The dealer might have had it installed or previous owner might have done it. Back in the 70's and 80's there were shops that specialized in Vinyl Top & Sunroof installations.

 

Installed engine tranny and driveshaft today, tomorrow header, center section and muffler. Is looking good so far. 1985 gsl-se

 

Found out my nicely polished and clear powder coated alternator was not charging the battery. Took it into Advance Auto. They hooked it up and it gave back a "No Ground" indicator. Bells starting going off - like a dummy, I powder coated the entire thing. Took it home, remove the powder where to bolt goes through on the water pump housing and then ran an extra ground to the factory spot on the strut tower. Worked like a charm.

 

Mocked up a battery tray. Forgive the rough welding (its arc) its not pretty but its very strong and fits perfect. nothing some paint wont fix.

Any reason not to put the battery here?

It was in the standard spot, but want to make shorter, more direct I/C piping this time.
Dont want to clutter up the hatch, aus version with back seats so it cant go there either. its pretty close to the spark plug leads, will that be a problem?

Thoughts?

 

Went to test crank an engine today. Um, the previous owner took out the blind plug for some reason, and my bone head didn't think to look into the hole when I greased up the pilot bearing and changed the seal. Let's just say I never had this much lube (that's an Aaron Cake reference).

I mean how often do you ever come across an old school engine that's missing its blind plug? As for myself, only one other time, not counting today, and it was from an actual auto-stick engine from Japan that had been installed in a local guy's automatic REPU. He obviously had no reason to suspect the blind plug was missing as they're both autos. The little steel fitting on his rear iron cracked his auto bellhousing and puked a bunch of oil all over his driveway when he cranked it.

As for my fun time today, obviously the blind plug had been removed posthumously (after the engine suffered a carbon lock) because the old pilot seal was hard and dry and not showing any signs of oil. The PO must have needed a blind plug for something... you guessed it: an autostick engine! So he pulled it from this one! Why else would anyone anywhere need one of these blessed little things?

So I happened to have a set of blind plug o-rings I purchased a while back for another engine and grabbed the shaft from the dead ketchup and mustard engine (don't ask), popped it out, swapped new o-rings, threw it in and swapped flywheels (previous one is ready to go to Aaron Cake). Gonna try this again tomorrow. It ought to hold oil now.

 

Installed a new Battery Today, courtesy of Costco

 

Agreed, this is not factory but does appear to be noticablly nicer than the average install of the day. Its rectangular like the factory opening only about 7/8 of the OEM size. The OEM roofs also included a feature where you could completely remove the pannel and stow it in a pouch. 79's had an air deflector you manually snapped in place on the leading edge of the opening and 80 & later had the air deflector incorporated in the opening itself, that sprung up once the roof pannel was removed.

The only aftermarkets I've ever saw before this one, are the oval ones that are more like "trailer quality", which have a reputation for leaking and making noise and as such are considered by many to be a negitive feature. This one looks much nicer, the only problem I see is if something breaks or the seal falls apart. A replacement would be next to impossibile to source, but I'm sure there is one lying dorment and forgotton out there. Probablly disguised as a junk shelf in some dark corner.

 

Curious if the aforementioned one is the same as the one I found in a junkyard a year or two ago? It wasn't the same size as a stock opening and obviously a custom job. Didn't look the highest quality but probably did the job alright.

I didn't take the glass or parts home, they were worthless to me. I'm sure the car got crushed after a month or so.

 

Never mind, I now see the mechanism and glass is different. The one I saw didn't have protrusions above the glass for mounting. And it looks smaller than JedisonsDad's one. Just a different one I thought I'd throw up.

 

I had a similar situation 20 years ago. I bought a streetported 13 b from Hayes Rotary and installed it my freshly rebuilt car. Cranked it up and like you say, puked oil all over the driveway. I had no knowledge of "blind plugs" so I was really bumfuzzled. When I finally figured it out I had to pull it all out to put the damn thing in.

In defense of Hayes Rotary, they did send me a new clutch disk.

 

This one does have the option to completely remove the glass. The forward latches are a weird setup where you flip them forward, kind of opposite of the back latch, and then they just let loose. The seal seems to be holding up great, and has actually withstood my pressure washer hitting it, when I initially brought the car home. The overall quality never led me to believe anything other than a factory option, until I saw that other picture.

I am a bit concerned about the replacement of latches though, now.

 

At least they did that much. I had to perform an emergency degreasing. Most of the disk surface was oily but a section wasn't. After the degreasing, the entire surface of both sides looks identical, so either the oil successfully was removed, or the degreaser soaked into the friction material as well. I honestly don't buy that because other porous and semi-porous surfaces I've cleaned with degreaser often end up uniformly dry looking, as this clutch disk seems to be now.

For example there's some quicksteel installed (not by me) in a 79 intake manifold to block off the various holes. After running it for a bit, an oily gassy mixture worked its way out and "wetted" the quicksteel surface. The PO obviously didn't prep the holes very well. I imagine the clutch disk friction material has a slight similarity to this stuff and was affected in a similar way. Or in other words, we've got nothing to lose by trying this disk as I believe it's ok because I caught it in time.

It is in FAR better shape than another clutch disk that came out of the blue car that had been oil soaked from a leaky tranny seal for probably a very long time. This disk still works to this day but it has a little bit of grab as you let the clutch pedal fully out. It only does this when cold. Comparing with the disk I rescued, yeah it's fine. It's free so I really can't complain either way.

 

Its a stretch, but you might look closely at the latches and glass for a manufacture or company name, then google it to see what you find. Chances are, this was one of a few generic brands, installed by a speciality place on several different vehicles that came through the door. Like a remote starter or security alarms are installed today. There might even be some of these places still in business that have old unsold inventory collecting dust in the back somewhere.

 

Looks like the window (sun/moon roof) came from an RV or possibly a marine application. You might wanna show those pics to RV parts supplier or check catalogs...I've seen several "windows" very VERY similar to that while repairing RV's...and actually most of the aftermarket sun/moon roofs are from RV/boat applications.

Easy way to tell if your sun/moon roof is OEM/Factory: It sits FLUSH w/roofline and has ONE visible gasket (that is also essentially flush).

 

Very nice. You should be fine. The OEM ignition coils are inches away from the battery, my main high tension leads are literally less than an inch from the positive terminal wire.

I'm planning on getting one of those micro batteries after I get my tuning all done (LOTS of cranking, currently have a shitty battery. would rather kill the shitty battery while tuning then swap for a high-powered fancy one.) How are you liking it so far? What brands should I be looking at, or looking out to avoid?

I'm planning a full wire tuck for the engine bay, was thinking of tucking the micro battery right up against the radiator support where the OEM tray is, just tucked out of the way a bit, then routing all wires forward to the nose and around through the fender.

 

I've done lots with my '80.
Picked up a Bride low max seat today, fixed all the dents, pulled out useless wires, tuned carb, picked up new pieces.
The '79 has just sat around for a while. I replaced my carpet and cleaned out the fan casing for the heater/AC unit.

 

Thanks mate. This one is an odyssey pc680. Yeah they really do crank, but they dont like being drained so you only get one chance with them but apart from that they're great. This is my 2nd one ,1st one lasted years but i ran it flat once and it never recovered. They crank strong and dont leak . Can mount them on their side if you want. I like them.
Yeah my wireing is a mess atm, cbf doing a full tuck but it can be neatened up alot pretty easy. Will look alot better after the new engines in
Yeah iv seen your build man, thats a very clean and sexy fb

 

Which rails are you using with the Bride? This is the reclining model, right? I had a Zeta II Neos in my Civic, which was a fixed bucket...weighed about 12 lbs without the rails. I'm hoping to pick one up eventually...would be nice to not have my helmet hitting the headliner.

fm

 

To be honest I have no idea yet and yes this is the reclining model.
I have access to real bride rails if i need them. I pulled the seat out of a fc that used the stock rails. So I'll try and see if the the stock rails fit, if not I'll get some legit ones from SCW Performance.
The Zeta II Neos is the model I want but I'm not going to complain about the comfort of the Max. lol
Currently is too cold here in north texas and there is snow everywhere. Once it clears up I'm going to start mocking up how the seat will fit in my '79 and go from there. I'll have pics up and everything here in a couple weeks. Stay tuned.
OH! Fc seat rails are the same as sa/fb rails, if I go with bride rails that's what I will order.

 

Just got back from the junkyard with a low mile 33 dollar 88 GXL third member, the LSD of which is gonna go in my 4.77 Kia pumpkin. Hallelujah!
I now have all the pieces for my drivetrain upgrade. RB aluminum flywheel and pressure plate, ACT disc, and the new rear should really have us zipping out of the corners.

 

I've been working on this. It fired right up with 2 seconds of cranking then idled in two seconds of run time using the Racing Nikki.
I was shocked. Well not that shocked. Then I swapped the stock Nikki on there and it still ran ok so I'm happy.


Another perspective. I think the red and silver with black highlights turned out ok. Too bad the carb is dirty and the dizzy is rusty.


Waterpump looks decent though. Gonna throw it on next.


You like my test rig? It's just a creeper. That's an old school bellhousing that somebody modded for a top mount starter.
I'm obviously using a normal FB starter here.

 

The factory sunroof also has a WONDERFUL rain channel surrounding it, with the gasket about an inch inside the edges of the actual lid, which means that it never leaks unless you let the 4 drains clog up. Great design.

 

Jeff that is *gorgeous*



today i pulled the cover off and drove her again to rescue my buddy after his bike got stolen :

i smelled raw fuel when i pulled up to the parking lot, got out and sure as **** the main fuel line is leaking at the hard line clamp -again-.

I've clamped that beezy down 3 times now and it keeps leaking.

I even used "proper" efi clamps. Will see whats up tomorrow, new clamp, new fuel line, something.


I'm kinda wishing that I had fancy fuel line with nice AN fittings. just not sure how much more $$$ i want to drop into the project for schmancy bling like that.

 

Don't you love having engines so small and light that a complete unit can be moved around on a shop creeper?

Try THAT, you LS-conversion peeps. (ebil grin)

I wished for better weather, so I could drive her. Raining today.

 

Yes I do. I use a 1/2" layer of particle board just to protect the vinyl pad. That's it. Oh and a 2x4 under the rear lip to keep it level. Easy to push around. I wouldn't have it any other way (no boingers for me).