Yeah, old cars need maintenance. It's not hard to spend more on parts than the purchase price when the cars are so cheap.

At least you're not also buying tools? I dunno. Trying to find the silver lining for you. (Tools are killing me right now.)

Anyways, I keep a very detailed record of fuel, oil, and maintenance cost for my DD. Since 2014, I average ~$400/yr in parts. I need to double check a few of the formulas I have in my excel file but right now it says that my all in cost per mile $0.12 (includes insurance). So, the car will save you money in the long run.

 

As of right now, I haven't had to buy any tools. 9/10 I usually have every tool I need. If I don't, I can usually "borrow" them from work or legit borrow them from coworkers/friends.
I don't really have a problem buying parts for this car; I'm used to buying things for the Vette and that hurts. There is definitely a "Corvette Tax", don't let them fool you haha! Plus, besides all the down time, being able to fill up for under $20 makes me happy. Unfortunately, during said downtime, I'm driving my Ram (15-16mpg and $45-50 a fillup). I don't know what I was thinking assuming I could handle driving a full size pickup daily.

 

Classic question...

 

I'll be the first to admit... I've got a problem haha

 

Lucky you, once when I went to replace my dizzy o ring on my D16, I reinstalled the dizzy 180 degrees out and I didn't know it, and I cranked the bolts down hard and snapped off the ears on the dizzy! I had to fish the pieces out of the engine before restarting the car, and replace the whole dizzy!!!!

 

Yeah, definitely not a good feeling to put it all together and it not start haha! Mine was 180 out, but luckily it didn't damage anything when I tried to start it! From now on, I'm marking that bitch every time it comes out! My new one should be here this evening, so hopefully tomorrow or thursday I'll get it installed and set the timing.

 

They are already marked. There is a groove cut in the end of the cam parallel to the drive slot, and a matching groove on the drive dog. Put them both on the same side when putting distributor on.

 

Ya know, I noticed that on the dizzy, but I didn't get a chance to look at the end of the cam. Good to know.

 

Hey LiteraCola, what would you like your thread title to be now that it has evolved beyond your original question.

We can turn it into your build or refresh thread, or questions for X car thread...

Let me know and I will fix the thread title for you, save you from worry of creating another thread as this one is progressing well.

 

**Update**
I received my dizzy last night. A coworker (a highly unreliable individual) offered to let me borrow his timing light to set/adjust the base timing with the new dizzy, but unfortunately he let me down for the 19138409834th time. Hopefully I can wrangle up a timing light without having to buy one. Cheap *** FTW!I'm hoping I can drive the car by tonight; I hate looking at it sitting broken in the driveway!

 

I use to work at an auto parts store and we had 1 sometimes 2 for rent, might be worth a few phone calls to save some cash. I never wanted to purchase one because I have only used one twice..

 

new title:

What dsol said. Rent a timing light!

 

My B18 has an offset slot on the cam for proper distributor installation. Is that not the case for your engine?

 

I was able to borrow one from another guy at work. None of my local parts stores rent them. And there's no point buying one if I'm only going to use it once or twice. If it's free it's for me!

Thanks, dude. Much better title.

It does... that was just a rookie mistake. I've worked on a lot of **** in my day, but never on a distributor. Power plants don't use distributors haha

 

UPDATE

I installed the new dizzy last night. I was able to find a good deal on Amazon with Prime shipping from "Parts Galaxy". It looked pretty legit but once installed, the two-pin connector wouldn't fit on the harness-side connector. I compared the new dizzy connector to the old, and noticed the new one had a plastic cross-shaped guide in between the two pins. The factory connector doesn't have this. I wish I had taken a picture... I messed with it and decided not to force it for fear of destroying the harness side and being S.O.L. Ultimately, I ended up having to cut off the new two-pin connector and solder the old connector in its place. By dusk, the dizzy was installed and timing was set. She's back on the road!

For anyone reading this... Beware of Parts Galaxy on Amazon... $80 is a great deal for a distributor, but that low cost *may* come at a price.
/rant

 

Nope, just 4160KVa XFMRs. You work at North Anna?

 

Haha no. Morgantown in Newburg MD. We have 480, 4kv, 7kv breakers. Our transmission lines are 230kv. Buzz buzz haha

 

Ah. I've done some work at North Anna so... yeah.

 

Awesome! Never been there. What do you do?

 

I'm willing to bet if you look close that plastic guide that wasn't there was in fact stuck in the car side of the harness, sometimes they do that and you have to pull them out with a pair of needle nose pliers.

 

Interesting... I'll have to disconnect it and see what I can see. Good call!

 

I put one of those no-name distributors on my '91. It was a direct plug in and go.

The drive slot is offset so it is only supposed to engage one way, but it isn't offset very much and with a little wear it is possible to put it on 180 degrees out.

 

I was REALLY hoping that would be the one thing that would go smoothly on this car. But I was wrong! Oh well, it's all good!

 

Small update from the weekend. I made my first-ever attempt at tint removal. The tint on this car looks like it was done soon after the car was purchased for the first time. It came off pretty easy, but the glue was a ****. Luckily, I had some all-purpose remover and a good razor blade scraper. Worked like a charm! I was able to track down my fuel leak. My return line in front of the tank is leaking at the flare fitting (wasn't able to get it to tighten without messing up the fitting), but I also found that the rubber hose just after the filler neck is leaking. The clamps are rusty as hell and only bent when I tried to snug them up. Looks like I'll have to use some good stainless hose clamps and see if I can get it to stop. Hopefully the rubber hose isn't broken! She's got a steady drip from that connection. No wonder I can't break 30mpg!

 

Window tent removal is VERY easy when you have a heat gun. your able to remove both tint and glue at the same time, just take a little more time. GL with fuel leak!