Pictures from awhile ago

Our Exhaust System!

After many months of work, we got the car running fairly well. Everything seemed to work, and so Mr. Knight with the help of us and a few of his first period auto 2 kids loaded the LeMans onto the desk holder, which doubles as a trailer. We then tied it on in the rain, and drove over to our good friends at Planet Auto. After a week or so, they were finally done, a few days late, but thats okay. We convinced him to get it back, so during a 6th period a few of us and a few of his 6th period kids went over and drove!! the car onto the trailer. We then, in the blazing sun (quite a contrast from the rain the week before) got the car back to Paly, and with Dr. Knight's excellent driving skills, got the car and trailer back in their respective positions. It sounds beautiful. The exhaust is a dual exhaust with crossover, twin Flowmaster mufflers, and beautiful chrome tips coming out of the sides. Now that it is back at the shop, we have checked the timing, fixed some cooling system leaks, put on a fan and new belts, and checked the brakes. Today we will be taking the LeMans out for a test drive, to see how she runs, and find other problems. Hopefully everything will run smoothly. Knight said that he would try to get us a fiberglass hood with a scoop.

Things left to do:

1. Attach the radiator properly
2. Get a new hood
   
3. Get the trunk open
4. Fix accessories like a faceplate, sweet sound system, horn that plays dixie, headlights etc.
   
5. Beautify the car's upholstery, paint, fix dents etc.
6. Attach the kickdown
7. Get brand new parts like distributor, ignition coil, etc.
8. Hook up the AC system?

The Junkyard

Wednesday (the first sunny day we've had in a while) we made our second trip to the junkyard. We needed a hook for our e-brake line, a mount for our starter coil, and a new accelerator line. We found the hook and two accelerator lines, we decided to try one of the other mounts in the shop. At lunch today we put the hook in, fits perfectly, and in class later we got one of the accelerator lines in.

New Problems: for some reason the e-brake doesn't lock when pressed. we weren't able to get a mount we found on correctly so we don't know if it works. we have to find ways to secure the new accelerator line to the mount behind the carb and to the gas peddle (which is a different connection then our old line had), but at least now we have something to do other than wait for parts.

At the shop during Winter Break

A good portion of Friday, January 4th was spent working on the Lemans, despite the fact that school was out for winter break. The distributer on the car was loose, so we secured it with a distributer clamp that fit (after being modified a bit). We then spent a lot of time trying to take off the nut holding down a pulley on another power steering pump so we could put the pulley on ours. Having been told that the nut was reverse threaded, we spent many fruitless minutes trying to take it off, but it wouldn't so much as budge. We went out to lunch and when we returned, Dr. Knight informed us that the nut had not in fact been reverse threaded, and that he had taken it off with an impact gun. A little bit annoyed, but glad that the nut was off, we set to work taking off the pulley. The pulley was eventually taken off with the help of a few pry bars. We put the pulley on our power steering pump but found that it didn't line up correctly with the other pulleys. It was at this point that we all needed to go home, so we decided we would deal with this problem another day.

An Update

After close to a month of very limited progress, we finally got back on track and continued working on the Lemans.  We finished bending the transmission cooling lines, after some tips from Dr. Knight and some patient work from Joshua and Maxwell.  We still need to get a new upper line, as the one on right now is somewhat crimped from an initially unsuccessful bending job.  However, the one in place will work for now.  We went to start the car, and nothing happened.  We charged the battery to be completely full, and it still would not start.  We decided that there was still fuel in the car, and went on to check the next things.  The wires from the distributor and at the spark plugs all seemed to be plugged in, but it still would not start.  We then noticed that the positive wire into the ignition coil had broken off.  We went to put it back on, but accidentally put the wire to the oil level light on instead.  Now we know what that wire does.  We found the right wire, put it on, and the car started up.  Unfortunately, we still don't have an exhaust therefore it was very loud and smelly.  Also, the engine ran very rough, and when we increased the richness of the idle mixture, the car began to spit fire.  We took the richness down, and left the car to sit until tomorrow, when we will begin working on fixing what we hope is just a problem with the timing.

The List:

1) Add transmission fluid-Done

2) Get clamps for the drive shaft-Done

3) Put the drive shaft on-Done

4) Put a pulley and belt on the power steering pump or get a new one

5) Put tires on the car-Done

6) Hook up the AC system

7) Attach the radiator properly

8) Get and put on exhaust system

9) Get a new hood, install hood and hood scoops

10) Get a new key and open the trunk

11) Put on/fix accessories i.e. radio, sweet sound system, horn that plays dixie, headlights, etc.

12) Beautify the car's upholstery, paint, etc.

13) Mount ignition coil

14) Attach the throttle and kickdown

13) Get brand new parts like distributor, ignition coil, etc.

November 16th, 2007

King Knight got us a line to hook up the cooling system for the transmission fluid, the only problem is we need two but one's a start. We began to bend the line into place. There was a momentary scare when we put a decent crease in the line, trying to bend it at a 90˚ angle, but luckily fluid still flows through it.

We also managed to get the throttle hooked up, but the engine mount for the throttle is too high for our shiny new carburetor so we will have do get a new one. Luckily King Knight says there are some that come off the base of the carburetor and he's seen them on a similar carburetor before. So as soon as we get that we can get the throttle hooked up properly.

On a separate note we managed to fix our passenger side door. It had been stuck for some time and we had assumed it was an issue with the door. When you tried to open it the door swung into the body and wouldn't open more than an inch or so. It turns out that the problem was again linked to one of the guys who was working on it last year. He had taken off some bolts that held the body to the frame, and the body had sunken in, only slightly but still enough to block the door. We pulled the frame out and now the door opens freely.

In the end we are still waiting on parts, but at least we are a couple steps closer. We still need to get the exhaust system hooked up, but that will come later, and we still have not found a key for the trunk, although we've been trying to find a way to get one made from the valet key we have.

November 8th, 2007

Today was a fairly eventful day for the Lemans. The air compressor for the auto shop was finally working, so we could fill the tires and move the car back from where it was put for float building to it's original spot. Now that was had drive shaft clamps, we lifted the car, hooked up the drive shaft and put the clamps on.

We then started putting transmission fluid in the car. After we had put in about 3/4ths of the amount we needed, we noticed that the car was leaking transmission fluid, so we had to stop. It turns out the cooling lines for the transmission are not hooked up, so we spent the rest of the class period looking for those.

So, yet again, our search for missing parts keeps us from making any progress on the Lemans. The only things we need to do now to drive the car are hook up the aforementioned cooling lines and hook up the throttle.