Well, we made it back to Connersville in one piece, but barely. We were concerned about the Carter side draft which had started leaking fuel out of the mouth of the carb. We coerced Allan to allow us to tag along behind him. The Carter did its thing, averaging close to 30 mgp for the trip. BUT, the starter refused to respond to the ignition switch's command to "Start" after our final fill up. I discovered that when I jumped across the solenoid terminals, the starter would run, but was negligent when it came to engaging the starter pinion with the flywheel ring gear. It took about 20 tries, but it finally caught, the engine started and we completed the final leg (about 60 miles) with a full tank.Won't work! At least for me. Valve/Piston clearance issue. I decided on this combo because I liked the low rpm grunt of the original 2.3 Ranger. Everything I read said this was a simple bolt on, even found a thread that gave instructions, including where to drill through the Ranger head for the dip stick. Even today I see threads saying it is a doable, simple swap. Just finished reading a thread about a truck that had 1500 miles on such a swap, no issues! But when I set the engine on TDC, I can't time the valves due to piston interference. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Sure don't want to pull that baby (out the bottom, including the tranny) to swap heads. But that should keep me busy at least until the Holidays are over.
Bill
The '69 drew considerable interest and we won the "Rare Rootes" class. Who knows, the next time we might even
wash the car prior to the show. I would like to thank all the wonderful Sunbeamers who inquired about the fate of the '69 and the state Orange Alpine. I think Ian would be proud to see all the good vibes expressed about these two Alpines by a very large group of hard core Tiger guys.
I have a very large problem with the '69. Transmission oil leakage. I topped off the tranny oil just prior to starting the trip. 500 miles later, it is almost impossible to shift when the car is not under power. Quite often, I just had to shift, hoping that I engage a useful gear. Once, while looking for 3rd, we ended up in 2nd because it was the only one I could find, but I had no idea which one it was. The shifter became so stiff and I had stirred the shifter around so much, that was all I could find. And was I ever surprised, as 2nd and 3rd have very little in common.
Bill