72 TA : New Project

[SS427]

Persistance pays! You don't give up easily that is for sure.

[njsteve]

While my subscription copy still hasn't arrived, I went to Borders last night and found the December 2010 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines on the newstand. They have the car featured in the Restoration section and Part I is six pages long. I believe Part II will be in the Jan issue. It was cool to see the car finally in print (other than the 6-year-feature here)
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[markinnaples]

NJSteve, I got my copy last week; nice write up on a great restoration. Congrats!

[Xplantdad]

As it should be! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]

[SS427]

Well deserced Steve!

[mockingbird812]

Congrats Mac! Well done. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img] I 'spect it will be running for about 17 editions to cover your restoration! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/whistle.gif[/img]

[StealthBird]

Congrats Steve! I received my HMM last Saturday, and it's a very nice write up on your project. I also thought it was pretty cool that at the end of the article, they actually print a link to this forum, and this thread, for more info!

Such a great looking car! The 72 Trans Am, with the honeycomb grilles and honeycomb wheels, is just a beautiful combo.

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[njsteve]

Got the proportioning/combination valve back from one of the Performance Years website members, 70RAIII (Bill Oxley) who did a really nice job rebuilding it. He indicated that it was all stuck inside, so it wasn't really functioning as anything other than a T-fitting between the front and back fluid routes. Now it's actually working as designed, which is a good thing since if I recall correctly, one of the critical roles of this valve is to internally shift and block the internal passages if one circuit springs a leak and loses fluid. That way you still have braking power for the remaining circuit.

Another thing I noticed is that the purple DOT 5 silicone brake fluid turns yellow after a few years. Even the leftover, half a bottle I still had on the shelf, turned the same yellow. I'd imagine that means it's time to replace it all, which I did. I flushed the entire system and replaced it with new DOT 5 silicone brake fluid, about four bottles worth, to get all the old stuff out and completely flush the system of the four year old fluid.

The newly refurbished proportioning/combination valve, just back from Bill Oxley:



And after the installation and the brake bleed-a-thon:

[kwhizz]

Great Article and a great job on the car.........Congrat's Steve............

Ken

[njsteve]

Thanks! I've been trying to put some miles on the car before winter. Started the whole project when the car had 114,163 on it. Put about 80 miles on her today and finally got the odometer to 115,000, so thats about 850 miles on the car since finished. Another 150 or so before the magic 1,000 mile mark. Plugs are still burning perfectly clean.

The one thing I've learned about Pontiacs is that they are very cold-natured when it comes to needing a warm up. You really have to let this car warm up to operating temperature before driving it. Once that choke pull off engages, she's good to go, but very cranky if you try to drive her before she's ready.

I've also finally run out of little noises and bugs to get rid of, from the squeeking front shock bushings, to the tach reading wrong, to the lean secondary rods and bad accellerator pump, to the steering column/clutch rod ringing, to the bad o-ring in the proportioning valve. I guess it never really ends.

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