[RPOLS3]

Spent some more quality time on the red car this weekend.

After I topped off the gas tank with some more 100LL Saturday I swapped out the plugs with some NOS AC Delco 45's I found. I forgot how much fun it is to do this with all of the shielding, bracketry, and tight spaces on the passenger side with an A/C car. 3-1/2 hours later it was done. Glad I did it as the old ones were suspect. The new plugs didn't solve my mid range RPM breaking up problem but more on that later......

While doing the last 2 passenger side plugs from the underneath I found my heater control valve retaining clip that flew the coop last weekend and installed that.

Pics of the starter and coil I forgot to upload in my previous post..

Today I spent time on the mid RPM range breakup and the vacuum switch for the heat.

After doing some research online last week I was pretty confident my no heat issue was the result of a failed vacuum switch that is mounted on top of the heater box behind the glovebox. If you have ever tried to get one of these out I don't know how you get to the nut on the firewall side to remove it. No room to get a wrench on it, no room to put a ratchet on a socket as the ratchet hits the birdcage/firewall glass.....another hmmmmmm moment. I asked myself what would Dad have done here. He would modify a tool to make it work, so that is what I did. I took a spare 11/32 - 1/4" drive socket and ground the edges so a 1/2" open end wrench would fit on it to turn (there is enough room to slide the socket on but not the ratchet). Worked like a charm. With the switch in hand I was able to spray brake clean in it and then WD-40 to get it moving. It was really loaded up with years of crap. With the car at operating temps I bypassed the switch and the heat worked fine and manifold vacuum opened the heater control valve as it should. I tried re-installing the switch to see if loosening it up solved the problem...........and no. I can't blow air through the ports so something inside is fouled up. While I look for someone to rebuild this original switch I ordered the plastic repro that is availble in an effort to keep things moving along and get the car buttoned up for the upcoming driving season. I also ordered a new glovebox liner as the original is about shot. As an FYI - that is not rust on the birdcage you see behind the dash but the overspray of old adhesive for the insulation that has turned brown over the years.

I then swapped out the set of points in the distributor with a set of NOS Delco ones that Dad had in leftover stock. This is where I realized that Dad's old dwell meter may be NFG. As installed they read 14 degrees on the meter (if you go back to my previous thread those points were also at 15 when I checked intially) ..........I cranked them up to 30 degrees and took it for a ride.......still breaking up pretty bad at 3-3,500 RPM. Hmmmmm......so just for sh*ts and giggles I put them back at 14 and it runs like a scalded dog - just how I remember it. I will borrow another meter to double check next week but am happy with how it runs now. I finished that just in time to take Mom for a ride as she came up for a visit..........emotional ride for sure.

While I was at it and have the glovebox out I started to make a run at removing the wiper motor to get sent out but that will have to wait until another time. I was 2 bolts away (the ones closest to the drivers side) from having it out and realized that I had no clue how I'd get the bolts back in as you are working blind on an A/C car around all of the ductwork.

Little by little we are moving forward.