Continuing on with what I was doing on the dodge the day before, I had to take care of some more small crap. Its funny how some people think that they can restore a car by just dropping an engine in and hooking up a few basic things and instantly get a car on the road. There are a LOT of little things that need to be done when you're talking about what amounts to a full mechanical restoration.
In this case I was working on hooking up the TV (throttle valve) linkage after making a "new" linkage from the one that came with the engine and transmission. I had to hook the linkage up to the transmission and eyeball how the thing needed to to bend around to clear the firewall and back of the engine and still hook up to the carburetor throttle where everything will move in unison. I had to cut and weld the linkage in several places before I finally go the thing set up the way I needed it to be. In order to get everything hooked up I had to use a 1/4" bolt with a 5/16" nut for a spacer between the mount point on the TV linkage and the throttle on the carb. The way everything is made did not allow for a direct mating. A lock nut on the end of the 1/4" bolt will keep everything held together without risk of coming apart. I tested the throttle on the carb and it moved the TV lever on the transmission like I needed it to. Now whether things are adjusted good enough that the transmission will shift properly is a whole other argument. We will see on that one. The next thing I had to address is a bad freeze plug on the driver's side cylinder head. After putting the radiator hoses together I filled the radiator with water to check for leaks and besides the water pump gasket that particular freeze plug started leaking from some small rust holes. This was a pretty quick and cheap fix as freeze plugs are typically under a dollar and are easily tapped in place with something like an old piece of pipe and a hammer. The last thing I had to do in this episode was hook up the two wires for the sending units on the engine. The temperature and oil pressure sending units, both of which were borrowed from the 440, were installed and just needed the wires which I already ran when I rewired the car, hooked up with connectors. For the temp sender I was able to recycle the female bullet style connector from the old wiring harness. I soldered that end to the new wire and covered it with heat shrink tubing. The oil pressure sender has a small mushroom head that I was able to plug up to with a female spade terminal, which slid over the little head on the sending unit pretty snug. Crimping that terminal to the wire and sliding it on completed that task. On a lighter note I did change the oil on the S10 which was needing it after a few months of use. Best part about this was the idea that I was able to fill up one of my oil wood buckets with a good amount of oil. I'll be changing the oil in the Tracker in the morning which will further top off that bucket, along with a little gas to thin it out some. Gotta kill 2 birds with 1 stone when it comes to this self reliance/sufficiency shit!
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