IT'S ALIVE.... sorta

SUCCESS... well sorta. With the help of my brutha Jim Conley, we got the 460 brought to life on Saturday. After removing the distributor, wires and plugs, we primed the engine oil by spinning the the oil pump and turning the motor over by hand during which time we heard a squeek/squawk noise coming from the back of the engine. As we turned the crank, we were able to determine the sound was coming from the bell housing. I made a quick call to the guy who built the transmission for me and after a brief question and answer session, he too was at a loss for the cause and told me to go ahead and fire it up.

With his assurance, we rolled to engine over to the TDC mark on the cranks and reinstalled the distributor, wires and plugs. After connecting the battery, a fuel source and the remote starter trigger, the 460 rolled over for the first time in several years but wouldn't light off....

With no fire getting to the plugs, we located all the harness grounds inside the cabin and jumpered them together and to ground and I also jumpered the engine to firewall lead directly to the negative post of the battery and we tried again.... SUCCESS. We shut her off, attached the timing light to get her timed and lit her off again......

There was a very noticeable chirp coming from the engine, so we crawled under the car and removed the bellhousing inspection plate and rolled the motor over by hand to see if we could see any signs of the torque converter studs dragging on anything. Nothing visible, so we removed the started and spun her over again... again no signs of what was causing the noise.

With the timing set, we fired her up one last time before calling it a day.....

Hopefully we'll get some good pointers this week on what the source of the noise may be so I can address the issue and keep moving forward.

Until then.....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Update 75...

Some progress the last couple weekends.

Last Saturday I repaired the ignition key reminder switch

and installed the firewall pad retainers for the driver side pad before moving on to a few major items. Installed the core support and the wheel houses, then clipped the wiring harnesses into position, then hung the starter solenoid and the ignition module...

This Saturday, I got pan bolts and drain plug tightened, transmission support and crossmember tightened up, fluids added...

battery cables and engine ground installed, (battery core used for placement)...

transmission lines jumpered together...

and old distributor converted to oil pump primer...

Next weekend I'll tighten up the motor mounts, pull the distributor, wires and plugs, prime the oil pump while turning the crank by hand, reinstall the distributor, wires and plugs, hook up a temporary fuel source, snag the battery outta the Fairlane and LIGHT THIS MUTHA OFF (fingers crossed)!!

Won't be too much longer before I'll be playing the BIG BLOCK BOOGIE!!

Hang in there...

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Update 74A....

We had a surprise visit from my daughter and her husband this weekend (on leave from the USN stationed in Virginia Beach) so there was nothing done on the Tomato, but she did want to go see how it was moving along, so I took along the camera to document last weekends progress.....

Until next time.....

ZEBRA 3 OUT