Captain Obvious

I'll absolutely give you a high-five! With the current exchange rate, does that work out to a high-seven and a half or something by the time it gets to you? I love the crisp body line down the whole side. Especially where bodywork often muddies it out over the rear wheel arches. Looks great!

I dug through my pics and found some of the burrs I was talking about. I'm guessing they were caused by wrench slips: Burr from PO had been pinched under the lock nut:

Yeah, I kept looking at Jim's disk and thinking "I've seen that somewhere before". It's not Tron's disk and I couldn't find anything Klingon that looks similar.

I had a similar occurrence once. Adjusted the valves and took it around the block. Started tapping unusually loud about halfway around the block. Got back and discovered that one of the lock-nuts had come loose and one of the valves was way too wide. So now I give them an extra little somethin when I tighten them down. My son has started working on his car (because I told him if he wants to have a car, he's going to do the work on it) and he will ask me questions like "Is this a small umph kind of tighten, or a full grunt?" I also had one jamb nut that had an issue with a burr kicked up on one of the corners of the rocker stud hex. I'm guessing my PO was using an open end wrench in there and slipped off. When that happened, he smeared a couple of the corners and the kicked up burrs was contacting the jam nut before the full flat surface. I could tell that something was wrong because the torque is supposed to shoot up rapidly as things bottom out. The one adjuster nut did not do that, but instead got tight gradually instead of all at once.

I see a hole and an A. Maybe you could come up with a name that reflects that somehow? You could change the "A" to a "Adv" so it would make it clear which way was up. How about the Uni-Disk? For the universal-mount distributor disk. Or "Z-Disk" just to get the "Z" in there somewhere (even though it works on other cars).

Yeah, I found the timing to be particularly distasteful. And it's not over. I got another fundraiser email this morning. That makes FIVE fundraiser requests in just the past two days! it used to be maybe one a week. Now five in the past to days. Paraphrase the latest one? "Don't believe what you see on news stations other than F. I'm really doing a great job. Really. If it's not good news about me, then it must be fake. Send me money." To exploit the opportunity and a “let no crisis go wasted” mentality when we have citizens dying and families scared and hunkered down is totally unacceptable.

Fantastic! That's the kind of non-problem we like to hear about! And I knew you would get the reference my friend. I can always count on you. (And Cliff! )

Oh yeah. One other thing. Fantastic timing. I got no less than FOUR emails today from the big T's today. For example: (State your name), We've got some big news to share. The President is putting together a team made up of only his MOST RELIABLE supporters, and he specifically asked that we reach out to YOU about joining as an Official Trump Team Leader. Trump Team Leaders will help President Trump WIN BIG in November and he really wants YOU on the team. You've always been one of the President's most loyal and trusted supporters since the very beginning so he's counting on YOU to step up. Are you up for the challenge, (State your name)? And then there are a whole bunch of buttons I can click to donate back to him. You know... send some of the stimulus money right back to him? Not this time...

Yeah, looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue. I gotta stay away from this thread. I think I've made what points I can. The big T mismanaged this badly and lied to us about it. He's in over his head, I think any of the other choices are better suited for the position. Other people might actually listen to the people around them who know what they're talking about. Nothing is ever perfect, but I think any of the other choices are better than what we have right now. Even if I have to just leave that spot blank. Because I just cant. In the meantime, I should focus on helping those that I can. Here and elsewhere. It's healthier. My kid told me today that he'd rather be poor and deal with a questionable economy than have me and/or his mom dead. Maybe he's in the minority, but that was nice to hear.

"Your home is on fire, yelling at the guy holding the hose wrong doesn’t help you put the fire out." That's a great example. Let me add some detail... The town next to yours catches fire. Ravaging out of control. Spreading out of control like.... well like wildfire. Analyzing the situation, fire experts tell the fire chief of YOUR town... "Hey boss. This thing in the next town over doesn't look good. This could easily spread to our town and we should start getting ready." Your fire chief's reaction is “we have it totally under control. It’s going to be just fine.” Shortly after that, the fire experts are tell your fire chief "Hey boss, bad news... We got a couple houses on fire in OUR town now. We're working on them, but it's so dry and windy that it's probably going to spread in OUR town just like it did in the other town. And if that happens, we're not going to have enough people or equipment. What should we do?" Your chief's reaction - "We have it very well under control. We have very little problem here at this moment — five. And those are all being put out successfully.” Shortly after that, the fire experts tell your chief "More bad news boss... Remember how we warned you that it's likely to spread? Well guess what... It's spreading fast. And as we warned you before, we are running out of supplies and people to fight it. What should we do?" Your chief's reaction - “We’re talking about a much smaller range. It’s very mild. I’m not concerned at all. It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” Then the fire experts give the next update... "Hey boss, we've pretty much lost control. Houses are catching fire faster than we can handle. Most of them are just small fires and are going out by themselves, but many of the older houses are burning to the ground. Oh... And vacationers are pulling money out of our town because they're worried about the whole thing." Your chief's reaction - “Did you say that people are pulling money out of our town???? That's really bad!! Do something!!!"

I'm not yelling at the guy holding the hose, but I AM making it clear that the fire chief screwed up big-time and doesn't deserve to continue in that position. He made errors in judgment that disqualify him. Big errors. Errors that get my attention. Errors big enough that unfortunately I simply cannot pull the big-R lever the next time I get the chance. And as for offering solutions, I'm doing what I can. I'm heeding the shelter-in-place order. I'm washing my hands. I'm minimizing my contact with other people. All of that stuff. That's what I can do personally as part of a solution. But in parallel with the current attempts at a solution, it's important that we don't forget why we are here in the first place. Self-inflicted. I thought he could do it, but it's clear that he can't. You can't teach judgment. The poor judgment is going to continue and it's just not worth that.

LOL. "I gots ta know."

Yup!! That's the one. Awesome! Thanks again for filling in the missing brain cells!

I suspect in your senior state, you loosened up #6 exhaust lock by accident and then it worked itself out from there. Sounds like a plausible smoking gun to me! That would be great! Tighten that sucker back up to the correct lash and take it around the block while you're still allowed!!!

Excellent. Sounds like great progress. There was at least one person who mounted a new style water control valve in the interior compartment, but I don't remember who. @grannyknot maybe? (This is apparently my go-to guess for someone if I can't remember who it was? )

Woof. Are you positive sure it's a metallic clanking? And are you positive sure it wasn't there before? Maybe you're just uber sensitive to noises right now? I'm (like you) am having a hard time coming up with anything that could cause that kind of noise as a result of a valve seal change. So you did all six intakes? Just the intakes only?

My biggest beef is that a lot of the pain we are feeling right now is self inflicted. We missed the opportunity to take action when we had the warning signs. Pennsylvania just instituted a state-wide "shelter in place" order last night. So I couldn't drive my Z right now even if I wanted to. So while that ship has sailed, the captain of that ship ignored the signs of the storm because he thought he could navigate around it somehow. He was wrong. It shows really poor judgment. Bad decisions. NIMBY. Poor judgment. I just can't ignore this one. It's too late to change the vertical rise in the curve, but we had our chance. Not only did we not take it seriously from the top, but we were mislead. They downplayed the whole thing. I was watching a clip on youtube where my news anchors on "F" were side by side with themselves from a couple weeks ago. A couple weeks ago they were downplaying the whole thing and making fun of the hair-on-fire broadcasters on the the other stations because they thought the other news agencies were over-blowing the whole thing. It was funny at the time because it seemed like the other stations were over-reacting. Well guess what... They were not over-reacting and we lost valuable time. So clearly I've lost a lot of faith in my news station as well. Ten weeks after we SHOULD have been taking it seriously - “It’s very mild. I’m not concerned at all. It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away." Not concerned until the stock market tanked. Pulse of wealth instead of pulse of health. Like I said before, I've been red since day one but I've lost a lot of faith. Head in the sand poor decisions leading up to this point, they lied to us, and I've about had it. So when you say "it’s not worth bickering over now. That ship has sailed." You're right. But I don't think the captain deserves a reward for the job he's done. I think we need a change there. We seem to be taking it serious now, but we missed the opportunity to take it seriously then. The people who ignored and downplayed this whole thing are why we are in the position we are in right now.

Dave, I did one valve seal (#1 intake) in situ. I didn't take pics of every stage, but I did take a few. So here's a couple pics to go with your text. I used rope (not rubber tubing). Stuff the cylinder full and then rotate the crank to push it upward into the valves: Once you have the springs off, pull the old seal up and off: And put the new one on. Be sure to use the little straw so you don't mess up the new seal on the sharp edge corners of the retainer groove: And when I put it back together, I used a short length of rope to hold the spring compressor tool in place (with the springs compressed). That way I could use both hands to fiddle with the retainer wedgies instead of trying to manage the tool in one hand while giving a wedgie with the other. Process looked like this:

There are more speeds for the A/C setup cars as opposed to the non-A/C. The A/C cars had four speeds and the non-A/C only had three. And yes, you can move the blower resistor over. They are interchangeable and mount the same in both housings. The vacuum pot may be a little bit more complicated. I don't remember for sure, but I think there might be some welded or riveted bracketing difference between the A/C and non-A/C in that area. Might not be a simple bolt-up. Not insurmountable, but might not be that simple. I've got some HVAC parts here that I have collected for various projects, and as is so common, I probably have more than I need. Haha! How much is the blower box on ebay you're looking at. I would have to look, but I might have one from an A/C car. PM me if that's of any interest.

Sounds essential to me too. Wonder if the people at the border crossing would agree. We'll do it, but maybe just not right now. I saw that thing about England too and you're right. That's a big ask.

Assuming you're talking about electrical wiring connectors, I believe there is only one that goes to the blower box itself. There's a second one going to the blower motor, so if what you're looking at on ebay has the blower motor in place, there will be two connectors. Not sure what year you're working on, but here's a pic from a 77 if that helps at all:

What gets me is the lack of action in the beginning when it really could have helped. We really dropped the ball. I've been registered red since I was old enough, but I've lost a lot of faith in the current administration since this crisis started. It's really highlighted some failings there, starting at the very top. From the top down, we downplayed the seriousness and didn't start to take serious action until the stock market started to tank. Our finger was on the pulse of the market instead on the pulse of the people who were getting sick. Back in mid-January, the World Health Org was setting off warning flares while we were saying that we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine. And it just went downhill from there. Dropped the ball. "Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away,” We should have been working on making extra protective gear, working on getting test produced, getting hospitals trained, geared up and expanded, etc.... We seem to be taking it serious now, but we missed the opportunity to take it seriously then.

@grannyknot as if I needed more reasons to like you. If we both make it through this, I need to get back up there to spend some more time together.

Hahaha!! "should be “JFA-20”?"