well, I brought this '78 L82 home 6 weeks ago now and she wasn't running when the flatbed dropped her off in my garage.
This was my very first motor pull and BY FAR more work on any car I've ever done before. In fact, the first time I ever took a wrench to a car was just last August when I started working on my '65 Vette because I got disgusted with the local mechanics.
Pulled the motor, pulled everything off the motor down to the block and heads, refinished all the parts and redid the engine bay.
Dropped the motor back in yesterday morning and been working like a dog since getting everything all hooked up and reconnected.
an hour ago I finally got the distributor dropped in, crossed my fingers, said a little prayer and turned the key.
She cranked for a while until the fuel bowls filled than she finally caught and she runs!!!. Sounds like I got lucky on the distributor install too because it seems like she must be pretty close to correct timing and probably only needs a little tweak but i'll check it with my timing light.
Man, I am so happy, shocked, amazed, elated, flabbergasted....... and I don't even know what else, that she runs again after all my work. What an awesome feeling.
got the wheels on, set her down, started her up, put her in gear......... and NOTHING. The tranny wasn't working.
Oh man....... after all this was I going to have to pull the tranny and take it to a shop to get repaired??!!.
Oh wait, that was the ONLY thing I forgot to double check - the tranny fluid level. It was so low it didn't register on the stick! It took two quarts to fill it up and I tried it again and so the verdict is....................................
She drives great.
I took her arounmd my neighborhood in my development and put about 2 miles on her. Oil pressure was really good, she ran really well, power came on smooth, brakes are working awesome and she sounded good - not like my '65 with those mean sounding side pipes but still good all the same.
I did get quite a few strange looks when people saw me driving the car with no hood on it (it's still down in my basement) but I don't care. I was too busy smiling and enjoying myself to care what anyone else was thinking.
A few more minor items to finish up and i'll get her over to DMV later this week to get her registered and tagged than she goes to the paint shop.
Man, I am SO pumped right now!
if interested you can see my entire project over the last 6 weeks from the beginning thru yesterday here. '78 Project
This was my very first motor pull and BY FAR more work on any car I've ever done before. In fact, the first time I ever took a wrench to a car was just last August when I started working on my '65 Vette because I got disgusted with the local mechanics.
Pulled the motor, pulled everything off the motor down to the block and heads, refinished all the parts and redid the engine bay.
Dropped the motor back in yesterday morning and been working like a dog since getting everything all hooked up and reconnected.
an hour ago I finally got the distributor dropped in, crossed my fingers, said a little prayer and turned the key.
She cranked for a while until the fuel bowls filled than she finally caught and she runs!!!. Sounds like I got lucky on the distributor install too because it seems like she must be pretty close to correct timing and probably only needs a little tweak but i'll check it with my timing light.
Man, I am so happy, shocked, amazed, elated, flabbergasted....... and I don't even know what else, that she runs again after all my work. What an awesome feeling.
got the wheels on, set her down, started her up, put her in gear......... and NOTHING. The tranny wasn't working.
Oh man....... after all this was I going to have to pull the tranny and take it to a shop to get repaired??!!.
Oh wait, that was the ONLY thing I forgot to double check - the tranny fluid level. It was so low it didn't register on the stick! It took two quarts to fill it up and I tried it again and so the verdict is....................................
She drives great.
I took her arounmd my neighborhood in my development and put about 2 miles on her. Oil pressure was really good, she ran really well, power came on smooth, brakes are working awesome and she sounded good - not like my '65 with those mean sounding side pipes but still good all the same.
I did get quite a few strange looks when people saw me driving the car with no hood on it (it's still down in my basement) but I don't care. I was too busy smiling and enjoying myself to care what anyone else was thinking.
A few more minor items to finish up and i'll get her over to DMV later this week to get her registered and tagged than she goes to the paint shop.
Man, I am SO pumped right now!
if interested you can see my entire project over the last 6 weeks from the beginning thru yesterday here. '78 Project
