2024 Fall maintenance

Posted on by December 8, 2024

It is bound to get cold soon so I decided to jump on the nice weather while it lasts. I wanted to check out the oil pressure regulator while changing the oil but I seem to have misplaced the rebuild kit I bought a year or more ago. That really annoys me because I keep an up-to-date inventory of parts including where they are located but I must have missed the regulator kit. It is a tiny box and I probably put it somewhere clever and/or stupid. But for now I can just do the regular stuff.

I drove the car for 20 minutes or so then threw it on the lift and drained the oil. The drain plug is not exactly leaking but it has a drip of oil on it all the time. I need to find a copper sealing washer to replace the one on there. Looks like my oil pan gasket from from 2009 is starting to seep a bit. Things just don’t last anymore 🙂
I also went around and greased all the grease fittings. There are a few… The kingpins are much easer to grease when the wheels are off the ground. While I was here I put a wrench on all the suspension nuts and bolts. I found a couple that were not as tight as I would have liked.
I checked the diff and it was fine. I am not sure why I have never cleaned up the differential. I should do that someday. It is covered in crap.
When I worked on the spare differential last month I found a brass tag on it that had 41/9 on it. This one has 41/10. I thought that might be a date but my care was built in late 1940 so I don’t see how that could be. The gear ratio makes more sense. That would make the one on my care a 4.10 ratio and the spare a 4.56. I will have to hit the parts books and see if that makes sense. I am pretty sure these are Spicer (Dana) 23 axles.
The transmission was down an ounce or so. It is always wet. I have a gasket set for it, I should probably tear into it and see if I can make that better.
While I had the car in the air I also adjusted the brakes and ran my left-hand thread cleaning die over the front wheel that I did not do earlier. These studs have always been wonky, in fact I have the lug nuts and studs numbered because they don’t all interchange.
Once the threads were cleaned up I tried to put the original lug nuts back on and NONE of them were great. Two I could not even get started. So I put 4 new ones on. I could get a left-handed tap and fix the lug nuts but they cost less than $2 for new ones.
With the car back on the ground I refilled the crankcase with Valvoline VR1 10W-30. Wal-Mart has this cheap but only in the 5-quart jugs which are not the most convenient.
I bought a Fram C4 cartridge this time for the oil filter. The old Wix/NAPA filter is on the left. It is metal and has a rubber seal for the canister. The Fram is paper and has a cardboard gasket. I am not impressed. It will work fine but I will get the Wix filter next time.
Here is the oil filter housing after removing the dirty oil and wiping it out. I reused the rubber gasket from the old filter and poured oil over the new filter to pre-fill it before putting the lid back on.
I forgot to take a picture but I checked the point gap and lubed the distributor. Then I pulled the plugs. They are a little sooty but not horrible. The rebuilt carb is not starting well hot (likes to flood). When I got the car running again I leaned the idle mixture out 1/4 turn. 1/2 caused a stumble. I will see if that helps the hot starts and soot. I think these plugs are from 2005 and are probably due for replacement. Wires too. The points are old but don’t have a lot of miles, so I am tempted to let those go.
I cleaned and gapped the plugs the put them back in.

Besides the stuff above I also lubed the clutch linkage, pedals, starter, and generator. I checked the water level in the battery and checked a bunch of electrical connections from the wiring harness replacement. Nothing loose was found, so that is good.

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