While the title may imply that not much went on in this session, that would be far from the truth. The problem with the starter, aside from trying to find bolts that were long enough to mount the thing to begin with, was getting a cable set up for it. This, despite being something that should be simple, ended up being a bit more involved. First of all, I did not have a dedicated cable with the ends on it for connecting to a battery terminal or the terminal on the starter. I dug out a length of red cable that was used for a stereo system, so it had a fuse block in line with the end that had a loop terminal on it. I couldn't have this so I removed the fuse box and had to use a propane torch to heat the meshed copper ends enough to solder the whole mess together. Heat shrink tubing finished up the that end of the cable. I ended up having to dig out an obscure terminal end that had two holes in it for connection to two separate terminals, and use a heavy duty crimper to crush the heavy duty copper terminal around the end of the cable, after cutting the length I needed for the run from the battery terminal to the starter. Afterward, I trimmed the terminal down to just have one loop for the starter. I routed the cable around to pass around the exhaust pipe and connected the end to the starter. With the starter in place, another thing that I took care of was the transmission yoke I picked up from the junkyard. I had to grind the weld on the cut down tube and knock it free. I did grind a little too much in spots so hopefully the thing won't be too compromised that it can't be used. The yoke itself is still good, this is just the half that goes on the driveshaft tube. Either way, I was able to get the yoke in place so whenever I do run the engine, I can do so with oil in the transmission to keep it safe and wet. I could even theoretically put the transmission in gear to make sure the thing even works, based on the simple rotation of the yoke. One last thing that I did manage to address was the installation of the thermostat and its accompanying housing on the intake. As is always the case, I always install low temperature thermostats on my engines, in order to give me enough leeway on an engine's operation before it reaches critical. Especially during the hot summers here, having a low temp unit in place allows the engine to stay nice and cool, giving me more time to react when something goes wrong. In addition to the thermostat, I also installed the two radiator hoses onto the engine, just to get them out of the way. Of course, I don't have a radiator in place, but when I do, everything else will be in place to complete the cooling system. There are still a couple things on that part, like a hose barb fitting for the intake so I can install one of the heater hoses, along with the second heater hose on the water pump. Also, I'll still need to add the oil lines from the transmission to the rad so that will fully complete that system. The next big project on the Elco will be the building of the exhaust system. Funny thing, I didn't even need the flange pipes that we picked up from the junkyard, as I discovered during the starter installation there were already flange pipes in place on the manifolds. Even though they were shorter than the pipes I got from the yard, they are in place and only need the coupling or flared ends of pipe fittings to build the system. I already have some mufflers and lengths of pipe from the scrap pile to help further build the system, so hopefully I'll have the exhaust system completed more sooner than later.
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