[The Glademister]

Excellent weather this morning for working in the garage. I got a nice package of new parts and I'm ready to get the water pump and timing belt changed. I noted that the combo bracket that holds the coolant reservoir and AOS was corroded so I pulled that, wire brushed to clean metal, primed and painted with enamel. I did the same to the coolant cross-over pipe. The chassis under the bracket was dirty but no rust. I love working on a galvanized car! Getting that water pump on was a struggle with the coolant pipes and that turbo oil supply pipe. Tight fit for sure. Of course I had the crank at TDC and noted that the timing mark on the cam was at 9 o'clock, odd. So I put my own mark on the back of the sprocket at the pointer. Bottom line, the car is running okay so the timing must be right. Anyway, I got the timing belt on and installed a new tensioner pulley. So I fabricated a spanner with a bar that I drilled two 1/8" holes, a couple of trimmed off nails and welded them to the back. Worked great! Then I started putting everything back together but left the timing belt cover off for now. I want to keep an eye on things till I get the engine sorted. I also welded up a crack in the cover, stripped and painted it also.