The kickdown connection

I bought a carb spacer but then figured it may create a problem for the kickdown rod, which it seems to do. Now that I needed to check that, I used the opportunity to finally look at how the kickdown actually is hooked up and how it's operated.

When the throttle lever is being pulled all the way, it pushes the kickdown rod along with it. The kickdown adjusting screw can be used to make sure the kickdown rod is about half a mm before it's end of movement when the throttle is wide open.

You can see how it's hooked up in the above picture. Below you see a short movie clip in which you can see how everything moves.

Back from the garage

Today I went to pick up my car from the garage. I budgetted about a grand for a few big things and some minor work. The only new expensive part required was the Edelbrock carb which I had already bought a while ago so most of the budget was going in to labour.

So a few weeks ago I took my car to Pro Street, in a town called Heemskerk. I had a few things I wanted to get done and I told them to let me know of any things that needed work in their opinion. So  in the end this is what got done:
- Replaced the Holley with my new Edelbrock carb
- Emptied and cleaned the tank
- Put in a fuel filter (why did I not have one???)
- Fixed my seat (it was a bit loose)
- New distribution belt
- New brake shoes + brake cylinders in the back and fixed the drums
- Fixed the front brake calipers (both were loose and rattled they discovered)
- Replaced a support rubber for my gearbox
- Added some oil
- Re-calibrated ignition-timing

Here are a few pics of the new carb:

Is it OK to have the fuel filter lying on top loose like this? Is it bad that it is shaken about while driving?

Hooking up the gas-cable and the kickdown-rod was not easy they said. This was because the Edelbrock is a much wider carb than the Holley. But they did it in the end and it works fine. It made me think though that although the Edelbrock may be a fine carb, the Holley is perhaps a better match for this car + engine....

One thing I was wondering about is this wiring lying on top of the manifold, which gets quite hot when driving. Is that OK?

The drive home was smooth. Handling has improved. The engine sounds better and braking has also improved. It was very enjoyable and my confidence in the car has increased a lot. Good times!

Here are a few more glamour shots ;-) (Click them for jumbo-versions)