Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012, Guerneville, CA.
What is old and brown and goes, Varoom, Varoom?
Added note, Jan. 28, 2013. The TBI kit I used was by Howell. They make the wire harness and put a kit together with GM parts so you have mostly stock stuff installed.
I was up around eleven this morning, the sun was mostly out and I wanted to go kayaking, But my old 1967 Chevrolet van needed about another day of working on it to get the TBI injector conversion project complete, so, since the weather report also said it was a bit windy down at Jenner, the van got worked on and I’ll go kayaking tomorrow.
The computer mount bracket wasn’t fitting right.
First, I started off with making some adjustments to the computer bracket I made a couple days ago, as it was hitting the wheel well and I didn’t like the way the fuse block fit, so I made a few modifications and applied more grey paint and remounted that. Looks good now.
The Check Engine Soon light needed to be mounted and hooked up.
After the computer bracket, I drilled and mounted the, Check Engine Soon, light near the ignition.Wired that up and I was ready for a trail start of the engine.
Double checked everything, one more time.
Checked everything out again, just to make sure and plugged the computer power in. The fuel pump ran and it shouldn’t until I turned the key on, so I had it hooked to the wrong wire. It needed to be hooked to the keyed switch, so it was only on when the engine was running.
A little rewiring and that took care of that and since the fuel pump was running ok, I loosened a clamp and ran the pump a few times by turning the key on until gas was squirting out near the TBI injection unit. Tightened up that clamp.
The engine purred like a kitten, except.
Now that I had gas I cranked her over and she started right up and mellowed out nicely except that clanking noise coming from the muffler? What, mufflers don’t make clanking noises. But I was sure it was coming from the muffler, so I loosened up the clamp on the muffler, but I couldn’t find anything. But every time I started the engine, I could hear it clanking away. Had to think about that awhile, could it be the transmission that was right next to the muffler? Maybe the shifting lever was engaged just a little?
That was it alright, dummy. I must of bumped it a bit, while working on things. After I took care of the clanking noise, the engine was running real nice, like it should.
The varoom, varoom thing.
So, what is old and brown and goes varoom, varoom? My old van of course. When I hit the gas, that’s what it does, varoom, varoom. It seems real responsive. I haven’t driven it yet, so that still needs to be done to see how things are really working out.
Right now, at least, I’m real happy with this project. The road test will be the real test, but it will have to a wait. I need to get my new propane tank purged and filled, so maybe that will be my road test, tomorrow, or the next day?
Yes, kayaking tomorrow, for sure. Had a great day.