Raj R: 73 181 Refurb

[Raj]

thanks. I had a lapbelt on mine only bc i drive with no door quite often. I added the same 3 pt on the DS this morning as well, and ditched the lapper. Only downside.... weird tan lines.

[mannys66]

thanks. I had a lapbelt on mine only bc i drive with no door quite often. I added the same 3 pt on the DS this morning as well, and ditched the lapper. Only downside.... weird tan lines.

nothing wrong with that, give the young girls something to talk about.

[Brown]

Prepping the THING for its journey to the THING FLING!

The wife is gonna roll with me so I tossed in a passenger side seat belt. Its a old school 3 pt belt, manual adjust, bolted to the body and tied into the cage mounts. I'm gonna upgrade/ replace my drivers side lap belt this morning to match.

Who said chivalry was dead!!

[Raj]

so the thing has been running flawlessly for many months... i have been driving her to work once in a while, and pretty much all he time after 5pm and on weekends. Brakes are making a bit of a noise..... sounds like a loose spring, they need to be adjusted too.

So the other nite I was coming home, and she felt sluggish.... more and more until we was sputtering. The wires liiked like shit so I changed them out with almost new one off my 65 ( which got new new ones during the motor/ tranny install). Pulled and cleaned the plugs as well. Seemed ok... but did it again a few days later. The fuel filter was collapsed, so changed that. NG. But i noticed the fuel filter wasnt at its normal 'filledness'. I thought maybe the 'sock' issue again.

So this am... i pulled the tank. I get excellent flow out the bottom of the tank...... not the sock. But 'light flow' ( please no period comments) at the engine..... So I blasted some pressured air through it. Maybe some crap in the line. I took her out just now.... seems good. We'll see. I live these old beasts!

[Raj]

Pulled the pass side drum.... all was ok... adjusted the shoes


notice one section of the shoe wasnt even touching the drum... NG



Pulled the DS drum....... bingo! See the issue?





One start was frozen solid... but the backing plates are 181 only so I wanted to save it, rather tahn swap a bug one on. Just add heat


slapped on some anti cease


Teeth on star got a little funky but i'll replace it when I redo this front end ( look at the rotted beam and bad BJ's.... again... thing only).

Rear suspension is making a crazy binding noise..... whatever, i'll get to it, when I get to it. Could be coil overs that I dotn like running anyway. When I reindex the rear... i'll address it.

[Raj]

i've had some slop in the front end lately, so I picked up a new stabilizer off the the samba, from former LI resident Chris Howard.

Installed it this am.








upon inspection of the old one... it was shot. Little to no resistance on compression or decompression. I took her for a ride afterwards.... good to go!

[Tom]

That looks pretty easy to get to on the Thing , not so easy on my Super.

[Glenn A]

Whats up with the T in the fuel line?

[Raj]

one to the motor... one to the electric fuel pump to feed the gas 73 only heater

[Glenn A]

one to the motor... one to the electric fuel pump to feed the gas 73 only heater

I didn't realize You still had the heater in there still. Does it work? Those gas heaters scare Me. I have a couple type1 gas heaters. But I'm scared to "fire" them up. Maybe I'll let Connor figure them out !

[Raj]

one to the motor... one to the electric fuel pump to feed the gas 73 only heater

I didn't realize You still had the heater in there still. Does it work? Those gas heaters scare Me. I have a couple type1 gas heaters. But I'm scared to "fire" them up. Maybe I'll let Connor figure them out !

yeah.. its still in there. The fan turns on, but the points inside are dirty and dont ignite to fire the fuel pump. I met a nice dude from babylon ( another dave with a thing) that repaired his... he said he'd give me a hand with it. Its actually very interesting stuff.

[mannys66]

one to the motor... one to the electric fuel pump to feed the gas 73 only heater

I didn't realize You still had the heater in there still. Does it work? Those gas heaters scare Me. I have a couple type1 gas heaters. But I'm scared to "fire" them up. Maybe I'll let Connor figure them out !

yeah.. its still in there. The fan turns on, but the points inside are dirty and dont ignite to fire the fuel pump. I met a nice dude from babylon ( another dave with a thing) that repaired his... he said he'd give me a hand with it. Its actually very interesting stuff.

Becarefull with that thing Raj, in my days I've heard of two people dying of carbon monoxide poisoning, oddly enought, wihle sleeping in a thing.
As a matter of fact Pete from Huntington and I had a brief conversation about the subject at englishtown. his exact words were , have them serviced by a professional.

[Raj]

thanks for the advise manny. I'm excersizing some caution with this heater, thats why i'm not just slapping it to gether to make it work. I, like yourself, and a bit of a DIYer, so I'll play with it when time permits to do some prior research.

[Raj]

Last weekend I took the thing to the scrap yard, and she was running more crappy than usual. Prob be I have been playing with the baja, instead of her. On the way home, I was giving her some gas, letting her strecth her feet, and suddenly I heard a not-so-good noise form the motor. Possibly an exhaust leak, but more likely a rod noise.

Fri nite, yanked the motor



while pulling it, i noticed this. See a problem?



i had this short block laying around, so I cleaned up the pistons and cly, removed all carbon, new seals, and added some clean heads i had. I'll throw this one and see if it can tide me over until the summer.

[Brown]

Is that problem one of the studs is missing??

[Raj]

Yes! A problem for me, bc I know it was there when I installed the motor.

I bigger problem for anyone who was driving behind me when I backed out of the trans.

[Tom]

I know I ask questions sometimes that are obvious to most of you , but what is the difference between a short block and a long block? ( please don't say the length)

[Raj]

old clutch disk


no loctite during build


old motor


paint all the tin with eastwood rust encapsolator


install tommorow

[Brown]

I know I ask questions sometimes that are obvious to most of you , but what is the difference between a short block and a long block? ( please don't say the length)

Tom,

I think a short block is the block with the crankshaft and connecting rods assembled.

A long block is with the cylinders and heads assembled.

i'll leave it to the rest to correct any of my inaccurate statements!!

[Raj]

Tom... you got it right

[AoT]

install tommorow

Glad you figured it out and it'll be back together in 24 hours!!

[Raj]

Thanks Aud, I just dont know the status of this block's internals, so keep your figngers crossed.

[gotboost79]

looks good raj, hope it runs ok! how'd the endplay in the flywheel feel?

[Raj]

endplay felt good, so i gave it a whirl.


Just got it started. Loud valves but I'll readjusted them one am. I'm gonna run to walmart for oil, and them button her up. Whew....

[Raj]

All in all, i got alot done today. Engine is in and running fine, start right up, timed, no leaks, changed the oil, replaced strainer, new filter. Drives good, and has good power.

The aftermarket oil filter oil pump combo caused the pulley tin to stick out a hair, and was grinding on the lower pulley. So pulled it all apart and out came the dremel, sorry for no 'after' pics.



Done. Tommorow am I install my aircleaners, rear tin and adjust valves