1979 Spirit GT Project

[68AMXGOPAC]

pulled the engine out to clean er up, located a wiring harness in way better shape than the original, slapped a shower curtain over the roof to keep water from dripping in the sunroof (leaky seal) and just pulled it back onto the pad the other day. but its been raining. thats it so far.
i did locate some of these by pure chance:


and will be retrieving them saturday.

Hey I gots a set of those !Too bad when I saw em on some auction site,I thought they were mags and not just covers....but they are cool anyways, and I think 14"

[mojobean]

They are some heavy buggers, I would have hate to have seen shipping on four mags.

[68AMXGOPAC]

Actuallt the person selling was like an hour and a half from me so I went and picked them up,they were off a hornet hatchback that he was parting out of a junkyard.They came with the trim rings and everything, so I guess for  $100 it was a decent deal.I could allways use the rims too as spares.

[mojobean]

Actuallt the person selling was like an hour and a half from me so I went and picked them up,they were off a hornet hatchback that he was parting out of a junkyard.They came with the trim rings and everything, so I guess for  $100 it was a decent deal.I could allways use the rims too as spares.

took us a 45 minute drive to pick ours up, he turned out to be a Cascade Ramblers club member who didn't really ever venture to the monthly meetups. I think i talked him into going to the next one since we're going to be doing a carpet install, and he had mentioned that thats one of the things he needs to do to his rambler this summer.
So we threw these rims on the Kammback since it really needed some tires.. and two from the second set we put on the front wheels of the Spirit GT to provide better rollability than what was on there before. (yes.. he gave us 8 total of these puppies  )

[mojosmr]

*UPDATE*
So.. in the natural order of things around our yard.. we ended up throwing the 258 in. However we ran across some problems.
We took the 6 cyl crossmember out of my 77 hornet (its getting the whole drivetrain from a 74 hornet) and used it in the 79 spirit GT.

I'll post pics later tonite.

[mojobean]

Now come do mine for me.

If i get the urge to vacation in Iowa, that could be arranged.

So, here are some pics after a bit of body work/welding in the rear


and an engine we picked up from a guy swapping in a V8.


some new paint for the bay, insert engine..



and a new paintjob to boost her self-confidence


Due to the condition of the dash and front seats.. we gave her a tan dash and some matching pacer seats for fun. I'll have to get pics of those soon.

[shaggimo]

Awesome paint scheme mojo! Great work!!

[mojobean]

thanks. the youngster (my daughter) kept asking if we'd paint it yellow. She must've mentioned it so much that it bacame this 'subliminal message' and Rukus got to thinking it might be nice to paint it yellow.  So, the yellow was a bit much, and we toned it down by doin the black. (will help with looking less dirty too).  the bumblebee sx/4 thread helped our final decision as well.
worked has stopped on it for now. I'm using the pad to try and get my SX/4 rear hatch release/louvers/rear speakers/and rear defrost dialed in.

[amc78concord]

Me likes. 

[mojobean]

Spirit is back on the pad and i will update soon.

[mojobean]

I could use a little help.  i believe I have a vacuum leak.  The 79 258 should be timed at 4 degrees before tdc.  I cant get it to idle or start at 4 8 or 10.  It begins to run at 12 and runs best at about 20 before tdc.  I have at this point eliminated all vacuum except distributor at spark port.    The egr is running to the vacuum canister, the cto is being run to the air cleaner tac vac. I have torqued down the intake bolts, the carb bolts, rebuilt the carburetor, replaced the distributor and the ignition module, i have also fumigated any gap prone areas with propane to hear for increased rpm.  Nothing the I can find.  When I had a vacuum gauge attached at 12 before tdc, it read late valve timing / intake leak / leak at heat riser - the heat riser flap works just fine.

[eaglebeek]

Wow, 20 deg. before top center is really fast. The first thing that comes to mind is that the timing chain is sloppy enough to have jumped a tooth...in other words late valve timing.

It's easy to check without tearing anything down. Take off the distributor cap and put a wrench on the front crankshaft bolt. Turn over the engine, first one direction and then the other. If the crankshaft turns more than a degree or two before the distributor rotor starts to turn you have a worn timing chain and sprockets. That will cause late valve timing.

[Amc1320]

What number does your vacuum meter read at idle?

[mojobean]

What number does your vacuum meter read at idle?

About 17 inches of vacuum

[mojobean]

Wow, 20 deg. before top center is really fast. The first thing that comes to mind is that the timing chain is sloppy enough to have jumped a tooth...in other words late valve timing.

It's easy to check without tearing anything down. Take off the distributor cap and put a wrench on the front crankshaft bolt. Turn over the engine, first one direction and then the other. If the crankshaft turns more than a degree or two before the distributor rotor starts to turn you have a worn timing chain and sprockets. That will cause late valve timing.

3 degrees before the rotor moves.  I think we have a winner