Unemployment really curbs the restoration

Well, not that I'm restoring the old girl, but having no money means that when (for example) the A/C lost its R134a (a few weeks ago - loose fitting at the evaporator), I can't even pay for a re-gas (yes, poor me, there there). Trying to convince oneself that the quarter vent open all the way is just as good will only work until Summer really hits :-( Probably have to do it anyway, considering my ten year old bundle of... well, something (love you sweetie, really).
This car will not be restored, ever. I love it as a daily driver and will continue to patch things up (properly) and drive it, and enjoy it.

Fuses

My attempt earlier in the year (April) to replace the original fuses with one from a Hyundai ended up with my throwing the new part away and investigating the old one. Although basic, it actually works very well until one of the fuses blows, which stops everything connected to it from working. I found out that my wipers and interior light were connected to the fused side. Here's how it works:

There is one power feed from the battery (always on) and one from the ignition (only one with the ignition). Keep a good supply of 15A fuses (a packet in the glove box), you have four options for any device you connect.
Do you want it fused or not? Do you need it on all the time. I'd recommend not putting the wipers on the fused end. For that matter the interior light shouldn't be fused either. If you have an alarm and the interior light doesn't work, neither will your alarm!
Definitely have the heater (and A/C if you have one) on the ignition side, and I have mine fused in case my stupidity or carelessness results in a short circuit (disconnection prior to working on the electrical system is advised here. Take note, me).
If you want extra safety, put in-line fuses on your devices. I've found it's so much easier to use the simple system Chrysler engineers put there.  Oh, and the diagram was just drawn by me: It won't necessarily look exactly like the fuse connector (which is more square and has a plastic cover). The fuse connector is located about halfway along your dash, and is secured with a screw. Remember that before taking a screwdriver near it, one part is connected directly to your battery!

Free Wheel Alignment for the old girl

A while ago I replaced the DS wishbone and ball joint. My Valiant guy's advice was to spray paint over the blah blah adjusters and I won't have to do a wheel alignment. After I replaced it, it was obvious I'd sprayed in the wrong place and so the wheel alignment was horribly out. The best thing I could do was to adjust the camber by eye for the driver's side (that's what DS is, incidentally) and take it to an alignment place later.
Alignment people said they could do a toe-in only alignment for $35 odd, but that a proper alignment would take a couple of hours at $85-$110 an hour! Needless to say I didn't take them up on it. About 6 weeks ago I happened to buy something off ebay for my daughter and picked it up where the guy worked (wheel and tyre place). He said he couldn't do an alignment until next week (it was about 15KM from home, so that was a no) but that it looked like a good job I'd done by eye.
Finally had enough of vague steering this morning and went to my Dad's place. He was a mechanic and is very good at improvisational car repair. He made up a camber tool with a spirit level and piece of angled aluminium, which he cut to the exact diameter of the rim. Placed the aluminium against the rim and the level against the aluminium (the aluminium piece was effectively an adaptor, needed because the level would be fouled by the tyre). The setup was made as vertical as possible and the bubble observed. What we should see was almost level but out very slightly at the top. I.E. \               /  
This is exaggerated of course. The angle should be about 0.5 of a degree.
Results? It seems I had the DS absolutely spot on, but surprisingly the PS (passenger side) was waaaaay out! Surprising since I hadn't touched it at all. It must have been like that for years. To fix it, I first of all measured the length in mm between the front and rear bolts and the panel on the inside. I moved it in by 3mm on both F and R, tightened the bolts, measured again, put the wheel back on (couldn't get at the bolts without removing the wheel) and moved the car back about 3m then forward (I don't trust the push down on the bonnet method of levelling). Measured with the level again and it was perfect. So, did a toe-in check, then correction, since adjusting the camber changed this then a test drive. Although it's not like power steering, it's noticeably lighter. Also, the steering is much more predictable than before which certainly makes me fell better about jumping in and taking my 10YO to school. Dad advised me to swap front and rear tyres (which I did), since the PS front is now looking a bit scrubbed thanks to running on the outside for so long.
Still a lot to do but at least she'll point straight and true :-)
Happy motoring!

P.S. The toe-in adjustment is very easy. You just need a steel measuring tape and (optionally) a piece of masking tape. With tyres facing perfectly forward, measure the distance between the two front tyres at the front-most part (that you can reach - the engine and chassis get in the way) then the rear-most part. The tyres should be 3mm (1/8") closer together at the front. If they aren't, adjust by loosening both parts of one side's tie rod ends and adjust. Tighten TREs, roll car back then forward about 3m and measure again. If you have a helper or really stiff measuring tape, you won't need the masking tape.

AC dead

Well, it seems the AC evaporator was dodgy. The fan started making noise about 6 months ago and I stupidly thought "Can't be anything wrong with it. It's brand new". Well, now I reckon it probably wasn't new (argh!) because the motor seized up and now it's just blowing fuses when I try and use it.

Well, all that trouble for nothing. Advice for anyone wanting A/C. Do it yourself or pay someone to do it. If you make a deal, get it clear and in writing.

AC guy, soul and conscience-free solicitors and damage repair

I won't be recommending the AC guy, because of a couple of things. He broke my heater core (green water leaked all over the new carpet), removed the gasket between heater box and air intake, then renegged on the deal that we had. He kept changing his mind about what he wanted and finally said the deal was off and he was unilaterally changing it so I had to pay him a heap of cash! If I didn't pay? He threatened to "send the boys round" to collect this fictitious money. He also refused to acknowledge the damage to the heater or the removed gasket. The gasket is actually a large piece that seals the air. Without it, the air box is effectively always 100% open! My 9YO daughter didn't approve, particulary returning from Bendigo through the mountains during Winter.

So with that, I now agree with my mate Dave, who has a '74 Charger. He said he has never found a mechanic in any field who does things properly. I'd thought he was just cynical but every time I've not done something myself, I've been disappointed.

I dropped the car in a few weeks ago to have the wheels balanced and was extremely nervous when it took longer than expected. It was almost certainly due to the floor guys not knowing about the Val's left hand thread on the passenger side and turning the impact driver up to 11. The nerves were because this will damage my rims. The spot where the nuts sit when tight gets thinner every time someone does this and you will eventually have to throw the rim away or risk the wheels falling off while you're driving.

So now the damage from last October is finally being fixed. The one week in December at the repair shop started but when they finally got round to starting it (on Wednesday. It had been sitting doing nothing for Monday and Tuesday!) they hadn't contacted the bumper bar people and I had to go get the car and re-book it (sigh). So, last week it was finally booked in again. Nothing by Friday, so I contacted them. They had decided to keep it for another week because the aforementioned bumper bar repairer were dragging their heels! Of course, they hadn't thought to let me know I would be without my car for another week. Who would really miss their car an extra week anyway?!? This is almost three weeks they've needed to fix some very small damage. Thanks a lot Dave, you were right again.

Had an accident on 19th Dec in my GFs car. A taxi performed a rapid left hand turn from the right turn lane of Spring St, Preston. Pretty obvious whose fault it was, since I was going straight ahead and the driver was definitely familiar with the post accident procedure. Received a bill yesterday from a solicitor for the damage to the taxi, three days lost wages and their expenses in issuing the threat to pay. They stated it was 100% my negligent driving that caused the accident (apparently I caused him to put his indicator on then violently accelerate into my rear wheel arch). My GFs insurer said that this solicitor represents the taxi company, who has no insurance (really. I thought this would be necessary, given the number of accidents they cause) and they were very aggressive in pinning the blame on the innocent party. Occasionally they also win in court. This would obviously necessitate their side lying about what happened and where it happened. Really, you see it on the news and on drama series, but do people really do this for a living and sleep at night? Sure the AC guy lied about quite a few things, but that was mostly about his ego, and the money he demanded was part of this, since to him it meant he was therefore right about everything. These solicitors know they are lying. They know they should just pay up. They know I am the victim already, yet they are OK with suing me for thousands of dollars and making me pay for the repair of my own car too. Yes Dave, I'm sure you knew about this too but I don't feel great about it.

Engine Reassembly

This is pretty easy if you take care. First of all, prepare the bore unless you had it rebored. If you didn't you will see that the bores are very shiny where they have been rubbed for many years by the piston rings. You will need to remove this by honing the bores. This is simple enough, as you can buy a drill attachment. Hone the bores in a criss-cross pattern until there is no perceptible ridge and no glaze. Lubrication with WD40 or light oil is helpful (prevents the stones from overheating). Clean away the oil/grit/filings very thoroughly as anything left will damage the newly rebuilt block.
Oil the rings on the pistons thoroughly and use a ring compressor to get the pistons in the correct way. They should be put in with arrows facing a particular direction, from memory, and will probably be numbered, too. The numbers are less important, but if they're there use them.
Insert new crank shaft bearings and attach. Torque to the correct setting. If you need any of this info, just ask me or Google it, as I'm sure it'd be freely available.
If you have removed the timing case like I did, you will need to align the marks on the pulleys prior to putting the timing chain back on. This is really important: My Dad didn't get it right and it was out by 1 cog. Result was the car had no power and we had to remove the engine again to do it right!
Put the timing case back on with the sump (see below). The engine should be on TDC now.
Put the head back on and torque it up. The engine guy said that even monotorque gaskets should be re-torqued. Schedule this now. If you can't do this because it keeps moving make a note for yourself to do it as soon as the engine is back in the car. If you're a bit absent-minded, put a sticky note over the ignition to remind you.
Lift the engine up with your lifter (or block and tackle) now and put the sump/timing cover on.
The sump should be cleaned and a new gasket with lots of gasket goo will ensure you won't have any dramas with leaks. Use the torque settings again for everything. An oil leak will spoil your pleasure at the end of this and it's extremely difficult to tighten sump bolts with the engine in.
Prior to engine installation I also painted the engine. Couldn't get Chrysler engine blue so did it Ford blue. In retrospect I shouldn't have done this. The paint place in Preston (at the forking of Plenty Road) had the stuff, but I didn't know this.
Putting the engine in was the reverse of removal, with particular attention paid to the alternator and distributor. Torque the head if you couldn't before.
Make sure the distributor goes in with the rotor facing #1. If you didn't mess with the valve timing this should go back in easily and look like the photo you took beforehand. You also should not have to do with the valve clearances if you put the rods back in the same holes, unless you needed to do them anyway. If you do, start the car, warm it up, turn it off, remove the rocker cover, Turn it back on and do it while the engine's going. This is a lot easier and quicker than doing it by turning the engine over by hand.
If you want to (I didn't) you can re-check the compression to make sure it matches that in the book, and that it's consistent between cylinders. The Valiant now runs like it should. It idles much better and is better on fuel (although fuel economy still rubbish on gas for some reason).
Here are some photos of the reassembly.

	If your steering's heavy, lubrication is easy with no engine

Engine Disassembly and Inspection

When it's out, I removed the head. When doing this, my Dad has always told me to keep the push rods in order, so they all go back in the same holes. Here is one way to do this:

Cardboard with holes, marked with corresponding cylinders

Simple and effective. The engine shop guy said it didn't matter how they went back in, but I like to play it safe. Disassembly of the engine is pretty easy but it was unbelievably messy. Make sure you drain the oil very thoroughly and disassemble near basins for excess oil and rags/brooms/turps for clean ups. The garage was in a very dirty state when we finished, even though I thought we were very careful. Also, you will want to clean your engine and engine bay. In retrospect I should have done this prior to starting the job.

The various bits that were removed prior to the engine.

Engine, during disassembly

The aim was to remove the pistons. When this was done, we found that several rings were actually broken. Further good news was that the piston ring grooves were worn, so new ones were needed. An old piston was cleaned up and taken to our local engine shop (C.W. Engines in Beech Street, Vermont). New pistons and rings set me back around $300, which was much better than expected, and a new bottom end gasket set was another $65 (got this from Auto surplus in Mitcham). Obviously new oil and filter are necessary for this job. New pistons and rings mean this will be a "rebuilt" engine. Reconditioning, on the other hand, involves a rebore and doing up the head. I didn't want to rebore it, since the ridges were very small. This means the ridges at the top of the cylinder bore: If they're obvious, a rebore is necessary. The thing about a full recondition is that your engine then has to be treated very carefully as it's run in. This means a set of rules which, frankly, I wouldn't be very good at adhering to. Occasional hard acceleration, but mostly very slow and gentle. If you're old enough, you will recall when people used to do this and they hung a sign on the back of their car which usually said "running in". Ah, better go around them, you would think. I avoided reconditioning mostly for this reason, but also the additional expense, delay (you have to book it in) and that initially the compression is so great that you will nearly always have trouble starting the engine after assembly.

Engine Removal

This procedure is pretty straight forward.
Take photos as you go: There is nothing more valuable than a digital camera (I mostly used my mobile's camera) when doing this, unless you have a photographic memory.

Transmission: You don't have to remove your transmission (I have an auto) but you do have to either suspend it with strong wire or rope to the car (the wiper motor is pretty strong)  or put a jack underneath it, or both, and also push the torque converter away from the engine and keep it there: If you don't do these things, the front of your trans will drop onto the floor, possibly damaging the mounts and the torque converter will separate from it, releasing about four litres of transmission fluid, also on the floor. This warning is more to avoid the mess than the expense and inconvenience.

Distributor: You will need to remove this, as it can very easily be damaged when the engine is moved. Mark the plug leads before removing the cap, as leads sometimes fall out. A pencil or ball point pen will do, unless you have black leads (if you do, use liquid paper) . I also put the engine on TDC with #1 in firing position then took a photo with the dizzy cap off. My photo of this was a bit rubbish, so I won't bother posting it.
Air conditioner: Does not have to be disconnected. Just un-mount the compressor and hang it to the side, out of the way.
Alternator: Take a shot of this before removal. If you connect anything incorrectly on your alternator, it will be disastrous.