[njsteve]

I got something done today!

I was under the dash, cursing and bending and getting stuck trying to install the repaired speedometer cable. The original had the little white tab broken off, where it engages the back of the speedometer. So I was all ready to install the new one and had the old one half fed over the clutch/brake pedal bracketry when I noticed that the ferrule that attaches to the transmission on the new cable was several sizes too small. The factory used a 1" nut to attach the cable end to the tail shaft. The replacement had a 3/4" round ferrule. So I ended up pulling the white plastic ends off of both the original and the new cable, and swapping them. I used the heat gun to soften the old cable to allow the new white end to slide on and it seems to have worked. Well it is installed anyway, it will have to wait til tomorrow to see if the speedometer works without bouncing like before from being halfway attached but not clipped in. Oh, and did I mention that there is a firewall grommet with a 3/8" hole that the cable has to go through? Mind you, one end of the cable has the aforementioned 1" nut that certainly isn't going through the 3/8" hole and the other end is an only slight slimmer 3/4" white plastic connector. The grommet must be installed during the assembly of the cable at the factory but I ended up soaking the grommet in boiling water and then using a couple tiny screw drivers to help persuade it over the white plastic end. It worked. Yeah, I know, I should have slipped the grommet on when the white ends were off...

While I was trapped under the dash and couldn't get out, I decided to make my time productive and check out why the road lamps were't working. My hunch was right - the very expensive original toggle switch was not doing anything other than making the click noise from physically moving on and off. No power was getting through. So I pulled the switch out and tested it with a ground and a test light. No test light illumination in either position. I then bent the four little tabs over and opened the back up. I found the problem. The dielectric grease had turned to fossilized amber inside and no electrons were getting through it. So I gently ran the contacts against my wire wheel, threw a couple drops of oil in there and tested it again. Eureka! I then hooked it back up and the driving lamps now work! Yay!

The next project was gathering all the parts for the steering column lockout system that was unique to 1970 Mopar four-speeds, and extra unique to small block cars. When working as designed, it requires the car to be parked with the shifter in reverse, and then locks it there when the ignition key is removed. All these parts were usually tossed in the trash can the moment someone tried to install headers on a car. Luckily the car had 95% of the parts intact (Thanks Dave). The only pieces missing were a couple of plastic bushings for the cross bar and a unique double-headed shifter linkage swivel that the lockout engagement rod attaches to on the reverse lever. I actually found them both on ebay - the Hurst rebuilder guy sells the swivel and the bushing from a Mopar supplier. Here's a photo of the swivel and the linkage: