After making the water pump gasket and gluing it in place with gasket maker, today I was able to install the water pump on the Dodge's engine. Of course I took care to make sure that I put some gasket maker on some of the bolts that appeared to pass through the water jacket so hopefully everything is sealed. With the water pump in place I was able to install the belts, since the alternator and power steering pump brackets had to be taken loose from their mounting points which incorporate some of the water pump's bolts. I'll be leaving the gasket maker that I applied today to cure before I go back tonight to add some coolant to the radiator to see if everything is sealed. Hopefully with that I'll be in the home stretch, which is adding some motor oil to the engine, installing a set of shocks and tires, and a driveshaft. Other than some cosmetic stuff, this will be all that's needed (plus some fuel for the engine) for me to get the car started and drivable. As far as the driveshaft I've even contemplated taking the driveshafts that I have and blending them together myself, cutting off the yoke mounts and shortening the tube and welding the whole unit together to make my own custom driveshaft then using an old school balancing method that involves using hose clamps and a bunch of trial and error to get the shaft balanced on the car. I saw a video that walked me through the whole process. But in condensed terms you support the rear wheels of the car off the ground, make a little cradle out of some somewhat springy flat stock metal that will support a small cup of water to the differential. You run the car in gear up to highway speed with the wheels off the ground and put a piece of chalk barely close enough that the wobbly driveshaft starts making contact with the chalk. The points where the chalk touches are the "heavy" points where the driveshaft wobbles out of balance. From here you put a couple of hose clamps on with the screw point 180 degrees from those chalk marks then "drive" the car again, see how much the water bounces in the cup. You move the hose clamps a little at a time in either direction together or opposite each other and test to see just how "smooth" you can get the cup of water. Once you get to the point where the driveshaft is able to run at highway speed without making the cup of water bounce or bounce minimally, your driveshaft is in balance. I would like to attempt this as it would be another one of those trade techniques that I would love to have under my belt along with the other stuff I've learned in the automotive hobby/craft/trade. Another little side project that I've been working on was "processing" the scrap wires from old wire harnesses and other bundles that I've saved from the past to make a more organized collection of wires. Since the wire harnesses are bulky and trying to get a length of wire on the fly is sometimes troublesome when it involves cutting through tape and clipping terminals and solder links and other shit from the length of wire I might need, plus just the idea that it was just more clutter, I decided to organize this crap. This involved literally cutting every single wire, removing terminals and cutting at points where multiple wires were fused together to a junction or what not and rolling up that length of wire and taping it to make a nice little neat roll that can be stored in a box or other container for future use. This did take some time as one can figure, a car wire harness has a LOT of wires of various lengths. I did cull pieces that were less than 2ft long as such pieces are rarely used and wouldn't make much sense to hang on to so many of these pieces. Only exceptions were if the wires were of a heavy gauge or if they had a terminal that could actually come in use, like a female terminal where it can accommodate a male crimp terminal on another wire. Another thing I saved were some of those junctions I mentioned earlier where one wire was soldered to a junction that spit into two or three other wires, good for when you have a power wire feeding multiple loads/circuits. Another thing I saved were plugs that had both the male and female sides together. Whether it was just one wire or a plug with ten wires, I figured these would be good for when I make a wire harness and need to be able to unplug a part of the circuit, such as wiring a steering column. I can wire the turn signals and ignition switch and horn to this multi circuit plug and if I ever need to remove the steering column, I can just unplug the unit and not have to worry about cutting and marking wires for reconnection later. These plug sets will come in handy for many electrical projects later on. Wires with an eye loop end are obviously useful as ground straps or even as a power feed that is hooked up to a stud terminal. I made sure to save these useful pieces from the wire harness for future use. Well after a few sessions of cutting and rolling up wire, I finished with all of the wire that I had stored in the garage, leaving me with a nice pile of individual rolls and plug sets that I can store away in a smaller container than what the original wire harness could ever be stored in, plus some more scraps that will be piled with the remaining scrap copper wire to be burned free of its insulation prior to storing in buckets to be placed with the outgoing scrap for my next haul. This is just another small step in my quest to get things organized in the shop/garage/yard so my future projects can go smoother without the hassles of having to try and look for key components. Until the next time....
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