I was finally able to get it running back around January 11 or so. I replaced the fuel pump after doing a little more testing with it. It still wouldn’t start though. Eventually I decided to go back and look at a picture from when I first bought the car and roughly set the timing based on that, just rotating the distributor to about the same position. That got it running.

During the initial run I discovered I had several major coolant leaks, which turned out to be hose clamps that I just didn’t tighten down well enough. I got the cam broken in after a bit.

I double checked things and figured I’d take it to get an inspection, when I realized I couldn’t get it into gear—it’d just grind. I adjusted the clutch pedal rod practically all the way to the end so it’d have the least amount of free play, and that got the clutch working. It still needs adjustment somewhere though, as the clutch doesn’t disengage until it’s rather near the floor, so there’s a good 4” or so of free play probably.

After getting that taken care of, I was able to take it around the block. It died a few times as it really doesn’t like to idle, and it’s a major pain to get it restarted. The brakes also still didn’t feel quite right (turns out I still have a couple little leaks at the hard line fittings). Sadly by then it was a bit after 4pm, I still needed to get gas, an inspection, and make it to the DMV to renew my plates before 5. Since things weren’t quite right with it and I still needed to break it in, I decided to just wait instead of trying to rush through everything. It was nice to finally be able to drive it again, though.

Now it’s back in the garage, and hopefully I’ll finally be able to actually finish it over spring break and drive it back. This is going to be a really busy semester though, so we’ll see.