Now, if only it sounded like a jeep. It seems the timing it off, so I’ll be working my way through that Tuesday morning. One fun fact I didn’t know … there’s no top center on an L-head. I wished I’d known that BEFORE I assembled everything. I didn’t check to see whether my flywheel has the flywheel marks.
Anyway, Patterson is all assembled. We only had one oil leak, but that was only because someone forgot to tighten the inlet line at the block. We also had a minor gas leak at the carb, but that was a trivial issue. Some plumbers tape solved that.
So, now I believe it’s down’ to timing. For those looking for a good resource on L-head timing strategies, this thread on the CJ-2A page is helpful: https://www.thecj2apage.com/forums/l134-ignition-timing_topic13819.html. The also may be helpful: http://www.cj-2a.com/techtips/timing/howto/l134-timing.pdf
Here are a few pics from the day:
In the pic, your number one plug wire appears to be 180 degrees off. If getting back fires, or popping, try pulling the distributor and turning it 180. Hard to diagnose from a picture. Great progress, Be careful criticizing the help for ‘creativity’, you have to sleep sometime… 🙂
He/ she has a nice looking body/paint. You’ll be looking good riding her in front of the pack in Alaska.
Timing is everything.
Teflon tape is not for gasoline. It may work for an emergency repair but please don’t leave it there. Fix the actual sealing surface. And make sure there are no shreds leftover to get into the fuel line.
You might consider this procedure for timing http://oldjeepcarbs.freeforums.net/thread/29/time-motor-timing-light
Blaine: I didn’t know that. A little research gave me some other options. Thanks for the tip.
Richard. I’ll give it a look, thanks!
Steve: I did hear a backfire and immediately suspected the timing was the problem. It may well be the distributor is 180 degrees. The installed distributor is something I hadn’t removed from the block. It sparked, so I’d hoped that the previous owner had installed it correctly. If the timing is off, it means the previous owner installed it backward (perhaps that’s one reason Rusty was parked).
Did you make the seat covers ?. I was thinking about trying make some. Not sure if that is a home type project. [ I did take a upholstery class at night school a long time ago and did a Willys truck seat but we had a instructor for help ]
Bill,
Ann made them. She has saved the pattern as we’ll eventually be redoing the seats for Rusty.
– Dave
Little by little, bit by bit… nice progress.
Dave,
I love the play-by-play (even the parts that conjure up “flashbacks”). Great progress.
We already knew Ann was amazing but WIRING AND SEAT COVERS, too!!! Seriously? You truly are blessed ;-).
Dave, I need to borrow Ann for a few days. My wife (as much as I abosolutely do love her) doesn’t work on jeeps, probably isn’t good at wiring and she doesn’t sew either!
There’s a million other things she IS good at but those three aren’t on the list.
Both are of you…..Good Job and fun to watch the progress!