cozye

Today's progress. A bit of hole filling on the rear apron. Still have a bit of smoothing to do with the grinder. Once I get the other side done I'll go over it with some filler and slick it out. I made some headway with my welding as well, my wire spool was a bit tight giving me some occasional sporadic wire feed, and I changed my nozzle angle a bit and turned up the voltage just a smidgen. Much better.. I knew a little more heat would help, but it's a fine line between hot tack welds and blowing holes. I think the spool being a little tight contributed to burning holes when my voltage was up previously.

It's not hard if you are good with your hands. It's a bit tricky to weld sheet metal, but if you practice on some scrap you can get it dialed in enough to start on the body, and the more tack welds you do the better you get at it. Mine didn't look as bad until I started to cut it out, you might have more rot than you can see, you never know. If you can't get rust ground off, you have to cut it out. After cutting this section apart, I can see how these areas rust. There is sheet metal stacked on top of sheet metal. The area underneath by the license plate didn't have sealer, so moisture could get it. The seems in the corners are just sealed with body sealer. I think a little air/moisture gets in from underneath and over time a small crack or pin hole is all it takes for it to start, then the water just its in there and seeps through the hole making it worse. it sits between the sheet metal sandwich and rots away. I'd say the most inportant thing would be to keep it all sealed and dry. If it's sealed water could sit on that hatch jamb for a long time without causing any issue.

Finished the hatch jamb repair. I made this top piece by hand from sheet metal. Pretty happy with how it turned out. All it needs is a touch of filler to smooth out and a bit of seam sealer on the edges.. I also coated the metal underneath from the first layer repair with eastwood rust encapsulator, and primed the back of my finish piece with weld thru primer. I don't want any unfinished metal hiding to start rusting. On to filling rear holes and finish shaving the rear apron from my park bench removal

After drying off an cleaning up the area in question, bell housing and rear of block, I'm not convinced its the rear main seal. I took a putty knife and screw driver and pried a little on the loosened aluminum shield to open the gap and peer in. I can see the metal round portion that protrudes from the back of the block that the seal sits in. It looks dry. It may be this oil pain seeping and blowing back, and the oil is getting blown into the seams of the sheild and tranny, then leaking down after it sits. If the rear main seal was leaking, which side of the aluminum shield would it leak on? Would it not be leaking through the weep hole on the bell housing ? I cleaned it up good, its out there sitting on jack stands for other repairs I'm making. I'll take some pics if I can see any more leaking and post up for opinions. I do know for a fact that my oil pan gasket is seeping oil, it's just that the location of where it was dripping looked like a separate leak. Couple that with the fact that it seemed to get worse over the last couple of weeks and I had just put that seal in a month ago.

notched tooth looks like someone marked it for reference. I used a gold sharpie on mine to mark a reference point. As far as the fuel pressure goes, I'd say you are right in spec. I know that Sarah mentions that 38 might a little high, but that's what mine gets with the vacuum line off, and I've got two FPR's I've tried. I'd say your fuel pressure is good and you can move on. It does look like you might have a little fuel pressure leaking down on the rail after turned off, might cause a hot start issue later, but I wouldn't worry about this now as it's not your immediate issue.

Sheet metal screws huh ? Odd. Maybe they changed it in 78. Mine was tack welded on all the way across. I cut it off a couple days ago.

Yeah, I do the beveled edges and preheat on thicker stuff. That works good. In my experience practicing on scrap sheet metal though, beveling edges gets it too thin and it's easier to burn holes in it.

What kind of tool ? I've not seen a seal driver that would work for this application ? I'll give it a shot, thanks

i'd like to see more pics and get the story! Looks like a really nice car.

Thanks. Still getting used to welding sheet metal. Getting pretty decent at it. Some of my tacks are not as hot as I'd like, but when I turn the voltage up it burns through. It takes time I reckon.

well I started some repairs of some rusty area's on my car. I decided to tackle the rear hatch area, as I already had the interior disassembled and dropped the tank etc.. to remove the rear bumper mounts and am shaving the rear. Figured I'd post some pics and share my experience. Today I cut out the rusty section on my hatch jam, its only rusted on the drivers side. I figure this might be one of the more complicated repairs. I made pretty good progress today since I only had about 5 hours to work on it. I'll finish it up tomorrow. before got the rust cut out and ground out new bottom piece welded in I cut and bent the replacement piece on a metal brake I have. Took a while to get it fit. When I cut the old piece out I went along with the seam that had a recess for the overlap so its in the factory location. I'll make the top piece tomorrow which will be a lot easier and finish it out. After the pic I coated with eastwood rust encapsulator. I think the main reason why these pieces rust out is that the seam sealer on the bottom that seals the top and bottom piece didn't go all the way across and it looked like water got between the two pieces of metal. I'll also put a little filler around the seam on the flat panel behind the tail light assembly just to smooth it out a touch, even though you can't see it anyway.

silicon sealer ? like plain old clear silicon ?

I've bought quite a few parts from Rock Auto lately too. They list Beck Arnley, Felpro, and National (which is what the MSA one was I believe). Which brand would be the best ?

Ok. Thanks for the input guys. Any other tips or suggestions for making sure I get good results on the reinstall of the seal? Should I try another brand other than the one provided by MSA ?

Steve, It's oil. Also the tranny shaft was dry when I got it out, and if it was the tranny I think the leak would be comig out the weep hole in the bottom of the bell housing. It's definitely coming from the front side of the aluminum shield against the block. Those two little rubber seals. MSA recommended getting them, so I have them. But when I did the clutch job I couldn't find the "side seals" and moved on. I do have an oil pan gasket I plan on replacing first. Will I be able to replace these side seals then, and would that leak come from the rear main seal area? This is a possibility I reckon. Could driving the rear main seal in disturb these side seals ? ON the oil pan, I thought it was an easy job? I figured just putting #1 at TDC to get the crank lined up and i should be able to pull the pan without much effort right?

Also, the replacement was from MSA.

Are you referring to the orientation? New one went in the same way as the old one. Rear main cap? I don't think I have one? It was just the seal. I should quantify the amount of leakage. We are talking about a dime to quarter size spot per day, so it's not huge. It wasn't leaking at all before the replacement though.

Ok, What did I do wrong? A couple months ago I replaced the clutch, put a brand new rear main seal in as preventative maintenance at the same time. The old one wasn't even leaking. How it appears that I have oil seeping down between the aluminum bell housing shield plate, and the block right behind the oil pan. It's a slight possibility that my oil pan gasket is leaking on the back edge, but I don't think so. The oil is running down that back corner and dripping off the bottom of the tranny. The old gasket I pried out with a screwdriver. The new seal I lined up and gently walked it around with a socket extension and tapping. It does leak just sitting still, but I don't know if thats because oil pressure fills up the area behind the block in between the plate and the block while running, and then it just seeps out while sitting. What can I do to ensure that a replacement will not leak again? If I'd have left the old one in there, I would be good Also, whats the olds that my new clutch will get oil soaked? I figure that plate behind the fly wheel is designed to keep oil from blowing back up in the clutch anyway, that it's probably just seeping down behind the plate.

Yeah, I would track down the wiring issue on the fuel pump. shouldn't be to hard. Then it will be done the right way. There is a fuel control relay and a fuel pump relay under the relay bracket by the fuseable links. we could help you through it, it shouldn't be difficult to figure out. My guess is that one of those relays might be bad and not making good contact.

You have to make your own brackets, but its not hard. the hard part is actually removing the old rear bumper and bumper shocks. I'm in progress of doing this now. I've got the front bumper mounted and perfect. I'm in process of removing the rear hardware now, got one side done and am dropping the tank tomorrow. Just do a search for "240 bumpers" or 240 bumper swap and you will see plenty of posts.

Looks good! I'm envious. I've got a long way to go to get there.

Nice Kaw. I like the old ones I've used the shopline acrylic. I will look good. I just still can't get over how easy and how slick the ppg two stage is. The base goes real far with the reducer too. I wouldn't think it would have cost too much more. Two quarts of base would have been plenty, 1 might have done it. Anyway, my technique might not help and I'm no pro by any means. I've just wrecked and repainted it enough times to get fairly decent with a spray gun

Do you have a lot of play in the cam chain now? I wonder if the bad mechanic took your cam sprocket loose and popped the tensioner out because he didn't use the tool ? If you take a wrench and turn the cam sprocket back and forth, the crank pully should move with it, with no noticeable lag.

I'll also add that you have to be at #1 TDC perfectly, just to make that clear when doing this check and adjustment. Also, you will need the cam chain tool to keep the cam chain tensioner tight when removing the cam sprocket. You can make your own.

Just be careful when checking valve timing, the mark on the cam is not supposed to line up exactly, it's supposed to be off to the side a bit. The procedure is in the service manual. Valve timing is different than ignition timing, its a separate thing, not sure why the mechanic was trying to relate the two. Below is a pic, notice that the notch is to the right of the oval indentation. According to the FSM, your valve timing is within spec as long as the notch is to the right, If the notch is to the left then you need to move your cam gear up to the 2nd or 3rd position. In my pic below, originally my notch was still a touch ot the right, but not half way like the manual shows so I advanced mine to the 2nd position