[njsteve]

Took the daughter out on another driving lesson. She did much better. This time it was rabbits. On our 20 mile drive, four different bunnies (well, maybe it could have been the same rabbit stalking us) ran alongside us and then tried to dart out in front of the car.

We even tempted fate and drove past a local ranch where they raise bison and cattle. I fully expected Alex Karris A.K.A. "Mongo" to be blocking the road riding on the back of a Brahma Bull.

[OVERULD]

Steve:

I've had rabbits do that to me for years driving around on our hunting land early in the morning while it is still dark. They will run ahead of my truck darting back and forth across the road and I have yet to run over one. They always seem to get out of the way in the nick of time. But it can be very frustrating, especially to a 15 year old learning how to drive!

BJ

[Formulabruce]

made me think of this!! lol your daughter may even like it!
Geico Car Insurance Squirrel Commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40kPEjZpM8M

[2manyT/A'S]

Never mind the squirrels & rabbits.......it's the deer you need to watch out for....

My favorite "upcountry" stretch of road follows a winding river for about 15 miles & early one evening in late May,I must have had at least 8 of them bound across the road in front of me...and not all at once...

Nothing worse than "bambi dents" in your hood, fender, bumper,etc.

[Guilty]

Steve,
If you really want a good obstacle course for your daughter during her learn how to drive a manual lessons, take the car into New York City when you go next weekend!!!! Not only will you have to worry about errant humans walking out in front of the car, she will get to learn real fast reaction times with the thousands of yellow taxis darting from lane to lane not worrying about using their turn signals and basically just driving around with their head up their a**es!!!
When I take the Truck into the city people always ask me if I worry about taxis hitting me, and I tell them they finally realize that an 80,000 lb semi is going to win if we do happen to have a meeting and they always seem to make a last minute decision to stay in their lane..
Hope you guys all have fun next weekend in the City.
Brian.

[njsteve]

Oh Hell No! That's like driving onto the set of Walking Dead or World War Z...
Though Walking Dead is our favorite family show. For her last birthday she wanted a zombie killing tool so I gave her a vintage WWII entrenching tool, complete with USMC belt pouch. This is the folding, shovel-looking contraption with the additional pick axe on the opposite side.

She is a chip off the old block. :-)

[njsteve]

Thanks to Tom (Tom406) and Rick (SS427) and the "Pay It Forward" classified section at the Yenko.net site, where I have a sister thread to this one, I have a nice, date code correct 5470409 Delco dual bleeder, master cylinder that just happened to come off of another 1972 Firebird.

http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt...der#Post531958

I took it apart and tried honing it myself but the bore was a bit too pitted. I ended up sending it to Whitepost Restorations to have it sleeved. It was $175. It took about a week. I got it yesterday and I installed it today.

It was not an uneventful day.

They say timing is everything. When I took the repro dual bleeder master cylinder off I noticed that the rear reservoir was rather low. Very strange since not a lot leaked out when I removed it. I didn't think much of it at the time. I then bench-bled the new master cylinder and installed it. I then bled all the brakes. Twice, starting at the farthest rear cylinder. I had the car on jack stands so I could get to everything and eventually do a running test.

I started the car to check the brakes with the wheels spinning. I put it in gear. I then stepped on the brakes and the rear wheels kept spinning - no braking at all. Very strange since I just bled the brakes and I thought I bled them enough. The front brakes were holding tight but the rears were not doing much of anything. I bled the rears again and then they worked properly...for a few minutes.

I went and refilled the master cylinder and then tested the brakes again...no rear brakes. Really, very strange now. I thought maybe it was the combination/metering valve had activated but the pin was in the correct neutral position.

So I pulled the rear wheels and the drums and saw that the driver's side rear wheel cylinder had just started leaking inside the drum. Great timing for a complete failure! Luckily the autoparts store was open and had a pair of rear wheel, brake cylinders in stock so I threw them on and everything works fine now.

[njsteve]

I finally found an R12 recovery machine so I didn't have to waste the 60 ounces of Freon in order to replace the oil-spraying compressor. I found this Rotunda Ford machine on Craigslist 30 miles from my home for $80. It actually works!

It came without any instructions so I hunted and all I could initially find was the EPA reference listing the R12 recovery units approved by the EPA for 1992. So I pulled the side panels off and found that there was a Murray part number, which ended up being a Sun part number originally sold by Snap-On, which lead me to the Snap-On Tech Assistance hotline. I called them and the tech guy was actually quite surprised when he found the 24-page instruction manual on file. He emailed it to me and I was back in business.

The good news was that the contraption was able to fully download all the R12. The bad news was that until the tank gets filled with 5 pounds of R12, it won't allow you to refill from the tank. You can manually route the tank to your car's system but I decided against that and ended up using some spare cans of R12.




BTW, I went to Advanceautoparts.com and ordered a remanufactured A6 compressor. Before hitting the check out button, I always google the phrase "advanceautoparts coupons". I lucked out this time and found a $50 off a $125 purchase coupon. The compressor was $139 minus the $50, which brought it to $89 with free shipping!

Despite the spewing oil, the system never lost any R12 and was putting out 39 degree air right before we drained it. I installed the new compressor and we vacuumed down the system, installed the R12 and the car is pumping out 37 degree air now.




The compressor that was in the car was a new compressor (25 years ago) when the car was put into storage. It turned out that the front bearing had too much play (you could rock the clutch hub side to side about 1/32"). So the wobbling probably took out the seal.

Now I am just waiting for the new compressor decal to arrive and she will be looking good as old.

An added bonus now is that the belts no longer squeal under acceleration from the oil that was getting sprayed on them. Ah, the little pleasures in life...

[Held for Ransom]

Nice job with the detailing.

Now for the rib...you have Rocky Rotella helping you, as the machine is a Rotunda?

[njsteve]

I fixed that Freudian spelling error...and yes Rocky has done a bunch of tuning work (via Fedex) for me in the past couple years, and a lot of tech advice, too. I wish he was out here in the east, so I could have him tune the car for his next article. ;-)

[Rocky Rotella]

Steve, drive it on out to Nebraska on your next vacation. We can have a nice tuning session on the chassis dyno to make sure it's at its absolute best.

BTW, my dad just reported today that his last tankful of 91-octane (non-ethanol) netted him 12.47 mpg of mixed in-town traffic and general highway speeds. Granted that's with a TH-400 and 3.08 gears, but he hasn't been afraid to run through the gears and it still rewards gas mileage that's respectable.

[njsteve]

Nice mileage. How crazy is that, when we celebrate 12 mpg! I think I get around 9 with the black car. (We can't get non-ethanol diluted gas in NJ)

It's amazing how far cars have come in 40 years. :-)

[njsteve]

Well, it took all of 7 days and 75 miles before the new compressor started seaping oil out of the front seal. At least it is just a small amount. I guess there is no getting around this seapage as has to do with the seal design and how it lubricates the sealing surfaces. Oh, well...at least it puts out really cold air.

[necdb3]

Steve,
A6 compressors have a mechanical seal in them with a felt donut installed after the seal. It is not a seal in the sense of a rubber lip seal. It kind of resembles a pilot bearing. In my experience, they all have some sort of leakage. The small amount of oil tends to help seal them. I have slight dampness from all my compressors at the center of the hub. That's very common, but should not be slinging on the hood or fender.

I make sure I run my compressor for a few minutes just to make sure it stays oiled.

Dave

[njsteve]

Did something get lost during the swap from PY to Ames control? It seems like there were several more pages on this thread up to when I sold it to BentwheelBob in Sept 2013?????

[Held for Ransom]

http://www.forums.maxperformanceinc....d.php?t=736820

I think he went straight to a new thread.

[njsteve]

I knew about the new thread but there looks like there was a three week gap in my daily updates.

You know how much I blab about my cars

[Bentwheelbob]

I think you were getting the mildew off of your gramps retirement car during this period. You had found a new love and let me swoop in and liberate the Black Car...

[njsteve]

That, or I was abducted by aliens and extorted into selling you that car. Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Bentwheelbob]

Here you go....

http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt...wn_a_Fordy_a_L

Maybe you were suffering from the effects of mold, mildew and bleach inhalation.....

Whatever it was, I am happy for it. And look at that paint shine.