What did you do to your non-G Body project today [2024 edition]

Put an o2 sensor on the 2014 'flip' Miata Club (downstream). Took it on the cycle drive for the ECU this AM & the CEL lit the dash up @ the exact same location where I turn around for the highway miles (I did 50-60 city/suburban miles & then 60miles hwy (</= 3k rpm/65mph top speed). It makes the city portion + 30 highway miles w/o issue & then before I can loop around for the return trip back to the shop it lights up.

Cleared the code after the last round & did a hard reset overnight (last weekend). Did the city miles during the week @ lunch w/no issue. Drive the 30miles to my U-turn point on lower traffic/weekend days & as soon as I'm heading back.... the light comes on. Decided to throw an o2 sensor (DENSO/OE spec) @ it as a last-ditch effort. Fawker is frustrating me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rktpwrd and Ugly1
Desoto???? Huh! From the angle and the shape of the side, I had thought it was an Avanti.

On the other hand..............I had been going through a serious case of the procrastinations in connection with some work that my shower needed to have done. Nothing serious?!?!?! or requiring major invasive surgery, just the need to pull the tap cartridges and replace them. So today, for no particular reason, became trigger day.

I had actually acquired the replacement cartridges last winter but had not gotten into the exercise beyond that point; too many other things to divert my attention. So I dug them out of where they had been abandoned and proceeded to turn off the water for that circuit, dismount the handles from the cartridges, and use an adjustable wrench to remove them. Did start out by thinking that a 3/4 combi wrench would work for the screwing around; Uh-uh, discovered that I needed a 13/16, and even then, only for the old ones. The new ones........................meh.

With the old cartridges out, time to take a look at the seats. Turned out that they were still in good shape which was a bonus because I have no idea what size of hex key will remove them!!! The new ones use a white man's normal 5/16's, these ????? 5 is too small and 3/8ths too big. Tried metric and that was a bust. Did finally get a long arm key that fit down the throat of the tap pocket and picked up the seat and leaned on the key with the wrench and it did not want to move. Uh-uh, not going down this rabbit hole. Too much lean and I can either damage the seat or damage the casting in which it sits. Either way means that I have to take down the shower wall and dive into the rough in. Nope, not gonna happen. Moving on.

So the new hot side cartridge went in okay as did the cold one. Back downstairs, re-energize the circuit and, why am I hearing high volumes of running water that don't seem to be slowing down? Back upstairs, cold tap is on??? and water is doing its thing. Turn the tap off as I have done umpteen times over the decades and.......................It Ain't Turning OFF. Bag was labelled cold, so why does the cartridge not do cold like the old one did??

Come to find out after some fiddling around that both taps in the shower had "HOT" cartridges in them. Why? Probably because it made things safer when accessing the taps to turn them on as it avoiding having to deal with the hot side and getting scalded or burnt just to deal with the cold side. With both turning in the same direction, you turn the farthest tap on first and then move over the the closer one and there is no need to think about rightly-tightly or left hand thread or other water borne philosophical considerations when you are mostly asleep and working on auto-pilot.

Sorted that lot out and re-assembled the tap handles, tested the system and good to go. The procrastination factor? Well, it took almost an hour and a half to do was supposed to take ten minutes, maybe fifteen, at most? Back brain must have been seriously pounding on me to "why do it now, wait for spring", because it had some racial memory of the job being a time killing nuisance.



Nick
It is an Avanti but they were the last gasp car 😵‍💫
 
Last edited:
Drove down to NJ last Sunday to look at a complete 1977 Delta 88 pace car that was being sold for parts. Was going to buy the whole car but only scored the nice aluminum hood and header panel. The hood was better than mine and I was able to add the last of the graphics for my car. Should have taken the whole car since it had a running 403 V8 and Turbo 350 transmission but I didn’t. Here’s some photos of my car. I’ll have the carburetor rebuilt and add the true dual exhaust this winter. I did add a rear sway bar for better handling.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_9123.jpeg
    IMG_9123.jpeg
    5.8 MB · Views: 11
  • IMG_9124.jpeg
    IMG_9124.jpeg
    4.9 MB · Views: 14
  • IMG_9126.jpeg
    IMG_9126.jpeg
    5.7 MB · Views: 12
Aaaah, No. Sorry Pilgrim, Avanti was a model that belonged to the Studebaker Corporation.



As a production vehicle, they had a very short sales life, only about a year or two at most. The body style was very avant garde for the time and they could actually be had in a supercharged engine format.

The most famous one that I know of belongs to Alice Cooper of all strange people and was featured in an episode of the show "Counting Cars". They are, if I recall correctly. a fibreglass body design and had the screwiest front end steering linkage design that ever hit the streets,

They were also the last gasp of the Studebaker corporation, which itself died sometime in the mid 60's; 65 comes to mind for some reason. Wasn't anything that they did wrong as such, just that the Big Three had more resources to draw on and a larger target market to sell to.



Nick
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ugly1
Aaaah, No. Sorry Pilgrim, Avanti was a model that belonged to the Studebaker Corporation.



As a production vehicle, they had a very short sales life, only about a year or two at most. The body style was very avant garde for the time and they could actually be had in a supercharged engine format.

The most famous one that I know of belongs to Alice Cooper of all strange people and was featured in an episode of the show "Counting Cars". They are, if I recall correctly. a fibreglass body design and had the screwiest front end steering linkage design that ever hit the streets,

They were also the last gasp of the Studebaker corporation, which itself died sometime in the mid 60's; 65 comes to mind for some reason. Wasn't anything that they did wrong as such, just that the Big Three had more resources to draw on and a larger target market to sell to.



Nick
That’s right! My bad 🤯
 
Aaaah, No. Sorry Pilgrim, Avanti was a model that belonged to the Studebaker Corporation.



As a production vehicle, they had a very short sales life, only about a year or two at most. The body style was very avant garde for the time and they could actually be had in a supercharged engine format.

The most famous one that I know of belongs to Alice Cooper of all strange people and was featured in an episode of the show "Counting Cars". They are, if I recall correctly. a fibreglass body design and had the screwiest front end steering linkage design that ever hit the streets,

They were also the last gasp of the Studebaker corporation, which itself died sometime in the mid 60's; 65 comes to mind for some reason. Wasn't anything that they did wrong as such, just that the Big Three had more resources to draw on and a larger target market to sell to.



Nick
hmmmmmm........the second link was described as a "....<this guy knows EVERYTHING!>..." , and it certainly has a bunch of steering info!


 
  • Like
Reactions: Ugly1
New master link and shifter adjustment got the Sears Snowblower moving under its own power again in both gears. It would engage forward (right side) but not reverse (left side). Great little rig. Runs awesome, blade works, starts right up.


I was wondering why reverse is a two handed operation, as the shifter spring locks in forward but needs held down to reverse. After thinking about it for more than two seconds I suppose Craftsman would rather not have customers running themselves over.
20241103_000648.jpg

20241103_000704.jpg


 
Finally got the heads back on this thing!

PXL_20241102_213754328.jpg


It's a 3.6 Pentastar that pulled the threads out of numerous holes in the block. It got 16 Timeserts and I just can't imagine putting all that torque into aluminum threads in the block and not ripping them back out. With as many as were ruined, and the evidence of this having already been apart, I suspect someone may have done gaskets in the past, pulled the threads, and sent it down the road. We're stuck waiting on a timing set at the moment. I'm pretty sure that the oil pan is coming out to get that lower chain to the oil pump replaced. I have 2 cam phasers soaking in a bucket of Berryman's, the other 2 are simpler and I believe I can just zip those apart with the impact.
 
Mark One version probably did have someone do exactly that and get run over. Once in reverse, on my own blower, as long as you have the engagement lever fully depressed, it will keep moving. However that lever is spring loaded and taking your hand off it will automatically let the lever pop up and the blower will stop.

The only thing I did do with mine was to change out the wheel barrow handles and the matching triggers for a Sears single loop or tiller style pair that would let me steer the machine with one hand if necessary. Helped a lot in the early days when I had to walk the machine up embankments.

I worked at a marine and leisure dealer many decades ago and the earliest blowers that were brought into the inventory were notorious for both spitting out teeth! from the discharge screw, and blowing up transmissions. It was so bad that the mfgr would actually replace the entire machine rather then ship parts.

Nick
 
Pulled the bed back off my sister’s truck. Finally pulling the trigger on paint and body work. Have the Arizona bed going back on it. The little trailer I got for free and dumped rebuilding time into has paid for itself. Will be factory black with a factory style lower silver strip. Got a chrome front grill and Harley truck style headlights. Hopefully can sell the old replacement bed fast and make a little profit before snow.
IMG_7225.jpeg
 

GBodyForum is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Amazon, the Amazon logo, AmazonSupply, and the AmazonSupply logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

Please support GBodyForum Sponsors

Classic Truck Consoles Dixie Restoration Depot UMI Performance

Contact [email protected] for info on becoming a sponsor