I have been having minor frustration with my 73 since I got it in that it just seems determined to develop exhaust leaks on the DS exhaust manifold. I nailed it once with a new gasket where the pipe meets the exhaust manifold. That worked for 4 weeks, and I hardly drove the car! Another gasket lasted a week. I then replaced the nuts, greased the threads after cleaning them, and installed new lock-washers and really went after it with a long-handled wrench. That took care of that, but the thing started leaking between the block and the manifold after I'd replaced that gasket already, too. I got really tired of it and took off the manifold completely with the plan of letting my machinist talk to it about being flat and smooth on the mating surfaces. Apparently, machinists don't like cast-iron manifolds, because all three shops that I went to made crucifixes with their fingers at my part and told me that those parts ruin machine tools. One guy was impressed that I had a 440 manifold with EGR tubes in it (apparently most do not) and pointed out that he'd have to remove those to do anything mentionednd montioned lots of money being involved. Being a cheapskate has its plusses and minuses. In this case, it helped, because I decided that I was going to go home and teach it what's what. I clamped it into my vise and used my 10,000 RPM grinder with 6" braided wire wheel on it, and removed several layers of petrified gasket material. The exhaust leak had fried the valve cover several times over, and oil had been soaking into the various gaskets from the roasted valve cover gasket (the leak pointed straight at it), making everything black and all just one big carbon and oil mess. The wire wheel went straight down to bare metal and a straight edge proved that the thing appeared true and flat. I then did this to the exhaust outlet on the manifold with similar results. I then took the die grinder (air tool) with a 3" wire wheel and cleaned all the threads and the head surfaces, leaving shiny smooth metal everywhere. Lastly, I replaced the rotten, rusted nuts with new ones and lock washers. New gaskets, serious leverage to tighten everything, and a few choice words, and Voila! No more leak. This reminded me that I should stop being a dependent sissy and work on things harder before giving up and tossing them to "experts" for $90 an hour. Now that I had the exhaust licked, I addressed my car's timing. I'd had it tuned by someone that I trust a year ago, but was always hard to start. The car required multiple pumps on the pedal and 3-4 turns before it caught. It also tended to "diesel" after the ignition was turned off, coughing, spitting, and sputtering. I kept having a hard time with the socket wrench with a long extension or the box wrench on the distributor bolt that's down there in the confined space under vacuumir cleaner and all the vauum tubing, and went to the local tool-palace to see what could be done. They promptly showed me a "distributor wrench", and I bought it immediately. If you don't have one, check it out before trying to tighten/loosen your distributor. It's a rod with a wrencharoundon the end that's bent to wrap arond the funny shape that the distributor is in its vertical plane, and the wrench was just like magic! It turns out that the car had been filled with unleaded regular in it (by me) when it was tuned, as this is what the previous owner had said worked fine. I'm a cheapskate, so what the heck, I bought cheap gas. The mechanic had consequently advanced the timing far enough to stop all pinging (caused by the cheapskate gas). It turns out that he had it REALLY advanced, because the car died when I advanced it just a hair more by mistake, and this should not happen. I filled the car with 91 octane gas and then tried fiddling with the timing, and was able to pull the timing waaaay back, settling the car into a smooth idle, and making it feel right for the first time since I got the car 3500 miles ago. It now starts, usually without even choke, stops without idling on, and has increased power and smoothness. Moral of the story: Take your car in with "super" gas if you get it tuned. If your car diesels after shutdown, this is possibly an indication of too-far advanced timing. They make distributor wrenches that work really well, and not everyone may be aware of them. Worth the money to buy one, says I. This was dieseling condition was asked about here on the IML by someone else, and the only answer offered was to shut the car off in gear to put so much drag on the engine that it couldn't continue to detonate without the ignition on. ----- What's left? I need to keep looking for a cheapskate way around the $250 they want to rebuild my idler arm (steering). These things are just not available locally (anywhere?) and I have to send mine out for a rebuild, according to the local parts-shop gentry. Any leads would be appreciated. I'm looking for a really nice rear bumper, but they all seem to be somewhere besides California. Please keep an eye out for one with good chrome that's "around". Also, when the car is shifted to reverse with a foot on the brake, it makes a rhythmic knocking sound. It has just started to do this in forward at rest with the brake, and there is harsh driveline vibration (perhaps unrelated) drive-shaft 90MPH. I'm suspecting that it is either a driveshaft in need of balancing and new joints, or I have a bad set of trans/motor mounts. The engine tends to move around a bit at idle, so I'm planning to dive under the caappreciate around. Been there already and have a tip? I'd appreicate whatever you already know on this portion of my challenge. ===== Kenyon Wills 6o LeBaron - America's Most Carefully Built Car 73 LeBaron - Long Low & Luxurious San Lorenzo/SF Bay Area __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com