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No pictures tonight but I was able to get a lot done today. I hid the brake booster between the inner fender and firewall, safely out of way of any road debris. I made a brake line from the master cylinder to the booster and a line from the booster to the bias adjusting valve.
I pressure-bled the system and before I could get the wife out to the garage to do the down-down-up-up bleeding procedure, I thought I should put a seat in the car for her. I was going to put the freshly re-upholstered passenger seat in the driver's spot, but much to my surprise the left and right seats are not interchangeable. So she got to sit on the original driver's seat that I had started dissecting.
After a final bleeding, I hooked up my brake pressure gauge and saw that I was getting about 300-400 more psi with the booster than without. I need to bleed the rear brakes tomorrow then we go for a test drive. I really hope the booster gives me the pedal feel I am looking for.
I got a lot done today. On my first test drive with the new brake booster, I noticed that at first the brakes were slow to release and then after about a mile of driving it was obvious the brakes were on. I pulled the vacuum hose for the brake booster off the manifold and capped the fitting and took it for another test drive. No more locking/sticking brakes and the pedal feel was great - with the brake booster plumbed up but not connected to engine vacuum. I am not sure what's going on with the booster but my plan is to leave it plumbed into the brake circuit but not connect it to vacuum. I had to mount it more vertical than the instructions suggested and I wonder if that was the problem.
On to driving, I have several immediate observations:
- the clutch pedal is light and perfect. To the extent that that I got in my MGB after driving the Jaguar I thought something was wrong with the MGB clutch because it was so relatively harder to push. It's the stock MGB clutch and I've never thought it was heavy before.
- I charged up the AC system and from now on Vintage Air are the only AC units I am buying. The fans move a lot of air and it cools down quick.
- the accelerator pedal needs some help. I ordered a new one to see if I could tighten it up with some bushings. The current one has too much side-to-side play
- there is a trouble code for the mass air flow sensor but I will test that tomorrow
- on the tollway at just over 70mph I was showing about 1800 rpms which is right where I wanted it to be
The new cruise control system arrived today and I need to look at installing that. I also need to start working on the rear seats too. I should probably decide what I should do with the brake booster as well.
This morning I was able to trouble-shoot the mass air flow sensor issue to a blown fuse - that was an easy fix.
Then I decided it was time to hook up the cruise control kit. For the last 5 or 6 years I had been using Dakota Digital cruise control kits but those are now over $600, so I decided to go with the Rostra unit. It's still more expensive than I think it should be but on a 2,000 mile road trip it will be worth it.
The first step was hooking up the pull cable to the throttle. Luckily the LT1 has a provision for cruise control on the throttle which makes this step easy.
Next up was mounting the cruise control unit on the right side inner fender.
After that I covered the wires with black fabric loom and ran them behind the firewall to the inside of the car. From there it was hooking up +12 volts and ground.
Yesterday when I was driving I decided the shift lever was about 3" too short. I designed a prototype in AutoDesk and 3d printed it so I could check for clearance, specifically around the air conditioner.
The stock T56 lever is on the left, the prototype is on the right.
This is the right length but I want to redesign the top part to have some more meat to it.
After dinner I decided it was time to stop testing my wife's patience with car parts in the basement and moved the rear seat to the garage so I could work on it there. This upside-U shape is the top of the back seat.
I am starting to learn how to work with this material and was pretty happy with how this turned out. I bought an electric bread knife to make it easier to cut and shape the foam - and it seems to be helping.
After that it was time to remember how the rear seat back fits together and guess which pieces go where. I'll have to work through this tomorrow.
Finally, Dad sent me a picture of his work on the left side glove box. The upside down U shaped cutout is where the steering column goes and the round circle above it is where the automatic transmission shift lever passed through. With a manual transmission I no longer needed that hole, so Dad made a wooden plug to cover the hole.
After that, he re-veneered the piece to hide the plug and it turned out really good.
Your seat wrinkles might go away if you let the car sit in the sun for a few days. Especially a black interior in a black car.
Might be the right time for a Death Valley road trip
Today I realized that my Route 66 trip is in exactly 2 months and my 2,000 mile road trip is in just over 5 months, so I decided it was time to get busy.
First up was covering the rear seat back spring pads in 2 layers of burlap.
Then I used my electric knife to cut and begin shaping the foam.
With the left and right side of the seat back done, it was time to remember how the arm rest was put together.
I need to spend some time with the heat gun to smooth out some wrinkles but the rear seat is coming together.
I had forgotten that the rear parcel shelf needs some attention. I use this one as a template to trace the shape onto some fiber board; I will cut that out tomorrow.
Then it was time to put 2 layers of burlap on the seat bottom. I need to wait a few days to start covering this as I am waiting for more seat foam to arrive.
