Chevelle updates

[VintageMusclecar]

Ever get that feeling that you're being ****ed with by inanimate objects? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/crazy.gif[/img]

Picked up the new pinion nut from Kammers yesterday on the way to Kil-Kare. I crawled under the car this morning to install the new MW yoke, and the nut absolutely refused to start on the threads.

<span style="font-weight: bold">W</span>hiskey
<span style="font-weight: bold">T</span>ango
<span style="font-weight: bold">F</span>oxtrot

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/mad.gif[/img]

Pull the yoke back off, the old nut threads right on...new nut barely goes 1/4 turn and that's it. Long story short, the threads on the pinion were slightly boogered up from the factory nut. I hop back onto Al Gore's intrawebz and after a couple of quick searches find out that the pinion thread is 7/8-16...an oddball size, wouldn't ya know?!? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Burning up the phone lines to try to find a die of said size--check the local high-end tool emporium...nope, not in stock. Check Kammers, no luck there either.

SO...I crawled back under the car, and wound up using the new pinion nut to chase the threads on the pinion;

Clean the threads on the pinion &amp; nut, oil both, start the nut, give it 1/8 turn with the ratchet, remove, clean everything and start the process over. After ~10 minutes I finally have the threads cleaned up.

So I slide the new yoke back in place, put the washer in place, start the nut, then run it down snug with the ratchet.

Since the rear has a solid pinion spacer instead of a crush sleeve, the nut gets torqued to 125 lb.ft. I set the torque wrench, slip the socket over the nut, and wouldn't you know it, there's not enough room to swing the torque wrench before the end hits the floor.

As Clint Eastwood said in &quot;Heartbreak Ridge&quot;, <span style="font-style: italic">&quot;You adapt. You overcome. You improvise.&quot;</span>

Suffice it to say the nut's torqued. (almost as tightly as the owner by this point...)

Driveshaft has been ordered from Mark Williams, should be a week or so out. That should give me enough time to get the crossmember and speedometer cable figured out.

Not sure if I'm going to put an X-pipe back in the car at this point or not. That's something I'd planned to test on the chassis dyno once all the other bugs had been worked out, but obviously that plan didn't work out. I'm thinking about going to a conventional dual system for now just for simplicity's sake, and maybe later on down the road I'll make up another x-pipe to test it against.

More eventually.

[napa68]

Your car sounds like a passionate Italian woman I used to be friendly with. A great ride but you earned every bit of it in combat[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

[VintageMusclecar]

This is precisely how I feel at this point:

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[markinnaples]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: napa68</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Your car sounds like a passionate Italian woman I used to be friendly with. A great ride but you earned every bit of it in combat[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img] </div></div>

That. Was. Great.