33 Coupe Adjusting and Tweaking 4        4/19/06

Here you can see both clamps hooked-up to there respective terminals and it works great. (I had a hard time taking a descent picture of the clamps so hold the hate mail). What an easy fix this turned out to be, was very quick to do and didn't cost a thing. Now when the time comes to adjust the valves again, I'll just have to reach in and pop a couple of clamps on and I'm ready to go. 

Once I had the button hooked up, I started in on the valves. I had been wondering how the adjustment was for some time now but they really weren't to bad. I had a few that were a little loose but most of them were right on. The worst one needed about .004" of adjustment and a couple of others were .003" out. 

After a few minutes of turning wrenches, I was bolting back on the valve covers and calling it a day. I don't know what it is about adjusting valves that seems cool to me but it is. Maybe it's the smell of the oil, or the movement of rocker arms, or hearing the gas's being compressed while your getting the next valve into position. Heck if I know but I kinda look forward to leaning over the fender with my feeler gages and wrenches for some reason. 

Yeah I know.....I'm trip'n....what can I say!!
 

 

 
6/25/06

While I was putting the car together back in December, one of the things I had to change at the last minute was a problem in the trunk. To open and to hold the trunk lid in the open position, I planned to use a pair of gas-springs but after I put them on (after the car was painted) they ended up bowing the deck lid so much that the body lines didn't line up anymore. I ended up making a prop-rod to hold the trunk lid open in place of the gas-springs but now it was very hard to get my fingers under the lid when I unlatched it. 

What I needed was a way to have the deck-lid open a small amount so I could get my fingers under it. All I needed was a 1/4" of movement and that would make things so much easier. 

Another thing that needs to be looked at is my solenoid because it's not working. When I first put the car together, it worked fine but after a few weeks, it stopped and I had no idea why. 

To solve these problems, I had to tear the trunk apart which I've been avoiding. The reason I've been avoiding this was because I was having to much fun driving it and I didn't have a good enough idea of what I wanted to use to have the lid pop open. A door popper would work but I didn't like how big they were so I was just about ready to make something when I found a small spring-loaded device that looked like it would do the trick.

I made a bracket to hold the popper out of some 3/16" aluminum angle and attached the bracket too the nut-plate that holds the trunk latch in place. The nut plate had two extra thread locations because I originally had a popper in this position before I came up with the idea to use gas-springs so this worked out pretty good. 

The popper has about 3/4" of travel and is made out of steel. It has 5/8-11 threads on one end so I used two nuts to hold it in place. The threads are about 1 1/8" long so this gives me a small amount of adjustment but I also have another 3/8" of movement built into the aluminum bracket because I slotted the mounting holes. 
 

 

 
I drilled and cut a hole in the top cover so the popper could peek through. The end of the popper is rounded and rests against the bottom of the deck-lid. I'm sure it will rub the paint off this surface sooner or later and when it does, I'll attach a small plate to the lid but for now, I'm leaving it like it is. 
 

 

 

 
This should give you a better idea of what the popper looks like. This might look a little nicer chromed and if I gather enough pieces for another trip to the plating house, this will be included. 

The only thing that still needs attention is my solenoid that pulls on the latch to open it. Speaking of my solenoid, I found out what was wrong with it. The first thing I tested was to see if there was 12 volts going to it, and there wasn't. I checked to see if there was a good ground and there was. Well this narrowed it down so that meant it was time to check out the electronics that activate the solenoid. To do that, the right kick panel was removed so I could get at things. My key fob has three buttons on it. The top ones work the doors (which work fine) and the bottom one is set to open the trunk. As I pushed the bottom button, I could hear the relay working but nothing was happening. Then behind a couple of wires, I noticed the problem. The wire that goes to the solenoid had come loose from a crimp connector. After I re-crimped the wire again, I was back in business and it was a easy fix.  

Well that was the good news and the bad news is.... now that the latch has more resistance on it because of the popper, the solenoid isn't strong enough to open the latch. I guess I'll be looking for a stronger pulling solenoid real soon but I can still open the trunk with the existing solenoid by putting pressure on the deck-lid with my hand and then pushing the button. I don't like doing it this way but it works for now. 
 

 

 
Here you can see how much the popper opens the deck-lid. It's more than enough to get my fingers under which is just what I was looking for. Once I get another solenoid with more pulling power, the trunk problem should be fixed.
 

 

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