2011 at the Hammond Barn

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Phil

I was not sure either.....but I ran a corner of the hinge under the bench grinder..... the sparks convinced me it was steel.... so I kept grinding a bevel on both faces...... wanted to make sure we had good penetration..... and we did .....they got red hot side to side.

I just did not know we could do it....

Bob

[RHClarke]

Saturday was beautiful. The early morning mist cleared as the sun rose over the still frozen grounds. On the way out to Hammond, I noticed the local Liberals were holding a meeting, so I stopped to take a photo – see photo one below.

The road to the barn was still nicely frozen, so the drive in was fairly easy for my little car. By now, the sun was blazing in its full glory and not too soon thereafter the great melt started. My first chore was to drain one of the lakes that had formed near the shed. This involved digging a trench across the road so the water could drain into the gully. It wasn’t long before the surface ice melted away as the temperature was on its way up to +17oC. The HUP likes the warm weather. It started on the first crank and settled into a nice idle in very little time. After backing it out of its shelter, I let it sit in the sun to bring it up to a good operating temperature. By now Bob and Grant had arrived and took on the task of plumbing up Bob’s new carburetor. Guy Vapeur arrived to deliver a nice reduction motor to Bob. Bob will provide an update on his latest project. Shortly thereafter, we headed out for lunch. The trip back to Hammond was done with the windows down on the truck. Good weather had finally arrived.

This wonderful weather was well received, but it also heralded the arrival of the Hammond Air force. The mosquitoes started buzzing about by 10 AM. After lunch, I reassessed the driver side door fit. It was discovered that the lower hinge needed some adjustment to ensure that the door had a uniform fit front and rear. Bob recommended that I heat the longer lower hinge and bend it. He also recommended that I try bending a spare hinge first. As luck would have it, I had a very bent up lower hinge sitting around. With Grant’s help, I toasted the hinge to red hot and Grant applied the necessary force to eventually bring the hinge back to its original configuration. This worked quite well, so we tackled the original hinge – it too bent back into shape. We compared both adjusted hinges to a pristine hinge just to make sure. However, the bending revealed another problem – now the frame side hinge holes did not align with the frame holes.

Once again, it was decided to weld on some more steel stock onto the frame side hinge arm, fill the original holes and drill new holes. We ran into one small problem – our drills failed to cut the steel. Bob recommended heating the steel, burying it in sand to let it cool slowly so that the metal cools without too much hardening. While the hinge cooled off, I replaced the plug wires on the HUP. This seemed to make the engine run smoother. I guess the 20+ year old wires lost some of their effectiveness.

The next project for me was to start the process of reassembling the HUP’s side windows. The original metal frames were quite rusted and required a bit of welding, stripping and restoration. I painted the frames inside and out ensuring that all of the metal channels were coated in rust paint. This was quite messy as I had to pour paint into some of the holes in the frame and slosh it about until I was sure everything was coated. Once dried, all of the screw holes for the sliding glass tracks had to be tapped out to remove any remaining rust and paint. Once this was done, I replaced the original screws and painted the exposed portions of the frames with an olive drab-ish spray of paint. As usual, the day passed all too soon, and I had to head back to Ottawa. By now the driveway had turned to a deep gumbo that almost caused me to bog down the Corolla. I brought the frames home with me where they are awaiting their glass and tracks. I’ll get onto them on Monday after work now that working the garage no longer requires a parka and mitts.


Photos

1 - Wild turkeys near auto wrecker yard in Cumberland
2 - The door - off again - showing welding - which will be covered by liner
3 - The boys working on Bob's carby
4 - The boys working on Bob's carby - coats off
5 - HUP metal window frame

[RHClarke]

Point setting tip:

http://rides.webshots.com/album/557190450brdpqh?start=0

Click thru the various pages for some more good ideas.

[Bob Carriere]

We took advantage of the nice weather on Saturday and worked on fine tuning the C15a.

My first endeavour was to eliminate the original 1959 vacuum connection sticking out like a sore thumb for the left side of the intake manifold. The overall clearance between the intake manifold and the engine cover sheet metal is approx. 3/4 inch on my cab 11. The huge fitting currently on the 1959 manifold is sticking out almost 2 inches.

One option was to drill a hole at 90 degree to the current hole and pipe something from that location. Cloder examination of spare intake manifold showed that only the outside face of the intake manifold is full solid cast iron. All ohter 3 sides seem to have a void between the air passages inside and the outside surface. Remember that this part of the intake manifold serves as a chamber that allows exhaust gases to flow around the iar passages and heat up/vaposize the fuel mix. The only other option was to drill one or both sides of the rounded section somewhere between the 2nd / 3rd or 4th / 5th cylinders and tap for a brass fitting. I was afraid of unbalancing the fuel mix....... or even worst of introducing metal shavings into the manifold..... ( I was determined NOT to remove the good sealing manifolds).

So I copied what was originally done when they installed power brake boosters on early CMPs. I had a local machine shop make me a 3/4 inch steel spacer shaped like the profile of a carburetor gasket..... alsmot the same as the current black bakelite insulator exept a littel thicker. The 3/4 inch thickness allowed for drilling and tapping two 1/4 ID holes opposite each other for fitting brass fitting.... one forward for the PVC pipe one at the rear for the vacuum gauge and later the windshield wipers.

In the process if fitting the steel spacer I took advantage of swapping the rebuilt Rochester B carb for a newly rebuilt Carter YF suited to the 261. This one is not supposed to leak raw gasoline when I negotiate very step hills.... that has yet to be tested.

Not to waste the nice weather we also removed the valve cover and re adjusted the valves.... that eliminated the small ticking of one valve and stopped the puffing sound that was heard in the exhaust outlet...

Now idles nicely at 475 / 500 rpm...... never gets any hotter than 160 F.... and a very steady 22 inches of vacuum and 35 psi on the oil gauge.

Ran the engine with no valve cover.... found it utterly facinating to see the oil flowing from the rockers and the almost musical rythmic oscilation of these little rockers.......

So here are some pictures of the before and after. Don't be discouraged with all the rubber and vinyl hoses.... they will be replaced with proper metal tubing and /or rubber hoses as appropriate once we have worked out all the bugs.

[Bob Carriere]

First one is the offending connector which was fine for a larger engine bay of a 1959 truck BUT not for a cab 11.

Second from a different angle shows the large PVC pipe connection and the temporary vacuum lines.

Third one shows the new carburetor.... the shiny steel spacer. Notice the original 216 air cleaner fits perfectly on the Carter. We installed a thin craft paper (previously covered lightly with silicon sealer and alloed to dry overnight) gasket below and above the steel spacer....followed by the black bakelite insulator..... the usual slotted carb gasket on top of the insulator than the Carter YF. Luck would have it the throttle linkage was readjsuted an fitted perfectly. Because the rebuilder had flow tested the carb it was a simple "turnkey" operation to fire up the engine.... slight tweaking of the mixture screw and Voila !!!!!

Dig that brand new Carter fuel filter now installed.

The large brass pipe plug will eventually be replaced by a recessed Hex brass plug so it will not stick out.

Picture four.... the guages...... note the temp gauge is meant for oil but works fine for the coolant temp.... and I opted for a larger vacuum guage to see the needle fluctuations that I had when my manifold was leaking.

I may take the time to redo the valves again..... the original intermitent puffing from the exhaust has disappeared but I seem to detect some slight rumbling.... maybe it is trying to emitate a Ford V8. we build a hand crank for the engine to allow easier turning of the engine for the valve adjustment.
Just want to make sure we have it right..... not to tight to burn a valve and not too loose to sound like a Singer sewing machine...... besides it is good practice and a lot easier now with out the sheet metal.

I must mention that I had the able, patient assistance of Grant and the encouragement of Rob who was modifying/fabricating hinges for his HUP.

Must be doing something right as both the HUP and my truck now start at the flick of the starter lever.....

Bob

PS..... next time I will try out a rebuilt Zenith 28 228 intended for a GMC 270 c.i.

[Bob Carriere]

While doing the valve adjustement good old eagle eye Grant noticed a crack or cut on top of one of the valve rocker...... see picture below..... came as a total surprise.... when examined closer it is almost like a hacksaw cut rather than a crack.... and this rocker arm assembly was purchased totally rebuilt. It is running good right now but has me worried. all the valve push rods are turning properly and oil drippes out quite nicely.

Should I worry and replace it......??

Being a hoarder... I mean a well prepared boyscout ready for any eventuality I happen to have a spare fully rebuilt rocker arm assembly curtesy of EBay so doign a swap is quite feasible...... not sure yet.

I welcome your comments / suggestions.

Bob

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Bob

Looks like you have been busy, about the rocker arm, I think I would replace it only if I was pulling the assembly off for another reason. That side of the lifter is in compression so having a small cut on the top is unlikely to cause trouble unless you try running it in a NASCAR race and start floating the valves.

Glad the spacer solved the vacuum tap issue. Also make it easier if you decide to mount that brake booster.

Let us know how the carb works at the 60 degree hill climb, you really need a bigger hill something more like 50' tall.

Cheers Phil

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Bob Carriere

While doing the valve adjustement good old eagle eye Grant noticed a crack or cut on top of one of the valve rocker...... see picture below..... came as a total surprise.... when examined closer it is almost like a hacksaw cut rather than a crack.... and this rocker arm assembly was purchased totally rebuilt. It is running good right now but has me worried. all the valve push rods are turning properly and oil drippes out quite nicely.

Should I worry and replace it......??

Being a hoarder... I mean a well prepared boyscout ready for any eventuality I happen to have a spare fully rebuilt rocker arm assembly curtesy of EBay so doign a swap is quite feasible...... not sure yet.

I welcome your comments / suggestions.


Bob

Hi Bob..
It looks like a casting flaw to me and agree with Phil..run it..