My Duster Adventures
To say tonight was awesome would be an understatement!!!
But let's back up a little. Last night I painted the transmission crossmember, took the 2 10 gauge wires from the alternator to starter relay back out and cut em shorter/rerouted em to go to the battery instead.
Tonight, I started by putting in the nice, shiny crossmember!!
I then bolted the fuse holders on the 10 gauge wires to the body.
Then i set in a battery, wired up the starter, sprayed some starting fluid in the carb, hit the key and.........nothing. Remembered the neutral/clutch safety switch post on the starter relay wasn't grounded so a ran a temporary ground to the battery... Hit the switch and the starter just clicked a few times then spun the engine over, (discovered later timing was way past tdc) finally sputtered somewhat to life on starting fluid. So I went and got 5 gallons gas, put some in a bottle and the rest in the tank.. Dumped some gas in the carb and fired it that way a few times till the pump got gas to the engine. Set the timing and now I can hit the key and she roars (more of a meow lol) to life!! The stock 5.9 definitely doesn't sound as good as the 318 did.
The other night when I set the radiator in place I knew I wanted to put some rubber spacers under it and thinking of Denny's reply about hotrodding it dawned on me that I could use hood bumpers. I didn't wanna spend and wait on a-body bumpers so was gonna get some in the help section at advance then it dawned on me that I can take the ones off the 02 corrolla that was my daily beater car till the engine blew a month or 2 back. So today I pulled em off and tonight I drilled 2 5/8 or 11/16, I'll have to check, holes in the radiator support and turned the bumpers all the way in. Set the radiator in place put the playdo on the cap, shut the hood and still have 3/4" clearance!! first pic is showing how they look, second pic is one installed.
To say tonight was awesome would be an understatement!!!
But let's back up a little. Last night I painted the transmission crossmember, took the 2 10 gauge wires from the alternator to starter relay back out and cut em shorter/rerouted em to go to the battery instead.
Tonight, I started by putting in the nice, shiny crossmember!!
I then bolted the fuse holders on the 10 gauge wires to the body.
Then i set in a battery, wired up the starter, sprayed some starting fluid in the carb, hit the key and.........nothing. Remembered the neutral/clutch safety switch post on the starter relay wasn't grounded so a ran a temporary ground to the battery... Hit the switch and the starter just clicked a few times then spun the engine over, (discovered later timing was way past tdc) finally sputtered somewhat to life on starting fluid. So I went and got 5 gallons gas, put some in a bottle and the rest in the tank.. Dumped some gas in the carb and fired it that way a few times till the pump got gas to the engine. Set the timing and now I can hit the key and she roars (more of a meow lol) to life!! The stock 5.9 definitely doesn't sound as good as the 318 did.
The other night when I set the radiator in place I knew I wanted to put some rubber spacers under it and thinking of Denny's reply about hotrodding it dawned on me that I could use hood bumpers. I didn't wanna spend and wait on a-body bumpers so was gonna get some in the help section at advance then it dawned on me that I can take the ones off the 02 corrolla that was my daily beater car till the engine blew a month or 2 back. So today I pulled em off and tonight I drilled 2 5/8 or 11/16, I'll have to check, holes in the radiator support and turned the bumpers all the way in. Set the radiator in place put the playdo on the cap, shut the hood and still have 3/4" clearance!! first pic is showing how they look, second pic is one installed.
