We got the Tempest running yesterday without a hitch thanks to all the preplanning and careful reassembly. We still have a few minor bugs to work out but the initial 1.5 mile road test was successful. The carb idle screws needed to be turned out a little (didn't worry about them on the dyno) to 3 turns each side from seated, coolant temp was 180 (85 degrees & humid), the TH400 shifted firmly, and the exhaust sounded really nice (without the X-pipe and a bit louder). I have a couple plain black air cleaner lids that I need to glass bead and paint yet to replace the old chrome lid that's on the car temporarily. The power drum brakes work great and will throw you through the windshield if you aren't careful...I'm used to non-assisted manual drums, so this is different. The manual steering adds to the bare-bones look and buck-wagon driving experience, but I like it that way.
We discovered the steering wheel is clocked 90 degrees off center when driving straight and the wheel is indexed correctly on the hub (does drive true down the road...no pulling or out of caster issues), so it's going to the alignment shop next week to correct. We also need to reattach the in-dash factory tach yet...forgot to reattach the coil lead.
Dennis
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