The Great Pumpkin - '71 Duster

So I have been trying to iron out some issues over the last week or two.

I got a new 15/16" bore master cylinder from Cass/Dr. Diff and put it in. Still not much change. Grrrr... So I called Cass and picked his brain some. I explained everything I had done to that point and we went back and forth for a bit. Then I mentioned that I still had the drum brake distribution block installed with an adjustable prop valve in the rear line and asked whether I should change it out from a disc brake metering valve. He said definitely because the drum brake block does not have the hold off action that the disc brake one has. He also suggested I should eliminate the adjustable one since it would be redundant. Even if it's backed off all the way, it still provides some proportioning so you would really be reducing the pressure to the rears with it installed.

Soooo, that meant I had to re-do some of the brake lines. Frankly, I was never 100% happy with some of the ones I had done originally so this time I took the opportunity to make them a little more sanitary. Making front to rear lines sucks, no two ways about it. There are so many complicated bends and angles to get around while trying to route it as safely as possible, it can be very time consuming to do right. The left front line is also kinda tricky to do especially coming off a line lock on the inner fender. Pre-bent lines would have been much easier to deal with but I like pain.

I probably mentioned earlier in the thread that I went with stainless fittings so they won't seize over time but they can be a bear when first installed and they leak. Pretty much every single flare I made leaked, even though the flares are good, it's just the nature of the stainless. You have to crank 'em down, loosen 'em and crank 'em down again until they stop leaking. Not fun.

So I got it all back together, stopped the leaks and gravity bled. Took it out for a quick spin and they're still not great but there is an improvement with the disc brake metering valve. The pedal does not really pump up so I don't believe there is air in the system but I think they probably need to bled with a helper next time. These brakes should be better than they are though, hoping I don't have to scrap these SSBC calipers for something else. Not sure what else it could be at this point.

Car seems to be running OK for now. At least it starts up and stays running without issue. I am starting to fiddle with timing, idle speed and idle screws. I had a vacuum gauge on it and it looks to have 10" of vacuum at 1,100 rpm, drops to 900 in gear. Throttle response is coming around but I have a ways to go. WOT seems OK for now but I've only matted the gas briefly.

There's a vibration on deceleration which was not there before I took the car apart. I have a feeling it might be pinion angle. I got myself a little digital angle finder from Sears to check it all out. There are 2 degree shims in there now. They were already there so I put them back in when I re-did the rear but I'm thinking they might have to come out. Won't know until I figure out where the angle is at.

I also noticed when I was under the car that the left side torsion bar was making contact with one of the header tubes where it wasn't before. I figured it was due to one of a few things; 1) the Shumacher torque strap was pulling on the motor; 2) the control arm socket and adjuster were bent or 3) the t-bar was clocked wrong. Took the T-bar back out and turned it around a few times to see if it gave some more clearance and indeed it did. Guess I must have installed it 180 degrees from where it was for 40 years. I also to the torque strap apart and loosened the motor mounts to see if I could shift the engine a little but it didn't do a whole lot. Not sure if that's the way to go about things but it's done. Ain't coming back out either unless there is an unsolvable issue that comes from it.

So after all that monkeying around, I did a driveway alignment to get it in the ballpark. I basically had to do it because it was almost undrivable. The steering wheel is mostly straight now and seems to track OK. It will be going to get aligned when I get the brakes working right but at lest I can sort of drive it normally.

No pics for now but I will try to post a few when I get a chance. More to come.