Congrats Glen...you had me sweating there for a minute.

 

Had YOU sweating... lol. Had me freaking.

Obligatory startup video:



Demonstration of Hot Start Assist; one-handed restart. You can see the HSA pull in if you watch closely, just right of the strut tower.


State of the Crate:


Dropped the gas tank out tonight. Hoses are original, date-stamped from December of 1979.

 

Tank is a bit dirty on top. Over 30 years of road dust.

 

Good to hear she's running good . Those fuel lines are done!!! lol

 

congrats on the startup! the new engine bay looks amazing!

 

Tank's back in, all new hoses and fuel filter. Car continues to start up with no smoking, on hesitation.

Got it's first fully-wet car wash in about a year.

Tomorrow night will be final tuning; Tuesday is the target for getting the smog check. Leaves Wednesday lunch for getting the registration solved, one day early.

Talk about zero tolerance.

 

Congrats wished my fuel tank in my FB looked that clean LOL

 

Enjoy the trip to Vegas...u got this!

 

Hey how is the rear bowl flood issue???

 

Good question; It was fine Sunday AM, but the car spent most of yesterday with it's derriere 3' up in the air, while I changed the gas tank lines, and also had much blowing-out of lines & suchlike going on, so my bowl levels at the moment are a bit questionable. Thus far I've had no issues with flooding or difficult starts; it hasn't even smoked visibly after that first initial start-up. Starts about as easily as my Z.

I'll be doing tuning runs tonight, so it'll be getting heat-soaked and cooled a couple times. We'll see. With the replacement of the tank-top vapor valve, and the tank lines, I'm rapidly running out of things that can even be changed.

 

Float bowls are still doing shenanigans after shutdown. Both bowls were basically empty (fuel level below sight glass) when i went out to go to work this AM. Car started easily enough, but farted a bit of a dark (fuel) cloud.

Going for smog check today - - wish I had some clue if it'll pass or not. Smells clean after warmup.

Man, I hate smog checks.

 

lol, i always check the tailpipe myself, with a cat i'm pretty accurate, but the TR smells different

 

Good luck DD, hope you report back with some happy news!

 

GL DD ...

(note to self need to get back on track acquiring a hand held 4 gas analyzer)

 

Fixed lol

 

Lmao

 

Sucks that you can buy a pocket breathalyzer for like $100, but you can't get an exhaust analyzer for anything close.

 

So, I get off work early with the boss' blessing (by way of skipping my lunch hour - the joys of being salaried), for to take the shiny object to the smog place.

I open the hood for one last leak check, since the drive in to work is the first time it's gone more than 4 miles since I finished all this construction work. All good, no leaks, coolant bottle still nominal. Bitchin'. Fire her up, vroom.

I drive about 45 minutes to a smog place recommended my a fellow West region forum member, as being a decent place that offers free retests, run by fellow car guys. Uneventful drive though a bit warm with no AC, which I need to get used to again.

I pull in, negotiate the deal, sign the paperwork, and drive onto the dyno. The mechanic asks me to open the hood, so I reach down to the cable release handle and give her that same gentle tug I'd delivered less than an hour ago.

Nothing happens. The handle slides as if it's connected to nothing.

I try a couple more times, convinced insanely & against all logic and physics that if a simple, direct cable release didn't work the first time, it might magically work the tenth.

Nope. No hood opening. No resistance at the handle. No access to the mechanism, either.

No smog check.

So, home I drive. I'm waiting for the car to cool a bit before I start trying to figure out how in the hell to open the hood without the handle. I'm HOPING agains t all hope that the break (if there is ne) is right at the handle, and I can pull the remaining cable with a pair of pliers and open the hood.

Anyone taking odds?

And anyone nearby happen to maybe have a spare?

I'm laughing, because it seems to help stop the screaming.


Added: I can move the cable handle, and hear the cable moving up near the latch. Which means I've got to figure out how to access the latch mechanism without cutting a hole in a body panel, or dropping the trans.

Ouch time.

 

oh damn DD ... I'm drawing a blank this can't be the first time this has happened to someone

maybe have the better half pull the handle and give it a couple of Fonzie hits ... perhaps the alignment of the hood is off just a touch of the 33 year latch is not as snappy as it once was

 

No such luck, compadre;

I faked this up from junk in the garage:



And with it I was able to see this:


The cable has somehow detached from the latch. I had the wife run the release handle in and out,and the cable moves - - not broken at all, but somehow disconnected from the latch.

I've running thru all my old pix to see exactly how it attaches, and come to discover out of thousands of photos I don't have one good clear one of the latch and cable - - the AC hose was always in the way!

If I can find one, that'll tell me what I need to fake up to trigger the latch from inside. I'll most likely have it open tomorrow night, but that doesn't leave me enough time to make the trip.

I'm hopping against hope, but odds are I'm out of the running for Vegas.

 

Not sure right off, but can you fish a coat hanger or some safety wire between the hood and cowl to the latch. Maybe using your video snake you can hook the release mechanism and un latch it.

 

Tonight, I'm going to try to fake up a jimmy bar from some aluminum angle stock I have; with the vid camera attached to it, I think I can snake it up into position and trigger the hood release.

Failing that, I think my best route of attack is to drop out the exhaust aft of the TR to gain better access. With a stock exhaust, that's several hours' heavy work (If you can't start by removing the Thermal Reactor, you have to start from the midpipe/muffler junction & disassemble everything going forward, because of the stud arrangements) so if I can avoid it with a couple hours bench tinkering, that's time well saved. Not to mention some expensive gaskets.

& of course, I'm hoping to avoid any collateral damage to carefully-finished parts.

I found a couple fairly good pics of the latch mechanism in some of my documentation pix. All I need to do is push the lever in the lower center about 1 or 1.5 inches to the left, and the hood'll pop. it's visible on that video picture, just above and left of the dangling cable tip.

I'm already thinking on ways to set up a fall-back release scheme, too. I don't believe in getting trapped in the same box twice.

 

Thew cable came off the GLC once. It has the same style latch. I reached up through and pulled the latch manually. Then I switched to an RX-7 latch. All is good.

Possible reasons why yours failed: The small spring steel clip might have broken. Or maybe you bumped it during the engine bay refurbish.

Have fun reaching up through!

 

Fall-back plan for the future: A strategically-placed (& normally covered) slot in the firewall would allow a proper-shaped 'key' to pop the hood by reaching thru the vent slots in the air-plenum cover...

Good idea for the future. Considering my failure rate for this part is once in 33 years, I'll have to get right on that.

Jeff, I think you're right; I think the clip that holds the cable jacket either broke or popped loose. Then repeated attempts to use the release, or even vibration while driving, let the **** on the end just fall out of the slot. When I pulled the handle, I didn't even feel slight resistance - - it slid so easily I thought for sure the cable had broken inside the jacket.

That clip's getting backed up with a wire tie or some other more robust clamp once I get this thing open.

The irony is that, had I NOT been diligent about checking the bay that one last time before leaving work, I would quite likely have arrived at the smog shop with "one pop left."

 

total bummer DD

Worse part is now that the window of time has opened back up what are you going to take apart now? lol

personally Beastie would have probably given our locals some inspiration which of course would have been a good thing perhaps resulting in us bringing more and better cars to the grandpappy of rotary events Sevenstock