Continuing on the exploration of Daisy Mae....
While I tend to marvel at what great original shape she's in, working my way thru all components is a never ending stream of pleasant surprises, unexpected issues to be addressed, as well as scratching my head at the remnants of the partial late 60's restoration.
Initial goal being to check valve clearance, I (quite literally) yanked the manifolds...which were stuck. Ended up being the typical warped exh manifold, which was 1/16" off plane on #3 and 1/4" off on #4. The prior assembly was done by placing the sleeve rings in the manifold and torqued down to cut into a thick gasket, but, that wasn't good enough so they were slathered in form-a-gasket which became a sticky tar glue!!! Interesting too a noted scratched "X" in the head above the offending port. New manifold on the way, tar removal in progress.
The next curiosity encountered. While the front end is now entirely rebuilt, I finally worked my way up to the steering planetary gears. Absolutely pristine shape, no issues or serious wear, with tight tolerance between the gears & pins. So clean in fact, it looked like it had been all dipped in carb cleaner... spotless! Just no grease to be seen anywhere!!! Stuff like this is what I'm finding, where the 60's restoration took things up to a certain point, but never fully completed anything, or, just not done to my purist liking. She's all greased up now, and the front end is tight, with only about an inch play in the wheel.
As for complete/incomplete, the other thing encountered is not one castle nut is cotter pinned save for a couple here & there.
But one thing I do know, the 60's restoration only went so far before the owner went blind, and the car was returned back to storage in the barn. So probably what I'm encountering is that everything was just buttoned back up at that time, regardless of what state. As such, just a mixed bag.
And so on I go on my expedition....
