Vroom, Vroom... with apologies to Mazda

Well, as you may have noticed there wasn't a post for yesterday.  I had everything ready to start the engine but decided to wait till I could have an audience so I could be embarrassed in front of friends ;-)   While I was waiting for everyone to arrive  I installed several of the seals including the following incredibly exciting photos of the installation of the seal for the bonnet.

One thing about the installation is that it's worth noting that #M's black weatherstrip adhesive is much better than the yellow 3M product, also one needs to clean of the release agent that is left on the rubber pieces.

Measuring the seal, left over from my supplies

Protecting the paint from getting the glue where it shouldn't be

Seal attached and wrapped around

 Yesterday evening we tried to start the car, the fuel pump worked, the carbs and dizzy were refurbished, what could go wrong?  Ok, Jan has the fire extinguisher in hand, Michelle is watching and Dave and Terry are looking for issues.   Cranks easily then loud POPS, two from the front, one from the rear.  Jan is so startled that she unconsciously pulled the pin on the extinguisher but thankfully doesn't squeeze the handle ;-).   OK, OK, the timing is obviously off and likely 180 degrees off but how did that happen.  As I was pulling the dizzy to see if I could have gotten it mixed up but at this point we saw that the front carb was dripping gas from the throat and all the banjo's for the fuel line were leaking.  Tried to tighten them but not luck with them or the front float bowl so called it for the night.

So this morning I pulled the top off the front carb float bowl and sealed the seat where the jet screws into the top of the carb.  I used a very small amount of sealant on each of the banjo bolts and got them to seal too.

Now I decided that the timing had to be off 180 degrees and moved the spark plug leads 180 counter clockwise.  When Jan got home we decided to try her and much to my surprise it fired and ran within 1 rotation on the crank-it was quick!  I don't know if the video will work but this is it.

So after I ran it a little while I stopped it and drained the water out, did this three times and slowly the water started to clear a bit.  Will encourage Michelle to change the coolant pretty soon after it's back on the road.

The steering is the next thing to refurbish,  the column wasn't attached inside for some reason so it was easy to pull out after releasing the shaft from the u-joint. It will be cleaned and greased.

 Next I decided to pull out the steering rack to start it's repair, both boots were shot and the rack has a stiffness that doesn't seem right.

Wiped down, will take it apart tomorrow and see if it needs to be sent off or if I can rebuild it.

Enough for now.
Cheers