Hornet, two weeks later

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

It's working out great!

Got the Weber carb mostly sorted out. Float level was way off, and
I had the primary throttle plate off-center in the bore, so it
leaked air at idle, and caused the vacuum port to be below the
throttle so there wa svacuum at idle. All fixed.  Found a crack in
the power valve diaphragm (I think I over-tightened it), repaired
with silicone (ugh!), will buy a replacement locally tomorrow AM.
Choke and fast idle set well enough.

The air horns, which are removable, seemed a bit loose, which
would really make mixture bent; I ran the holed end on 600 grit on
a ground iron block for super-flat, squeezed the other end to
lengthen the air horn a fraction of a mil, and got a nice
air-tight finger-friction fit, and eliminated some midrange
stumble.

If you must use a 2 bbl carb, the DGEV 32/36 Weber is pretty nice.
It's italian, so it's slightly odd, but once you enter their world
it's pretty straightforward, a hell of a lot nicer to work on than
a damned Holley. It's the fastest six I've ever driven, it pulls
like a small V8 around 2200 rpm up. 2.73 axle, and 25" tires.

I have an occasional one-cylinder stumble at idle. Sounds like
lean stumble, but I can't figure out what it is. I opened
the idle micture 1/2 T rich, no difference.

I just juggled PCV valves I had in the junkbox until I found one
it idles well with. Is there science here, or should I just use
voodoo?


There's no measured-miles around here anywhere, and my speedo is
way off. The AMC tachometer seems mostly decorative, idle it reads
250 rpm (right) so I will ahve to duct-tape my DVM type tach to
the hood and drive around to figure out which speedo gear I need.
I don't even know what's in it! I estimate 70mph when the speedo
reads 60mph. Mileage seems decent, haven't calculated it since the
speedo is stupid.


Using the British method for setting timing -- adjust then drive.
No pinging yet. I put Ford recurve springs in the disrtrib some
time ago.


I was hot to get a 2.5 turn steering gear, but I'm having second
thoughts.  There's a 3.25? turn box in there now; it feels pretty
quick (anything will, after a manual-gear 63 Classic!). With a
108" wheelbase and 70mph I don't think I want anything faster.
The 16" dead-stock steering wheel is also perfect, hell no
changing that.

I scrounged together wipers finally. A 1973 motor, pushrods and
wiper arms, some 1980's switch and intermittent controller (which
was undesireably intermittent, I had to disassemble and repair the
switch), repacked with grease (switch and motor) Bosch microedge
blades, and it's as good as a new car. Sweet!


And I'm definitely going to keep the factory-steel wheels. I like
the dog dish hubcaps, even though I've found a set of decent 14x7
AMC rallye wheels complete for a decent price. Locally too. But I
really want 14x7 plain steel that take AMC dogdish hubcaps!

Does anyone know if there ever was a 14x7 plain steel wheel? Are
dog-dish hub caps interchangable across makes? Eg. will my AMC
hubcaps fit on Ford wheels?