America's Most Carefully Built Car
73 LeBaron - Long Low & Luxurious
San Lorenzo/SF Bay Area
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