Corvair Forum

Does he have a pretty nice selection?
I tried to go there once but he turned me away because he was too busy.

He's got a LOT of parts. Mostly for 65 and earlier... the cars and vans are pretty rough... ok really rough. His dad's 140-PG coupe is the nicest one that remains.

I pulled the rest of the plugs, the driver's side ground electrodes look pretty white, I may have a vacuum leak that side or a lean condition. I need quality time at the foot of Rex Johnson in Salem.

I did a cold compression check, everything looked good, I also tightened up the fittings for the connections to the coil, it uses spade connectors and the + side seemed a bit sloppy. During my trip home a couple of times the tach started jumping all over the place too as it had it's miss, so I tightened all connections to the coil. I also added a bit of shrink tube to the + lead I ran to get full 12V to the Pertronix. It had a tiny bit of the connector showing and might come in contact with something it shouldn't, soit got covered fully. I bit of copper anti-seize on my plugs after cleaning the threads, hand-threaded in, plug wires reconnected, and started up like a champ, idled smoother than it has when cold ever... I might need to turn out the idle screws a bit more now too. I didn't get a chance to get it on the road for a test drive, but garage run was good. Next up: replace the alternator fan/pulley with a now freshly-painted replacement that turns in the correct direction, then a trip to JS Alternator and starter supply to have the mechanical voltage regulator adjusted, it charges a bit too high. Then, off to Salem some Monday when I'm not on-call and I can schedule some shop time with Rex.

I have replaced the alternator pulley, and made some new secondary block-off plates out of pop can. I think my thicker aluminum plates were warped a bit, and maybe a bit of vacuum leak there. I have run it in the garage with my exhaust hose connected to vent it outside. I have replaced all worn-out exhaust gaskets. and I had the exhaust system drilled and a bung welded in for an oxygen sensor. The shop that did it popped a dead sensor in to plug the hole. No leaks. I have found that with the Ignitor 1, and my particular engine, I have to run quite a bit of advance beyond the stock 18 degrees of a stock 65 140. I plugged off the vacuum advance of course, and made sure the idle was low enough that there was no mechanical advance kicking in. I also left the VA plugged and revved it up to watch the mechanical advance kick in... and here's where I am concerned.. but it could be my cheap timing light... I could see the advance moving smoothly up, and then it appeared that the timing was not consistant, and I could see occasionally that the mark would jump back about 4 degrees or so while revved up enough to get the mechanical advance "all-in" I wasn't watching the tach while doing this. This could be consistent with the miss I was feeling especially if not only #1 was occasionally firing late, maybe all of them were intermittently firing late and then sometimes on time. I'm going to go test drive it (hopefully) tonight with the Pertronix still on it, and if I still feel the little bit of hesitation, I'll drop my brand-new points/condensor set in along with the original points plate. The little sponge wick that lubricates the points cam disintegrated the last time I tried to use the points as I had trouble getting a good air gap with the Pertronix at first, the points wore quickly, and timing changed... Meh. Anyway, after I reinstall the points if I have to, re-timing with light to about 21-22 BTDC as a start, I'll do the rev thing and see if I still see the timing scatter. Then it's either my cheapo timing light, or maybe something with the coil. I lusted after a SUN engine analyzer briefly today, it would be good to see all 6 plugs firing.
In other news, I am making my first small steps toward Ray Sedman's EFI/DIS system. I'm getting a DALE HB from Ray with the pickup magnets installed, and the pickup bracket, along with Ray's counter bore tool rental to modify my rear housing to accept the pickup bracket. I will send my HB to Dale as discussed on Crazy's DALE Spyder thread, and he can send the completed HB back to Ray to replace the one he's sending me. It's a really clean installation, and almost invisible in place. No 90 degree oil filter adapter needed either. In early March, I'm hoping to get more of it in place, and maybe by the end of summer, the DIS conversion portion will be complete. Next will be the EFI system, and I can still use my cool air cleaners and 4 "carbs" so will still look relatively stock but with all 4 linked, no more progressive linkage. *drool*

I took her out after warming it up for a couple of minutes, could tell right away there was a problem. Backed her back into garage and pulled out Pertronix 1 and put points plate with fresh points/condenser and lubricating sponge for points cam in. Gapped to .019, set timing with light to 20BTDC, revved and no "jitter" in timing mark as I revved her up. Back on the street I went. Miss was GONE, still needed more advance. Then, smoky smell entered compartment...ew. The "new" is now burned off the exhaust manifold donuts. I gave it the "by-ear" advance method, and then a bit more. I'm going to take her on a bit longer drive to go visit a co-worker whose dad and cousin haven't seen the car yet, if that works for them. Pretty happy right now, More tom report after next drive.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Report... I advanced it a bit too much, now I backed it off and no more "spitting up". I think she's running a bit rich though, need to spend some more time on the carbs. While out, I stopped by my neighbor's place who had built this, and it was a nice photo-op...


Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Yesterday, I got my rebuilt harmonic balancer, pre-drilled and crank angle sensor magnets mounted. Along with that, I have the crank angle sensor and bracket. It will do absoultely nothing yet, as there are a few more pieces needed along with the "brains" of the operation to convert to DIS, courtesy of Ray Sedman of American-Pi. I'll get the new HB installed, along with the bracket this weekend, while saving the actual sensor install until I get closer to having all the bits to activate it. New DALE HB looks great.

I got my new balancer and the crank angle sensor bracket and pickup installed... other than I got a bit "frisky" with the counter bore tool necessitating quite a bit of shim to get the final air gap within spec, it went really well.

Here's the rear housing after a bit of cleaning and finished with the counter bore tool.

New balancer, a DALE rebuild with Ray Sedman's crank angle sensor magnets installed. Old balancer came right off with no problems, and still looked pretty good. It will get the DALE treatment and be mailed direct to Ray.

Crank angle sensor bracket installed. Poor quality photos from cheap digital camera.

Final finished installation poorly lit by yours truly. Air gap spec is .080-.110, final air gap was .090, so almost right in the center of the .030 range.

All put back together, new sensor is almost invisible when installed.. right now leads from the sensor are coiled up by the battery, it's a long road until I fire it up on it's new ignition system.
After running it for a bit, I noticed the idle was not dropping down like it should. I found the passenger side primary isn't closing fully. Even after disconnecting the driver's side adjustable link, I can push the throttle closed and it will open back up a bit on it's own. It's my old original carb, I have a Clark's rebuilt that I couldn't get to stop leaking fuel at the inlet nut even after using different nut, and a brand-new fuel line. I'll be taking the top cover off my old carb, and mating it with the new base, and checking float level/drop with new float, needle and seat out of new carb top, then installing that on passenger side, then balancing the carbs, see how it idles after that. More to come.

Thanks for the update. Your hard work is paying off.

I have a Clark's primary rebuilt carb that I bought last year as a part of a pair... can't get it to run properly with any pieces of that carb on.. the top cover leaks fuel no matter what I do, so I took the base of the new and the top of my old one... still ran like crap. I finally put my old carb back together, high idle remained... I ended up bending the tang that actuates the idle vent a bit.. now drops down like it should. I still need to re-balance the carbs, but that is a quick task. I am on-call for my cable company today (Comcast) and I have to go in to be ready if anything goes wrong during the Super Bowl. Time and a half to watch something I was gonna watch anyway, just no cold beer.. I can live with that. Weather is cold but clear today, driving the Vair to work while watching the game.
Next project is an O2 sensor and meter from American-Pi (meter includes a knock sensor option that won't work until I get the brains that run the whole shebang but the O2 sensor will... she's running a bit rich and I'll be taking her up to guru Rex Johnson for a complete carb overhaul of both primaries and secondaries so she'll run sweet on all 4, and work on getting the air/fuel mixture optimized.
As always, more to come.

Got to work uneventfully, idles great, ran great, w00t w00t! Good day to drive a Vair.

Well done!

Only problem I have now is the oil filter bolt fiber washer is leaking a bit, I had to remove filter to replace HB... I've had a bit of bad luck with leaks there. Thanks to Rex Johnson for giving me a spare out of his stash.