Holy Crap!!

[dbrick]

Well, I drove it on the street for the first time today. Went to the Motor Vehicle office and got the title transferred, 25 year old Florida title with a few lines of info missing. This little thing MOVES. Dryrotted tires, no rear brakes and the old pads and rotors and un-rebuilt calipers cruising up the Garden State Parkway with a stupid grin on my face. Later took my Wife out for a short ride, ran out of gas a 2 blocks from home, almost coasted it in had to push it last 200 feet. And just for comic relief, the cigarette lighter decided to short itself out yesterday and blew the main fuse.

Car left the garage under it's own power last week, 1 year and 1 day after being pushed in. My wife really enjoyed the "Year and a Day" part.

Either my old 1600 was not very fast, or my standards have changed. First gear is a bit too high, but will do a very nice burnout with little effort. Pulls well from around 2000 rpm. And, Thank God, 5th gear works.
Handling is phenominal, Comp suspension and Konis are not as harsh as I thought and time was well spent tightening every bolt I saw, really no rattles. (Note to self; bolt down the speakers, they fly around a bit while cornering)

Have a header, small pipe all the way back to factory megaphone resonator with no muffler, nice snotty sound, bit loud but that's OK.
Loud Pipes Save Lives.

Few things I noticed, most probably normal.
1. Oil pressure drops at idle to around 20 lbs hot. Running Syntec 15W/50. above 1000 rpm up over 50-75 lbs. 96 degrees outside temp today

2. I hear/feel a slight buzzing in the shifter while shifting into third when stick is pushed all the way forward, Over shifting the syncro?

3. Rear axle pinion has alot of slack when turned by hand with driveshaft removed, but feels fine on the road. Guess I'll wait and see.

4 My master cylinder rebuild kit or the rebuilder (Me) failed. Bled out the brakes, nice firm pedal, two days later pushed pedal, it went POP and dropped halfway. No leaks or fluid loss and no pressure at the rear bleeders, so I guess the primary cup blew out. Oh well, the front brakes do 75% of the braking, top speed is maybe about 110MPH, so without the rear brakes I should be safe up to 77.5 MPH, right??


Just have to smooth out the idle, fix the Master cylinder, Pep Boys for tires and get the engine to stop running on.

[DELETED]

DELETED

[67 1/2 1600]

Great!! Now you know my excitement when I first took mine out for a spin with only the drivers seat and dad sitting on the floor looking at all the neighbors as if we were rolling in a benz. Haha! Same thing as you only front brakes and no alternator and very low tires. Good look on fixing your M/C and that idle. How do you get your car to turn off anyway? Disconnect the B/W wire that connect to the coil or what??

Joaquin

[shifty]

Yep, the 2-liters are little snots aren't they? I'm still surprised how mine pulls away from a stop sign in first. It's much more snappy than my 1500 ever thought about being.

[dbrick]

As far as shutting it off, I just put it in gear hold the brake and let up the clutch a bit. It was a real problem when I didn't have a driveshaft in it, had to stuff rags in the carburetors. Will give it the waterpistol in the carburetor, usually works. I probably have a vacuum leak or two also.

The Chevrolet urethane trans mount works like a charm, shifter is rock solid in place, barley moves under torque, well worth the $20something.

Any sorces for the master cylinder besides the usual very expensive ones?
I may have to get creative again, no way will I pay $198.00 for a $25.00 master cylinder. Supply and demand works both ways. If anyone has an old one, let me know, they rebuild easily, I probably just ripped a cup putting it together, but the little bolt is partially stripped, don't think I can take this one apart again.

[SLOroadster]

Dave,
Congratulations! It sounds like your tranny is a little tired (was dealing with one that did the exact same thing on a friends car, beware of it potentially poping out of 5th) Your oil pressure is right where is should be, and the rear end, who knows.

See ya,
Will

[dbrick]

Thanks Will, was wondering when you would chime in. How's yours doing?

[jbush]

Congrats Dave. I was also impressed by the U20 after only driving the R16. My U20 sits in a '66 with the original 4 speed and what I believe to be the original 3.89 rear end. It is a lot quicker!!!

[dbrick]

I took out the 4 speed that was in it when I got itand went back to a 5 speed. Figure I'll keep all the parts and can always go back to 4.

[nomadtrash]

A late 70's 280Z or a 510 master cylinder will work. They have a slightly larger bore which causes more effort on the pedal. You will need to swap the SAE iron caps from the bottom of the roadster MC to the new one. The new ones are metric. The brake lines will screw into a metric fitting but won't hold up for long. Use a new crush washer when you swap the caps.

Andy

[SLOroadster]

Thanks for asking Dave, my car is great. Its looking for the 37mm venturis that are sitting on my dinner table right now but other than that its looking for another track to go play on... That and wishing it wern't getting parked in a construction area every day. So much for keeping it even close to clean.

Will