Another Sunday .

In order to get an early start Cade stayed over with us again last night. His day started around 6 AM when I woke him up. It's funny, his mom says on school days she usually has to wake him 2 or 3 times before he gets around and starts getting ready for school. He was up had breakfast and was out in the shop by 6:30


The voltage regulator cost a few bucks more than the credit he had built up so first thing on the agenda was doing more yard work (I've got some painting lined up for later on this fall). Once he got done with the we hooked up the lawn mower to the 74 and moved it out of the back shed again and the first order of business was getting the regulator on.

voltage regulator by M Patterson, on Flickr


Several years ago when the car would sit for extended periods of time I had added an electric fuel pump back by the fuel tank so the fuel lines and carburetor could be filled and the car started without cranking and cranking on the engine. with that in place it was pretty simple to disconnect the fuel line at the mechanical pump, put a battery in it and drain the 5 gallons or so of stale gas out of the tank.

Cade checked all the fluids, changed the fuel filter and then I had him put in a few gallons of fresh gas.

fresh gas by M Patterson, on Flickr


I had to chuckle when I took this picture as I'm pretty sure it will be recreated at least a couple of times in the future when Cade gets his license. Even though the gas gauge in the Mustang works and reads correctly, Cade's pretty much a typical teenager and I'm sure he will see how far he will be able to squeeze the last mile out of a few bucks of gas.

It took a fair amount of coaxing to get the old engine to fire off after its 5 year hibernation but it finally popped off. I had Cade in the drivers' seat running the key and when the engine finally caught I happened to glance over and saw one of the biggest smiles I've seen on his face in a while.

We let it run for a bit keeping an eye on the oil pressure and temperature and checking for leaks. We shut it down and rechecked the fluids and decided to call it a day. There were a few things added to the to do list....the brakes are a bit mushy, and a few electrical things aren't working (probably grounds and corroded contacts in a couple of switches).

The last thing on the list for the day was Cade cleaning the chrome air cleaner lid.


Air Cleaner by M Patterson, on Flickr


I'm not quite ready (and neither is the car) to let him take a couple of laps around the arena yet so I drove the car back to the shed and Cade got the consolation prize and drove the lawnmower back.

All in all it was another good Sunday for both of us.




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