Weekend - Power steering completed

This past weekend, I decided to buy a fancy hose kit to connect the power steering rack to the power steering pump. The kit, made by a company called Gotta Show, was $150 at Old Dog off of Dorsett. Here is the kit...


When the engine is turning, fluid is pumped under very high pressure out of the pump to the rack. Hence the need for these special hoses with a teflon lining inside and braided stainless steel on the outside. Here are the pics of the pump and rack before connecting the hoses...



And after connecting the supply and return lines.


That system should now basically be complete. I still need to add fluid and test for leaks. But for that, I think I want to wait until the engine is ready to drive the pump.

I also did some test fitting of the exhaust headers. These are the pipes that connect to the engine block for the burnt gases to escape the block after combustion. Here are a couple of pics of the headers.


The headers bolt up to the engine block to the exhaust ports of the heads, covered up in this picture by the yellow tape.

The other end of the headers will bolt up to long pipes that run on the outside of the body under the door. Naturally they are called side pipes. Often, the headers have not lined up very well with the cutout holes on the body to make their exit to the outside. In my case, I did a little bit of checking things, and I think I may be okay.

Now I have removed them and will have to paint both the headers and the side pipes with some very high temperature paint. The temperatures of the headers can get over 1000 degrees F, and the side pipes get very hot too. Passengers will have to be very careful getting in and out of the Cobra once these pipes are in place or else they can get very badly scalded. I may end up putting some protective shields over the side pipes so that the risk of burning calves is lower.

So painting the exhaust system is next, plus continued looking for a transmission. I also want to order the kit to finish off the fuel delivery system. But things will probably slow down a bit as there is a lot of other stuff coming up--taxes, baseball draft, bowling league secretary duties for the end of the year, etc.

Just a little more work done

Did some easy stuff today. First, I attached the flexplate to the engine block. Here are 2 before pics. The rear of the engine...

And the flexplate itself...


The plate fits onto the engine with 6 bolts that connect it to the end of the crankshaft. It looked like the 6 bolt holes were evenly spaced, but not quite, and the directions I saw on the web (since none really came with the plate itself) never mentioned that. So I started with 3 bolts all going in fine complete with the blue thread locker, only to find that the next one would not match up quite perfectly with the hole. I ended up rotating the shaft and trying again, 3 more times until I stumbled onto the correct matchup. Other than that, it went very smooth. Here is the final outcome.


Next, I took off the engine lift plate and set the carburetor in place. I am missing part of the stuff I will need to get it to link up with the transmission, so I am just sort of setting it in place for now.



While I continue working on acquiring the transmission, I can now plumb the rest of the fuel system. I need to connect the dual carburetor bowls to the mechanical fuel pump I installed in the engine months ago. And I still need to connect the fuel pump to the hard fuel line running from the tank. I think I may end up buying a special kit, probably from JEGS, that will come with almost everything I need.

Back to Work on the Car

With spring just around the corner, I decided to go ahead and start cranking out some work on the car. Last week I took care of the rusty steering stuff from a couple of posts ago. I used a little oil and some scotch brite pads and then painted with a rattle can of black paint. Turned out okay, but I may still touch them up some more later and will post pics when it comes time to install them. I also painted the power steering pump bracket that Jerry and I modified to fit in the engine bay.

I also noticed that the front brake rotors had a bit of surface rust too. I will have to hit them with the same oil/scotch brite solution as the steering shaft. Here you can probably see a little of what I am looking at...


Today, I removed the engine from its stand and dropped it into place on the frame. Here are the pics, before...


and after...


Also, here is a picture of the new clearance that has been created for the power steering pump. You can see that it no longer makes contact with the driver side control arms.


Next up, I will probably remove the engine lift plate and put in the carburetor. I should also be able to install the flexplate. That piece is similar to a flywheel, but for an automatic transmission. Basically, it is a huge toothed wheel plate that attaches to the engine between it and the transmission. It functions to turn the engine over when you turn the key. The starter motor moves an arm into place and engages the teeth on the flexplate to get it going. Think of the old movies of cars being started. Sort of replaces the guy in the front of the car with the big bar turning the engine over as it gets started.

The Hurricane Motorsports saga

This article hit the Dallas newspaper today.

And here is a little more.

Sounds like the only car parts these guys will be making are license plates!

Slow week

I did not really do much car work this week. Cable TV/Internet changeover took a lot of my attention. I did talk to Paul Proefrock this week after he had a long, very positive conversation with the owner of Old Dog Hot Rod shop, Bill. Bill was one of the experts called on to testify when Missouri legislators drafted the current bill that prescribes how replica cars are to be treated. He spoke of how well aware the folks in Jefferson City are with the problems that the local highway patrol inspectors and that the simple answer is to just trailer it to Jeff City when the time comes and that there would be no trouble getting my car passed through with the Keith Craft engine that I bought last fall. I have heard similar sentiments from others and am convinced enough to continue building around the engine I have rather than searching out an old beater that would satisfy Troop C. So next up will be acquiring the right tranny.

I did see where Utah NBA basketball owner Larry Miller died. He was also a huge Cobra guy. Here is a pic of his casket in the standard Guardsman Blue with white stripes color scheme of the Cobra.



Maybe the side rails should have been Cobra exhaust side pipes.

Rust

Last week, I was showing off the car to John Ehlers who was in from Ohio. I had not really looked or done anything to the car in quite a while. It has just been sitting in the garage for a couple of cold months.

In the course of showing him things, I saw that I had left one U-joint for the steering shaft in place, connected to the steering rack. The rest of the steering shaft stuff was still in the house. Here is a picture of what 3 months of sitting in my garage did to it.



The one on the left is the one that was out in the garage. It should look just like the one on the right that is shown still connected to one of the steering shafts. Kind of amazing just how much it was affected by just sitting in the mostly closed, 40 degree garage for a while. Now I know why some of the other builders advised painting those parts. I thought it maybe wasn't that big of a deal. Lesson learned. They will all get painted before final installation.

Happy Birthday Cobra !!!

It is one year since I picked up 3,000 parts in Lee's Summit. Since then, I have had a blast learning about this hobby and car. Surprisingly, I only have about 129 hours of wrench turning in--much less than I would have originally guessed. I wish I were further along on the build, but I am where I am and it is nice to not have any particular deadline. Hopefully, I will soon break out of this engine/transmission delay and enjoy a little time (and warmth) in the garage again.