OK, I'm back again to provide yet more chuckles and outright laughter. As I'm sure most of you already guessed, the water pump was OK (I'll still replace it tomorrow night). The real culprit (as I'm sure you already knew ) was the timing belt tensioner bearing. Fortunately, I'd already had this suspicion myself and ordered a new tensioner along with the water pump. With a little persuasion from my bearing puller it came off with relative ease (on the bench not the block). Now I am delayed while I await a new timing belt, so I guess I'll get the rear axle seals started in the next day or so.

Frankly I'm surprised I made the trip from Chicago to KC with the bearing as far gone as it was (well that and the injector fuel line leak that did not go up in flames) . I guess I've used up much of my good karma in the last few weeks.

I've also got a used wheel hub on the way and bearings and seals, so I'll repack the front hubs and get a spare assembled for the road-trip kit.

Still hoping to make MOFLO in Osage Beach, MO on the 10th. Looking forward to meeting up with more of the "locals".

- Jim

I spent part of today roughing up a panel to mount my cruise controls to. I decided to try sticking them in place of the unneeded ashtray: before:


Attempt #1:


It seems too two dimensional to me at the moment, I may set it at more of a slant or bevel the edges more; at this point I am unsure... The screw holes wound up being off center and I accidentally removed some of the off arrow with epoxy, I'll probably wind up covering the screws with epoxy so it's cleaner anyway. I may try to locate another ashtray that I can sacrifice to use in the final product.

Though I'd pass this site along: https://www.allensfasteners.com I've ordered most of my ARP goodies and about a hundred pounds of other fasteners for my boat from these folks. Always prompt, and there's an enormous amount of hardware on their site. And no, I do not have any connection to them, nor do I receive any compensation for pimping them...

Keep the ashtray and put the switches inside.
Slick , cool and stock look in the same time.