Captain Obvious

Is the throttle linkage connected?

Glad to help. Oh, and BTW... There's a guy here on the forum @S30Driver currently parting out a 78. I don't know what his plans are for the car, but he would have the backing plates and parking brake arms you need. And full disclosure... He'll give me a 10% finders fee for parts he sells you. He doesn't know if yet, but he will.

Oh, and glad you got the plates off! It's often just a matter of being sure you're doing the right thing.

Well I don't know the availability of the 77-78 rear plates, but if you decide you're not going for a disk brake mod, I'd look into it. Lets see... what would you need? You would need 77-78 style: rear plates wheel cylinders parking brake arm / adjuster mechanism rubber grommets for adjuster arms where they feed through the plates brake shoes and hardware kit The wheel cylinders, shoes and hardware kits are cheap, plentiful, and easy to find. The grommets are a dealer only thing, but they're not expensive. The only parts you would have to hunt for are the backing plates and parking brake adjuster arms. You'd need to find someone who pulled those parts off a 77-78.

So I don't think the key is upside down in those pics, I think it's just rocked too far tip-down. In order to get things assembled correctly, you need that key to be level or a little bit tip-down. The problems occur if you try to put things together with it tip-up, or if it's tip-down too much (which is what I think is going on in the pic). Wally, you said that the key is stuck in that position... I'm not sure why or how that key gets stuck in that tip-down position unless it got knocked into that position after the pulley was removed and then sat like that and froze up. There's no way it was like that the day the pulley was removed. Is this something you took apart a long time ago and let sit, or is this all recent work? If that key is really stuck in that severe tip-down position it's going to be a problem.

No problem at all. I said keyway, but I probably should have just said "key". The keyway isn't the real problem... It's the key that's the issue.

So internets science for the win! Whatever the underlying process, that lens looks good. Just hope there isn't any unwanted long-term effects. On a related note since I know you like to mess with things like this... Have you ever played with taking silicone molds from parts and copying them? That light lens might be an interesting candidate.

Glad to help. So yeah, it's just age and rust that's holding it together (like me). Clean some rust and old paint off the spindle snout where the plate rides, douse it with penetrating lube of choice, and give it a whack on the back side. Out of curiosity... Why are you taking it apart in the first place? Disk brake conversion? Cleaning everything up for paint? The reason I ask is that if you already have the bearings out and those plates off, I would take the opportunity to upgrade to the 77-78 style backing plates so you can use the better wheel cylinders. I would try very hard to not go back to the 70-76 style floating cylinders. They're not nearly as reliable as the newer system. But that's just me... I've got a 77.

The key ZH is talking about is the same thing I was talking about earlier... "Be very careful of the position of the keyway that drives the harmonic balancer. Make sure it's correctly sitting in it's groove before you push the pulley (balancer) into place. If you don't you could crack the balancer when you tighten the big bolt in the front." That key fits into a semi-circular groove cut into the snout of the crankshaft. The problem is that since the key is semi-circular, it can "rock" in the groove. And if that happens without you realizing it, you may think you have the pulley fully seated onto the oil slinger, but you don't. Then when you put in the big bolt in the front and torque the crap out of it, you crush the key, mangle the oil slinger, and worst of all, crack the pulley casting. It's not pretty. So you have to make sure the key is properly located in the groove before you put the pulley on. And I would recommend you use a bright light and look down the pulley groove to make sure you see the key in there looking like it should before you put the big snout bolt in.

Yeah, that looks good. I would probably stop there. So this peroxide and UV combination thing... Is this internets science? Most times UV makes plastic worse, not better. Not arguing with the results, but wondering if the UV was really adding any value?

Yes, the seal on @Av8fergs pic looks good. Too bad the timing cover is so shiny.

Haha! I got two parts to the answer to that... First is that the pics of that backing plate work was a special situation where I had other people over for a "rear bearing party". I was doing mostly directing and telling other people what to do (clearly, as it should be). On that day, I got to hold the camera and take pics of other people doing real work. That's not me swinging the hammer, it's one of the other attendees. The second part to the answer is "I've found it worth the effort to try to make it happen." By that, I mean... I do so many car projects (that I have to refer to again sometime in the future) that I really now try to take pics along the way. Still, there are plenty of projects that, just like Jeff, I'm in hurry-up mode and can't deal with the camera at the time. And as Murphy dictates, those hurry-up jobs are invariably some of the ones I WISH I had pics of at some point later.

They are not one piece. They just need a little persuasion. Take the bolts out: Turn it over and give it a judicious whack. Don't go postal on it, but some BFH persuasion might be necessary. And here's a shot with the plate removed:

The newer ignition switches had a little set of contacts inside that would activate a beeper if you left the ignition key in the slot. They called it an "anti-theft" feature and I'm assuming that it was a reminder to not leave the keys in the ignition switch when you left the car (like anyone does that anymore...). The earlier cars did not have that feature and the little beeper switch was not present inside the ignition switch. So I don't know what year you're working on, but the wires in question are related to that feature.

I sent out a batch of parts to be plated late last year. As part of the prep of those parts, I did a citric acid soak to dissolve (chelate) rust and strip off the original chromate and zinc. Some of the parts I soaked (like throttle linkage and ash-tray slidey bracket) had plastic bits on them that had yellowed. After the citric acid soak, they looked great. So if your peroxide doesn't do what you wanted, you might want to try citric acid. Do be aware, however, that the citric acid will eat the yellow chromate and zinc plate off the metal stuff (which is why I was using it). But the point is, if you want to preserve the original zinc/yellow, you can't do the citric.

Yeah, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there's no way that bent one would ever seal. It's important to get the seal pressed evenly and squarely all the way around. If you don't have a press (that can help assure squareness during assembly) and you're doing it by hand/eye, you need to make sure you don't get it cokked on an angle while you're pushing it in. Those seals have a thin metal reinforcing structure molded inside the rubber. If you bend that internal structure, you're screwed.

No, that does not look OK. Not only is it pressed in too far, but the seal is damaged. Bent and creased on the left side in the pic. You cannot use this seal anymore. If you haven't already, you need to pull that one out and throw it out and start over. Sorry. And also... Be very careful of the position of the keyway that drives the harmonic balancer. Make sure it's correctly sitting in it's groove before you push the pulley (balancer) into place. If you don't you could crack the balancer when you tighten the big bolt in the front.

Pot... Meet kettle. Kettle... Meet pot.

I dug out my order info for the map light. I got that map light from superbright as well. The part I ordered (five years ago) was WLED-WWHP15-TAC But it appears they have changed the numbers and that part is now listed as 921-WWHP15-TAC https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/miniature-and-subminiature-bulbs/921-led-landscape-light-bulb-15-smd-led-tower-miniature-wedge-retrofit-100-lumens/2508/ There are different tabs for the different "colors" I like warm white (because I'm old).

Yes, it's warm white, and I love it. As for a P/N, give me a little bit and let me see what I can dig up...

Haha!!! Next time we're together, remind me about taking a wing man on potentially risky excursions. And how not all people are cut out for the job!

Yeah, that's what I was looking for. Something easy. I know you don't have a lot of time and are just looking for a patch at this point. So if that works for you, just tell the hauler guys to turn the key to ON and wait five or ten seconds before cranking the car. You could even tape a sign to the steering wheel if you need to. Haha!

LOL. Just stay safe!!

I did the map light as well. I think I posted some details about that somewhere... But if I did, the pics are probably dead on that too. Here's what I used and I think it's fantastic! I'm not sure all years used the wedge base though.

Yeah, it was a little bit of work to get the larger 6-LED bulb in there, but I really like the way it turned out. Great brightness, and warm white, so no blueish harsh stuff going on. If you didn't know better, you would assume it's an incandescent. As for the old dead photobucket sucks pics... I think I can post them here. Here's some pics showing what I had to do to the mounting clips to get the bulb to fit. I used a carbide burr on a dremel. Don't get tiny brass slivers stuck in your fingers (or eyes): And even though you can't tell much because there's nothing else to compare it to, here's the obligatory "ON" pic: And again, if you don't want to deal with grinding off a little of the brass fingers to fit the 6 LED festoon in there, you can get a 4 emitter version instead. And since they keep making LEDs brighter and brighter, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that todays 4 LED bulbs are as bright as the 6 LED bulbs from 7 years ago when I did this mod.