arrived at Kelly's place on the hook
carefully maneuvered onto a platform of 2x6s & plywood & Armstrong flooring, to keep it off the
damp ground - dad called it "a camper on a dance floor"
May 11
investigated the dual battery system apparently installed by the camper people
both dead, removed
generator declared "bad" by previous owner - hanging by one bolt - removed
adjuster mount appears to have been ruined by insertion of non-metric bolt
tested the starter solenoid - ok
engine doesn't turn - siezed tight
removed radiator - clear water came out
pulled pan drain plug - water came out, followed by awful gooky glop
sighed, taped over engine water & air openings, quit
hey, at least we got the hood latches lubricated - now they make a nice brisk snap instead of a scrape
May 12-16
Started checking around Lancaster County for a 4-cylinder Mercedes gas engine
get a lot of blank looks when I talk about 1966, or 4-cylinder gas engines
May 21
Found a good body man nearby. He was in the process of fabricating doorsills and curved patch
panels for a '56 Tbird - and he likes to work on strange stuff. Didn't seem daunted by the rustout.
Suggests repowering it with a Ford 300-6, although it might require cutting away some of the floor.
May 23
Hah! Just discovered that it's a Dormobile.
May 24
Worked on that one flat rear tire. Turns out these are tube tires, and the wheels don't have the inner
lip, so they can never be tubeless. Got a new tube in. Came back & discovered there are tires from
3 different makers on this thing - and they're all slightly different OD, when unloaded.
These wheels have holes that are bigger than the lugs, and the same wheel has to work in all six
positions - facing in or out. So the holes in the wheels are slightly counterbored, and there are beveled
lockwashers that go against them wheel to locate the wheel, and the lug nuts are flat. To locate the
inside rear wheels, there are beveled washers against the brake drum.
Now... Since I was trying to get the same tires on both fronts, and the same combinations on the rears,
I had most of the wheels off. And when I tried to remount the right front, I just couldn't seem to get
the lockwashers against the wheels. The inner threads were a little rusty, so I cleaned them out a little,
but it didn't help. More studying showed that the tapered inner washers were in place on this brake
drum - and it looks like they'd been there for a while, too. (That was when I figured out their purpose.)
Took them off and the wheel snugged up real nice. And all the inner washers were in place on the rears -
what was the deal? Of course, all the lugs & lockwashers looked new, so somebody did that part of
the job. But then, they used a flat lockwasher on one of the rears - even though they carefully saved
some of the old tapered ones in a little bag. Ah well, "It's not a good idea to try to psychoanalyze the
dead," I read some place, or in this case, previous mechanics.
May 26
We disconnected a bunch of stuff:
front ground strap, rear ground strap, battery ground
gearshift rods - at the trans, theyr'e held on by cotter pins; in front, by ball-end links. I found out
that on these large ball ends, there's a little clip that partly circles the housing and pokes into the ball,
and acts as a keeper. You just push on the inside of the circle with a screwdriver to draw the poked
end out of the ball. And then it flies off into the grass and is gone forever.
coil primary wire
removed carburetor
sawed off muffler, removed exhaust pipe
removed most pan bolts - left two in to keep from dropping; 2 large bolts comimg in from rear,
need to remove filter to get one out
oil pressure wire, temperature wire
bracket for clutch return spring
May 27
We disconnected the rest of the stuff:
clutch rod (one of those large ball ends - saved the clip this time)
oil filter - it's a replaceable element type, but when you take out the bolt, oil (or in this case water)
comes out and splashes all over the axle - messy
rest of the pan bolts & removed oil pan - interesting, there's a bearing seal only at the back
oil pickup - wanted to remove the pan & this to reduce the distance we have to lift the engine - since we
don't have unlimited lifting height (can't hang the chain hoist on a tree branch for this one)
driveshaft
loosened 2 front motor mount bolts & 2 rear trans mount bolts
Ready to yank whenever we can borrow an engine hoist.
(except for the starter which I continue to forget to disconnect because it's hard to reach)
May 29
Decided to start loosening the brake drums, which I thought were removeable from the hubs.
Removed both front wheels (found inner washers on other front wheel).
Found paint in the seam between the "drum" and the "hub" - I guess they don't separate.
Removed hub. Oh those methodical Germans! Much nicer than US cars of the same era.
The axle grease cap is threaded into the hub, instead of being pounded in.
None of this "tighten up the castellated nut & just back it off to where the cotter pin drops in."
The axle nut is split, with its own setscrew to make it grip, after being tightened to exactly the right
place.
Wheel cylinders don't seem too bad visually, drum isn't too badly scored. I think I'll always try to get
the softest possible lining bonded to those shoes, to keep the drums alive as long as possible, since
you have to replace the whole hub assembly (importing lots of cast iron from Germany.)