Newb looking for a bit of info on 3A scv

[Petros]

The carb can be cleaned without a major rebuild. carefully remove the top without removing the carb from the engine, and clean it out with carb cleaner. Watch out for the small check valves and other parts when you lift the lid off. The FSM has a list of checks and adjustments you can do with just the top off, or on the car.

Good luck.

[IHblarp]

update!
I went ahead and rebuilt the carb this week. I figured with the amount of crap i found in the gas tank there was surely gunk in the carb, and sure enough i was right. the was about a 1/4 inch of sludge in the bottom of the bowl and both jets seemed clogged, as well as just about every other passageway. so i was able to put the carb on last night an it actually started and ran on it's own for the first time!!! Needless to say i was pretty happy. But it still seems to be having issues with the choke. When i first start it up it wants to idle around 2000-2200 rpm, seems a little fast even for a fast idle. After warming up it will eventualy drop down to about 1200 but i could not get it below that, unless i manually stepped the choke into a fully open position. So basically it just seems to want to idle to the sky, unless i actually move the choke cam myself once its warmed up. so i'll have to keep tinkering with it for a while.

any way today i spent all day tying up as many loose ends as possible. got the brakes bled, a lot of dark brown fluid came out, and i'm pretty sure i have a leak in the lines to the rear brakes. Hopefully its just at the prop valve. tracked down and fixed a coolant leak, and hooked up misc parts that had been overlooked. But at about 6 I actually got a chance to go drive it around the block. The tires are in horrible condition but it drove pretty well. I need to figure out whats wrong with the brakes, dial in the carb a bit more and then buy tires and this thing might actually be a driver!!! i'm stoked, but there's still work to be done, so hopefully tomorrow will be another productive day!!

[ARCHINSTL]

Way to go!
You might just pop the rear drums to see if the cylinders are leaky - mine were soon after I got it back in '05. The drums will probably be "stuck on," but just thread in a couple of M8 X 1.25 bolts into the two little holes and tighten each in turn; they will act as extractors, pushing the drum from the hub.
Did you install a new fuel filter? Might not be a bad idea to install another after a few weeks.
What's up with the housing?
Tom M.

[IHblarp]

thanks man,
I pulled the driver side drum when i was bleeding the brakes and that wheel cylinder is prob shot. but i was just out there and noticed the brake booster has some fluid on it and is dripping, so i guess that is probably the plunger seal in the mast cylinder. Which is ok because i bought a new mast cylinder when i first bought the car, might swap it out tomorrow. thanks for the heads up on the extractor method, I couldnt get the pass side drum off earlier, i saw those holes but never would have thought thats what their for.

as far as the housing goes, highlander said he'll sell me whole transmission so I'll be making a trip up his way around thanksgiving if all goes well. The trans seems to work OK but it seems to kinda "clunk" when I let out the clutch and the gears actually engage, so i'm not sure if thats a result of it being cracked or ??? either way i just hope it will hold together long enough to get this other trans.

I do have new new filter but it will prob get changed along with the oil after a full tank of gas or two.

[ARCHINSTL]

Forgot - put some anti-seize on the hub where it mates with the drum - a good practice on all threaded items also.
There are a number of good write-ups here on doing the brakes.
Tom M.

[takza]

I had to buy a vacuum pump to get the air out of mine when I did the MC and brakelines.

[IHblarp]

yea, I have bled brakes without a vac pump but now that i have one I would never even try without it again. It is just so easy and effective with a pump. I think I may try to adjust to valves today, the car kinda has a diesel sound of clack clack clack.

[Highlander]

Just a note on removing the drums with the bolts- Make dang sure that you have the adjusters backed off- I got lazy once and didn't, and I broke the ear off of the wheel cylinder piston when I pulled the drum off- wound up replacing it- they're only ~ $8 each, after the shoe slipped off of the piston- what a mess of course. and a set of shoes.... ...and the time....etc...etc...

[IHblarp]

so, sunday was a frustrating day of tinkering with the brakes, I came out to notice a pretty sizable puddle of brake fluid under the car by the master cylinder. It was dripping off of the brake booster and seemed to be coming from the master cylinder, so i figured OK, i bought a rebuilt master cylinder just after i got the car, no biggie! Wrong! I pulled the old one off, went to bench bleed the new one and with the first depression of the piston I noticed the piston did not move very freely, and even worse it would not return to full extension after pressure was released. at first i didn't think too much about it, but after it kept doing it I figured that that mast cyl was prob bad too. I decided to put in in the car any way to see if it worked, sure enough it didn't. the pedal had no feel to it, would go straight to the floor, and then once released, the pedal had a bunch of play before I could feel it actually pushing the fluid. after bleeding all the brakes at the wheels I really new something was wrong. I could get fluid for a little while but then it just seemed like i was sucking the lines dry, the mast cylinder still had fluid but i wasn't getting any at the wheels. I ended up bench bleeding again at least to more times to no avail. after being completely fed up I decided the mast cyl must be bunk, and they sold me a bad part. I took it back yesterday (o'riely's) got my money back and ordered one from auto zone. The guy at orielys seemed a little hurt that i wanted my money back, but f-it. I wasted far too much time to try my luck with their parts again.

the new one should be here today, so I might have some time to put it on this evening, so hopefully all goes well.

[deejay1272]

IHblarp - I'm curious to know if you have done a compression test on your 3A SCV engine. I just performed a test this evening and found that I'm running at between 180 - 195 PSI for each cylinder. I understand that this engine runs at higher pressure than the 3A for example, but I'm not quite sure if my compression results are in spec for the SCV engine type. Any thoughts?

[IHblarp]

deejay, I have not done a comp test yet, I think i have a tester laying around somewhere so I'll try to get one done when i get a moment. I've also heard that the scv is higher comp but i'm not sure by how much.

[IHblarp]

Time for an update, on friday I bought some new tires, switched my insurance, and registered the terc. Drove it all weekend and it did great!!! (ran outta gas once, my bad). On sat, my buddy nick (helped a bunch with the swap) and I took it for a 50 mile desert trip to do some rock climbing. It did surprisingly well on the freeway(after it got up to speed) and pretty well on the old highway/dirt roads. I'm really happy to be driving it, but it does still need some work. It most definitely needs new shocks in the front, possibly new springs, and both cv joints (ouch!!). when i turn either direction under power there is slight clicking and popping that you can hear and feel in the floor boards. overall I am very happy about how well it is doing just got a few bugs to work out.

it also smokes pretty bad on start-up after about 10 min or so it doesn't smoke at all so I'm guessing that the valve stem seals are toast.

[deejay1272]

I'm happy to hear that the repairs are coming along nicely. Please keep us up to speed on what develops of your suspension issues. I'll be interested to learn more about your experience in this area since I'm going to be in your shoes in the coming months.

[IHblarp]

I finally got around to doing a compression test, been kinda putting it off because I was worried it would tell me something I didn't want to know, which it did. Each cylinder was reading about 95-105 psi which is kinda disappointing. I'm at 3500ft but I don't see it accounting for that much pressure loss. sounds like I should have have torn into the engine and done the rings while it was out of the car. Oh well, what can you do!!

I'll probably just run it with lower compression until i have the time and money to get after it. Or I'll start building the old motor so i have it ready when this one becomes too worn out to drive.

[Petros]

you can always give it the Teflon treatment, or run it with STP or Motor Honey or something similar. In collage I tested these products on a engine dyno on a worn out engine, they actually worked to some extent. I would consider them temp fixes at best, but is a lot easier and cheaper than an overhaul.