First start in 32 years.

[Dennis66]

Good catch on the lifter pump up. The throttle shafts SHOULD be plated brass shouldn't hey be? One good thing about "stuck", they probably don't have the slop that mine did. Little bit of movement, add more mix, let it sit, try again. It's a good looking car. Dennis

[Project65]

The only other things that I did to my engine prior to starting was a new set of points, plugs, and shake-down the fuel system.

Of course I had to free up the throttle linkage and the butterflies, and set the timing. Attached is all I did for setting the timing. Very simple.

I then took a long length of fuel line and a small funnel and dumped in some fuel. Crack the lines at the carbs to flood the fuel lines.

Same old plug wires and same old 30 year old black motor oil.

Oh, and almost forgot, the alternator was seized up. Rusted in place. I put a 12” pipe wrench on it and a lot of PB Blaster to free up the bearings.

It started right up and idled down, but that alternator bearing sure did rattle and make noise.

[RossettiJ]

Thanks for the heads up about the lifters. I’ll take everyone’s advice about spinning the oil pump.

The throttle shafts were not rusty, just gummed up with dried gas. Aerosol carburetor cleaner freed them. I have carburetor kits on the way. I’ll clean and rebuild them.

[RexJohnson]

You shouldn't need to crack the fuel lines to fill them up. The fuel should push past the needle and seat and the air will go out the vents and the lines will be full.

[RossettiJ]

I'm still waiting for my carb kits and I've continued cleaning out fuel lines. I found a leak in my gas tank. I have a new one on order. What about the fuel pump? Should I open it to see if it's gunked up with dried gas like everything else was? The car's got 59,000 original miles, the pump is hopefully still good.

I ordered the NGK plugs, a high impedance coil, and a gas tank install kit.

In the meantime, I put a battery in the car to see what electrical components work. I replaced dead tail light bulbs and a fuse for the gauge illumination.

There are no courtesy lights or switches in my car. The dome light works with a twist of the headlight switch, but no door switches or under-dash lights.

Should I change the tranny fluid and transaxle oil?

[RexJohnson]

I would change the transaxle fluids as they could be original, plus if the engine hasn't spun over much the torque convertor will be as drained down as it will ever be. There is no drain plug for the diff so you will need to suck that out. I would add some TransX trans conditioner to the PG to help soften up the seals. After you get it going, keep an eye on the diff fluid to see if any ATF leaks into it.

[Dennis66]

I got one out of 4 old fuel pumps to pump fuel (manually pushing plunger). It only pumped once. One was powder inside. You can try it, but keep an eye for fuel leaking out the weep hole on top or fuel getting into your oil. Found pinholes in my tank too, but I sealed my with a good grade tank sealer. Dennis