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damen_red

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  • Location
    San Diego
  • Cars
    1967 520, 1968 1600 Roadster
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    Cars

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  1. damen_red

    Happy 520 Day

    Been a long time since I've updated my forum post, but it just so happens I took mine out for it's first drive in 25 years!
  2. Took a while to get to, but finally got the seat bolted down, this stuff from Home Depot worked great! I got the idea from looking at universal seat rails from places such as Jegs. All holes lined up perfectly, just needed a hacksaw and some bolts. This also gives me the option to play with the fore/aft positioning so I can use it as a template in case I ever do a real mount.
  3. I searched to no avail as well, had to repair it myself since even the radiator shop wouldn’t touch it! Now that I am up and running I’d like to find a more modern replacement too. My last thought was to buy a 521 version and have a shop move the inlet and outlet, might be a cheaper option than full custom.
  4. I have a '67 520 with dual headlamps, I was wondering if anyone knew where the original chassis ground strap was located? Thanks!
  5. damen_red

    Red's 520

    Worked on a few things these last couple of months, the clutch gave out immediately after getting it moving, so I put in the new parts I had already bought. I was resistant at first because I would have to reroute the clutch master hard line, but I spent a weekend doing that and it holds pressure and doesn't leak, so that's good. I decided last weekend to tackle some electrical gremlins as it appears nothing in the cab works. Some rodent damage under the hood and the fuse block was black and corroded, probably from said rodents making a nest up in there for a while. So I decided to pull the block and see how much I could rejuvenate it, this is what it looks like now after a couple runs in my ultrasonic cleaner with simple green. Wish I would've gotten a before picture, but you can kind of see it in the upper left hand side here: I don't think this will solve many problems, but it's a good place to start! The ground strap I had on this engine went to the drivers side mount, it didn't look original, so I was wondering if anyone had reference for the original location of the chassis ground? I would like to clean that up next and make sure I have a good ground before tackling anything else.
  6. Still looking, does anyone have even a picture I can reference? These were long gone before I bought the truck, thanks!
  7. Hi all, I'm starting a new topic here because I am really close to getting my 520 back on the road. Although not entirely necessary I would like to bolt the seat down and get some seat belts in. I'm missing the seat brackets, the ones between the seat and floor. I posted an ad in the Wanted section, but no bites. I was wondering if I could at least get a picture of one, if not able to purchase some?(I'm terrible at metal work) I can kind of determine the left/right dimensions but am unsure of fore/aft positioning.
  8. Time Left: 2 days and 23 hours

    • WANTED
    • USED

    Hi, I’m looking for a pair of seat brackets that bolt to the floor for my ‘67 520, rails would be great too, but just the brackets will do, thanks!

    NO VALUE SPECIFIED

    San Diego, California - US

  9. Thanks for the info! I just happen to have a bottle of zddp additive, now that I have ran it up to temp, I’m going to change the oil and see of things improve, wasn’t planning on using it here, but you have a good point. I’m also wondering of this has hardened valve seats installed? If not I do have a fresh head rebuild with hardened seats. I took compression numbers and they were in the 130-140psi range, a little low, so may have to deal with a little blowby while exploring a rebuild with one of my other blocks.
  10. Hi all, I am in the process of resurrecting a 1967 520 with a J13 engine, you can see my thread in the 520 section under "Red's 520". I just started it up for the first time this weekend and am trying to evaluate it's condition now that it's running. It was a "ran when pulled" engine I got from another forum member here, and there was no history on it other than it "looked good". There is no oil pressure gauge, so I just opened up the oil filler cap to take a look while running and was surprised to not see much oil flowing around. I was expecting to see some oil flowing, instead it just looked wet and I couldn't see any real movement other than possible weeping through the base of one of the risers I could see. Is this normal? I have to admit I have never looked at the valve train of any of my running engines, so I was not really sure what to expect, but I would not have guessed it looking like this. Anyways, I am ordering an oil pressure/temperature gauge because I like more precise info, but if someone thinks this doesn't seem right I will have to investigate further.
  11. damen_red

    Red's 520

    Well, had a bit of time to sort out a few little things today and it runs! First was getting the cooling system buttoned up, I filled it up with water and it of course leaked, the thermostat housing was the culprit and I figured out that according to the book, there are 2 gaskets for that, I just had the one, took it off and used some Permatex, while it was curing I decided to look at the fuel system. The carb that was on the engine I bought had a slightly different throttle linkage setup than what I had, so I decided to just swap my carb back over, doing so I took the 3 carbs I have and tried to match as closely as I could get to the book as far as choke/linkage/fuel inlet goes and I think I got it. The fuel system was next since I had the carb on now, I used a mixture again of what came on the motor, namely the fuel pump, and what I had on the truck, I liked the old glass bowl fuel filter and cleaned out that as best I could, but put another generic filter inline to catch anything should the old spring and sock type filter decide to let go. The last part of the truck I had not yet explored was the fuel tank, fully expecting that to be a rusty nightmare like the rest of the truck, I opened up the inspection hole and lo and behold it was clean as a whistle! All the zinc coating was intact and looked as if someone had completely drained it before mothballing it for 25 years, what a relief! I skipped ahead a little bit because I ran the truck at first with just a gas canister as the tank, everything is connected as normal, ran it again tonight and it looks like at least for the near term the cooling system is holding pressure. I am afraid to run it for very long because the dash gauges are not working so I have no idea what my water temp/oil pressure is, but those are mostly just idiot lights so I would like to order some accurate gauges and put them in before running it any more. One concern is oil pressure, for one I am getting some smoking after running a few minutes, I checked inside the valve cover and don't really see much oil movement, is this normal? It looks wet, but I'm not seeing any noticeable amount of oil flowing anywhere, shouldn't I see lots of oil squirting everywhere? I also am looking at the electrical, things are coming back one by one as I fix bad connections and grounds, kind of mad at myself, I was tired and in a hurry and I broke one of the tabs on the cluster bezel, this truck doesn't need any more broken parts! Here's a video of one of the first starts, it ran fast until I realized the throttle linkage was just a tad short for some unknown reason, after I disconnected it, I could adjust the idle and it ran fairly smooth.
  12. damen_red

    Red's 520

    I wish I was familiar enough with TJ, but I don’t go down there often enough to even know where to go. At any rate, I took a deep breath today and after lots of scrubbing and brass wire wheeling I made my first attempt at radiator repair! Not sure I would have paid anyone to do such a crappy job, but it at least holds water, don’t know if it holds pressure yet, though. The flux washed off and the joint is mostly smooth, it was hard to get a “perfect” flow. Does the fan shroud normally sit like this? Here it is installed, tomorrow I’ll try to fill it up.
  13. damen_red

    Red's 520

    Drivetrain is in, just cleaned it up as best I could and bolted it back up. Got the clutch hydraulics working, I bought a clutch master from Rockauto for a 521 as read in another forum, but didn't feel like rerouting the hydraulic line, so I took the old, dry one apart and it looked pretty good inside. I figure it just went dry because the flex line had cracked and leaked, so someone hit the clutch and the pedal never came back up. It took some effort to get the piston to come back out, but after a good cleaning, I bled it and hooked it back up, I now get good clutch pressure, at least enough to disengage the clutch, if it's a leaker I have a new one to install. I have kind of a common theme here in just using the existing parts to get going because until I get everything back in to a running state I don't know what condition anything is in. Except for the brakes, those are 100% new. So going with my aforementioned theme, I have been having some difficulty in getting my radiator repaired, I have taken it to two different places, both of which refused to even hot tank it suggesting a complete rebuild(which there are no tanks available) or a full custom radiator, both of which at this point don't makes sense because there are dozens of things left to do to get it running, a 3 row custom radiator is a luxury at this point! Here is what it looked like when I pulled it. The system was bone dry and hard to tell exactly what went wrong, but I am sure this is what put the truck out of commission back in 1996. So, while I figure out where to get a "good" radiator from, I decide to try to work this one over at least enough to fill the system and roll it on and off a trailer. I start by removing the shroud and filling it up with Evaporust and letting it sit for a few days. Putting liquid in it for the first time, it becomes clear exactly where the break is, it looks like the soldered seam for the top cover has split, probably from an overheating event. Here's a better angle with the seam cleaned, the split is about 8 inches long. After much Youtubeing I determine that I am going to attempt to reflow the solder myself, I have done some plumbing and PCB rework, and being an Engineer I am generally curious about how these these things work and am fueled by someone telling me that it can't be done. I hit the seam with a MAPP gas torch and see the solder bubble up, so I know it's not brazed. I grab some acid flux and solid core solder and clean the joint as best I can with a wire wheel. The attempt was a disaster and i was unable to get enough clean area to sweat the joint cleanly and the solder just kept falling through the crack. After a few attempts I get frustrated and decide to go all in and remove the cover completely, besides, the system overheated somehow and I am suspecting the rods are mostly plugged up, so I torch the heck out of it and successfully remove the top, mostly without damaging anything. I did notice that the top is made of copper and the flanges have now bent out from the copious amount of heat. I am afraid to try and bend them back because the copper is soft. This is what it looks like inside. Fascinating. Looks like a radiator hose tension spring had corroded and gotten sucked into the radiator, surprisingly most of the rods are clear, only two were clogged 100%. I cleared those out and scrubbed the holy heck out of everything including the top. Here's what they look like now. So, I wish there was a happy end to this story, but it being a holiday that's all the time I had to work at it. My question to the forum is, has anyone ever done or considered purchasing one of those 100$ aluminum L series 520/521 radiators and then just having the correct inlet and outlet tubes welded/brazed on? It seems like a simple solution to us J-series guys that have no readily available replacements. Anyways, the saga will continue, I want to get my blasting cabinet running again so I can really clean that top piece, but may just wire-wheel it and see if it'll stick. Either way I learned something about these old radiators, also maybe with the money I save I could get an acetylene torch, I think the MAPP gas is contaminating the solder joint, most of the videos I saw used an oxy/acetylene torch.
  14. damen_red

    Red's 520

    Sorry, it took me a while to upload an image, but to be sure, here is the mount in question, not broken, but rather squishy and difficult to remove because of how it needs to "slide" out, which is the only reason I'm thinking about replacing it.
  15. damen_red

    Red's 520

    Thanks for including pictures to clarify! Yes, mine is the stock mount for the J engine and 4-speed(your first picture). This is kind of what I was hoping, that someone has figured out how to use the $20 mount for the 520, my metal fabricating skills are terrible, but that bracket looks simple enough, maybe in the future, once I am on the road, it would be a worthwhile endeavor, I am just eyeing all the rubber and anticipating that once it is moving under it's own power some things will start to give!
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