Good vs. Bad Lifter

After having trouble with installing the new pushrod I decided that there must be something wrong with the lifter. After researching and getting advice from the forum my plan is to take the intake manifold off and see what is going on, and probably replace/rebuild the lifter. Before I start tearing into it I want to make sure what is going on with the lifter. So I bought a cheap usb snake camera to stick down the pushrod hold. Here is what I found. Pictures aren't perfect, but I think they show something. On the top is the bad lifter (as far as I know) and on the bottom is the good one (as far as I know).

It almost looks as if the internal part of the lifter is either gone or stuck in the down position. 

Discovering new problems

Well, after buying new pushrods and rocker arm I went to install them this morning. I was planning on switching out both the pushrods. The problem is, on the exhaust side (where the broken rocker and sheared pushrod were) I can't seem to find the lifter for the pushrod to rest in. The intake side sits nicely in the lifter and even with all the other pushrods, but the other side doesn't seem to rest in anything until it is way too far down. It's as if there is no lifter there. I could actually wiggle it around enough for it to fall all the way down into it if I wanted to. Below is a pic showing where the exhaust pushrod wants to sit (WAY below where it's supposed to).

Broken Rocker Arm / Push Rod

After finding out that the popping was coming from the 8th plug I decided to pull the valve cover. I discovered that the pushrod had actually broken the rocker arm and come through it. It sheared the tip of the pushrod off and wasn't functioning properly. I have the parts coming in today so hopefully that will be the solution to the popping issue. I'm going to go ahead and replace both rocker arms and pushrods.

AC Compressor

After looking into the A/C system more we learned that these originally took R12 freon. I need to recharge my system, but I'm not sure if mine has been converted to R134-A or not. Can anyone tell from this photo?

Update: This had been converted. And I filled it up with R134 and it blew cold!

Help from Dad

My parents were in town this weekend so my dad and I were able to knock out a lot of little, but pretty significant stuff with the interior of the car. First, we installed a new track in the driver window. The previous owner had bought the track, but just left it in the back, so that was a free fix. Its working beautifully now.

The back passenger door wasn't opening so we managed to get it open and lubricate it really well. It's now opening and closing great. Also greased the window track while we were in there. While I was working on windows I decided to open up the tailgate and lube up that window. It was already working, but some new grease and a little cleaning and it is working great...very smooth.

While I was working on windows and doors dad was taking apart the dash. There was something electrical that was draining the battery when the car wasn't running. It turned out it was the radio. The previous owners had it for 3 weeks before they sold it, and the one thing they did was install a really cheap radio. Well it wasn't working correctly and was running 12 volts all the time. He got that fixed, and then we looked at the heater and ac. They hadn't been running, but after some testing of the blowers we found that everything is running. The A/C still isn't getting cold, but I'm hoping it just needs to be recharged. We also changed out some turn signal bulbs that were causing all the turn signals and hazards to stop working. And lastly we switched out the radiator hose because the old one was leaking. So, overall we got a lot of the little nagging stuff out of the way in a short amount of time, and for a grand total of $20.

Learning what everything is

 

Hard Steel line running from back of carb and it was just hanging loose. I ended up removing it and plugging the port on the carb.

Loud pop! Backfiring from the carb

So this is the popping that is coming from the carb. We think the culprit might be something under the valve covers. Hopefully nothing major broken.