The Road to Carlisle

[The_Eagles’_Nest]

The corroded battery terminal was cut off, and I am waiting for the new one to come in so I can splice the cables back together, the clamp bolt is about to break off. The belts are all back together.

One side on the engine mount is fighting me and the bolt won’t thread. The exhaust gaskets also arrived and I will be installing a new y-pipe.

 

[The_Eagles’_Nest]

The Imperial is alive! Time to get some water in it and get everything dialed in. Pics later.

 

[The_Eagles’_Nest]

The new thermostat was stuck closed, so the original Robert Shaw thermostat is going back in.

 

[The_Eagles’_Nest]

I sacrificed a $140 battery cable to do this repair, but it looks better than a bolt on terminal and will not corrode like one.

Going to get some thermostat sealant and a gasket. Then I need to adjust the steering spool valve, and tune the carburetor.

 

[Big_John]

I sacrificed a $140 battery cable to do this repair, but it looks better than a bolt on terminal and will not corrode like one.

Going to get some thermostat sealant and a gasket. Then I need to adjust the steering spool valve, and tune the carburetor.

View attachment 722925

I did something similar with the battery cable on my '65 Formula S Barracuda.

The repop cable is almost $300 and not really correct. Color on the repop is wrong (should be black) and the terminal isn't close to correct shape. I've also read that it misses the mark on correct length, but I can't verify that. As you can see from the pic of the repop, it's an overly complex piece that would take a lot of screwing around to replace with other than stock anyway.

My car had its original cable and in great shape, but someone had added a temporary "bolt on" battery terminal that looked ready to fail, as they all eventually do. I found a replacement cable that matched the wire size and is the same color. I cut the replacement and crimp connected to the existing cable. I have some crimpers for that size wire.

The terminal is still not correct shape, but only a very few will know that. The colors match and with some black shrink tubing added and with it tucked down a bit, I'm the only one that sees it. Since the PO installed a repop Mopar battery, I wanted the rest of the wire to look right, even if not 100% correct.

Point being, for the doubters, is that it was 7 or 8 years ago, and it's still working just fine. I'd snap a pic but the car's on the lift.

 

[The_Eagles’_Nest]

So after a bunch of work and getting the car reliable…the heater core exploded. I will deal with it after Carlisle. For now the heater core has been bypassed.

Today I am fine tuning the carburetor and will attempt to vacuum down the air conditioning.

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Yup, had to jack up the engine to re and re my steering box (66 Chrysler), and I herniated a disc in my neck doing so, and cracked the oil dipstick tube wiggling it around to make room.
What an AWFUL job. I thought I was going to lose my mind...

And today I had to re and re the driver side exhaust manifold due to a persistent exhaust leak that I had had enough of listening to - and yup, I had to jack up the engine to get access to the stud and nut just behind the exhaust pipe flance. P. I. T. A. Even worse trying to get the washer and nut back on the bloody stud when I was buttoning things up.

And to add insult to injury, the radiator petcock disintegrated in my hand when I went to drain the coolant in case an exhaust manifold stud backed out instead of the nut coming off (which one did), plus the oil dipstick tube finally let go.