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Re: More Chevelle updates
Trans mount is in.
Crossmember is under the car (but not bolted down to the frame yet). Speedo adapter is in. The new Mark Williams 4" X.083" wall drive shaft has been ordered. The new center-to-center length with the MW 39006-1 pinion yoke is 56.125". That gives a critical speed rating of ~7250 rpm which is good for just over 130 mph with the existing 4.56 gears and just a tick over 160 with the up-coming 3.73 geared 12 bolt. I don't foresee any more driveshaft issues on the horizon at this point. More later. |
Re: More Chevelle updates
Get your driveshaft Eric?
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Not yet...chomping at the bit something awful over here...
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I'm told the driveshaft is going to ship out today.
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Excited for an update.
Jason |
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Driveshaft is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow.
Naturally, there's rain in the forecast for the next ~5 days--save for Saturday, so depending on when the `shaft arrives, I'll try for an "a-holes and elbows" thrash to get the car back together in time for a weekend road report update. More eventually. |
Re: More Chevelle updates
The driveshaft arrived today. I stood and watched as the UPS guy precariously balanced the box in the doorway of the truck, went back in the truck to retrieve another box, stepped out of the truck, and promptly knocked the box over onto the sidewalk. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]
LUCKILY MW packaged the `shaft well and there was no damage. http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...psmo7e9x4w.jpg On the right:...<span style="font-style: italic">"<span style="font-size: 8pt">wimpy wimpy wimpy</span>"</span> On the left...<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">"HEFTY HEFTY HEFTY"</span></span></span> http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...seq4oilgp.jpeg I crawled under the car, crossed everything that was anatomically possible to cross, slid the `shaft up to the back of the trans, and by nothing short of a miracle, the damned thing fits. I still need to raise the tail of the trans as high as I can to try to get the engine/trans driveline angle back where it needs to be, and I've got about 3/4" to work with before the `shaft hits the trans tunnel. I'll be out bright & early tomorrow to try to get everything wrapped up. More soon...I hope. |
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Sweeeeeeeeeeet!
That shaft looks like its aching to get a beating [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/3gears.gif[/img] |
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Everything is installed save for wiring up the reverse lights (not worried about that at this point), installing the shifter bezel and filling the trans. I had hoped to get everything wrapped up today, but an unexpected visitor put things on hold for just a bit.
Dave, a.k.a. "bodyguy" called me clear out of the blue and asked if he could come by today to take care of a few minor paint issues on the car (small scratch from installing the rear window trim, a minor boo-boo @ the antenna hole, and a speck of foreign material in the clear at the deck filler panel). A few hours later all was good, but by then my get up & go had got up & went. I'll have it wrapped up tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to post a report, but we're supposed to have some nasty weather roll in tomorrow afternoon/evening and I have yard work to do before that hits. |
Re: More Chevelle updates
BTW, the trans is as tight to the floorpan as possible w/o hitting, and there's 1/2"+ between the yoke & the trans tunnel. Unfortunately it appears my driveline angle is a whisker (~1°) off now, and the only way to address it is to get that engine back down where it belongs.
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Turns out the clutch fork got borked up.
Trans has to come back out so I can swap the fork. Will order parts tomorrow, hope to have them Tuesday. *sigh* |
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You are certainly earning your stripes on this one. Keep your chin up Eric!
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Ooops -- this is what I got from the link ... TAZ
bluehost Affordable, Reliable Web Hosting Solutions. 404 Error File Not Found The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable Is the issue on my end? |
Re: More Chevelle updates
Taz;
I posted this reply a few pages back: <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: VintageMusclecar</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Those images were on my old website, the links are no good any more. The pics are now hosted on my current website: click here instead. </div></div> |
Re: More Chevelle updates
From start (turn key) at exactly 1:00 p.m. today to trans out and bellhousing off:
<25 minutes. That's with hand tools. By myself. There's something wrong with that picture... |
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Had it in and out a few times, eh? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img] I remember laying on my back and farting around with my brother Gary's 4 speed in his 67 Camaro. Got really GOOD at taking it out and putting it back in...LOL
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Turns out it wasn't the clutch fork after all.
I had the trans in & out of the car 3 times in 4 days and thanks to several brainstorming sessions with Jody Haag, I *think* I've got it sorted out. Note that the issue(s) had nothing to do with the trans itself, it was all inside the bellhousing. (As soon as I'm sure everything's resolved I'll post up the details of what I ran into) I got everything buttoned up yesterday, but thanks to a contractor who wound up showing up an hour late, the entire days schedule got screwed up so I wasn't able to get the car out for a shakedown drive. We were under a severe weather watch all day today (and yesterday as well, FWIW), and with the way my luck's been running I wasn't about to chance taking it out and have something go awry only to be stuck out in nasty weather. As soon as I'm confident the weather's going to hold for at least a few hours I'll get it back out. |
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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: VintageMusclecar</div><div class="ubbcode-body">From start (turn key) at exactly 1:00 p.m. today to trans out and bellhousing off:
<25 minutes. That's with hand tools. By myself. There's something wrong with that picture... </div></div> Man.... I can relate. I recently had my Muncie out a few times due to defective new clutch parts. On the third try, I got it down to about 45 mins, and that includes shifter boot, shifter, driveshaft, bellhousing, clutch. That's also laying on my back, by myself, with simple hand tools. It gets easy the third time around! LOL [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/wink.gif[/img] |
Re: More Chevelle updates
I finally managed to get the car out for a short test drive. As of now, everything seems to be working well. I still have a nasty exhaust leak (or 2) to take care of thanks to the damage done by the old driveshaft, but I'll try to get that addressed within the next week or so.
So here's what I ran into: Once the trans was in, I took the car for a short drive around the block. I noted a definite lack of clutch pedal travel, and there was a chirping noise whenever the clutch was depressed, or when the car was in neutral and the clutch was at rest. I had my lovely assistant Rachel get in the car and depress the clutch while I was underneath looking for the lack of pedal travel. It didn't take long to find it. When I first installed the trans, I'd noticed I had an extra 1/2"+ between the clutch pushrod and fork when I went to adjust it. I wasn't sure what caused that, but I went ahead and adjusted it anyways. When I had Rachel depress the clutch pedal, I noted the back of the fork was actually bottoming out at the back of the fork window on the bellhousing before she got the pedal all the way to the floor. This is what led me to initially believe the fork had gotten bent when the Muncie scattered. As such, I'd ordered a new McLeod HD fork and adjustable throwout bearing. When the parts arrived, I pulled the trans back out, but upon comparison of the old fork to the new McLeod unit, two things were noted. First, the old fork wasn't bent after all. Second, the McLeod is the later `72 up style that's about 1" longer from the pivot ball to the pushrod cup, so it wasn't going to work. I reinstalled the old fork with the new McLeod throwout bearing, and as it turns out, I wound up needing all 3 spacers to get my clutch fork to rest at the correct 5°-7° forward rest position. Here's how it wound up once everything was back together. http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...pskzkkoa8h.jpg This brought my clutch pedal travel back and also improved the Z bar geometry that had never been really right from day 1--which I'd attributed to the bar being a repop POS, but that's another rant for another time. http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...pslzh9pgpb.jpg http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...pslpmkn7ys.jpg http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...pscjl2swxq.jpg Still at a loss as to why everything required such a different adjustment, I went back over everything. As it turns out, I'd failed to notice that the new clutch disc was significantly thicker than the old unit was--approx. .285" for the old disk (which had less than 100 miles on it mind you) and approx. .345" for the new disk. The extra .060" thickness caused the fingers on the pressure plate to compress further than they had with the original disk, which increased the gap between the pressure plate fingers and the throwout bearing--that explained why I'd lost so much travel. Thinking I had everything resolved, I put it back together. As fate would have it, while my clutch pedal travel was much improved, the chirping was still there. I pulled the trans back out, took some pics and made another call to Jody. He asked me to send him the pics, and he spotted what was causing the chirping noise almost immediately. Note the very tip of the input shaft in the pic below: http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...pshh1bffzj.jpg See where it's been polished? That was caused by the new pilot bearing I'd installed when I replaced the trans. I <span style="font-weight: bold">thought</span> I'd purchased a quality unit, a National PB656HD: http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...ps4hgncncn.jpg As it turns out, it's not a true bronze bushing. Jody instructed me to test it with a magnet to see if it was ferrous--which it was. Apparently these units are known to cause problems since they aren't a true bronze bushing. This one was grabbing the input shaft and causing it to turn at all times when the trans wasn't in gear, and that was the cause of the chirping noise. I called my friend "Ohio" George Montgomery to see if he had any of the old "good" bushings in stock, and he assured me he did so I sent Rachel out to pick one up. <span style="font-style: italic">Just in case,</span> I sent a magnet along with her...turns out it's a good thing I did. George dug out a very old box of bushings, and much to everyone's surprise, every single one of them was magnetic. He did a little more digging and found an Allstar ALL26112 extended pilot bearing hanging on the wall. These are intended for use when a block plate has been installed to ensure adequate engagement of the input shaft to the pilot bushing. http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...ps9fcmt76x.jpg A quick check with the magnet revealed it to be a true bronze bushing--but would the extra thickness turn out to be an issue? I removed the old bushing and measured the difference between the two bushings. The only difference was the thickness of the extra flange on the front of the Allstar bushing, and there was ample room on the input shaft to accommodate it--not only accommodate, but provide even more support for the input shaft. Another thing worth noting re: these two bushings-- When I first built this car I installed an identical National bushing, and I noted it was extremely difficult to install, actually raising up a burr around the outside edge when I drove it in the back of the crank. I didn't care for that so I removed it, bought another new bushing, and this time I lightly sanded the OD before installing it. This helped, but it was still an awfully tight fit. Of course, I ran into the exact same situation this time around, but once I removed the "old" (new) National bushing, I noted that the Allstar bushing was MUCH easier to install, only requiring a few firm taps to go in where the National required far more effort. SO...once again I reinstalled the trans (last Saturday) and I've been patiently waiting for a break in the rain to get the car back out. The opportunity presented itself this afternoon, and I'm happy to report the chirping is gone and the trans shifts like butter. :thumbsup: There are a few other things to note on this installation: 1) Since I had to install shims between the motor mounts and the engine block to raise the engine enough to clear the Milodon oil pan, I am unable to raise the back of the trans enough to get the driveline angle where it needs to be. With the old Muncie I had the engine at ~4° rearward tip, but with the Legend box I'm at 5° and have no more room to raise the trans. I'm not sure how I'm going to address this just yet, but when I do I'll post it up. 2) The shifter sits in the opening beautifully. However, I found the shifter arm to be too far towards the drivers side with it mounted on the left side of the adapter as shown below: Continued... |
Re: More Chevelle updates
Shifter in 1st gear:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...pskz6griq5.jpg Shifter in neutral: http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...pspvhewxa5.jpg Shifter lever mounted on the left side of the adapter, which I moved over to the right side of the adapter (but forgot to snap a pic of): http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...psxrwjhk8e.jpg Shifter in 1st gear: http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...psxb5bt7jf.jpg Shifter in neutral: http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...ps7wafwxlc.jpg Lastly, I only had to make a few tiny modifications to some existing crossmember holes in the frame to get the crossmember bolted down. There were two holes spaced closely together on the drivers side, and with a forward bolt installed the rearward bolt wanted to fall right between the two holes. I removed the small section of metal between the two holes and the bolt dropped right in place. http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...ps0vye3h9i.jpg http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...psgvqbfs1z.jpg On the passenger side, there were two holes that lined up almost perfectly. I only had to run a drill bit through the forward hole to give it a touch more clearance and it bolted right together. http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...pstwrducnb.jpg So that's it for the time being. As soon as I get the exhaust damage repaired I'll get it back out and report back with a more extensive road review. For future reference, here is my entire driveline "package": -Hays Billet flywheel (approx. 975" thick) -Ram Powergrip HD clutch kit (comes with a # 402 cover) -Replaced Powergrip 10 spline disc with a # 310M 26 spline disc -Quicktime 6022 bellhousing and block plate -McLeod adjustable throwout bearing, all 3 spacers installed -Original "short" `67 Chevelle clutch fork -Mark Williams 39006-1 12 bolt pinion yoke (1" taller than OEM, utilizes 1350 U-joint) -Mark Williams 4" MS drive shaft, 56 1/8" center-to-center length. Again, I need to offer a <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="text-decoration: underline">HUGE</span></span></span> thanks to Jody Haag for his assistance with all of this and for collectively brainstorming with me to get the snafu's figured out. He's definitely got any transmission business I can give him from this point on. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img] |
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Just in time as we're getting reports of a storm headed this way with 60 mph winds...gott'a love it. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]
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And the Beat Goes On -- very descriptive ... thanks!
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Very nice on the motor plate style pilot bushing. I have one like that in my car that I made in the lathe from Oilite after becoming frustrated with the quality of store-bought ones. The extra flange also helps it seat more squarely into the back of the crank and the extra support on the input shaft is always nice too. I actually have an adjustable reamer in my tool box that I keep set to the ID of the pilot bushing to ream them back to size after installation.
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My boy you definitely need to open a speed and mechanical shop! With your attention to detail and your mechanical aptitude, plus you seem to know a little about carburetors, you will have them lining up down the street! Since I was unable to talk you into coming to work for me in this lovely state of Illinois I think you need to branch out! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/3gears.gif[/img]
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Rick, if there was any feasible way to make that happen, I'd be on it like ugly on an ape.
Unfortunately I just don't see that happening for me any time soon. In all honesty, if things don't pick up soon, I may wind up going back to a 9-5 myself. |
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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SS427</div><div class="ubbcode-body">My boy you definitely need to open a speed and mechanical shop! With your attention to detail and your mechanical aptitude, plus you seem to know a little about carburetors, you will have them lining up down the street! Since I was unable to talk you into coming to work for me in this lovely state of Illinois I think you need to branch out! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/3gears.gif[/img] </div></div>
X2.......Eric, I've spoke with you on the phone a few times and read most of your projects and I agree with Rick.....you have you sh*t together and SHOULD have your own shop cause you flat out know your stuff! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img] Kurt :twocents: |
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Thank you Kurt.
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Agreed on your attention to detail, it's amazing. Best of luck on any related endeavors.
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OK...add another one to the "WTF" files. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/hmmm.gif[/img]
I've been chasing after a rattling noise since I got the new trans in. For all intents and purposes, it sounded exactly, and I mean <span style="font-style: italic">exactly</span> like a nasty exhaust leak. I've been under the car several times to try to find it, all to no avail. I just crawled out from under the car again after shimming up the back of the trans as far as it will go. (I'm going to have to trim the shifter hole to go any higher, that's all there is to it but that's a post for a later date). I fired the car up and stuck my head under the car to try to find the source of the rattle. Oddly enough, it doesn't sound like it's coming from under the car at all...as a matter of fact, there are no unusual under-car noises at all. The noise sounds like it's coming from the engine bay towards the front of the car. I peek my head over the door and look towards the engine bay, and that's when I see the fan belt jumping wildly. At first I thought the fan was hitting the shroud, so I shut it off and checked the fan--nope, not hitting the shroud. So I take a look at the alternator....hmmmm.... http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...pswd4zrae7.jpg See anything..."unusual" here???... It took me a moment to see it.... Look at the bottom of the alternator case. http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...psvhof2oor.jpg The alternator case cracked! It must've happened when the old driveshaft went kerflooie...who would've thought that could transmit enough energy through the engine to crack the friggin' alternator?!? SO here shortly I'm off to the parts store to pick up another alternator. HOPEFULLY this is the last little gremlin to be evicted from the car. With any luck I'll be back later with a road report. |
Re: More Chevelle updates
Eric -- that's commonly referred to as an a-sh#$ ... collateral damage. An Ultima alt – covered by warranty? TAZ
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Not even going to try to warranty it, it wasn't the alternator's fault.
Chalk it up to "$h*t happens". |
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Better parts cracking then you getting hurt going down the road. That could have been ugly...
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Crazy question, but shouldn't all the damage that occurred be covered under your collector car insurance policy? If you had been driving and the driveshaft let go, and did all this damage, it would be covered. So shouldn't the same be said if it was in your driveway? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/hmmm.gif[/img]
(Sorry but it's just the lawyer in me...) [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img] |
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I never even gave that a thought to be honest.
I doubt it, but I'll look over the policy just in case. |
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You definitely have it well documented if it is well covered. Crazy about the alternator. I hope that is the last crack you find.
Jason |
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That's a first for me. Man have you had some luck lately!
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Tony, you don't know the half of it brother. As of late, I make Schleprock look like King Midas.
Enniehoo...the new alternator's on. No more noises, all systems are go. Turns out the parts store will at least give me the core refund even though the case is busted. Yay. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img] I just finished mowing the lawn, and I need to find out what time Rachel will be back so I can see if I'll have time to get the car out this evening. We're scheduled for rail all friggin' week again ( [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/mad.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/mad.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/mad.gif[/img] ), so if it's not tonight, it'll be some time next week. Now......where'd I put my oars...... |
Re: More Chevelle updates
I just got back from a ~15 minute drive around town, and I'm happy to report all seems well so far. Time was short tonight so I wasn't able to stay out long, but once we get another hole in the weather I'll get it back out for a little more road time.
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Re: More Chevelle updates
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: VintageMusclecar</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I just got back from a ~15 minute drive around town, and I'm happy to report all seems well so far. Time was short tonight so I wasn't able to stay out long, but once we get another hole in the weather I'll get it back out for a little more road time. </div></div>
[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img] |
Re: More Chevelle updates
Nice!!
I'll bet that kind soul at the auto parts store really thought he did you a favor giving you the core on that alternator ;-) |
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