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Fri Mar 29, 2024 7:43 am

67rustavenger wrote: PiperFixer wrote: Now brake lights are intermittent/not working. Wife followed me the other day and said they were working. Going to check the fuse and clean the switch contacts.
Check the brake/tail light contacts. They get corroded and sometimes bent and loose good contact.
I was dealing with this exact issue earlier this week.

I used a little chrome polish on a small felt disc mounted on my Dremal arbor. The contacts shined right up.

I'll give that a shot thanks.

Fri Mar 29, 2024 11:29 am

67rustavenger wrote: Check the brake/tail light contacts. They get corroded and sometimes bent and loose good contact.
I was dealing with this exact issue earlier this week.

I used a little chrome polish on a small felt disc mounted on my Dremal arbor. The contacts shined right up.

Took a little 220 grit to the brake light contacts and they work!

Fri Mar 29, 2024 12:53 pm

Just normal refresh stuff.

I forgot to say how much I like the car!

Mon Apr 01, 2024 5:18 am

Blue Baron wrote: Just normal refresh stuff.

I forgot to say how much I like the car!

Thanks man!

Mon Apr 01, 2024 5:24 am

New questions... What's wrong here besides my fuel line situation? The PO installed this carb and it looks like the cheap 34 from jbugs. Is this carb trash? The car runs 'OK' but I haven't checked valves or timing yet. I dont love this air cleaner either. Going to replace it with the shorter one. Seems like it got crushed a little? Also I'm going to get a longer oil breather line to actually connect to the air cleaner.

Mon Apr 01, 2024 6:08 am

That is a beautiful example of the 72 Super Appears to be original paint as well. Volksbitz would be the go to to for a perfect Pict 34. suggest finding the correct Air cleaner in classifieds to keep it all original. Before throwing tons of suspension parts at it get it in the air and check the left and right inner fender panels against the fire wall. This is the Achilles heal on Supers. IF these are not solid no amount of new parts will make a difference. Top line parts is your GO to for any Suspension parts. 72 may have Either type lower control arm so make yourself familiar with these. The car sat for a long time Suggest cleaning every ground on the car. Love to see it when one of these survives.

Mon Apr 01, 2024 6:22 am

I do have the stock air cleaner. It does not fit on this carb unfortunately.

Looks like this...

Mon Apr 01, 2024 6:30 am

Great bug, nice to see one in this condition. I plan to have mine done in this color. 👍

Mon Apr 01, 2024 9:46 am

That oil-bath air cleaner is not from a '72. The little bracket sticking up to hold the end of a cable to operate the pre-heat valve marks it as a ~1968 (someone correct me). That might be why it won't fit on a 34-pict. I think the 34 came along in 70 or 71 (?).

I believe the '72 air cleaner has a vacuum operated thermostat to operate the pre-heat valve. It has distinctive double vacuum hoses on top, like this:

Mon Apr 01, 2024 10:19 am

Thanks. I pulled that photo at random off the web. I'll have to get a shot of my actual air cleaner but I'm sure the top is sealed off where the two hoses are attached in your photo. Are the small round air cleaners that bad??

Thu Apr 04, 2024 5:43 pm

New shift coupler. Old one was pretty worn out.

Mon Nov 10, 2025 7:10 am

Almost two years in and I decided it's finally time. Running on 3 cylinders and oil leaking from basically everywhere. Got new 88 thick walled cylinders and new machined CB heads for a mild upgrade. I'll be happy if I can reuse the crank. Everything else internal I expect to replace.

Tue Nov 11, 2025 7:39 am

Got this old style pressure plate. It's got a pretty bad groove worn in from the clutch disc rivets so will replaced with an updated plate. Was hoping I wouldn't have to oh well.

Fri Nov 14, 2025 6:08 am

Progress...No horrible cracks immediately obvious. Crank looks ok aside from staining, will measure for wear. No spun bearings or any mystery metal in the sump.

Fri Nov 14, 2025 8:23 am

Somehow this entire thread has eluded me until today. Nice car! I had a 73 Super the same color. Still miss that car.

As to your questions about the air cleaner, yes, the factory will provide far better driveability than the chrome replacements. The big thing the chrome filters don't help with is carb heat. And carb heat is needed, even in warmer areas like yours. Going back to the stock* air cleaner, in addition to replacing the thermostat and flaps that had been stripped out, made massive improvements in driveability on mine, with an aftermarket carb. (*Mostly stock air cleaner - I gutted the oil bath part to put in a modern cone filter, but it's a Ghia so a little different than yours).

While you have it all apart be sure to clean out the tube throught the intake manifold that runs between the heat risers on the exhaust. They get carboned up really bad under the carb because whatever particles are in the exhaust recondense under the cold carb and plug the tube.

Questions about the carb itself - some will tell you that carb will never run right, others will tell you it will be fine. It varies, so don't necessarily throw it out just yet. The thermostat, intake manifold tube, and air cleaner situation can cause just as many if not more driveability issues as the carb itself.

Your engine looks a little sludgy - hopefully the black lines in your main bearing saddles are just part of the sludge buildup and not evidence of the mains being pounded into the bearing saddles. Clean it up really good and let us know if you want any pointers to inspect for bearing saddle pounding.

You also have a golden opportunity to really put it back together precisely, and in doing so can enhance performance quite a surprising amount. Do they do smog testing in your zip code, and if so is your car exempt?

Now I'm off to split my case this morning, in one of those grey service carts just as you've done.

Best of luck to you.

Fri Nov 14, 2025 9:37 am

Rob Combs wrote: Somehow this entire thread has eluded me until today. Nice car! I had a 73 Super the same color. Still miss that car.

As to your questions about the air cleaner, yes, the factory will provide far better driveability than the chrome replacements. The big thing the chrome filters don't help with is carb heat. And carb heat is needed, even in warmer areas like yours. Going back to the stock* air cleaner, in addition to replacing the thermostat and flaps that had been stripped out, made massive improvements in driveability on mine, with an aftermarket carb. (*Mostly stock air cleaner - I gutted the oil bath part to put in a modern cone filter, but it's a Ghia so a little different than yours).

While you have it all apart be sure to clean out the tube throught the intake manifold that runs between the heat risers on the exhaust. They get carboned up really bad under the carb because whatever particles are in the exhaust recondense under the cold carb and plug the tube.

Questions about the carb itself - some will tell you that carb will never run right, others will tell you it will be fine. It varies, so don't necessarily throw it out just yet. The thermostat, intake manifold tube, and air cleaner situation can cause just as many if not more driveability issues as the carb itself.

Your engine looks a little sludgy - hopefully the black lines in your main bearing saddles are just part of the sludge buildup and not evidence of the mains being pounded into the bearing saddles. Clean it up really good and let us know if you want any pointers to inspect for bearing saddle pounding.

You also have a golden opportunity to really put it back together precisely, and in doing so can enhance performance quite a surprising amount. Do they do smog testing in your zip code, and if so is your car exempt?

Now I'm off to split my case this morning, in one of those grey service carts just as you've done.

Best of luck to you.

Thanks, Yeah the black lines are sludge/stains. I've been working at them with degreaser and scotch brite and they are greatly decreased in intensity. I've already mic'd out the crank journals and it passes except for main #2 which is .0007" out pf spec so I'm probably just going to go with it.
EVERYTHING else will be replaced.

Thanks for the tip on the intake tubes. Yes mine are pretty carboned up. Going to have to work on those...

Fri Nov 14, 2025 3:08 pm

There are reasons for specifications. If the crank is out even on one journal then replace it or get it machined. It won’t miraculously improve. Bearing clearance will be increased, lower oil pressure etc.

Mon Nov 17, 2025 6:48 am

viiking wrote: There are reasons for specifications. If the crank is out even on one journal then replace it or get it machined. It won’t miraculously improve. Bearing clearance will be increased, lower oil pressure etc.

Ordered a new crank, it's only money right?

The deeper oil relief plunger was pretty stuck. Got it out with some Kroil and a tap.

While the engine is out I replaced the rear trans mounts. One was broken.

Mon Nov 24, 2025 7:38 am

Since the engine is out, I'm replacing the tar boards and engine bay seals. Chipping away at the death foam etc. Found an ancient colony of mud daubers.

Tue Nov 25, 2025 9:33 am

Crank gears installed. Toaster oven at 350 for 35 minutes and they slid right on.