Turkey Run

Yesterday I went to Daytona for the annual Turkey Run held at the International Speedway. There were something like 3500 cars pre-registered and I probably saw a third of those at the very most. I spent the majority of the time hunting around the swap meet trying to find a new (used) exhaust manifold. However after a while one rusty piece of engine looks much like any other and the best I got was a contact for a local(ish) Mopar car part specialist who said he probably had one. He talked like he knew his stuff (well convinced me anyways) and he looked and talked like Uncle Jessie from the Dukes of Hazzard.

My new best friend??

Ended up getting a bit sunburnt too and now have a glorious redneck sun tan ie face, neck and arms being red, rest of me being white.

Still waiting on the new parts to arrive, I won the new instrument cluster and that should be here early next week. Til then not much I can do on the car so Mrs P has me decorating.

An optimist says the tank is half full

The exterior of the gas tank has been treated with Rustoleum Rust Reformer and then painted with gloss black Rustoleum paint. The inside was first blasted with a pressure washer and then using some household cleaner, water and 6 ft of metal chain I shook the hell out of that thing for as long as I could. I plugged the holes with some special gas tank repair putty too. It's still far from perfect but should all last me a bit longer.

The new sender unit has arrived and I hooked it up to the gauge (without re-installing the tank) to see if everything was working correctly. I set the armature of the sender to indicate a full tank (minimum resistance) and checked the gauge. It read 1/2 a tank. I set the armature to 1/2 tank position and the gauge read Empty. Setting the sender unit to empty (and maximum resistance) the gauge hardly moves at all and is well below the Empty marker.
I've bid on a new instrument cluster on a well know online tat bazaar.

Troubled by gas

I'm still troubled by the lack of odometer and fuel gauge and I need one or preferably both working. I swapped out the new instrument voltage regulator for some homebrew solid state electronics but all that did was stop the gauge from reading full. I took the odometer/speedo apart and found that mechanically it appears sound and works on the bench, however when reinstalled in the car the odometer still doesn't move. I've replaced the speedo cable in case that's the problem but I've yet to test it.

For the fuel gauge, I've taken the tank out and ordered a new sender unit. The original below was pretty crusty looking and the resistance across the range was all over the place and inconsistent. I'm hoping that this is what's causing my gauge to read less than empty.

The tank has seen better days and there are 3 small holes in it that i'll be plugging up. The interior of the tank has seen better days too and although it doesn't look rusty it's full of crud. Also looks like a previous owner hit something hard, as the bottom is all beat up and has been repaired with a big patch of solder. A new tank is about $200 but I'm going to see if I can get this one clean and serviceable first. 

On a positive note I managed to get the front bench seats out and using the trusted P B Blaster the tracks are now free and the seat will slide easily.