6/2/2012 - 6/11/2012

Top Cover, Oil Dipstick, and Starter

Here is the starter installed. Like with the alternator, some of the mounting holes had to be drilled by the builder, and also like the alternator, the instructions indicated that the attachment bracket should go in front of the starter, but mine seemed to line up better with it going behind the starter. And to demonstrate just how much of a glutton for punishment I am, I had to disassemble the entire starter to get that top bolt to go in that direction (it was too long to fit in the other direction). But when I pulled it apart, some of the bearings fell onto the (extremely dirty) floor, which means they had to be cleaned and re-greased. But you're not supposed to mix different types of grease, and since I didn't have any like the kind that was already in the starter, I had to clean and replace the grease from the whole thing!

Also in these pictures, you can see that I installed the top cover, as well as the new oil dipstick. The Conversion Manual says that a dipstick from a Ford 302 V8 will work, but when I got to the auto parts store, there were only two kinds - Ford and Chevy. Strangely enough, the Chevy version was too wide, but fortunately, the Ford version fit perfectly! Obviously, I will have to re-calibrate the oil levels, since I had to shorten the dipstick considerably.

Total Time: 8.5 hrs.

  

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