Zebra Butt Racing adopts Suprang

I'm worn the berk out. 

Sorry for the lack of pictures.  I think I only took two all day and when I tried to do a video at the end of the day my phone died.  I'm so tired I'm typing this on my computer and I'll add pictures and video from my phone later.

First we jumped to the rear brakes.  They jumped us back.  I got one bolt off one caliper and the next bolt started to round off.  The clip for the softlines is also rusted in place.  Looked them over and decided that hey the pads are good, the wheels turn free, berk it moving on.

Next up was the clutch hydraulics.  Yesterday I replaced the slave but the pin holding the master in kicked my behind.  I sprayed it with CRC freeze off and we revisited it today.  I asked Lil Stampie to see if he could get the pin out.  He says he got it part way but couldn't get it anymore.  I looked in there and see that now one tang from the master is bent and that pin isn't going back in.  Yep we're past the point of no return.  I work it back and forth a little then get the pin out finally.  Woo hoo we can replace the master.  Throw that in and spend the next couple of hours getting beat down trying the get the slave mounted.  I finally realize that the two bolt holes in the bellhousing are not spaced the way the slave bolt holes are.  I grab the old one and what I thought was a factory slot for one bolt is now obviously a modified bolt hole.  Get out the hacksaw and start cutting.  The space is tight so I have to grind down one part just to get the hacksaw in there.

Now that it's mounted I have to bleed it in place which is a pain because the exhaust is right where the bleeder is.  I'm starting to notice a lot of little issues when a 289 get's stuffed into a Supra front clip then welded to a Mustang floor. 

That done we try to bleed the brakes.  It's not really happening so I figure we need vacuum for the booster.  That means we need a running engine.  Fuel pump is up next.  Again I'll point out why we're so slow.  Grab the new fuel pump out of it's box and head outside.  Lil Stampie does the fuel lines below while I do the bolts on top.  Get the old pump and and notice that the outlet hard line doesn't fit the new pump.  Try to remove the fitting from the old pump and crush it.  Notice that fitting on old pump isn't removeable.  Go to Advance.  Look at all their lines and the only fitting that works has 3/16 line coming out.  That E36 M3 isn't going to work very well.  Decide to go to Ace.  Lil Stampie says we should go home and grab the old hard line first since we forgot it.  I decide that I should read the damn instructions that came with the fuel pump also.  He grabs the fuel line I head inside to get the instructions out of the box I discarded earlier.  Out come the instructions and a little bag with the damn fitting that we needed.  I think that cost us an hour.

Fuel pump installed let's start this motherberker and party on.  Lil Stampie is designated starter person and I'm designated make sure E36 M3 doesn't blow up person.  Flip on the master battery switch, flip the ignition switch and turn the key to engage the starter.  Turns over, see fuel being pumped by the new pump.  No fire in the hole.  I check and no spark.  Ok let's swap in the HEI distributor.  Swap that in having to steal the plug wires from the K30 and no spark.  What the hell.  Get my VOM out and I got no voltage at the distributor.  I got voltage coming into the new switch I just added.  Nothing coming out.  So then I make a short jumper to bypass the switch and tell Lil Stampie that I want to test for spark.  Told him that if it started to pull the jumper out and shut it down.  I swear it started in the first 45 degrees of rotation.  But it keeps running.  Seems Lil Stampie first tried turning the key off instead of pulling the jumper.  Then the jumper connectors were too tight so he's yanking on it and finally pulls the bare wire out of a connector shutting it down.  Ok it runs.  We grab another switch from the lot of 70 I got off eBay and wire it in.  Starts right up and idles like a roaring kitten because we're open header on the passenger side header.  My phone shuts down recording this video but we tested the clutch and we have wheel movement at the right times.

Forgot to say that the air cleaner doesn't clear the HEI.  Yeah add that to the list.

I wound up with two inches of air cleaner spacer to clear the hei on the small block ford 54 truck.

It's alive!

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

I had a 9 inch air cleaner from my Cadillac days.  It's pretty.  I even painted it the correct Cadillac blue.  It fits but I ordered a 10 inch Edelbrock air cleaner off Amazon because I can't put a Cadillac blue air cleaner on a Ford.

In reply to pimpm3 (Forum Supporter) :

Barely but I think I could drive it onto a trailer as it is.

My guy, you are spending a lot of time going back and forth and giving yourself headaches when you don't need to.  The "missing" brake rotor, the fitting, the modified master cylinder.  I'm sure there are more.

Back to basics, hell, back to the USAF.  Even if you knew how to do the job backwards and forwards, you'd get dinged if you didn't have the T.O. out and turned to the right page while repairing your birds, right?  Same principle here, lay all your crap out.  Bring a folding table out if you have to.  Lay all your parts out and look at them before you start to work.

You don't have time to burn an hour going to the hardware store for fittings you already have, ya dig?

Good luck.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Yeah it's part of the rush to get E36 M3 done at the last minute.  Normally I would say ok today's project is the fuel pump.  Let's see what we need to do.  At this point I'm like ok got x done what is next?

I love that you're bringing this storied car back to the challenge. Takes me back to when I first discovered GRM. Ro-spit, Suprang, Guido's Midget, etc.  I even like the patina. You got this.

No pictures as today was just a tidy up the little things day.  First up was the throttle cable.  It would pop off at full throttle.  Not ideal.  A lock washer for the bracket and a carefully placed zip tie fixed that.  Next we took care of the distributor lock down.  I had problems yesterday with the bracket not wanting to seat it fully.  It's seated now and locked down.  After that I cleaned up the exhaust on the passenger side to prep it for a flex pipe as that's what it had before and I'm not about reinventing the wheel at this point.   Got it preped and got the flex pile and one clamp as that's all they had.  By the time I got home it was getting dark so I'll finish that up tomorrow.

Any luck with the brakes?

In reply to pimpm3 (Forum Supporter) :

Brakes are in place.  Just need bleeding in theory.  I'm getting warm fuzzies as I'm working underneath and see what looks like new brake lines run by Sean.  I'm kinda shifting my priorities to running engine with mufflers as that'll make the brakes easier to bleed with vacuum for the booster. 

TLDR we're very fluid right now with somewhat of a plan.

I have pictures. Well I think two. Number 8 spark plug is way tight to the firewall. We had to do this to it's wire to get it going. 

That night I ordered new wires on Amazon and they came in today. As Lil Stampie said "oh they're red!"

We then worked on the driver's seat. Had to drop part of the driver's exhaust to get to all the bolts. Then we cut the bracket Sean made for the Supra seat off and removed the bracket from the Butler seat we have to make plans. Came up with a course of action and called it an evening. 

Safe travels y'all......and good luck? 

In reply to 759NRNG :

Why the question mark?  This what you trying to say?

hey simmer down now broheen and no yur not a Dass tonight ....CHILL.....enjoy the weekend....OK? 

Again elbows and shiny happy people so no pictures.  We divided and conquered.  While I worked on the harness mount, Lil Stampie worked on the firewall.  He got the backseat template made and I got most of the mount made before I realized I couldn't see the holes that I was drilling.  Should finish both tomorrow.

You guys sure do love a deadline.  I wish I could be there again to lend a hand again.  In the future, I'll be back for sure!

In reply to TVR Scott :

If we didn't have a deadline we wouldn't get anything finished. 

Called out of work today and tomorrow. Spent the morning grabbing supplies around town.   I actually crossed something off my mental list. 

That starts your small block no problem? Thinking of using one in TCST

Y'all got plenty of time living but 50 minutes away..... 

In reply to TurboFource :

Oh yeah no problem at all. 

Been working on the firewall. 

Tacking 22 guage with flux ain't easy. Lil Stampie did about 75% of these. 

He's been in charge of this project so he gets to do the welding. 

At least heez wearin' chooz an not flipflopz.......do the speaker holes have to be covered also?

They should be. 

They will be.  That'll be easier.  Basically a long rectangle with the back corners tapered in.  Put in from trunk side and tack around the holes.  I also got Great Stuff fire rated foam to fill in the edges.

Most of the tacks done we called it a night.

dont grab hot metal it can burn you, my fingers arent very happy...