Jacky Franklin's Journal

I have had an ongoing issue with my car's electrical for some time now and as the harness was original I have put off dealing with the intermittent loss of power to items. The temp gauge, the clock and the radio. Also the tach bouncing and the courtesy light have all mysteriously lost power ever so rarely.
I noticed a loose lug on my fuse block & upon a real close examination I found a BUNCH of loose rivets in the lug assemblies.
Ordered a new block which arrived and installed it today. This is not a hard job for me as I have a batt switch and just swapped the power side wires, removed the old block and shifted the outlet side wires to the new block, re-mounted with a piece of Garlock as an insulated spacer against the firewall.
All my power gremlins seem to be gone now and everything works real nice. This was a very necessary job and I don't think we know how loose these old rivets get nor how green the backside copper lap points. The fuse block cover from the original will not fit the replacements as sold. It is just a shade larger so the Lucas is too small to fit down around the fuses.
I suppose a real trooper would dip and retighten the rivets rather than not have a fuse block that says "Lucas" on the back and cover.


I'm good. Jack

Well, I have put more than 1000 miles on the car now and am starting to feel pretty good about running into town. That's nice.
The overdrive has been worth the trouble it took to get it..Thanks again Ric.
The neg camber setup from Moss has been a blast as well, and something I recommend to anyone...so far the new tires are showing no weird wear. Excellent.

I have been very busy getting LED's in the car.. the error free 1157 bulbs off evil-bay do work quite well in the rear..with using foil on the reflectors and the metal tray below the 1157 socket I now have some outstanding stop and running lights at about 1/3 the wattage but tons brighter...all good. Also the turn signal lights 1156 single element bulbs were changed to LED's and are almost embarrassingly bright.
The festoon bulbs in the trunk, license lights and courtesy also swapped easy, and produce more light as well. LED's are just white. Real bright white.
I am astonished at how cheap these bulbs are getting...I don't have 20 bucks in this yet. I have some 57's on the way for the side markers..keep them watts a'dropping.

Also shoehorned a volt meter into the dash hole for the fog lights without screwing up the dash..tapped the instrument stabilizer input for a source....we'll see how that works out. I did put a 3 amp fuse on it tho, can't trust myself too much.

I hope to get the headlight relay in by the end of the month...perhaps..

Had an interesting time today with the passenger window on my B.
It has slipped out of the lift tray on the crank mechanism several times and I have become sorta bored of babying it so today I took the door panel and water seal plastic liner off to see what was shaking.
This side had been hard to crank since the repaint and diverse hands were involved in putting bits back on so this was my first foray into this doors innards.
When I started I kinda thought I could cheat the devil somehow but such was not to be the case. The entire assembly, crank, glass and all has to come out to get this thing back in. No shortcuts exist to reinstalling a window glass fully seated and smoothly operating.
If you put the lower glass rubber and the metal it sets in outside the car things will get properly seated. You must slide the rubber into the track and then tap the track while stabilizing the window in your lap and against your belly. This will allow a full seat of the glass..real tight. just don't hit the glass instead and don't tap the metal so hard as to deform. Patient, observant progress gets you a full length level seal.
Removing the front guide to put the glass in is kinda mandatory too. I could not get the glass in the door with it in place.
You must get the glass assembly in the crank roller slots before bolting the crank assembly in. This takes a cool head and a slow hand. Then without losing what ya got position the crank assembly holes so you can start some bolts. IT CAN BE DONE.
Just leave the front and back guides hot bolted while you run the glass up and down and lock them down when done.
The hard cranking was traced to long fasteners being used where short ones should have. The short ones were there, just in the wrong holes...all better now.
Don't overlook the adjusters inside the guides, the ones that take them in and out. The door bolts just do forward and back.
As long as I had all this stuff out the door, I greased all moving pivots.

This has been a most strange 18 months..I wish to thank the six guys that worked on this car with me. You'all know who you are, and I can't thank anyone enough.
A most special thanks to this gent:

Ric Cline British Car Parts and Service
1611 Davidson Rd
Shady Dale, GA 31085
770-778-0843

After putting about 6k of parts on the car Rick agreed to do the shakedown for me.
His shop is great and the man knows his stuff. So if you need ANY THING DONE TO A BL CAR this is the guy. Use the above info and he is easy to find. I needed someone to help me get the tranny sorted and a well respected member of this forum recommended Rick. A WELL respected member, I did not clairvoyant this guy myself.

The drive home was 340 miles, further than the car has gone in 20 years. every component worked swell...a true roadster experience. Rick set the alignment just great and the new stainless exhaust set off the ride. The overdrive made the few interstate miles actually fun on I75 and the car hit 70 easy. Avoiding Atlanta entirely on the way back I traveled the twisties about 40 miles east of the city in a big loop to avoid urban sprall, but even that far out there is a bit. I am not disappointed in the small motor at all. Quite the contrary, and now I am glad I kept it..It suits the car. Being all Poly and lowered, de-smogged to the tail lights, It wanted to be up in the pwr band but as long as I complied with that she ran like a bumble bee. Apparently he shakes down cars for dealers in Atlanta as well as restos.

again: I GOT A CAR MAN!

Z mag wheels outa Fla, and 185 70 tires for the feet on this rig, man has my motor out and tranny dropped so we might get done soon, new water hose and pump, as well...hell...why not, eh. The clock works too...GADZOOKS This is what progress looks like.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/381144406945?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

This kit came in from the UK and is SUPER. cost me 623us to the door and with my 77RB tranny I hope to transform this baby to OD.

The gentleman B man in Marietta, (lets call him "Dave" who is transforming the tranny for me says the kit looks complete and all good quality stuff, gonna check the OD bushing and jumble it together.

Also tits up on the original radio so ordered a new chinee plastic, takes SD cards, and will be all this car needs to be excellent for me.
Door mounting the speakers, tho I CRINGE at the drilling of new Moss panels..A few shots, a talk with my mech, and AWAY we go.