I hear that train a-comin', it's rollin' round the bend

Gearheads (or petrolheads for those who speak the Queen's english) and non-gearheads see and hear the world differently. I can't sing like a wookie and the only instrument I play is the radio, but my ears are tuned to identify the configuration of an engine, and the sound of a  VW W8 will put me in a catatonic state. 

Skip ahead to 0:30

This weekend while I was working on the Falcon, my girlfriend came over to was work on a chair she's been restoring and reupholstering. When she asked me what I was doing I showed her that I was wrapping my exhaust manifold with heat resistant wrap. A few minutes later she asked me something about the manifold but couldn't remember what it was called, so it became the alien thingy. 

I came to realize that heat wrap is much like prom dress. It's shiny, tight, a pain in the arse to put on, and can resist over 2000 degrees of radiant heat. I swear half of my saturday was consumed by putting this heat wrap and makeup on this alien thingy, and that didn't even count the pedicure or hair.

Since I'm using ignition coils from Chevy LSx, I picked up a set of Camaro spark plug wires. I figured they would be a little too long so I also got a pack of spark plug terminals off eBay for a few bucks. I removed the boot and trimmed a bit off the wire and then crimped the terminals on. With the help of a little WD-40 I was able to work the spark plug boots back on.

I also performed a little troubleshooting on my clutch problem. I took some video of the problem to better illustrate it. The piston extends, but does not retract until it's already protruding from the housing.

In order to see if the binding issue was due to the slave cylinder, I used the c-clamp (which used to be my vise) to depress the fork. It depressed and retracted without any issue. When I removed the push rod from the slave and fork and depressed the clutch pedal, there was still a huge amount of resistance. I removed the slave cylinder at this point to inspect. After disassembly the piston would slide freely. 

I think when the rod puts pressure on the piston in the slave cylinder there is some side loading which causes the piston to bind. I spoke with the manufacturer and was told that no side loading is allowed on the piston. as you can see, I have a very small amount of misalignment in the pushrod. Rather than continue to fight with this slave cylinder, I'll try a "pull style" slave cylinder.

That's all for now but stay tuned for the wacky world of wires.