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Post by Volktales on Aug 29, 2021 21:34:58 GMT -8
So after a busy Saturday of fixing Dad's T-bird (noisy rear wheel bearing), and repairing the GTI, it was time to get some Corvair action... Given the charging issues I was having, it was time to do a little investigation. I knew that the alternator was outputting more than enough voltage to activate the field solenoid in the regulator and start charging and turning off the indicator light. But it would not in the car. On the bench however, with a VW dimmer switch connected in circuit to give the correct 6 volts to the solenoid, it worked just fine and dandy... See that point gap in the picture. I readjusted the solenoid points to the correct setting. It was WAAAAY off from the factory. I was sure this would fix the problem and everything would be great. Nope. Later on my friend Adrien, the electronics technician came by and gave me a hand. We disassembled the alternator, and he tested each diode in the rectifier. Keep in mind alternators produce AC current which cannot be utilized by the DC electrical system in the car. The diodes rectify this current into DC. The problem is that if something goes wrong, SOME AC current can sneak past and cause issues in the charging system. This is what we believed was happening. The diodes seemed to have pass the necessary resistance testing however. There is also a capacitor hiding inside the alternator which can be problematic as well. Bridging this with a "good" capacitor did not improve things. Adrien brought over an actual oscilloscope which indicated some AC was leaking. Some is acceptable, but this seems excessive. Might have to change those diodes out afterall... Continued...
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Post by Volktales on Aug 29, 2021 21:40:07 GMT -8
Well mulling over the Delcotron, I did get further along with the lighting system. Replacing the rear harness did fix all of the back lights. The license light is mounted on the engine lid, and needs a new bulb and lens. Camera does not like to focus at night very good. But ALL the dash lights are actually functioning here. The radio is not working worth a crap, but amazingly its light works as well. This pic was to show all four lights working, but the low beams' vacuum was compromised and the both burnt out within a minute... Continued...
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Post by Volktales on Aug 29, 2021 21:54:54 GMT -8
So I was determined to get something accomplished today. Corvairs are a pain to jack up as I have found... Note how close the jack is to the rear wheel. And note how the whole side of the car has raised far off the ground... There isn't a very good central jack point to raise the whole back end of the car up at once... What I was doing under there was changing out the choke element, which is mounted right next to the exhaust manifold. It is held on by that loosened bolt near the center of the picture, AND a stupid "twist" rivet visible next to that bolt. The bolt actually holds a lower shield on as well, and the rivet is there to hold the choke element in place while the shield bolt is being installed. Kind of a pain... I went to Dad's to get the choke off my spare engine, but it turned out to be a different design, presumably from a later model. I was able to get the missing muffler bracket sheet-metal off that engine... It was about here that my camera battery died. I did successfully install the missing brackets, and was able to install the muffler/crossover pipe from the spare engine. Amazingly the car came with two new exhaust donuts that are very similar in design to the VW style muffler donuts. Dad had some suitable imperial bolts to hold it together as well... So was it successful??? Here is a video of the engine up and running again with the muffler installed. MUUUUCH quieter now. I also added some oil and put some Seafoam in the crankcase as well. Run it continuously for almost 15 minutes. I think that the blow-by is getting less, but that might be just optimism. In the video you can also see the "pulsing" of the lights (best noticed on the fuel gauge lights). This is the problem I am chasing in the charging system. The camera did not pick this up very well, and neither did it pic up the blow-by coming from the breather tube in the video. Also not shown is the actual oil leak source. Not surprisingly it is the pushrod tube seals, something Corvairs were VERY know for... Oh well...
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Post by Volktales on Sept 5, 2021 20:09:18 GMT -8
Sooo, long weekend means some more project time, and it was time to do something exciting on the Corvair... Yes, it was finally time to change the oil... Made use of my new drain bucket at last and you know what? These things work great! Before doing this however, I had tried out two different types of Seafoam. One was the liquid that you can add to the crankcase as well as dump it down the carburetors. I also used the foam type down the carbs as well. After doing this you should change the oil to get rid of excess chemicals, plus it still was running on 20 plus year old oil... The replacement filter is a bit unusual looking. It arrived the next day and I am not sure where Klynnt got it from. More expensive then your average filter too. Easy to replace, though... The filter is right there on top at the back of the engine, and so is the filler. It is interesting to compare how Volkswagen and the Corvair are similar and different at the same time. GM wins this time for ease of oil change... This is what oil I chose. Not surprisingly, there are differences of opinion about the best oils for Corvairs, just like our VWs. My factory manual states that if you use multi-grade oils, then use 10w30. The "hot-rod" oil chosen contains ZDDP which has been mentioned here before and is better for the old pre roller rocker engine design. Continued...
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Post by Volktales on Sept 5, 2021 20:29:39 GMT -8
And it was nice to finally install the complete air filter assembly. I ended up using the best parts from this car and those that came with the spare engine. The spare even had a decent filter element inside which is surprising as the rats did not eat it.... I also FINALLY got around to checking the dwell and ignition timing. The points needed adjusting the the correct 32 degrees of dwell, and this was straightforward. The timing caused some issues however. GM specified an initial value of 14 degrees BTDC at idle. This is much more than most VWs, but then you have to remember that this 1965 car did not have ANY emission control equipment installed except the crude crankcase ventilation orifice. When checked, the idle timing was set to 24 degrees BTDC. This is way too much, and is a common problem in the VW world, too. A fact of life is that giving an engine excess advance, does tend to make it idle smoother and mask other running problems. I tried to retard it ten degrees, but the distributor is seized into place at the moment.... Sprayed it with penetrating oil, and will give it some working time... The actual Corvair manual is interesting to read when it comes to setting the timing. The earlier mentioned 14 degrees is the "suggested" timing. The manual actually states to advance it as much as you can until pinging is observed, then back the timing off until the pinging stops. Something you could probably get away with back in the days of 104 Octane premium fuels. I will have another go at dealing with the stuck distributor later... The securing bolt for the distributor is not fun to access, and fortunately I had a cheapo wrench that just begged to be modified. VW wins in the distributor pinch bolt access category... So after all this screwing around, is the Corvair ready for some action? Well I think in my case, the Seafoam did not do all that much. I have seen on Youtube were vehicles smoke like hell while the Seafoam is doing its job. Mine made some smoke, but really not that much. The blow-bye is still there to some extant too. Time will tell if things improve. I WILL get that distributor to move somehow, before the car is driven. But otherwise this concludes fiddling with the engine for now. It is time to order some brake parts and install the replacement fuel tank! And fix things like wipers and blower fan. Should be fun...
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Post by busaddict on Sept 5, 2021 21:18:53 GMT -8
Interesting to compare the differences with Volkswagens. Russ wrote: " The manual actually states to advance it as much as you can until pinging is observed, then back the timing off until the pinging stops." Funny that, I've heard veteran Dubbers talk of tuning their vintage VWs in a similar way
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Post by Volktales on Sept 19, 2021 21:21:02 GMT -8
Sooo, it was finally time to get back onto some Corvair fun... But what is this? This is not my Corvair, obviously. Amazingly there was one in attendance at the weekly Wednesday night meets at the old Sears parking lot at the mall formerly known as Rutherford... Anyway I was amazed to see this '65 Monza show up! This one was painted a very dark metallic cherry colour, and was a mostly stock 110 model with four speed. Note the "red" detailing in the engine compartment. I did not take an interior picture, because.... well let's just say I didn't "approve" of the owner's heavy modifications in there. The late model seats and MDF custom console did not exactly appeal... I did manage to briefly talk to the owner, who must have thought I looked particularly sketchy, as he tried to get away as soon as possible. In our short conversation, he said his was definitely NOT for sale (which I certainly did not want to buy anyway!), yet he immediately tried to buy mine once I told him about it. Strange, indeed... Anyway, back onto "my" Corvair... The distributor has been soaking for awhile now in penetrating oil, and it was time have a go at removing it. Still would not budge at all... Fortunately, the design of the distributor allows easy disassembly in place, and I removed the vacuum advance chamber (which was falling off anyway), and the breaker plate assembly. This allowed a better grip on the distributor... And this was the tool that did the job. Some of you may remember I bought this overpriced tool when rebuilding the Acura transmission, and wondered if I would ever use it again. Well the answer was yes, and it did the job well. You would not believe how tight that sucker was stuck in there. Lots of back and forth movement, but it worked in the end without causing any damage at all... And there we go on the bench. The centrifugal advance was seized up, but this came free within seconds of working it back and forth with the wrench. Tomorrow the distributor will be cleaned up and assembled properly, then reinstalled. Once timed correctly, we will see about what appears to be a misfire that was not as noticeable with the timing over-advanced. I did have another go at attempting to remove the one stuck sparkplug. Nope. Still singing tight. Once the engine is running again, I will isolate which cylinder is misfiring, and hopefully it will not be that one... One other thing I did was have a look at the spare master cylinder that was given to me when I bought the spare engine. It may or may not be useable, but though it worth a look inside. Of course all the brakes need doing to make it reliable and safe, but for a trip around the block I am willing to try the free option first... We will see...
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Post by Volktales on Sept 26, 2021 20:13:21 GMT -8
Sooo, was busy doing stupid house related repairs this weekend, (new student broke both the rice cooker, and washing machine), so there was not to much time for Corvair fun. Or was there??? I did find time to reassemble the distributor and clean it up a bit for installation. And you can even see that under the dirt, there is a factory line in the base that you can use to reset the timing with ease. There turned out to be another matching line on the timing case housing under all the oily goo. I did need a new gasket however, and guess what? 28 PICT -1 gaskets are a great fit with a little modification... Then it was a very simple install, and time for yet another test start... With the repaired distributor in, and the timing finally corrected, it ran the best if ever has. Was pleased, for a short while. Then... I ran it much longer than previously, and finally got it up to temperature. And then the problems started... The blow-by increased in volume once hot, and as you can see, the engine happily spews oil out pretty much everywhere. Then all three cylinders on the right bank suddenly cut out at idle. It would appear something has decided to block the idle circuit in that bank, because the cylinders will work if gas is sprayed directly into that carburetor. It was starting to get dark by that stage, and morale was low, so it was wrapped up for the night... Not sure what I am going to do next. As well as I can make it run, it appears the excessive blow-by is not going to go away, and the oil leakage will make it undriveable. Going to have to think about the next step, here... Meanwhile this is patiently waiting for me in the nice warm, dry, and well lit basement... Hmmm...
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Post by stude on Sept 27, 2021 9:11:41 GMT -8
I was looking to find some of that Lucas oil and funny enough I ended up on this interesting site. The link didn't work they have a write up talking Lucas Hot Rod oil
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Post by stude on Oct 2, 2021 18:04:15 GMT -8
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Post by Volktales on Oct 3, 2021 19:37:05 GMT -8
Well it was an extra long weekend for me and you would expect that I accomplished all kinds of work on the Corvair. Nope. Didn't happen. Why not, you might say? Well sometimes when a project is not going as planned you just have to take a break from it. I am quite bummed out about the blow-by problems with the engine and the now poor running has dampened enthusiasm for the moment. I really wanted to be able to actually drive this thing, even just a little bit. But that does not seem very likely at this point. As mentioned earlier, this car REALLY needs a full on restoration to be useable, and that just is not feasible for me at this time. So for now the project is on hiatus, until the mojo returns. But fear not, because now I am ready to get back onto the Ghia with a vengeance!!! And it has begun...
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Post by bobloblaw on Oct 29, 2021 7:11:16 GMT -8
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Post by owdlvr on Oct 29, 2021 8:00:21 GMT -8
Those patch panels suggest someone who has worked in aviation. Not a good someone, mind you...
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Post by Volktales on Oct 30, 2021 7:38:48 GMT -8
Collection is safe. Could never get past the patches. And those extra doors...
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Post by PICTUP on Nov 21, 2021 19:33:38 GMT -8
While interesting, I think this Corvair dream turned into a bit of a nightmare
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