Shipwrights Right

When Bobby "pawned" this car off on me, he did say "No warranty". I have to keep remembering that he had the car for five years or so and a lot of the build out was ten or more years old. So what does this have to do with Shipwright's disease you may ask?

Follow me on the case with the gearshift bushing I replaced this weekend:

new bushing installed

Owner finds oil leak
Owner removes motor.
Owner tears motor down, replaces, bolts and gaskets and seals.
Owner buttons motor back up and tries to install motor with transmission still in car.
Owner decides it would be easier to mate gearbox to motor instead of motor to gearbox.
Owner removes gearbox. Mates motor to gearbox.
Owner lowers engine and gearbox into engine bay.
Owner realizes shift lever won't clear firewall. It did with motor not attached to it.
Owner removes shift lever.
Owner realizes shift lever bushing is crumbling and needs replacing.

Motor and gearbox going back into car

Point here is the gearshift bushing really was fine until it was disturbed. And it shows the "cause and effect" that happens when you start tearing into a motor. You set off a chain of events that sometimes feel like they are out of control and when will it ever end?

Old gearshift bushing and new kit

In the course of this teardown, I've had to make compromises I know I will have to revisit later. There are a couple of bolts that didn't quite tighten up enough to make me comfortable but to replace would mean re-doing hours of labor and buying more gaskets. My hope is they hold for the two races I need to get through. The cam timing needs to be revisited. Or not. A quick check showed it to be advanced about 8 degrees. It seemed to be running well so instead of removing the timing cover and destroying another gasket I would need to replace, I'll get through these two races and delve into that task during the next rebuild. Let's she how she runs first.

As I write this, I think, do I just go ahead and replace the water pump now? I could order a new one and carry it with me to the track. I might have a spare on the shelf but how good is it?
Ahhh Shipright's...