Week 23: May 6th 2001:

1)   The lumination module in the distributor ended up being bad.  So, I replaced the entire ignition system with a Mallory Vacuum advance distributor, coil, and ballast resistor.  This gave me spark but the system still did not run.  

2)  No Fuel!  It ended up being user error and I stupidly put the fuel hose into the return connector and visa versa.  Reverse these two hoses and fuel flowed!  

3)  My next problem came about when the car didn’t start.  Carl McIver had come down to help me today and I’m glad he did.  We determined that the distributor was in 180 degrees off (again, my fault.. Doh!)  We repositioned the distributor and the car fired right up!  BIG plume of blue smoke out the back end!  

We had good oil pressure, and after running for about 30 minutes, the engine had smoothed out considerably.  The car backfires pretty badly when below 1000 rpms, I’m going to have to spend some time and figure that one out.  But hey, huge milestone accomplished this weekend!  I spent Sunday putting in a bunch of the interior, it’s really starting to look like a car now!

Back from the body shop with the hood installed:

Side shot of engine:

You can see in this shot the Mallory distributor (and coil):

Starting to install the carpet.

Rear parcel shelf going in:

Center carpet:

Rear cockpit panel and passenger seat:

Drivers seat and TR8 steering wheel:

Engine with AFM resting on strut tower, I have not yet made the bracket for this.  I also need to make a hood prop, I’ve just got wood holding things up right now: