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3:08 Pontiac axle. That’s not the main reason for swapping it, I think it needs pinion bearings and I don’t feel like dealing with that. I think it was a bad purchase and maybe I shouldn’t throw more good money after bad. My old rear end has only 50,000 miles on it and I know it has not been drag raced. It’s a 250 hp 2 barrel car with a two speed auto and I don’t plan on making any other performance improvements, so I’m thinking I may as well put it back to the way it was and use a little less gas. Also it saves me the trouble of changing the speedometer gears. I’ve been on the fence about it, but I think this probably the way to go.
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Apr 1, 2023 06:05
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| # ? May 1, 2024 17:30 |
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Here’s the axle swap completed. Improvised substitute for a slide hammer - bolt an old brake drum on it backwards and give it a good yank.  I pulled the axles first so that I could leave the brakes in place.   
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Jun 9, 2023 03:01
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Water pump replacement - Visible on the old pump is a trail of ooze running out of the weep hole. I could also feel a little looseness in the shaft. The first pump I got was the wrong one, it was for a A/C equipped Cutlass which is 1/4 inch longer. This prevents the pulleys from lining up. Reassembled with the correct pump -  While starting the engine to check for leaks I noticed the harmonic balancer has developed a wobble so add that to the list.
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Jun 9, 2023 03:33
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Fornax Disaster posted:Water pump replacement - Nice to see this progressing. Keep it up! And I hate it when you replace one part, only to find another, and another... Such is life.
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Jun 11, 2023 13:56
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I did a fix that I hope will cure both my leaking transmission and intermittent speedometer. It was leaking from the speedometer gear housing. This is mounted in the transmission tailshaft housing and contains the driven plastic gear.  Here it is removed. Visible inside is the gear on the tailshaft that drives the one in the gear housing. These plastic gears are the ones that need to be changed to correct the speedometer when changing differential ratios or tire sizes.  The probable cause of the leak is probably the shaft seals shown in this illustration in the service manual. I think these seals may still be available individually but I found the complete housing and gear for sale together. I figure I should probably get parts like this when I find them because who knows how much longer they’ll be available.  Supplier for these is called LA Speedometer and they seem to specialize in old GM speedometer parts.  I changed the speedometer cable while I was at it. I have been having trouble keeping the old cable engaged at both ends, if I push it into the gauge it disconnects at the transmission and vice versa. I don’t see an obvious reason for this, it seems like this isn’t a problem with the new one, we’ll see. 
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Jun 14, 2023 03:01
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| # ? May 1, 2024 17:30 |
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I’ve added some auxiliary gauges, it has only had warning lights up to this point. I don’t like how tacked on and out of place these usually look so I made my own housing out of sheet styrene. I layered it up a fair bit hoping that will keep it from warping in a hot interior. I designed to be shaped like a slimmed down version of the factory 8 track housing.  It’s painted satin black with vinyl glued on the front panel for some texture. Gauges are from the Bosch Style Line series. Voltmeter, mechanical temperature gauge and electrical oil pressure gauge.    I was able to keep the oil pressure warning light functional by teeing it off the same fitting as the gauge sender.  The elbow fitting is the same as used on cars with a factory oil pressure sender. This is a 455 we have for another project showing how it was used.  My assembly installed, fit pretty well. I wasn’t able to retain the warning light for coolant temperature, the mechanical gauge can’t be teed off in the same way. That extra plug in intake manifold behind the oil senders would have been a great place to put it so I could have both, but I can’t get it out. 
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Jun 18, 2023 02:09
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