Ben's Satellite

[74sundance]

It's cool to see some progress on your Satellite,my car is still on hold but will be back in the shop and out of storage in a few more weeks.Keep up the good work!

 

[killi6]

So I've been kind of just cleaning lately... need money for body parts and I've been trying to fix my free air compressor... but I finally said screw it and bit off breaking down the cylinder heads. I got cheap lever-type spring compressor from O'Reilly and finally figured out how to get it to work last night... question for you guys... is it normal to have no valve seals on the intake valves?? All I had on there were hard plastic things on the exhaust valves.

I'll take some more pix today and get them up and posted... sucks having three sites to update (here, my blog and Facebook...)

 

[Basket case]

great project!

 

[charger360]

on these old engines the valve seals would get brittle over time and fall apart you will find them in your engine, mostly in the pan and oil pump pick up. you need them on both valve stems they are cheap and come in a full gasket set. at least on this site you will get tech help from lot's of people who have these cars!

 

[killi6]

on these old engines the valve seals would get brittle over time and fall apart you will find them in your engine, mostly in the pan and oil pump pick up. you need them on both valve stems they are cheap and come in a full gasket set. at least on this site you will get tech help from lot's of people who have these cars!

That makes sense for all of the chunks of plastic under the valve covers...

Got the heads all broken down, hot tanked and pressure tested (no leaks) and cleaned up. The exhaust valves are loose (most of them) in the valve guides... I think I'll need to have them sleeved. I think I need to replace the exhaust valves themselves too... what do you all think?



Cleaned head....


And I was checking out my block this weekend again... here's a nice shot of one of the cam bearings... the others are in various other stages of 'bad'... nice...


Been a while since I updated, sorry. I did some cleaning on the distributor last night, too... and I've cut out part of the driver's side floor to get at the torsion bar mount better for clean-up/prep prior to getting a repair cap for it (hopefully in January).

Somewhere way down the road, I want her in cobalt blue with a white roadrunner stripe... like these colors...


I think that'll look sharp. :toothy5:

 

[killi6]

I turned the car around in my garage so I could give some attention to the rear end. Started unbolting things and realized I could take the whole bumper off with just 6 bolts and 2 nuts. :headbang: So... took it off, brushed off a bunch of gravel, started unscrewing the lower transverse body panel that has the license plate bracket mounted on it... that all needs to be cleaned up, too... and I can see stuff better, obviously. Working on getting the bumper assembly all taken apart so I can scrape rust off, repaint, get the chrome set aside for restoration, etc. Also so I can take the gas tank out, clean it up and seal it.

 

[rsd859]

Nice work! I need to yank my rear bumper off also and give it a good cleaning. You arent messing around thats for sure.

 

[killi6]

Nice work! I need to yank my rear bumper off also and give it a good cleaning. You arent messing around thats for sure.

I think I'm really developing a problem... I feel like I have to work on EVERYTHING. I even 'restored' the second-hand air compressor that my coworker gave me. It's got to be some kind of illness.

 

[rsd859]

There is no shame in that! I love it when things work the way they were designed to!

 

[roadrunnerman]

I think I'm really developing a problem... I feel like I have to work on EVERYTHING. I even 'restored' the second-hand air compressor that my coworker gave me. It's got to be some kind of illness.

It's a genetic trait that can appear at anytime in the male species. There's no known cure to subdue it. All you can do is just let it run it's course. It has been known to run as long as a lifetime.

 

[killi6]

Okay, got the tank out...


And cleaned up some....


It was warm yesterday and looks like what's left in the tank expanded and vented out in my garage... stinks.

I decided the time had come to stop messing around... the cracks of the driver's front frame rail coming apart are getting worse. So I turned it around to get the front end pointing out again, got her up on jack stands, took the front left spindle apart, took the driver's door off and then the fender. The bolt that holds the fender to the bumper was really bad... I didn't realize that my 'unscrewing' with the breaker bar was actually just twisting that strip of metal into a bow. Anyway, it's off now. I think I will weld a support piece onto it before I get it blasted.




Started to take the passenger's fender off but that same fender-bumper bolt on that side was bad and when my socket slipped, I slashed a good cut in my thumb so I called it a day. Got some nice firewall and whatnot repair and rebuilding to be done (the cancer hidden under the fender).

I'm excited to get the bumper off and to finally get the k-member off. Worried that without the k-member to hold it up, the frame will come apart, but with the only thing on anymore being the radiator support by then, there shouldn't be much weight on it anyway, right?


Anyway... progress.. :hello2:

 

[Propwash]

I'm guessing if the inner fenders are solid, they're about the only thing holding that rotten rail in place. K-Frame out, nothing structurally binding weighing down on that rotten rail anymore. Keep up the good work. Rough road ahead, but the only way to tackle it is roll up the sleeves, keep the chin up and get to work.

 

[roadrunnerman]

You've got your work cut out for you on the road ahead, but the rewards more than make up for it. With that k-member out and the fenders off, you've got all kinds of room to re-enforce what you want to do.

 

[killi6]

Whew... been a while since I updated.

I've been working on the driver's side front end mostly. I got the front bumper off and was going to take off the passenger fender, but realized I couldn't open the door enough to unbolt the door... so I can't get at the bolts for the fender there. And I'm not putting the front end back together just to roll it out, take the door off and then roll it back in. I need to get a dolly or something and make a frame to roll it around with the front end disassembled because it'll probably be a while before it's all back together. I want to get the k-frame out so I can clean it up and repair/fix the driver's side ear that's all rusted out. I've got the upper control arm, spindle, shock/etc out... working on the lower control arm and torsion bar.

Specifically today: Removed the power steering pump, started taking the steering umm... gear thing... out... knocked out a pin, scraped off some filth, scraped off some ancient seam sealer from the bodywork, turned a couple of bolts on the front bumper, tried again to take out the torsion bar, but the Haynes manual instructions are either missing something or understating how much force I need to apply when I 'tap' it with a hammer or 'pull' it out. Sprayed some more WD-40 and liquid wrench on various exposed bolts and nuts.

I've cleaned up the exterior of the gas tank and painted it. The silver paint I got kind of rubs off on my hand even try, so that was probably a complete waste of time but at least it's primed under and rust-converted under that so it shouldn't be rotting anymore. I need to get a POR-15 kit to descale and seal the interior... and I should get a new sending unit/filter assembly because the one that was in there... the float's gone/dissolved and it looks pretty sketchy. The old gas in the tank was green... wtf????

I think the drivetrain (engine/tranny) was structurally holding the car kind of rigid, considering how the rotted frame is separating just sitting there...

Something about getting the upper control arm off kind of energized me. I have a very strong urge to start sandblasting parts and painting them to put back on. I'm going to pick up a kit from Home Depot or somewhere similar for like 150 instead of paying someone to do the parts onesy twosy. Before I spend money on that, though I need to buy the torsion bar mount and frame rail caps to repair... and whatever other reinforcements I can figure out.

Some pix:

My son Joshua 'helped' get the front bumper off. I have the bracket with the hood clip stuff on it out now too.


Upper control arm/spindle assembly off. Lovely, no? Yes, those are pebbles stuck in the bushing...


Gas tank... and stuff.


Driver's side suspension stuff coming out...
View attachment 140641

I don't post much but I come to the site almost every day to see what you guys are working on and give me ideas. Thank you!!!

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Oh, I 'had to' paint the cylinder heads, too... even though they're going to need some machining... they look much prettier on my shelf now:


And a shot of my gas tank resto technique... :iamwithstupid:

 

[roadrunnerman]

Everything is looking good. I'll bet it was fun with the gas tank.

 

[killi6]

Everything is looking good. I'll bet it was fun with the gas tank.

Yeah, the tank was great... the filmy coat of hydrocarbon dirt sprayed off on my legs to clean off when i was done was fun, too.

Took out the steering gear today... anyone have any tips for taking out the torsion rods??? I'm kind of stuck... my only lead at this point is taking off the nut on the front of the k member that is attached to a bolt in line with it... but now that I think about it, that's not going to pull anything out anyway. Is something supposed to adjust the lower control arm forward so the bar can come out or something??

 

[roadrunnerman]

You need to loosen the bolts in the lower control arm underneath so it takes all the weight off the suspension, take out the clip off the rear of the torsion bar. then either get the torsion bar removal tool from mancini racing or get a couple blocks of wood with the groove cut out to fit over the bars and clamp them tight together and use a hammer to slide them out the back of the rear crossmember.

 

[killi6]

You need to loosen the bolts in the lower control arm underneath so it takes all the weight off the suspension, take out the clip off the rear of the torsion bar. then either get the torsion bar removal tool from mancini racing or get a couple blocks of wood with the groove cut out to fit over the bars and clamp them tight together and use a hammer to slide them out the back of the rear crossmember.

AH... That makes a lot more sense than banging them on the side like I thought the instructions meant... said to put a rag around it and then clamp down a vice grip and hit it with a hammer... I was hitting it at a 90 degree angle instead of towards the rear. Duh... :cwm10:

Thx, man!

 

[Kernel Sanders]

I hope I'm not to late but dont use vicegrips on the torsion bar! If you do and you inadvertantly chew up the bar it may break if you reuse it!

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Them longer torsion bars 73+ are not sold new and are not so easy to find in good shape

 

[killi6]

I hope I'm not to late but dont use vicegrips on the torsion bar! If you do and you inadvertantly chew up the bar it may break if you reuse it!

- - - Updated - - -

Them longer torsion bars 73+ are not sold new and are not so easy to find in good shape

Instructions said to wrap it in a rag and then vice grip it which I did, so no chewing. Bar's out now, too. :hello2: Well, almost, I have to take the rear boot off now but it's disengaged from the control arm.