21. One setback after another!!

I really don't seem to have much luck at the moment well not good luck anyway, The plan was...we were going to fix the trucks exhaust, change some gaskets on the race car to stop the oil leaks and race it this weekend...but! my son had a wee bit of an accident in his car the day before all this was due to happen and seeing he is my crew chief we had to cancel.

Ok so on to plan B go up and sort the car and truck out this Friday and if anything goes wrong we still had Saturday as well, So I was up at 4:45am left the house with the car loaded by 10 to 6 am....

Generator, tools, tool box, welding gear, axle stands, jacks etc etc. I met my son in Bedford at 9am and by 9:20am we were at the truck, and from that moment everything went wrong ..really wrong.

First job get the bottom pulley off and change the oil seal that is leaking rather badly and take the timing cover off and change the gasket, first thing we noticed was the fuel pump was a bit loose we took it off removed the battery box and then got well and truly stuck as the bottom pulley refused to budge...so we travelled the length and breadth of Bedford and Kempston looking in every tool shop there was trying to find a different pulley puller, did we find one...no, in Steve's shop in Swindon he has them on the shelf LOL Two hours later we went back to the truck and with an almighty effort Steve managed to get the pulley off and then the timing cover.

While Steve was getting the pulley off I took the injector stacks off ready to clean them off and also if we got time we were going to take the inlet manifold off and reseal it, Steve also took the rocker covers off as we were going to change those gaskets too, one of the rocker boxes was loose and I mean loose I could undo the nuts with my fingers and when Steve looked he found a bit of damage to one of the rockers..boy oh boy all I wanted to do was drive a dragster not to strip it and replace tons of parts..

Then on top of that when we looked at the timing cover we found out why the pump was loose there are cracks going through the tapped holes which hold the pump onto the cover which means we are never going to be able to tighten it up properly.

I have now got try and source another cover and a new rocker and push rod as someone has ground the end and I believe they are either toughened or heat treated either way grinding it will weaken it.

My generator was not man enough to power my sons welding gear so we cant fix the rotted exhaust on the truck and I can't afford a new one so I have no idea what to do now? and then it wouldn't start again..getting depressed now after all the money I have paid out so far it looks like my dream of travelling down the sacred tarmac of Santa Pod is fast evaporating...!