Signet-ficant Other

[Dr.Jass]

Saturday was largely spent largely fighting with the shifter, as documented elsewhere, although I did finish plumbing the fuel line to the carb. Once I get the front end back down, I'll tighten up the fittings on the huge filter betwixt the tank and pump, and that'll be it for the fuel system. I was hesistant to test the fuel gauge since I'd replaced both it and the tank sender, but with a jumper from our hokey-ass ground tab to a chassis bolt and five gallons of fuel in the tank, damned if it didn't work. That was a good feeling, since that's the first time I'd ever seen this dash showing a fuel level--the old gauge had shorted long before I got the car and never worked.

I painted my throttle return-spring bracket...




Then mounted it under one of the intake bolts:




I later moved it one bolt hole back, as the throttle was pretty hard to operate with it stretched so far. If you look really closely at that picture, you can see the fuel line to the carb, way back by the alternator. It's sorta hokey-lookin' but it works and it's not against any hot engine parts.

I used my mad electrical diagnostic skills to determine why the dome light has never worked...




Easiest fix to the car thus far!




Sunday was a bit slower, because I was just simply exhausted from two almost-12-hour days outside in searing heat. I removed the clutch fork, but despite getting it onto the pivot fairly easily twice, neither time was it engaged on the throwout bearing. I really didn't have the patience to keep after it so I gave up, determined that I'd get the borescope from work to assist me in seeing what I'm doing. I practiced what I preach about thermostats, removing the parts-store junk I'd originally installed and replacing it with an NOS 180° Robertshaw.




I filled the coolant and addressed a couple of small leaks, the worst of which was at the radiator end of the lower hose. I put six quarts of oil in the pan, and noticed a tiny weep at the level-indicator tube that I need to address... not a big deal, but oil's expensive in this case and 10 quarts is a lot to lose. I swapped out the speedometer gear adapter in the trans, which was so galled to the cable nut that I broke it trying to remove the cable. No fear, I had a new cable and no shortage of adapters. After finishing, I realized I'd forgotten to install the speedo-gear clip. Ah, well, it's not like I'm done under there yet.

Tonight I went out and got a bit done despite a heat index of 99°F (actual temp 87°) after work. Out came the spark plugs so I could verify #1 TDC firing and set the fixed base timing. I reoriented the oil-pump driveshaft per the FSM and reinstalled the distributor; it should be very close to 10° BTDC at fire-up. I installed the plug wires, hiding the "MSD" printing on them the best I could and routing them through factory separators on the valve covers. I might still swap the plugs out for colder ones. I simply wasn't in the mood to get beneath the car and fill the transmission or mess with the clutch fork (and I didn't bring the borescope home anyhow). Hot is one thing, but I had my fill of hot and filthy over the weekend.

Any night with a couple more things checked off the list is a good one.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Thursday night I was finally sick of looking at the blown-apart dash, which meant addressing the speaker/heater controls/radio situation. The speaker and radio were getting upgraded, which would involve some custom work so I dove in headlong.

The first order of business, since it's the first to go back in place, was the dash speaker. The original was as you'd expect, with a magnet so weak it'll barely pick up metal shavings (seriously). I removed the cone and gasket, then cut out the frame and ground the area smooth. I left a stamped flange in place to support a filler panel.




I used the dash mounting bracket to which the speaker bolts to trace an oval on an old PC side panel, which I rough-cut with the angle grinder then finish-shaped on the bench grinder:




The two pieces were then welded together, ground, and sandblasted. There was no need to make it serviceable; there's no reason it'd ever have to come apart. I'd intended to fill that lower gap with silicone to seal air, but after considering the frequencies the woofers can reproduce and the way the whole assembly goes together, I passed. It would've added a bunch of cure time and not likely made any difference.






The fun part was making the holes... where's that sarcasm key? I didn't have the right sized hole saws, which meant the tweeter holes were about 1/8" undersize, and those for the woofers about 3/16" too small. The holes would have to be ground to considerably to accomodate the drivers. This was when I first realized I was in trouble in terms of real estate... the 4" Infinity components would've never made it, nor would the Focal tweeters I'd briefly considered (because I have them). All the holes would have to be ground offset.




After a couple of hours of cutting and grinding very carefully, this was the result:




Not perfect, but good enough for a 360° gasket seal, which is all that matters. To illustrate how litte room I had, here's what I had to do to the tweeters for clearance:




A final test fit prior to priming and painting... yes, they're all touching each other.




It was pretty late, I was plenty tired by this point, and I had work bright and early so I knocked it all down and primed the frame before heading back in the house and (almost) straight to bed.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Friday night I I'd gotten a late start after a long work day, and though I'd just as soon have stayed in the house, I had to get something done. Most of that was drilling holes for the woofer fasteners, metal finishing, and painting--nothing photo-worthy and largely prep work.

Saturday morning was a late start--still quite tired--but I started by painting the speaker plate, mounting bracket, and hardware. Almost fully assembled (no screws or grille) it looked like this:




Knowing what ultraviolet rays and heat do to speaker cones over time, plus speakers' tendency to gather dust I decided from the start that I'd wanted to do a grille of some kind. Once again, I completely overthought it before coming to the simplest solution: black grille cloth attached directly to the mounting bracket. My first course of action was, of course, to cut a piece of grille cloth (yes, it matters acoustically) to the correct size:




I then used the bracket to trace out and cut a mask for the cloth, since the glue needs to be applied to both it and the bracket:




When working with grille cloth, especially when gluing it in place, it's important to make sure the pattern stays consistent--no lines or waves in the pattern. It's an aesthetics thing that'll make you crazy if you blow it, even if it's something like this that will virtually never be seen. To make sure it's right, I pin the fabric down making sure it's taut. You don't want banjo-string tight here, just tight enough that it won't move around. I then laid my cardboad mask in place (with handy tape tab for removal) and pinned it as well.




Make sure you mask off anywhere you don't want the glue, since it's not fun to remove and if you're like me, you're working with new paint. This is the speaker side of the bracket, which faces the floor. The tape is over the area where it bolts to the dash.

This is glue... strong stuff.

Like its 3M brethren, the Sprayway glues (which I prefer, lower price notwithstanding) don't spray all that nicely. It does not dispense like paint, so be prepared for that, maybe with a practice run. Another tip: pop any large bubbles that form, or you could end up with a gap in your adhesive. Any gaps are a place the cloth will exploit to start loosening itself over time.




Per the can, you've got a working time to assemble this of no less than five minutes, and no more than an hour. Working in direct sunlight on a warm, breezy day I'd say no more than 40 minutes or so... but the five-minute minimum before assembly is important. I actually waited about 20 minutes. I pulled my cardboard mask and used the clean area as a guide. Do this carefully--you do not want to try peeling this stuff apart to reposition. Once the two halves touch, it's very stuck.




I let it sit and get comfy for about 20 minutes, then folded the cloth back over the frame. There was glue around the lip on the frame, as well as on the cloth in that area, so it all stuck nicely. I used squeeze clamps to hold those folds in place and let it cure for a couple of hours. It was at this point that a friend stopped by and needed a hand with a trailer axle, so my leaving for awhile worked out well.

When I got home, I wanted to allow more time for the glue to cure, so I fabbed myself a no-drill adapter plate for the 1980-era Alpine radio. The two holes on the outer ends are where the factory hardware secured the original thumbwheel radio. The smaller holes near the top edge are for clip nuts, which align with existing holes in the dash frame. The two large cutouts along the bottom are to clear the God-forsaken speed nuts that hold the dash trim in place; its studs are not long enough to go through any extra material.




After that was primed and painted--the latter an interesting experience as the draw tube had fallen out of the can top, requiring me to hold the can upside-down to spray it--I went back to the speaker grille/mounting plate. I trimmed off the excess cloth and inspected my work. The adhesive showing through the cloth is literally inevitable. You could try cleaning it with acetone or lighter fluid (something that won't damage the cloth) or, as I briefly considered, use your oval mask to spray some satin black paint over it. In my case, it's directly covered by the bracket so I just left it as-is.




It was time to finish-assemble the speaker assembly. I trimmed off the excess cloth, then used AuVeCo self-adhesive square-section weatherstrip to make a gasket between speaker assembly and dash. It's easily cut with a razor; getting the adhesive's backing off can be tricky, though. This is another "get it right the first time" situation, since once that adhesive is stuck, you'll damage the weatherstrip trying to remove it.




The underdash view (Obviously I wasn't paying close attention to speaker orientation while grinding clearance into the left tweeter ):




It was time to commence with dash reassembly. The first order of business, of course, was the speaker. It must go in first--you'll never get around the vent tubes or heater controls later. As was the case throughout the fabrication process, the ridiculously-strong neodymium magnets on the woofers made this an interesting task, but eventually I would succeed, as seen through the heater-control opening. (Disclaimer: It's a crappy cell-phono photo) At least when the nuts for the mounting bracket fall off, they fly directly to the nearest woofer magnet and stick.




The next job was to place the retainer plate for the heater controls and my custom bracket for the tape deck, the latter now sporting some black paint. The extra screws to retain the stereo bracket are visible above the radio opening, threaded into clip nuts on the bracket itself. They clear the trim without issue. No fasteners can be installed in the heater-control retainer until the dash trim is in place; it has alignment pins that pass through the retainer.




It was getting late, so work accelerated and photography slowed considerably. Next came installing the dash trim, which had to had to do prior to installing the heater controls. Once the trim and heater controls were in place, I carefully set the depth at which the stereo would protrude from the dash by using extra nuts and washers on the control shafts. I secured it with another nut & washer per shaft, then used a third set of nuts and washers to install the radio's trim plate. I did not have the control knobs outside (God knows I'd have lost them by now) and it took me the better part of half an hour to locate one of the heater-control knobs (see?) so I passed on installing that stuff until later.

I'm pretty happy with the way the radio looks with the rest of the dash, to be honest. It's obviously newer but matches pretty well, rather than a modern, blatant pinball-machine of a car stereo. Connecting all the stereo bits can come later, but I wanted the dash back together and looking done before starting the car... my days of living with hanging wires twisted together with tape are long past.




Pay no mind to the disaster in the RH footwell... it's mostly bulk wiring and leftover hardware I thought I'd need--all the factory dash parts went back in place. The red wires are the fuel-pump power supply.

I took this photo just prior to going in the house.




So that's where we stand as of noon Central on 07/12/20. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a clutch fork awaiting an epic final showdown. Oy.

 

[Jester]

Nice custom work, Jass! The speakers look great. Will you be able to hear the stereo over the sound of the Motor?

Post a vid for first start-up

 

[Dr.Jass]

Thank you, kind sir!

Tonight was not my night. Monday showed up late to the game, I guess... multiple issues arose.

My NOS (and relatively inexpensive, surprisingly) clutch safety switch arrived today so I thought to install it. Looking through multiple service manuals and searcing online, I find that prior to '70, A-bodies didn't use one. They actually used a different starter relay than the automatic cars, which was self-grounding. "Well, self," I thought to myself because who else would I call that, "you have later pedals and it'll just feel right to have one in the car." I fished myself under the dash, a task for which I'm getting entirely too old, and had a look around. "Hey, I bet this new one installs just like that one does!" Yep, there's already one on the pedal. Well, I'll be pickled. I removed it to find its wire is broken off, which looks like it'd be a relatively easy (if not correct-appearing) repair. I also discovered that its internal spring is broken, but whilst moving the pedal aboot it doesn't appear to really matter; the rod that actuates it moves it through its arc without any play or spring action. I'll probably install the new one anyhow, but I may have a crack at repairing what I can of the old one--the wire--and trying it.

Not really wanting to mess with the switch, which would involve either soldering or welding (we'll see), I decided I'd move on to finishing the bracket that will support my two-gauge aftermarket panel. Having had a day and a half to cure, the paint felt dry but peeled away easily. Direct-to-metal my flat foot. I drilled the two remaining holes needed, sandblasted the whole thing (the sand was almost unnecessary) and etch-primed it. Since I had time while the primer dried, it seemed like a good idea to connect the head end of the speedometer cable. This would be Strike Three for the evening.

It's a brand-new cable, on which I insisted to avoid needle bounce. It was already connected at the trans, and it occurred to me that some lube would be a good idea before I finished the installation. I fished it back through the firewall and pulled the cable completely out of the sheath. After setting that aside, I grabbed my new can of spray graphite lube, firmly inserted the straw, and test-fired it. All very good.

I held the cable housing in my right hand...

... I carefully aligned the spray tube with the orifice...

... and after approximately 17 milliseconds of actual spraying, shot the spray tube right down the cable sheath while dousing my right hand with wet graphite spray.

You gotta be kidding me.

Knowing full well where the little prick went, I hopefully looked around the engine bay and ground in case it did not go directly down the cable sheath. I did not do this for long because it would've required an act of God for that tube to go anywhere but where it did. I was able to quickly confirm with a flashlight that yes, the near end of that little red bastard is about 2" down the sheath.

I didn't even swear. I wasn't willing to grind dirt into the clothing I'm wearing to jack up the car, crawl under it, and remove the speedometer cable at the transmission so I can blow the tube out with compressed air. Nope, I collected my tools, put them away, looked at my still-drying gauge bracket and said, "No more victories for you, Monday. I'm done." I shut down the garage and came in the house.

I didn't post a Sunday update. It's not because I didn't work on the car; I got it back on the ground (prematurely, as the speedometer cable would prove) and did the final torquing on the swaybar. However, the clutch fork didn't work out (the transmission has to come out, period) so I worked on other things that you'll see later, including the above-mentioned gauge/fuel-pump relay mounting bracket and assorted silliness.

Tomorrow's my scheduled night off, but I'm sure I'll be back after it Wednesday.

 

[Dr.Jass]

While I worked on the car most of the week, I didn't update because nobody appears to be paying attention anyhow.

Wednesday night I worked on my gauge/fuel-pump relay bracket, along with finishing up some modifications to the ashtray (which required finding parts--always a task at Château Imperiál). Thurdsay was wiring, but not on the car--I spent most of the evening looking for a particular wiring harness that I simply could not find. During said search, though, I found a two mystery harnesses: One is an engine harness from a pre-'70 car that whose presence I simply can't explain, and another is a dash that I can't identify. The pre-'70 engine harness is not from an A-body, as it doesn't have an integrated lamp harness. The dash wiring... well, I dunno. There are some butt connectors that remind me of some butchery I did to the Black Bitch dash, but there's some kind of module connected to it that looks like it's for delay wipers. There's a huge chunk out of the module, likely where the part number had been. Oy vey.

Anyhow, the latter harness donated a plug that mates to the original radio connector in the Valiant, which was a happy surprise (I didn't have to cut the thumbwheel AM's wiring) as well as what I was after: factory multi-tap accessory connectors. From these bits, I created a harness that uses the radio connector to power some of my additions. The red side will power the Alpine stereo and the two new relays (fuel pump and line lock) while still leaving an open connector for future expansion. The orange side connects to the dash-illumination circuit (so the original radio dial would dim with the rest of the dash) and will control the illumination and brightness of the tachometer and underdash auxiliary gauges... all without cutting any dash wiring.




A gratuitous waste of time? Perhaps, but it's all plug-in and has a "factory feel" to it, which I like. Once disconnected, it's like it was never there a'tall.

"But Jass," you say aloud, making others in the room look at you strangely, "That's axing an awful lot of those circuits!" Worry not, my imaginary digital friends. The factory radio uses a 7.5 amp fuse, but the Alpine only requires a 3-amp fuse. The two relay coils draw 150mA and 210mA respectively, giving me 4+ amps of headroom on that circuit. That's enough to power the line lock itself, but that will draw its power elsewhere (as will the fuel pump itself). The three additional lamps, all 194s, draw .32 amp each, so that's about an extra 2/3 amp (remember, I eliminated the factory radio bulb) on the illumination circuit which uses a 3A fuse... it should be fine, but I can bump it to a 4A if needed.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Friday night was "move the car to work so I can put it on the hoist" night, so once we were done with that, there was precious little I could do here... so nothing else happened.

Saturday, Stretch picked me up and we went to the shop around 10AM. We got the car situated on the hoist and it was time to finally tackle the clutch fork once and for all. The first order of business, though, was disconnecting the speedometer cable housing from the transmission and hitting it with the blow gun. The renegade graphite straw blew right out.

Next came driveshaft and shifter removal, the latter of which I've gotten pretty good at of late. Rather than disassemble everything, though, I simply unbolted the transmission levers, removed the shifter boot, undid the two mounting bolts and lifted the entire assembly up through the floor.




I removed the transmission crossmember and supported the engine across the back edge of the oil pan with a tall stand. Stretch suggested replacing the two lower transmission bolts with long ones (I used 4", the longest the transmission case would allow) so I could slide the transmission back on them and keep it aligned with the bell and clutch. Brilliant thinking on his part; it worked wonderfully. With the transmission mostly out of the way, it was only a minor struggle to engage the fork into the clips on the throwout bearing. I got it on the third try and first strategy change. Getting the fork to engage the pivot seemed another thing entirely. Even though I could feel that the tang was aligned with the pivot hole, it simply wouldn't budge even though the throwout bearing wasn't cocked or jammed. "If it won't go, force it" occasionally becomes my creed, and I gave it a shove whilst maintaining my balance by holding onto the tailshaft housing... and the latter was unintentionally a key player: suddenly the fork moved, the transmission slid forward, and the tang clicked into the pivot almost magically. Fork action is buttery-smooth. The transmission slid back into place easily (thanks again, Stretchmark!) and bolted together easily. That wasn't so bad at all--far less infuriating than trying to force the fork in place whilst engaging both clips lying on one's back in the dirt and working through the fork opening.

New fork installed:




Then, of course, I had to put it all back together. I regret not taking more pictures of the process, but once I got into it, all was about the job and I forgot about documenting it. I also may have inadvertently deleted a couple of photos from my camera.

I reinstalled the speedo cable housing and driveshaft, at which point I filled the transmission with Brad Penn GL4 80W-90. I'm not pimping the brand in particular, but let's talk about gear lubricants for a moment (or you can skip ahead to the next blank-line break).
It's important to use the right fluid in these older transmissions and Penn specifically targets---by name--all the musclecar-era 4-speeds. GL5-spec oil, which virtually everything on the shelf at your local parts store is, contains an extreme-pressure additive that's sulfur-based. It is not backward-compatible! The extreme-pressure bit sounds promising enough, but where the problem lies is that sulfur attacks "yellow" metals--brass and copper. Well, chum, your A833 has brass synchro rings and very-possibly shift forks (muscle-era ones did originally). GL5 oil will eventually degrade them, literally eating them as it lubricates. I was unable to find a single GL5 oil that did not contain sulfur.
I was not aware of all this a month ago, and in fact had a gallon of Royal Purple Synchromax on-hand I'd planned to use. However, considering the extreme use I expect this transmisson to see, I wanted to make sure I was using the best fluid possible. The Synchromax is a GL5-spec lube; they recommended it to me based on the factory changing the spec from 80W-90 to Dexron II in 1975 with the introduction of the OD. We did not specifically talk about syncrho-ring material, though, so I do not believe there was any furtive or ill intent on their part. Dude was half my age and probably has never seen a brass synchro ring.
The only other confirmed GL4 fluid I could find was Redline MT90, which is a synthetic (75W-90) specifically designed for brass synchronizer rings. Is it better than the Brad Penn non-synthetic? Probably. Did they specifically mention the A833 in their information? No. Does it cost $10+ more per quart when you need four of 'em? Yes, yes it does... and when you're almost $1,000 over budget and still "need" $350 worth of tires, you start counting pennies. And, as I learned in a minor mishap whilst filling Agnes' gearbox yesterday, the Brad Penn stuff is a pretty green to remind you of all the money you're blowing on this nonsense.

Sorry for the detour, but these transmissions can be pretty expensive to repair. No point in doing it twice.

With the transmission full, I then decided it was a capital time to dispense more gear lube, this time into the rear diff. Here I did go with the Royal Purple; their 75W-90, which contains its own limited-slip additive... which it damned-well should at that price. Agnes' butt had consumed exactly three quarts of the stuff when it started to dribble out the filler hole. 'Nuff said, and the diff turns over much more smoothly now, as one would expect.

While I was back there, I finally got around to torquing the front leaf-spring bolts. I'm sure there was a reason we hadn't done this a long time ago, but it's done now.

Back to the subject of fluids: Stretch noticed another leak from the oil pan yesterday. I knew it was dripping very slowly from the level-indicator tube but there was way more oil present than that could cause. Sho 'nuff, we discovered a crack inside the passage for the drag link! I never saw it when the pan was off, but in my defense there are baffles and trap doors obscuring the tube, and I never thought to look through it closely. The only way to properly fix this is to pull the engine and pan, and weld the crack. There is, however, an improper way to fix it, which is how I chose to address it. We'll get to that later.

Turning my attention to something less frustrating, I went back inside the car to concentrate on the dash yet again. I wired up the switch for the fuel-pump relay, a fancy little quarter-turn barrel lock switch... simple on/off deal. Tricky soldering, though, as it's just got tiny round pins on it. There's also a fuel-pump "status" LED that lights when the pump is off, to remind you why you only got as far as the float bowl would take you. My reasoning for that operation is A) reverse psychology: to most, it would look like whatever that lock switch controls is on when it's off, B) You can hear the pump running inside the car, and C) I don't want the damned LED glowing all the time. Those bits are hidden inside the ashtray, in a convenient blank area to the left of the lighter (the wiring for which I also finally repaired). I reinstalled the ashtray, the lower screws of which also secure my auxiliary gauge panel--no additional holes drilled in a dash structure that's not worth the effort (non-Rallye with a huge dent in it on the LH side).

Ashtray open:




And, ashtray closed:




That's about all that's worth mentioning through Saturday evening. I worked on it again today, but wasn't able to do what I really wanted, which was to finally have the clutch connected to the pedal. I'd ordered a new fork pushrod quite awhile ago, and put it somewhere safe--a euphemism for losing it. When we were working on the car at Stretch's place and concentrating on the clutch linkage, it got set aside and likely packed up one of the half-zillion garage boxes. Rather than have The Elastic Fantastic dig through God-knows-how-many boxes to find it, I simply ordered another one today, meaning I'll find the original the day before the new one arrives. Sometimes I hoard things inadvertently; this is one of those times.

 

[restoman]

I vaguely recall the local four speed guru telling me, once upon a time, about sulphur and yellow metals... your comments brought it back through the haze.
I used Amsoil synthetic in my Beetle transaxle... no idea if there are any brass pieces in there, but so far, so good as far as smooth shifting go.
I can sympathize with your putting things in safe places: A FB buddy saw my floor pics and messaged me, wanting to know if I ever wanted my parts back.
Parts? What parts?
Seems I had, back in the dark days near the end of MY Classic, put an entire Super Beetle front clip, 1600 dual port engine and transaxle, really nice rear fenders and boxes of yet-unknown Beetle parts in his shed for storage.
I honestly forgot all about them.
Of course, I said "YES! I was going to call you..."

 

[Dr.Jass]

I vaguely recall the local four speed guru telling me, once upon a time, about sulphur and yellow metals... your comments brought it back through the haze.
I used Amsoil synthetic in my Beetle transaxle... no idea if there are any brass pieces in there, but so far, so good as far as smooth shifting go.

AMSoil makes so many different gear lubes, it's hard to say whether what you've got is GL4, GL5, or some mystical AMSoil blend of their own design. Last I checked they had eight different 5W-30 oils, a reason for which I can't even fathom. Regardless, I doubt your transaxle is seeing sticky-tire launches north of four grand or full-bore powershifts at nearly double that... so I expect you're just fine with your chosen lubricant.

Oh, and by the way... are you happy now?




The bulb was sheared off in the socket, which had corroded firmly to the bulb base. 'Twas big fun fishing that base out piece by piece with needle-nose Vise Grips. I only cleaned up the important bits--the spot where the bracket grounds and the socket itself--and reinstalled the horribly-rusted bracket with a new bulb.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Sunday I got to the shop at around 10:30AM, and thought to myself, "Self, what needs to be finished while she's still in the air?" A lot of things came to mind, but addressing the oil-pan leaks was first on the list.

I said there's a wrong way to do this, and that's what I did. I cleaned the area thoroughly with brake cleaner and dried it with a clean rag. I then gobbed a bunch of Seal All on my finger, and proceeded to smear it around the damaged area liberally. I then replaced the squeeze-type clamps on the oil indicator tube with the smallest EFI hose clamps we have available by carefully disconnecting the tube at its top--above the oil level in the pan--and sliding the clamps over that end. The bad news is that the EFI clamps didn't work 100%; the fittings are threaded and they just can't be sealed without JIC (-AN) fittings. However, the leak slowed considerably. The good news is that the Seal All seems to have worked; when I looked at it this morning and again when we were loading the car on the trailer, the ever-present droplet from the indicator tube was still on the back corner of the pan, but the area affected by the pan crack was completely dry. Yes, I had globbered some Seal All around the end of the indicator tube as well, but after its 90° turn the fitting is very close to the pan. I simply couldn't get it in that area thoroughly.

Next on the list was more rear-suspension work. I had replacement upper shock studs on the way from Chryslers at Carlisle, by way of Georgia, but the Allstar shock plates I installed weren't going to work as-is (try and save a buck, and that's what you get). They're essentially roundy-round parts, and instead of a proper shock stud, they've got a short section of tube (?) that's the correct OD for the shock, but it only goes about 1/3 of the way through the actual shock bushing. I expect they're designed for spherical-bearing shocks.




Regardless, they weren't going to work so I'd picked up a set of American Muscle lower shock studs a couple of months back--right around the time I discovered I'd ordered B/E-body shocks for my A-body. Out came the 4½" angle grinder and cutoff wheel for a bit of amputation work.




I swapped out the cutoff wheel for a 60-grit flap disc to grind away the remaining tubes and the (very nice) welds that had held them.




Of course, I hid all this butchery with some lovely gloss black spray paint.




While I waited for the paint to dry, I fixed the license-plate lamp as mentioned above, then rounded up some hardware to install the adjustable pinion snubber.




That's the lowest setting on that thing... I hope the springs keep it from constantly bashing the floor support for it. I had the old DC/MP pin-style one on the Black Bitch, and that thing hit hard over large road irregularities. There was actually significant damage to the floor from it; a bulge about 6" across under the rear seat.

By now the paint was dry enough to work with, so I installed the lower shock studs. This was not without some drama, as there's no really good way to hold the shock side of it short of jamming the shock nut, and there's no good way to get a wrench or socket on it (though in retrospect, a crow's foot would've worked and Stretch even pointed them out in his toolbox on Saturday... I just now thought of that. Oof). But I managed with an open-end wrench and the shock pin wrapped in a rag with a Vise Grip on it. They're tight and it didn't mar the suface at all, so I guess I win.




The next area I address was the spring sliders. As-delivered, they're rattling bastards whose solid-aluminum bushings don't fit tightly in the rear spring eyes. Not a problem on a drag car, but on a class act like Agnes I wanted to quiet them down a bit. To address the loose bushings, I spiralled a bead of black silicone around them and allowed it to almost fully cure prior to squeezing them into the springs and holding them in place with C-clamps for a little better than an hour. It seems to have worked. The other source of noise was the side-to-side clearance of the spring in the slider itself. The bolt is centered by a collar that fits inside the bushings and actually extends through the slider slots to make sure when the bolt is tightened, one doesn't bind the whole works. That leaves about 1/8" of side play between spring and slider bracket, which I've attempted to lessen by installing 1/16"-thick Teflon washers I sourced from McMaster-Carr. They're fairly tight, but I believe they'll wear a bit in the first couple of drives. They're a bit hard to see, but they're just to the outside of the gold bushing collars.




That tidied up the rear suspension with the exception of the shocks, since the upper studs were still en route from Atlanta. It was a relatively-short day with an unusually-long lunch break thrown in there, but at the end of it, thinking of the fuel tank damage I'd noticed the previous day, I decided to clean out the trunk. That hadn't been done since the start of this ordeal, so there was a ton of stuff in there. Less weight meant the trailer-ride home might not increase the damage the spring is inflicting on the fuel tank, which I expect is simply not an issue with a spring location using shackles.




I'm not going to attempt to reinvent the wheel here; that tank is getting clearanced with a hammer. There's actually two spots where it hits, one about 15" forward of the circled damage... so it'll get two dents.

With all the junk out of the trunk, I decided to test-fit the ACC trunk mat that's been in the box in my office (at work) for the last year or better. Not surprisingly, being ACC, it needed signet-ficant trimming around the trunk latch support, and needs more trimming all the way around the outside to fit correctly... but it still looks pretty nonetheless.




That was about it for Sunday, other than the inadvertent windshield-wiper test I did when I secured the last bulkhead disconnect, forgetting that the battery was connected and the key was in "Run" (but they work!).

Apologies for the crappy pics my cell phone takes; I forgot the camera at home on Sunday so I used what I had (once again, now that I think about it, there's a perfectly-good camera in the store I could've used... Hell's bells). I also apologize for running a day behind in the updates, but they end up taking longer than expected, and I'm ready for bed by the time I finish doing one... like I am right now. Since Tuesday is my scheduled night off from Agnes, I'll post what I got done tonight after work tomorrow. Then I'll be all caught up.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Monday after work, Stretch and I dragged Agnes back here so work could continue. I saw that my upper shock studs had arrived, which meant the next time I felt like working on the car I'd have a task lined up for me. I let the dog out and sat down to unwind for awhile. Around 7:30, I suddenly got this "They're not going to install themselves" urge and I went outside to see what removal entailed.

Next thing I knew I was balls deep in it.

I started by just trying to zing the trunk-side nuts off with an electric impact, but the studs just spun in their bores. Since the oddball LH one was bad anyhow, it seemed a good place to try unapproved methods. Out came the Vise Grips, which clamped to the stud at the base. I slowly turned the nut with the impact until I knew the Vise Grips were against something solid, then gave 'er the berries. The nut came right off. I knocked the stud through the trunk and picked it up for inspection, just curious to see what the hell was the deal with it.

It turns out I didn't need to actually replace it. Years ago, for reasons unknown, some schmoe had installed a thick spacer between the stud base and the shock absorber. I cannot, for the life of me, think of a good reason to do so. To make up the space for the shock consumed by that spacer, Schmoe installed a weird nut with a collar similar to the ones on the Allstar shock plates--it fits inside the shock bushing.




I can salvage that stud by removing the spacer, but it's firmly corroded to the stud right now. I just used one of the replacements instead. Even though the passenger's-side stud seemed fine, the replacement set was a bunch nicer so I removed that one as well, again using the Vise-Grip method.

Reinstallation is probably best done with an assistant and the right thin wrench to span the flats machined in the flange (you can see one in the photo above, next to the spacer). I had neither help nor that wrench, so installation was a careful reversal of the removal method, Vise Grips and all. After a light coat of anti-seize compound where the studs pass through the body (it's actually a long machined surface; see above) I zinged the original locknuts back on with the impact. The toughest part of the job was done.




The next order of business was shock installation (duh). Obviously, that's a pretty straightforward process. However, I took extra time cleaning up a set of original shock washers, one of which I crawled under the Challenger to, er, borrow. I sprayed the shock bushings, the mounts, and the insides of the washers with silicone spray to prevent squeaking (and, I thought, friction). A little anti-seize on the shock nuts so they won't be impossible to remove in the future and I was ready to install. There's a trick to getting the upper end of the RH shock in place, due to the location of the enormous draw-side fuel filter I used. It's perfectly positioned to be right in the friggin' way. The shock can be "rolled" onto the stud coming from the center of the car without too much difficulty. An added bonus to the combination of de-arched Super Stocks, a spring relocation, and replacing the shackles with sliders? KYB Gas-a-Just shocks come banded exactly--I mean exactly--the right length to go on both studs with the shipping bands still in place. No fighting the shock pressure whilst trying to align the bushing to the mount. It was glorious, I tell you.

I referred to the factory service manual for some reason, and found that both upper and lower shock nuts on an A-body are to be torqued to 50lb/ft, which seemed a bit much. I did as I was told anyhow. All four nuts stop on a shoulder, but said spec still compresses those bushings a healthy amount. The silicone spray likely won't help much with friction after all, but it should prevent any possible squeaks.

Uppers in place and torqued to spec, showing the proximity of the filter that won't allow normal shock installation (the bright yellow X on that fuel fitting tells me it's tight):




And the lower ends, similarly secured. No, there's no weight on the floor jack so calm down. I pushed it out of the way whilst futzing with the RH shock.




The American Muscle pinion snubber makes a dandy stand for the LED camping lantern our Wix rep gave me. I cannot verify similar compatibility with the old pin-type snubbers. That little lantern has come in great handy working outdoors, being very bright and battery-operated. You'll see another yellow X in this photo, assuring me the rearend has been filled and the plug tightened:




All in all, it wasn't too terrible but it still surprises me that I accomplished so much starting relatively late on a Monday night after 10 hours at work. Stretch confided that I must've had all his energy too last night, as he zonked early.

Either way, the rear suspension is done. Finalized. Fín.

We're getting close to key-twist time. All I really need to do now is add a couple of turns to the torsion bars to raise the girl a bit, wire the hot side of the fuel pump wiring to the battery, and install and finalize the wiring for the clutch safety switch. I don't need a working radio or line lock to wake the neighbors.

 

[restoman]

A little off topic for what you've been doing, but is that daylight peeking through the left rear wheelwell, or some bit of reflective stuff?

 

[Dr.Jass]

That's daylight, old friend. That wheelhouse is pretty bad. I plan on patching it prior to any hot burnout action using part of the Challenger's old roof, but it will not be show-worthy by any means. Just enough to keep the smoke out and not look completely terrible.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Not too much progress tonight, but some beats none.

I was planning on running the fuel pump relay's positive feed out to the starter relay, but after appraising the situation I couldn't find a way with which I'd be comfortable running it. Mind you, on this car the starter relay is all the way out by the battery. Then I realized I already had a wire running from the starter relay, with a disconnect already in it: the fusible link.




I released the terminals from the connectors on the car's original fusible link, which is in the glove box should a need for it arise, and used some OE-style terminals I've got just for this sort of thing. A few crimps, solders, and shrinks later I snapped them into said connectors, resulting in this little gem:




The large connector at the "Y" junction plugs into the factory wire from the starter relay. The blue wire is simply an extension of the 10ga wire that runs from the starter relay to the fusible link; the red wire snaps into an unused port in the bulkhead connector.



The function of the fusible link is not affected in any way since the extra power feed is upstream from it, and the fuel pump relay will connect to the interior side of the bulkhead at the red wire. Simple, reversible, and much quicker (and safer) than running an extra wire five or six feet. The fuel pump (supposedly) only draws 3-5A, so there's not a bunch of extra load on the existing wiring either. Added bonus: I can reconnect the fusible link as original, bypassing my jumper harness, and tuck the jumper under the other wires at the bulkhead. Even if someone did hotwire/bypass my keyed switch for the pump relay, the pump still would not work.

I probably could've finished up the interior side of it tonight, but I'm incredibly tired. I came inside so I could clean up and go to bed early. I should have a clutch-fork pushrod here tomorrow when I get home, meaning more wallowing in dirt beneath the car. I want to be well-rested for that nonsense.

 

[71ChargerRT]

Very cool!

 

[Dr.Jass]

When the pedal goes down, the clutch releases. That's new.

The pushrod arrived today, so after a short period of rest following work I went out to install it. It was less fun than expected, but not too terribly bad. The biggest issue was that I overestimated the distance the fork pivot had to be from the end, which required a few adjustments in the other direction. The countershaft arm to fork distance is quite a bit more than one thinks at first blush. I also made the mistake of installing the fork return spring early in the job, which will fool you into thinking you've almost got it when you're still a mile off. Don't do that... it's time-consuming and a tad frustrating.

I did not use the rubber fork pivot that came in the kit, though. I used the steel ball-style pivot that was used on Dodge trucks. E-booger sells 'em on eBay for a frightening $30, but it's a worthwhile upgrade. I had a used one lying around robbed from a truck that provided me with its 4-speed at one point. Dealer list on the thing was around $25, though, so he's not out of line considering they went NS1 15+ years ago.

If you're considering TTi W2 headers and a Lakewood bellhousing, here's a handy tip: Just go ahead and drop a large anvil on your foot now. It's a bit less painful than the clutch adjustment procedure. Actually, it's not completely miserable once you figure out you've got to do it from beneath the car, but the wrench has to be positioned as if you were doing it from the top. You also have to angle the wrench as it moves through its arc to avoid things like the speedometer cable and firewall. It's still less than fun once you figure it out.

Clutch pressure isn't bad; in fact it's relatively easy. I'd originally settled on a 3,400lb pressure plate as you may recall, but went down to a 2,600 (? I'm not sure anymore) based on RAM Clutch's suggestion based on the disc I wanted to use. We'll find out how well it modulates on the full-metallic disc soon enough. Action is smooth throughout its travel with no grind, groan, squeak or stiction. I did not install the final clip at the pedal because I couldn't find my firewall boot, which, y'know, I saw within the last 48 hours. It's around here somewhere (actually, there are a few of 'em).

While I had her dangling in the air, it seemed the time to put some more tension on the torsion bars. I added five turns to each adjuster, and have a bit more than 1" clearance at the snubbers. It looks approximately level sitting in the yard--maybe a bit nose-up, but the back tires are on lower ground--but I may take a bit back out of it. To be honest, though, I'm kind of digging the additional oil-pan clearance, which is still a bit fearsome. I could live with a little hint of gasser stance to not rip the pan off or drag the headers.

I didn't get pictures during the pushrod installation, and the ones I took after adjusting the torsion bars were a bit dark for my tastes... there's not enough light for background reference. If you've seen previous pictures of the car since we installed the engine, though, the difference in the fender/tire clearance should be pretty obvious.






And with that, I'm off to bed. I potentially have a big weekend ahead of me, and there's much to do tomorrow night as well.

 

[71ChargerRT]

Love this little car!

 

[Dr.Jass]

It's a pretty lovable little car, especially now that everything works as intended. When I bought it, there was an extensive list of things that didn't work that the previous owner apparently just ignored: Hazard flashers, fuel & temp gauges, parking lamps, lighter, dome & license lamp, etc. The only thing still broken is the turn signal not cancelling in one direction--the signal works great itself, the switch just stays engaged. It might be something I can repair when the wheel's off again, which won't be terribly long.

'Course, my love affair with it will end when the engine comes unglued, probably shortly after I start it.

 

[Dr.Jass]

I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped last night. A couple of friends stopped by and that burned up a couple of hours of useful time. I love those guys, but their timing was awful. I never even got to thinking about the clutch switch.

Regardless, I got the fuel pump relay mounted, wired, and working. I then realized I hadn't permanently grounded the pump itself... a couple of minutes installing a ring terminal and mounting it is all that's required, but the tiny flying leeches were beyond comprehension so it didn't get done. A test with a temporary ground showed everything works as intended, though. I'll have to revisit the relay/fuse holder bracket, though. They don't really clear the dash to my satisfaction and the relay is visible from the driver's seat.

I'll be back at it shortly, with the clutch switch and a couple of other small details left to tackle.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Saturday was spent finishing the relay wiring, installing the clutch safety switch using an alternate wiring method through the bulkhead disconnect, and mostly sanity checks.

I wanted to make sure the engine would crank, so I grounded the clutch/neutral safety switch terminal directly to the battery. Turning the key turned the engine, so I proceeded to install the clutch switch. I didn't care to drag out the drill, so I wired an empty cavity in the bulkhead to the factory bullet-style connector on the end of the switch's wire (I couldn't bring myself to cut an NOS wire). I'd already run a terminal to the other side of the cavity, so installing the switch was the majority of the work. It was miserably hot work yesterday, with temps in the 90s, but I persisted and the switch works as designed, if not as intended for this particular model.

A test of the fuel system resulted in an enormous leak at a flared line junction. After tightening those fittings, the next test revealed a leak at the pressure regulator, once again quickly solved with two wrenches. On the next test, a sweep of the throttle produced four steady streams from the accelerator-pump nozzles, meaning the fuel system was ready.

I believe I may have a faulty tachometer, but there's not much I can do about that at the moment. I have other tachs, but this one performed normally until connected to the coil (12V snapped the needle to zero). Once connected, it no longer did that... only one way to find out, so for the time being I left it wired and will see what happens when it's started.

Everything is tight, everything is wired, and all pre-flight testing indicates it's a go for first start... which we'll be doing within the next hour (in the rain, because we bad). It's go or blow at this point, kids, so stay tuned to this Bat-channel for updates later today.

I'm more nervous than a long-tailed cat in church... or was it a whore in a room full of rocking chairs? I'm so anxious I can't recall.