Rusty's not very quiet cuda progress

No luck with trying to bend so far, not sure I could get the 2x4's in a great spot, tried front & rear, did both sides to the point it was starting to lift the whole car, when I drop it just goes back to the same spot.
It does also lift the back of the motor about 1/4"?

There is a spot using the tranny mount to frame (crossmember) bolts that I can rig 2 hangers, I found one of the old, damn.
But that only gets me about 1", with that & raising the front another inch I think it's still way too low, maybe that back pipe is in upside down, gonna contact TTI tomorrow & see what I did wrong, their stuff is usually right on!
 
The one that looked close was it, when I finally go it out it turned out too long, got it cut down & stuck it in & tested, nice & snug, so I went to pull it out to put a dab of glue behind it, couldn't get it out easy so I figured at that point good to go! 20240505_141818.jpg
Switch panel complete!

I'll get the rest back to you during the week, thanks again! 20240505_141928.jpg
 
So I tried the 2x4 just behind the x pipe, & jacked it till it lifted the car, let it sit a while, nothing, then I moved it to the tranny cross brace & tried again, nothing.
I do have all those clamps loose hoping it would twist into place, nothing there either?
Will see what TTI say tomorrow?

20240505_151217.jpg
 
gonna contact TTI tomorrow
Are those TTI headers, hanging down that low?

20240504_163026.jpg
That looks to be as much of the problem as the exhaust after it. For a beat there I had it in mind that it was an A-body since those are notorious for low-hanging headers.

I personally would buy taller tires before I'd try bending the headers to gain clearance.
 
See what TTI says later, I did the install with it way up on jack stands, everything seem to be lining up nicely.
It was a while before I put it back n the ground & noticed it.

It's all TTI from headers to tips.

I does raise the back of the engine by about 1/4", don't think that should be riding on the exhaust!
 
TTI thinks my motor is too low in the back, there should be 3/4" clearance where it passes the cross member, mine is just over 2"
Could a tranny mount be that far gone, it looked pretty good.
anything else I should look at?
 
OK, I took a good look at the tranny mount, maybe not as good as I thought, seems the bolt through the rubber is riding all the way at the top20240506_140712.jpg20240506_140951.jpg
Ordered a new one, won't be in till friday.

Now looking at that even if the new one sits in the center looks like about an inch higher, I'm 1 1/2" low at the cross member, I also loosened the heades at the motor, jacked up from the flange & retightened, one did seem to move a tiny bit.
motor is definatly tilted to the rear, is that supposed to be level?20240506_141059.jpg guess I wait to see how much if any the new mount helps?

How much to the motor mounts affect tilt?
 
Engines tilt down towards the rear. But you'll notice the the carb flange of the intake is angled to compensate for that tilt.
 
K, got some pics from TTI, but they sent with keisler tranny, which uses a different mount so it's hard to tell but one pic shows the header tube & the flange extension about level, mine is downhill a lot.

I do have the X pipe in correctly the offset is pointing down like mine.

Guess I have to see if & how much the new tranny mount helps?


OK when I get the tranny mount in I'll check the level at the carb.
 
Well at least I made a little forward progress, Mark was over to help on the brakes, we finished bleeding those & He took a look at the exhaust & noticed there might be a little adjustment in one of the pipes.
So I took out the bolts on the header flange & tried twisting that pipe20240507_140938.jpg
there's a blue mark at the twist point, I had it about 1/8" more than that but it settled back when I tried to line up the header flange, have to enlarge to see it.
That got me about 3/4" closer to the cross member & much closer to level pipes.
Hoping the tranny mount will do the rest, will see this weekend.20240507_140923.jpg
 
So trying to find something quick & easy to do before I started roasting out there, I figured I'd check why the blower motor didn't work.
Well I turn it on & it does work, all 3 speeds, but on heat it seemed to be coming mostly out of the A/C ducts, switch it back & fourth a few times, no change, hmmmm will it even work on 7 or 8 inches of vac?
So I ran the motor a while, still don't seem to get much reaction from the mixture screws, finally got it hot enough to circulate the anti freeze, topped that off & packed up for the day, as I'm sitting there it hits me, I don't even have the vacuum line to the heater box hooked up!
Old age sucks!
 
You forget, I was HVAC I have a good vacuum pump, I did bench test all the actuators, all moved, but in that small a space I can come close to 30", can't really say how many inches I got sticking the tubing on the end of my gauges but they all did operate!
 
The car from hell continues to vex me.
Tranny mount got in early, so I figure I get that done before the rain come, well as you know with this car nothing but nothing goes well!
Really didn't notice this before but my bushing was pushed way out one side. 20240509_161340.jpg
did look like I night gain some height ?20240509_161409.jpgBut this had me worried, bolt holes were way off20240509_161531.jpgAfter fighting to try & line it up as is I took it in the garage was going to try & bend them out a bit when I noticed you can move the bushing pretty easy, so I put the new bushing in the old mount & put that in, that's when I started thinking I have a bigger problem, the bushing pushed over to one side just like before, I now think the tranny is cocked to one side20240509_165602.jpg
Hard to see in the pics but looks like a lot more room in the tunnel on the drivers side? 20240509_165651.jpg20240509_165709.jpg
K, what do I do now, could the motor mounts cause this, I now have two problems, tranny mount gained me no lift in the back, so now I think I'm tilted back too much & over at least an inch to one side?
 
Yeah I went through that fun too. Loosen everything up, get a crowbar under the car, find a place where you can pry the tailshaft over and make it happen. I was surprised how far you can shove it around.
 
I'm not even going out there today, there was those clips I could do in the rain, after yesterday I need to chill out a while before I even look at it!
I'm just worried they are worn enough to create that extra tilt, could they do that?
I mean the whole shebang is held up at three points?
 
1715424735086.png
I'm kind of surprised that bushing slides back and forth like it does but I have zero knowledge of that kind of mount.

Maybe you have already done this, but put the mount in the x-member, hang the x-member to the car (don't tighten anything yet), then look up from the bottom at the bolt holes into the tailshaft, apply crow bar as needed. You will probably need to loosen up the engine mounts/brackets. I just had to loosen the stud into the k-frame but those are not the same kind of mount you have.

At least it should have studs. Mine has bolts and I like to never got one started because it kept going crooked and binding up . I chased and tapped the threads twice before I finally got that bolt in. I was having thoughts of installing a heli-coil in the tailshaft while laying on my back so I'm glad I didn't get to enjoy that experience.

As far as the up-down goes, I've got no idea what could be going on there. It seems like the trans mount would locate it in a specific place and the only way it could sag down would be for the bushing to be slap worn out or torn up..
 
Hmmmm, slightly different then mine, I have bolts to the tranny not studs & I see a spacer there, I don't have that but it looks like it goes under the mount so that would not change height, now between the mount & tranny it would push tranny up a tad?

Well you saw the bent new mount I got, when I saw I could move the bushings pretty easy I just put the new bushing in the old mount, from the comparison pics the old did look pushed up a bit & I think sunk further when the weight was on it, I was disappointed when I finally got it in that there was no noticeable change
Could have just bought the bushing!

Dragging my butt out there in a little while, see if I can pick up a problem at the motor mounts, if they look good I'll loosen em up & try the crowbar & see if I can at least get it straight, cars not very high hard to get any leverage under there.
 

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