67 GTS 4-Speed: Daily Summer Driver

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is the ps pulley pressed on? I rebuilt my trw pump(SB 273) and pressed it on too far. Had to remove and reinstall. Is that for sure a Federal pump?
EXCELLENT WORK!
 
is the ps pulley pressed on? I rebuilt my trw pump(SB 273) and pressed it on too far. Had to remove and reinstall. Is that for sure a Federal pump?
EXCELLENT WORK!

Thank you!

Yes the pulley is pressed on. And that thought did cross my mind... but if I would remove the pulley by the .75" that it needs, it would only be half way on the shaft... when I pulled the pulley off the pump initially, it was pressed on that the front of the pulley hub was flush with the end of the pump shaft. Which is how it is pressed on currently
 
So this past weekend I didnt get much done... On February 1st I got a call on my way into work in the middle of a snow storm and a terrible commute to work that my Dad had passed... He was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer for almost 3 years now. He was doing okay with only a steady decline in the past 6 months or so, we were all hopeful. But the past couple weeks it went from steady to rapid. The doctors prediction went from 2-3 months down to a couple days. He was the one who got me into this hobby and I will surely miss him, miss running ideas off of him, and going to him for advice and reassurance... So that means the Charger, Polara and the Packards now look to me to stay in running shape. So hopefully I can do him and his legacy justice.

With that being said I was only able to install the pulley I got for the power steering pump.

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This lines up more with the crank pulley, than the other one did. However it may need to be pressed on a little more. Depending how you look at it, it lines up on one angle, but doesnt in another. For anyone wondering, the big block Federal power steering pump pulley part number is 2951128. So that strip steel I got was cut up for floor braces that I am going to be using for putting ramcharger bucket seats into the 90 W150

Other things still need to be done, but given recent events I am not to sure when I will be up to doing them.
 
So very sorry to hear of your loss. His spirit will always be with you. I tracked down my Dads barracuda and now its like he rides along with me.
 
My condolences, parents are like super heroes. Sounds like you and your dad had a similar relationship as my dad and I. Miss him every day but it does get easier.
Prayers for all he touched.
 
I'm so sorry to hear about the death of your father. My dad passed away when I was 22. I hung out with him when I was young and learned many things from him.The hurt gets better with time but never really goes away completely.
 
Sorry to hear about your Dad. It never gets easer that he's gone, it just gets easer to deal with. Thats what they say. I just lost my Dad 3 mounts ago, I know what you're going through. Just be thankful that we have some great memories.
 
I appreciate the condolences. All we can do is just try to keep our head up and keep moving forward.
 
So I went back home this past weekend for the funeral and such. All that I really had to do was to paint and assemble the trunk lid trim piece. I polished this about a year or so ago and only got to painting it now.

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Besides the waviness it came out pretty good. I worry about sending it out to be straightened once the car is on the road. other things to blow money on at the moment.

But the remaining work on the GTS should be as follows:
finding a dip stick that would work ( I am going to reach out to TTI about this, they should know. Plus according to their installation instructions it needs to come out to install the headers anyway). Need to get the rear end rebuilt with new gears and bearings, rear brakes, exhaust, clutch linkage (new Z bar), 180 degree thermostat and housing (mine leaked terribly on break in), getting the power steering coupling (couldnt find the spare one, so may rob one off of the spare columns), get the remaining parts for the console, chroming the bumpers, seat foam, and head liner
 
I just found this thread. Awesome job you're doing on your GTS. And sorry to hear about your father.
 
Well I finally got the Exhaust system!! pretty darn expensive but I heard TTI is the way to go for fitment:

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The packaging was nice and everything checked out. I ordered the wrong Z-bar... apparently they have a small block one and a big block one... I wasnt aware of that so I will have to see if I can exchange the one they sent me. But looking at that those headers and where they have to go I dont see how its going to all fit. I read their installation instructions, but even with that it seems like it will be tough... but only time will tell!! pretty pumped!!

But due to their instruction sheets I did a couple things in preparation of the install next month. I removed the old column that was in the car, got the coupling swapped over to the column thats going in the car and set that up to be installed once I get a friend over to help since they say you need to turn the wheels depending which side your installing. I removed the starter, and installed the rear seat belts since this system uses the rear seat belt bolts as a mounting point. I also got a thermostat and new thermostat housing since that was what was leaking on break in

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But the remaining work on the GTS should be as follows:
finding a dip stick that would work, Need to get the rear end rebuilt with new gears and bearings, rear brakes, get the remaining parts for the console, chroming the bumpers, seat foam, and head liner...

The list is getting shorter!!!!!! this is awesome!
 
This past weekend was a busy one!! Long story short, the exhaust is 80% installed!! now for the long story:

I had my friend come out and help me install the exhaust. It would be impossible with only one person, so thank you for coming to help! Following the instructions from TTI the torsion bars were removed, spark plugs, as was the starter. I needed to unbolt the passenger side upper bump stop so I could swing the LCA a little lower so I could hammer out that bar. I tried installing the column because we needed to turn the wheels left and right depending on the header we were installing. Well the shaft that I installed in the column was too short (as in the bracket that mounts the steering column to the underside of the dash was about 2 inches further forward than it should have been)... The column was originally a 67, but swapped out the steering shaft from a 68 or so power steering column. Well I thought the shafts were the same size between years, but I guess not. So I am going to have to figure that one out. But the passenger side went in no problem.

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The drivers side was another story... So we unbolted the engine and got it up in the air. No matter how much we tried that header would not go in the way the directions said, or from the top. So we started to look at the situation and realized we needed more room to angle the header up into the space. So these are the measurements from the floor to just in front of the torsion bar cross member and the floor to the front leaf spring mount location. The column and master cylinder were not in for the install of the drivers side header.

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So even with that much room we saw we were hitting on the cross link, so I unbolted that from the steering box. Got it part of the way up and almost in and we were now hitting the clutch fork. So we said screw it and took it out. When we started to line up the clutch fork with the zbar, we noticed it didnt line up. Check Brewers site and I have the wrong clutch fork. Was pretty pissed at myself that I assumed the stamped clutch fork I received with the car was the correct one with out verifying... But with the fork out we were able to finally get the header in place and bolted up. In this process we also got the starter in. We used remflex gaskets because they dont leak and headers have a tendency to leak, so in order to prevent having to screw with these things again we used those gaskets. Well we saw the header was hitting the starter as well as the power steering gear when we lowered the engine. Thinking back on it we probably could of used shims to keep the header from hitting the power steering gear but figured we might as well put some dimples in the pipes since we needed to put dimples in the one pipe to get the mini starter to work. Now I didnt use the starter they suggest, I went with a starter from a 90 W150. After putting the header in multiple times we finally got everything to line up!!

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Once the engine was back in place and since the torsion bars were out, now would be a good time to install the QA1 adjustable strut rods. I never liked how the pivot pins allowed the LCA to slide on the pin, so I put these in to help prevent that. That process was pretty simple. The bellow picture you can see the QA1 rods as well as the headers from underneath. They look and fit nice!

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We got the rear pipes hung up but saw we were having a length issue, so I am going to have to trim the adapters and intermediate pipes a bit, which is okay, as well as put some notches in the muffler pipes so when I clamp down on them I get a good seal. We decided not to do that at 11:30 pm since I may have to unbolt the header to fit in the clutch fork when ever I order that. So I will finish the exhaust when I am certain I get good clearance with the clutch linkage. But all in all I am happy I went with the TTIs

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But the following day we cleaned up everything and got the tail stripe on the Charger!!

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The old man would be proud...

So the things I need to do to get this thing on the road would be as follows: order that clutch fork and install, hook up the clutch linkage, tighten up starter and connect wiring, figure out what steering shaft I can use so I can install the column, take the dip stick I have and use a tube bender to get it to work with the power steering gear and headers, Need to get the rear end rebuilt with new gears and bearings, rear brakes, master cylinder, get the remaining parts for the console, chroming the bumpers, seat foam, tires and head liner.
 
Went back to my parents place this past weekend and did not get anything done on the car. Spent the majority of the time doing a tune up to the polara, as well as getting the front speakers and radio installed in the charger. I did however get the correct clutch fork from Brewers, and brought back the steering column shaft to see how the differing length would affect the column housing location. was hoping to find to try those two things out but ran out of time... so next month is when Ill have to check it out!
 
I just found this thread. Great car! So sorry to hear about your father. You an he had a relationship like me and my 23yr old son have. Very cool. I am sure he is smiling down on your progress.
Good luck with it and I look forward to watching and seeing your updates!
 
So last month I did make it back to the parents place to get some work done, but most the time was spent doing a tune up on the polara, and I got the speakers and radio in the charger. Just need to hook it up!

This past weekend I went home to get some parts for the dart convertible. The location was about an hour away so I figured I take the charger to give it a run in. Well that wasnt the best idea... turns out at moderate throttle anywhere between 25-70 causes the car to ping... So I had to much advance. But I back the initial back and now it doesnt ping at speed, but idles like crap. In order to get it to idle I have to crank the idle screw all the way in on the carb. So it looks like I need to find time to recurve the distributor, and install a clutch fan because it likes to run hot. Too Hot...

BUT! I got some work done on the GTS. I went to install the clutch fork and noticed I needed to unbolt the header to get it in... So I had to raise the engine again, loosen the header just to get this damn clutch fork in... Which was fine because I needed to change out the header gasket, which I did. I saw that the header did not have enough clearance, so I went about and made a couple spacers to get the header away from the steering box. I then moved to getting the rest of the exhaust lined up... that was a pain. Had to cut a couple pipes to get it all to fit, which is fine. So everything in the exhaust is loosely assembled!!

I only now decided to connect the starter wiring... that was a pain!!! holy cow... should of done that before I installed it. Oh well, its on there now. With the little time I had left I installed the Z bar mount on the bell housing.

So now all that needs done is to assemble the Z bar, install that. Figure out what is going on with the column and why the steering shaft isnt long enough, get remflex gaskets for the collectors, get a tube bender and bender the dip stick tube and I should be good to put fire to it again!! then just Need to get the rear end rebuilt with new gears and bearings, rear brakes, master cylinder, get the remaining parts for the console, chroming the bumpers, seat foam, tires and head liner. Then should be done! list is getting smaller.
 
Went back home this weekend for Chryslers at Carlisle. Unfortunately didnt get anything done on the GTS, which was expected. I got a lot of stuff for the charger and found a guy who may have some glass for the convertible! been on the look out for that for some time now.

But I got some trim clips for the peak trim for the GTS, I got the rear and front glass trim clips (going to use the 68 and above window trim) the console brackets and another grill! Wasnt looking for one but saw someone had one with awesome parking lamp lenses. Upon further inspection I found that the grille's aluminum was in much better shape than the one I painted. So that one will go on the car.

Probably the best Carlisle find I have ever found happened on Friday. I was able to get the chrylser car phone that was in my old mans 92 ram charger. I saw the vehicle for sale on craigslist last year without a title (so I didnt get it) and the guy who bought it parted it out and took what was left to Carlisle. It will go into his 90 W150 that I have out here in Pittsburgh.

Other than that spent a good time driving around in the charger and polara, found out not only does the chargers distributor need recurved, but the shift points need adjusted. Shifts at 2500 rpm under full throttle. So it will be fun to see how that car reacts to those changes. Spent the remainder of the time organizing the garage and labeling everything. Trying to make it easier to find things for the next car to be restored.
 
This past weekend was a bust... After screwing around with the Z-bar and how to get that in and mounted I finally got down a process to get that in. It fits great side to side but I have no idea if it has enough travel.... As I was trying to connect the Z-bar to the rod that connects to the clutch fork I noticed with the hardware attached there is interference with one of the header tubes... This I think is due to how the tubes were bent and not just me. So out comes the Z-bar (again)(which was okay because I saw the Z-bar could hit part of the ball mount, so with the ball mount out I ground down the edge a little bit more to hopefully prevent that) and up goes the engine. So I disconnected the header from the engine and positioned the header just enough that I could start dimpling one tube to allow enough clearance with that lower rod and the header tube. Unfortunately like most of the time I run out of time before Im needed for other things going on.

I dont know how much pedal travel is needed to disengage this diaphragm type clutch. Which will also dictate what else needs to be modified to get this to work properly. Only time will tell if I have enough room for that.

In other news I got the restored wiper motor for the charger installed so I dont have engine heat flooding the interior while driving and got the radio hooked up.

It definitely is difficult trying to work on multiple project cars at once when I only have a partial day out of a weekend once a month to get stuff done. So I figured try and get the GTS to the point I am waiting on funds, and not time, as soon as possible and only doing one little thing to the charger during that time. Once I am waiting on funds for the GTS focus on getting the charger list done, fix some lighting issues on the polara and start the Packard restoration.

But once I can get this header dimpled I can finish hooking up the clutch linkage to see if it appears I have enough travel, figure out my issue with the steering shaft and get that installed. get a new dip stick on order from mancini, and finish connecting the exhaust. Once that is done, put fire to it to make sure the exhaust sounds good then get the rear end rebuilt with new gears and bearings, rear brakes, master cylinder, get the remaining parts for the console, chroming the bumpers, seat foam, tires and head liner. With any bit of luck and help from God I should be able to drive it next summer!
 
This past holiday weekend I went home thinking I was going to get the car started. Welp, that didnt happen. I had to fix a couple things around the house before I got some time on the GTS in between events that we were attending. Did a little more dimpling and it doesnt appear I made any progress on the issue. However I may have found the cause for the poor fitment. That detail is in the below thread:

Diaphragm clutch and free play

So it may appear the fork pivot that was installed in the bell housing is not correct for my current set up. At some point in the vehicle's life someone may have changed the clutch linkage around. Which makes sense because with the car I received a cast clutch fork, a stamped clutch fork that was way to long, and the Z-bar pivot on the bell housing was some welded piece of very thick steel plate.

So I opened dialogue with Brewers Performance to hopefully get this issue resolved soon so I can get some decent progress on the car.
 
This past weekend I went home for the Hershey car show in hopes of getting acquainted with some of the Packard folk since my next build will be one of those. Well I couldnt get off work Friday and ended up going Saturday. At that point basically all the vendors were packed up and gone... So maybe next year!

But I was able to get a little work done on the GTS and was able to resolve the issue with that fork pivot!! I have that journey in the thread mentioned in Post #149. But I was able to install the fork pivot, fork, fork boot, and Z-bar. I stopped at that point since I needed a third hand to get the pivot mount on the frame tightened. So maybe next time I will get my sister to help me with that.

How well did the TTI Z-bar fit? Any bending / massaging required?

ls23h. See the pictures below. The Z-bar fit nicely. No issue hitting the pipes. I still dont know if I have enough travel with this being my first four speed car. But in one direction the Z-bar hits the starter than in the other rotational direction it hits the brake line that comes down from the master cylinder to the distribution block. I have no Idea if this is a problem now or not. I will know more when I get the rest of the linkage connected and adjusted. stand by.

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But the other work I was able to get done is press the pulley the rest of the way on the power steering pump. I also got the dipstick tube bent up and in place on the engine. I just need to devise a bracket that attaches the tube to the block so it doesnt fall out unintentionally.

and with that the list gets smaller!:

figure out my issue with the steering shaft and get that installed. finish connecting the exhaust. Once that is done, put fire to it to make sure the exhaust sounds good then get the rear end rebuilt with new gears and bearings, rear brakes, master cylinder, get the remaining parts for the console, chroming the bumpers, seat foam, tires and head liner. With any bit of luck and help from God I should be able to drive it next summer
 
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