Alright so after a long hot summer of stuffing a new motor and bellhousing into my '74 Mav it's finaly running. It is missing on one cylinder and needs a shift linkage bracket. I'm changing ou the power steering pump tonight and begining the process of manufacturing a temporary linkage bracket. It felt so good to hear that motor fire up on the second try. Like crack cocain. Now I needs a two door! I needs it!
I have a 72 2door that is for sale - $600 takes it away. There is some bad rust that will require a loving touch and a lot of welding and it needs a gas tank cleaning. It is sitting in Seattle, WA right now.
It's almost 2AM I'm headed to bed. I am frozen but very happy. I got the shift linkage issue ironed out temporarily, I used a coat hanger, the original plastic boot and a 1/4 inch nut and bolt to hold the linkage until I can round up a bracket. The car is shifting fine. Need to add some transmission fluid and top off the rest of the fluids tomorrow. The engine is missing on one cylinder still, but maybe not as dramatically as before. I will check the plugs, wires and distributor tomorrow as well. Hope it's not a bad valve.
Update Got the maverick out on the road today. Definitly going to need the linkage bracket. The car shifts but there is a hesitation before it does. The power steering is working really well. It almost takes no effort to steer this car at all. Wierd that both of my late model cars are harder to steer than the Mav. The engine is still missing. I started pulling plug wires in an attempt to weed out the problem and I'm a littel baffled as to how well it seems to run when each f the plugs is dissconected one at a time.
Update...again. Turns out I had the firing order wrong. The car is running much smoother now. It needs to be timed. I'll post pictures soon. I'm going to be working on the few dents and dings as the days progress...My wife is giving me a paint job for Christmas.
Ha! Yes! That is perfect....just out of curiosity would you be willing to bail her out of jail the day after Christmas, so that she could attend my funeral?