With the engine back in the car it is time to add everything back onto it – alternator, water pump, water pump housing, thermostat, power steering pump, AC compressor, distributor, fuel pump, idler pully, etc. This involved digging out all of these components plus the dozen assorted chunks of metal that are the brackets that mount everything.
After staring at the piles for a while I realized that I had no clue how all of these puzzle pieces fit together.
Fortunately I have been following the Prime Rule of Automotive Restoration: take pictures of everything. At this point I have over 400 pictures – digital pictures are essentially free, both to take and to keep track of.
Digging through these I found half a dozen that, taken together, showed where everything went. To repeat myself “and there was much rejoicing”. Several of the brackets led to the observation “it goes there?!?”. I still can’t believe that Chrysler is actually using one of the exhaust studs as a mounting point. As well as two intake manifold bolts and four bolts through the water pump housing…
After mocking everything up I understood how all the pieces fit together – including the five separate brackets holding the AC compressor!
Once the mockup was done it was time to take pictures of it then take it apart and prepare all of the pieces for final assembly.
The thermostat housing, water pump housing, and water pump all needed to be painted the factory color – Bill Hirsch Chrysler Turquoise 383-440 Big Block 1962/71 Not Hi Perfor. Blocks 5670-5002. I had a partial can from the original engine build; of course it wasn’t enough, so had to order another can.
I had a rebuild kit for the power steering pump, so take it apart, clean everything, paint the housing, and install the rebuild kit. Hopefully this will fix all of the leaks and keep the power steering fluid inside the pump and steering box. This will go back on with new hoses.
The big item was the previously mentioned AC compressor – one of the famous Chrysler RV-2 compressors. These used to be available everywhere; now they are hard to find. A fair amount of research turned up a place that specializes in classic car air conditioning who could rebuild the compressor. The problem is that they have an 8 week lead time.
This is a real problem. Enough things connect to the compressor that it really has to be installed to have a running car. This is really messing up the build.
I had a sudden epiphany – the AC, at least the compressor, has to be installed, but it doesn’t have to work. I can install everything now without charging the AC. Then, in January or February when the car is off the road for several months, I can pull the AC compressor back off the engine and send it out to be rebuilt. Some extra work, but really not that big a deal.
Whew! OK, things are back on track.
Time to put things together for real. The water pump housing and water pump were first. As a side note, I decided to use new Grade 8 bolts for everything. The strength isn’t needed, but the gold finish is attractive. A number of the old bolts were quite corroded, so replacing them was a good idea.
Next was the AC compressor. Start with the big cast steel bracket that goes on the back of the compressor. Next is the diagonal brace going to an intake manifold bolt. Then another brace that goes to an exhaust manifold stud. Now comes the power steering pump, which bolts to the water pump manifold and includes a brace to the AC compressor.
Time to move over to the other side of the engine, bolt the large cast steel alternator bracket to the head, and install the alternator on it. Run the alternator tensioning bracket to the water pump manifold, where it shares another bracket with the AC compressor.
The last step is to bolt the fan idler pully to the water pump manifold. Surprisingly, this doesn’t share anything with the AC compressor!
With all the accessories in place, install new belts. Three of the four new belts were actually the right size! A different fourth belt is on order.
With the front of the engine completed, time to rebuild and install the carburetor. That description is a bit over-simplified…
The actual process was to find the carb rebuild kit, clear a work space, and then start cleaning and disassembling the carburetor.
This is the dirtiest carburetor I have ever worked on. The inside was just as bad, with sludge in the bottom of the float bowls. After extensive scrubbing in the parts washer and use of carb cleaner it was in better shape – not as clean as I would like, but as clean as I could get it. It would probably require a vapor blaster to really clean it up completely.
One of the entertaining parts about rebuilding a carburetor is that the rebuild kits support multiple different carbs – so you always have parts left over! I will find out how I did on the rebuild when it is time to start the engine.
With the carb done, it was time to install the distributor. The secret is to turn the engine over so that it is at top dead center (TDC) on the compression stroke. If it is at TDC on the exhaust stroke it won’t run. I screwed a compression tester into cylinder 1 and turned the engine over with a breaker bar until the compression tester started reading pressure and the timing marks lined up on 0 degrees. I then chose cylinder 1 on the distributor cap and installed the distributor with the rotor pointing to cylinder 1. With any luck this will be close enough to start the engine.
That wraps up this post. We’ve made great progress – starting the engine is almost in sight!
Next: Feeling Fuelish