Wiring Nightmares

Fusible Link 90% fused

 I know we all hate to have someone critique our hard work after-the-fact.  But after 40 years of a-hacking, the wiring on this 'ole Z has seen better days.

First is the fusible link.  It was held on with two remaining strands.  I'm not kidding, I counted them both.  Pulling back the black jacket showed someone had overlapped-and-soldered the link back together.
So much for safety.   A vote to keep our local fire departments employed.

Alarm System wiring From Hell

 Above the drivers feet was a mass of wires going into a golf-ball sized wad of electrical tape.  Tugging and pulling yielded an alarm system sorta jammed up under the dash.  more splices and butt joints than you could shake a soldering iron at.  I HATE BUTT JOINT SPLICES.  Lazy.








 

Alarm System Removed

 Here's an image of the mass-o-wires and electrical tape that was the alarm system.  Nice system, still works, I'll re-install it with 30 fewer pounds of crap.
 





 

Butt-Joint-Fiesta radio wiring harness

My other un-favorite is the clump-o-butt-joints that was the radio harness.  I wonder how the radio ever fit.

NO BUTT JOINTS.  I prefer a modified "Western Union" solder joint.
You can find an excellent tutorial here on how to solder wires properly.

Engine before-and-after

New Website

Please check out my new website woodworkerb.com

The engine was terribly greasy and dirty as would be expected.
A can of Gunk and a trip to the local self-serve car wash took off 80% of the crap.  Underneath the protective layer of grime the engine was in excellent condition.  No wear on the cylinder walls, no 'loose parts' in the oil pan.  Casting (freeze) plugs all solid and not leaking.


New gaskets all-around.  Sandblast the block, some paint and all is pretty

UPDATE:
What I didn't do at this point but I should have was to replace the front and rear main seals.  It is so easy to do the front seal when I took out the engine later on. The front seal was hard and brittle and was leaking pretty bad.

Slip out the old, slip in the new.  Good as gold.

Still need to do the rear seal . . . next time the engine or tranny needs to come out.  Till then, a little leaking is to be expected from a 40 year old!