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Jonny Nox
Apr 26, 2008




I love this stupid project. I'm glad you're doing it.

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PBCrunch
Jun 17, 2002

Lawrence Phillips Always #1 to Me
The tires and the engine both look great. I would not have expected an orange engine to look so "right" in an avocado car.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...

PBCrunch posted:

The tires and the engine both look great. I would not have expected an orange engine to look so "right" in an avocado car.

It's "Lime," thankyouverymuch. :smuggo:

StormDrain
May 22, 2003

Thirteen Letter
We're on to you, you're just picking colors based on the cars contemporary appliances. Avocado green, orange, I bet you'll line the trunk in harvest gold.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
So a couple weeks ago now, we had a pretty nice weekend weather-wise so I thought it was time to get this loving thing out of the garage. I'd been starting it and running it for a bit, but there's still kind of a dead spot right when you get in the throttle. Feels like one of those things that I might be able to kind of drive out of it, you know? So I get it fired up and planned to take it down the block to a little cul-de-sac and bring it back home. Just a real quick short shakedown to make sure all my poo poo's groovy. So I start making my way down the block and I'm getting a pretty weird sound. Not like a rubbing or a clicking or grinding, but like a weird groany-whooshy sound. Just really strange. Sounded like it was coming vaguely from the back of the car so my thoughts immediately go to 'rear end'. So I make it down around the circle and get back in the garage and it dies about 10 feet from the door. Just quits. Still cranks but no fire. If I pour a little juice right down its throat, it'll run until it empties the carb. I crank on it long enough to where it starts sucking the battery down. At this point I say "gently caress this" and just pushed the loving thing back in the garage (with the help of my wife and neighbor - sloped driveway). At this point in time, the wind had been thoroughly removed from my sails and I was pretty depressed about the whole ordeal.

So the car's back in the garage and now I've got some time to do some thinking. Well, I wanna see if I can figure out what the hell that sound was. I didn't care for it. To try to narrow that down, I wanna get the rear end up in the air on some jack stands, fire it up, put it in drive, and see if I can hear anything weird coming from the axle. Well, if I wanna do that, I gotta get this thing fired back up first. I figured one of two things happened: my fuel pump did not like sitting for a good long while full of ethanol gas and killed itself, or I have the worst timing in the world (best timing?) and managed to run it out of gas within feet of its home. Fuel pump swap isn't a big deal, just a bit of a pain in the rear end getting the pushrod in place. I'm sure you SBC guys know. I've already done it once before so whatever. So I take the easy route first and throw a gallon or so of gas from the lawnmower/weedeater can in the tank (Sidenote: gently caress modern gas cans, especially when you're trying to finagle that stupid no-spill spout into a filler neck hiding behind a license plate). I give it a few more cranks but still get no love and my starter's slowing down. Whatever.

So a week goes by and Saturday's pretty nice and I got some other poo poo to do outside so I throw the battery charger on it and let that cook for a few hours while I work on some other stuff in the garage. Eventually I work myself up and decide to give it a crank and see what happens. Worst case, I gotta run down to NAPA, right? So I give it a pump and a crank and after a couple seconds it fires. And runs. And revs. It's fine. I ran out of loving gas. How dumb.

So let's get it in the air. Stands under the axle, blah blah blah. Fire it up, drop it in gear, and I've got zero weird sounds from the rear end. So that's good! The rear end in the car was assembled by a complete amateur and a bit of a dumbass, so I was afraid I'd have to tear it apart and see what self-destructed. Apparently not, though. So I'm sitting in the car kinda thinking and wondering about poo poo when I start to hear weird groany-whooshy noises that appear to be coming mainly from the trans tunnel. Quieter (but not silent) in park and a bit groanier in drive. So way-too-loving-long story made quite short, I'm pretty sure the trans is making weird sounds. Which is... eh? I had fluid on the dipstick when I checked, but maybe too much? I know overfilled transmissions can do weird poo poo. I'm gonna get it back up on the stands this coming weekend and see if I can get an accurate fluid level reading and go from there. Trans pan has a drain plug so I can always crack it and let some out if I got too much blood in it. Either way, that transmission is not a permanent fixture in this car, so I do actually feel better about things. I'll see if I can't get that figured out, get a little more gas in it (need a funnel with a tube, I think), and try Shakedown Mark III. As usual, sorry for the rambling mess of a brain dump but I just wanted to let you guys know the car's not dead.

StormDrain
May 22, 2003

Thirteen Letter
Lol I could feel it right from the jump you were out of gas. Strong foreshadowing, and far too many times that I've been there somehow. Last time I drove the Binder I went directly to the gas station and easily put 8 gallons in a tank that's notoriously hard to fill due to the geometry, so I bet it only has 10 gallons in it now and the two gallons it had was bunched up in the front of the tank. (sloped driveway, hotdog shaped tank).

honda whisperer
Mar 29, 2009

No gas is the worst "wtf it was just running". I've done it a lot.

Nidhg00670000
Mar 26, 2010

We're in the pipe, five by five.
Grimey Drawer

Boaz MacPhereson posted:

Fuel pump swap isn't a big deal, just a bit of a pain in the rear end getting the pushrod in place. I'm sure you SBC guys know.

The top bolt hole on the front of the block, next to the fuel pump boss is drilled all the way into the pump rod cavity. Take the bolt out, screw a longer bolt in there and it'll pinch the pushrod in place. Remove after install of fuel pump, put in the shorter bolt again. I'm amazed at the number of people who don't know this. (Or you do know this and is talking about another pain in the rear end, which in case my bad.)

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...

Nidhg00670000 posted:

The top bolt hole on the front of the block, next to the fuel pump boss is drilled all the way into the pump rod cavity. Take the bolt out, screw a longer bolt in there and it'll pinch the pushrod in place. Remove after install of fuel pump, put in the shorter bolt again. I'm amazed at the number of people who don't know this. (Or you do know this and is talking about another pain in the rear end, which in case my bad.)

:kstare:

Edit: This guy?

Boaz MacPhereson fucked around with this message at 13:38 on May 13, 2022

Nidhg00670000
Mar 26, 2010

We're in the pipe, five by five.
Grimey Drawer
That's the guy.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
I'll be damned. Last time I changed this stupid thing I looked around online for tips on keeping that pushrod out of the way and the only general consensus was something like 'pack the cavity full of thick grease and that'll hold the rod up' which just seems like a bigger pain in the rear end than trying to hold it in place with a screwdriver while you shove the new pump into place. Your post is the first time I've ever seen that bolt mentioned. Jesus. Good lookin' out, dude. I almost want to go pull it just to check the thread pitch and length so I can go buy a longer one just for potential future use.

Boaz MacPhereson fucked around with this message at 13:58 on May 13, 2022

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





I've never heard of that either and I definitely swore up a storm the one time I had to put a fuel pump on my old SBC.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Oh, some actual good news I totally forgot about while typing my whinefest: I think the car will do a burnout. When I had the car out on the driveway (pre-trip), I gave it a bit of the ol' two-pedal just to see what would happen and it did in fact spin both tires. I didn't lay any stripes down my blacktop or smoke out the neighborhood, but I watched the driver side spin and there's evidence left at the scene. Tells me that this engine isn't completely gutless and my LSD does appear to be doing its job. So a small win in an overall crappy day. Again, I'm wide open this weekend and the temps look good so I'll get out there and see if I can figure out the trans fluid level situation.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
I fuckin' told ya it'd do a burnout. Tire squeal and sideways movement included.



So I went and bought a longer funnel earlier when I was out doing some other poo poo and dumped a little more gas in the tank. I need to get some fat fuel line to clamp to it or something because it's drat near horizontal when I go to actually pour the gas. Fired it up (no charger needed; very small victory there, but I'll take it) and after letting it warm up a bit and running it through the gears (P -> L and back) a few times checked the trans dipstick. It was about a half inch below the "Add" line. Oops. It occurred to me then that when I previously checked it I don't think the car was actually running. Yeah. Duh. I had most of a quart of ATF laying around and it happily took it. It's still not full, but the general groaning while just sitting there running has abated considerably. I'll run out some time this week and grab another quart or two just to have around and get it to where it actually should be. Before I took it out for that last trip, I found a can of Seafoam and decided that I might as well use it. Put about half in the gas and half in the oil. It must be finally getting to work because the smoke showed up today while I was checking the trans fluid. Ha. No new test drive yet, but maybe this coming Saturday. I'm having some electrical work done in the garage (nothing exciting) and will need to move it out to the driveway. Not a bad day.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Alright, so, got some interesting news. I finally crossed the threshold into adulthood on Friday and asked my boss for a raise. I'm still waiting for the official reply, but I'm pretty sure I'm getting what I asked for, too. 30%. As a reward for not throwing up all over myself due to nerves and to preemptively spend this theoretical money, I've ordered the rotating assembly for this LQ. Crank, rods, pistons, rings, blah blah blah. It's coming straight from Eagle so it's probably gonna be a little while before it shows up, but it's coming.

I'll probably take it out for another quick run this weekend. I feel like I've hit a major turning point, here. Engine parts should start coming in a bit more steadily and I really want to get this thing out and about some more this summer as it currently sits. Exciting times ahead.

StormDrain
May 22, 2003

Thirteen Letter
Omg good for you. I about fell out of my chair at that percent increase, fingers crossed!

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...

StormDrain posted:

Omg good for you. I about fell out of my chair at that percent increase, fingers crossed!

Thanks dude. I was pretty well prepared. Had evidence of average salaries in the area for my position, blah blah blah and the bossman seemed very receptive. Again, still waiting on the final number, but based on our conversation I am confident that I'll get what I want.

It's kinda crazy how much of a weight off my shoulders that conversation was. That evening after work my wife even mentioned how my mood had changed. Hopefully this will lead to some more frequent updates to this thread.

Raluek
Nov 3, 2006

WUT.
congrats dude, but it sounds like you might have stuck at the same job for too long!

it's stupid that the only way to keep your wage up with market value is to switch every handful of years, but thats the way it is. luckily, it sounds like your boss is willing to be somewhat flexible, even if he's the reason you have been underpaid for this long

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...

Raluek posted:

congrats dude, but it sounds like you might have stuck at the same job for too long!

it's stupid that the only way to keep your wage up with market value is to switch every handful of years, but thats the way it is. luckily, it sounds like your boss is willing to be somewhat flexible, even if he's the reason you have been underpaid for this long

Yeah, I get that. There's some loyalty here that I probably should have re-evaluated a few years ago, but assuming this all goes to plan, I'll be in pretty good shape. The outcome of that conversation definitely would have determined my future with this company, though.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
So the final conversation on the raise went very well. I did not get my full 30%, but I got enough of it to be happy. We'll see what shakes out when annual raises roll around in February as well.

Seeing that the rotating assembly I ordered apparently has a projected ship date from the manufacturer in August (:suicide:), I've got some time to kill before I can start digging into the LQ build. Of course I still have lots of other parts to get for it, but the spinny bits are kind of important.

I did take the car for a couple more quick trips down the block - managed to not run out of gas this time - and the trans sounds a lot happier. No more ghosts groaning under my console. I do have another sound that I picked out that sounds kinda like some dragging brakes. This doesn't really surprise me much as the pads and rotors are still technically new and haven't been bedded. I know I shouldn't be getting any sounds, but I'm less concerned with these sounds, if that makes sense.

The dead spot in the throttle seems to be a little better too. I think just running it a bit under load and not just running in the garage has done a little work to free things up. At this point, I'm kind of at a wall. I'm not really sure what to do with it at the moment. I think maybe I'll see if I can pinpoint that sound and figure out if anything can be done about it. Then I guess... maybe try to get the brakes broken in? Then... a trip around the neighborhood? Jesus, is the car driveable now? I think it may actually be ready to party. At least a little bit, anyway. :ohdear:

Raluek
Nov 3, 2006

WUT.
yeah man, if it was me, i would be making sure the brakes work and it's not leaking fuel too bad, then driving it to work the next day to see what happens, lol

StormDrain
May 22, 2003

Thirteen Letter
Hell yes congrats to the conclusion of the raise!

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
God drat this thing's got some leaks :laffo:. Can't really bring myself to care that much, though. Looks like potentially power steering pump and oil pan gasket. Pff. Whatever.

Got the front end up and gave the wheels a spin. Driver side has some standard disc brake sound. Very light, no real resistance to the spinning. Passenger side, however, appears to be my source. Lot bigger sound and I can feel a little drag when I spin it. After pulling the wheel I can actually see faint impressions of the pads on the rotor surface. I think after assembling this stuff and just kind of letting it sit for so long (too long), the pads just left deposits or whatever and that's what's causing my sounds. I bet the driver's side is the same way, just not as severe. Methinks this is another problem that will most likely be alleviated by a bit of an Italian tune-up. I think I can live with that.

Thanks for all the support, guys (and/or gals). I know this thread has been pretty long without any real payoff so thanks for sticking with me.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Well I think (seriously hard to tell) that my power steering leak is from the return hose from the box back to the pump. Fluid's running down the length of the hose then dripping off the lowest point before it turns back up to the pump. It looks like it's right around the joint where the rubber hose connects to the hard line that connects to the box. Unfortunately it's one of those permanent factory crimps so I can't exactly cinch it down. Which sucks. I'm not real sure what to do about that. Maybe small hose clamp above or below the factory clamp? I'm not sure how far the hard line goes into the rubber.

Suburban Dad
Jan 10, 2007


Well what's attached to a leash that it made itself?
The punchline is the way that you've been fuckin' yourself




Replace the whole line. They're under too much pressure that anything you try to do isn't going to help.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Yeah I probably should, shouldn't I. poo poo. Such a pain in the dick routing those hoses.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Return lines are under far less pressure. If you could make / buy an appropriate piece of tube, you could cut the failed crimp off and replace it with a tube and a clamp to join it to the existing return line.

But if a crimp like that has failed, the rest of the hose probably isn't far behind.

Black88GTA
Oct 8, 2009

IOwnCalculus posted:

Return lines are under far less pressure. If you could make / buy an appropriate piece of tube, you could cut the failed crimp off and replace it with a tube and a clamp to join it to the existing return line.

But if a crimp like that has failed, the rest of the hose probably isn't far behind.

It's this. A clamp and new rubber hose would probably be fine, since it's only a LP return line.

If in fact you did want to replace all of them while you're in there - instead of buying replacement factory hoses with the same lovely design, you could take the existing ones to a local hydraulic shop and have them make up new ones using the existing metal ends for (probably) a fraction of the price that will outlast the car. I did this with the failed PS lines on my BMW and ended up with amazing quality lines that I'm fairly confident will never leak again.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Bought a return hose @ NAPA today. Even got a nice high-pressure hose clamp that the dude didn't even charge me for. Turns out my local NAPA is pretty nice. Big, well-staffed, even still rocking the small machine shop where they turn rotors and poo poo. No big jobs or engine work according to the guy, but it's nice to have a place like that local. I'll probably tackle the hose tomorrow.

i was changing the oil and rotating the tires on the wife's car today and looked over at the Nova and saw quite the puddle at the rear end of the big piece of cardboard I'd slid under it a week or so ago (a rare good idea). Right around the rear of the transmission it looked like. Great. Finished up the CX-5 and put that on the ground then grabbed a flashlight to see what fresh hell had developed under the dinosaur. Saw a nice bright drip forming on the speedo cable connector. Doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's kind of a low point so it probably came from somewhere north of that oh look there's another small drip forming on the tail shaft seal and the driveshaft is wet where it enters the trans. Looks like I'm making another trip to NAPA tomorrow for a tail shaft seal. Awesome. How about you stop leaking for like 5 minutes, huh? It's like this car's 50 loving years old or something...

I'm helping a neighbor later this afternoon do the rear brakes on his wife's RAV-4 so I'm taking a breather until he texts me that his pads arrived. Maybe I'll take some pictures tomorrow of the hose adventure so this thread isn't just a complete wall of text.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Hell yeah, RAV4 rear brakes are drum-in-hat so I didn't have to gently caress around with spinning the pistons back in the calipers. Hundred bucks and 18 beers richer ain't a bad way to end an afternoon.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...

Boaz MacPhereson posted:

Alright, so, got some interesting news. I finally crossed the threshold into adulthood on Friday and asked my boss for a raise. I'm still waiting for the official reply, but I'm pretty sure I'm getting what I asked for, too. 30%. As a reward for not throwing up all over myself due to nerves and to preemptively spend this theoretical money, I've ordered the rotating assembly for this LQ. Crank, rods, pistons, rings, blah blah blah. It's coming straight from Eagle so it's probably gonna be a little while before it shows up, but it's coming.

I'll probably take it out for another quick run this weekend. I feel like I've hit a major turning point, here. Engine parts should start coming in a bit more steadily and I really want to get this thing out and about some more this summer as it currently sits. Exciting times ahead.



Between some hot-as-gently caress weekends, a gnarly flareup of some tendonitis in my achilles, and some general laziness, the two leaks have not been fixed. I suck, whatever. This weekend's gonna be another hot one, but maybe this delivery will give me a little motivation to get out there and get dirty. I've got some Uncle Jeff Funbux coming my way for some favors that I've done so I'm gonna be ordering some of the smaller stuff I need (bolts, sprockets, blah blah) for this build and then I can get cracking on "phase 1" of actual assembly. Exciting things are afoot.

Edit:

Boaz MacPhereson fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Aug 5, 2022

Suburban Dad
Jan 10, 2007


Well what's attached to a leash that it made itself?
The punchline is the way that you've been fuckin' yourself




gently caress working in heat and through pain. Go easy on yourself.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Alright, so - day off, temp in the 70s, humidity in the 50s, let's party. Put both ends of the car way up on jackstands to give myself enough room to get underneath it and actually be able to move my arms around. Decided to tackle the trans leak first. As a reminder, I tracked down the trans leak to the tailshaft seal and the PS leak to the return (low-pressure) hose. One of these is wrong. See if you can guess which one!. Parts were purchased a little bit ago and I've just been waiting on a weekend that wasn't too hot, too painful, or some combination thereof.

So I pull the driveshaft (no drama there) and start working the tailshaft seal out. Need a couple different prying tools but no issues getting it out of there. Gave everything a good wipe down once it was out to clean a couple drips that were still hanging on and took it over to the bench to compare it to the one I picked up from NAPA. Minus a bit of mangling on the one I just removed, it's identical. Success. Grabbed a couple things to help me install the new one and went back to the car. Where I saw a fresh drip forming on the speedometer cable where it goes into the trans. What in the gently caress. No fluid coming from the main tailshaft hole. This is the wrong one. Welp, gotta get the new seal in there either way so whatever. Get the new seal in and put the driveshaft back and then take a look at the speedo cable.

In case you're not familiar, in a TH-350 transmission, there's a gear inside that spins a small plastic gear that interfaces with the interior drive portion of the speedometer cable. This cable plugs into the back of the speedometer in the dash and the speed that the cable is spinning determines what speed is shown on the speedometer. Now this little plastic gear goes inside what is commonly knows as the "bullet" and seals against that. The "bullet" seals against the trans case and between those two seals, the fluid stays on the inside of the transmission where it belongs. I'm pretty sure my specific issue is the seal between the "bullet" and the gear. I yanked it all out of the trans and had a look.




First picture there is the bullet and gear as it normally sits in the transmission and the second picture is of the two pieces separated. You can see the o-ring on the bullet there and it's pretty obvious that it's not doing much. It's also rock hard. Inside the left side of the bullet is another o-ring type seal that seals against the gear. If you look closely at the gear in the second picture, you can see a couple grooves in the first segment on the left side just past the initial chamfer. Those grooves should not be there. On good parts, the gear goes into the bullet and the seal in the bullet holds the gear in place. Still spins, of course, but there's some resistance as it turns and the gear stays in the bullet. On mine, once I wiped the fluid off the gear and shoved it back in the bullet, it fell out if I turned it vertical. Pretty sure that's my leak. Unfortunately, nowhere local has parts, but I found some online for a decent price and I might even have them by the weekend. Stuffed the gear and bullet back in the trans just to block the hole and moved on...

...to the power steering hose. This actually went really well. I'm a lazy bastard and had zero intention of pulling the PS pump off the engine so the hardest part of the whole operation was getting a decent angle on the snippers to get the factory hose clamp off. It's one of those permanent ones that get crimped on so it had to get cut off. Undid the box-side first and let it hang and drain into the oil container and then worked the pump-side loose after ripping the clamp off. Made a quick mental note of the routing and pulled the hose out. I think there may have been like a factory metal tie holding the two hoses together at one point, but that got snipped a long time ago. Checked the old hose against the new one and trimmed about 6" or so off of it. Fasten box-side of the new one and run the other end up to the pump. Tighten up the hose clamp and that's pretty much it. I did take that 6" that I trimmed off, split it lengthwise, and wrapped it around the new hose where it goes by the engine mount, though. I know the hose really shouldn't be moving around as both ends are fixed in place, but there are some rough edges down there so I figure every little bit helps. Cinched it down with some zip ties and called it done.

So a pretty productive day. Only fixed half my leaks, but new seals are never a bad idea, I suppose. Once I get that new bullet and gear installed I'll get the car fired up and refill the fluids. Hopefully next weekend will stay nice weather-wise and I'll check this little diversion off my list.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





No such thing as too much chafing protection, things move around a lot on cars.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Is your speedometer still calibrated after doing the gear ratio swap? If not, now might be your chance to get a different gear rather than use an inline correction box later.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...

Advent Horizon posted:

Is your speedometer still calibrated after doing the gear ratio swap? If not, now might be your chance to get a different gear rather than use an inline correction box later.

Yeah, it'll read high now with the shorter rear end. The set I bought actually comes with 5 different gears so I figure I'll probably use the one with the most teeth (going from 19 to 22 teeth if I counted right) to get me closer to accurate. Might still be off by 15% or so. The speedometer and transmission both will eventually be getting replaced so I'm not super duper concerned with the accuracy for the time being. If it comes down to it, maybe I'll make a new speedometer with masking tape, a Sharpie, and the phone GPS. Full sweep rectangle speedos for the win.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Look at this beauty:


Outer o-ring is nice and big and soft, inner seal is the same. Got a 22-tooth gear that I'll drop in to make up some of the difference that the new rear end introduced. Won't be perfect, but I'm not gonna go pulling the tail shaft to change out the drive gear and deal with all that bullshit. Gear fits in the bullet great, too. You can really feel that inner seal grabbing on to hold it in place.

Ordered a camshaft too :dance:

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
A bit of pre-assembly pre-assembly today. (WD was not used on the piston/rod assemblies. That was for something else.)



Went out in the garage to clean up the workbench some to get ready to start in on the build and it was so gross out today that even just doing that made me sweat. 80 degrees and 80% humidity straight-up sucks.

I've got the day off tomorrow so I plan on giving the crankshaft a good cleaning and maybe start with some pre-assembly stuff. I'd like to at least get some things plastigauged to make sure my poo poo's all happy together. Gonna need to pick up a ring filer here soon...

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Wife's laid up with covid so after I did some grocery shopping this morning, I decided it would be a cleaning day. Parts, not the garage. Cracked apart the rods too just to have that done. Gonna have to get done sooner rather than later anyway. Then spent a few hours cleaning the rods, the pistons, the cam, and the crankshaft. All the little holes got run through with various airbrush/bottle brushes and everything got a good scrubbing with shop towels and mineral spirits. Then tucked them all away and brought them back inside to live in a climate that's not 70+% humidity.

I asked in the chat thread, but I'll post it here too just because: does anybody have any tricks for getting wrist pin clips seated? I don't know if I'm just a dumbass or what, but I'm pretty baffled here. These things are stiff as gently caress so I don't really see how I'm supposed to just "walk" the clip into the groove.

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LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Youtube has the instructions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpP6WXxLmXI&t=76s

If your clips look different or are way stiffer then you might need some other tool or method. But this is the typical "walk" method for spiral clips.

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