The Great Pumpkin - '71 Duster
So since the last update I have taken a few steps backwards. :banghead:
First major issue was that I basically had no brakes which was preventing me from doing any significant road testing. Turns out the 1 1/8 bore master cylinder I have is mismatched with the small piston SSBC calipers I chose. It is a somewhat common problem with these calipers and should be solved by going to a smaller 15/16 bore master.
Unfortunately I did not realize this when I planned out the brakes. There are a lot of variables when using aftermarket parts I guess. I had bought the master a couple years before without any knowledge of how bore and caliper piston area have a direct relationship to being able to stop the car.
The real crappy part of this is that it took me FOREVER to figure this out. I must have sent about a gallon of brake fluid through the system trying bleed the brakes over and over. I adjusted the rears rock solid, adjusted the pedal pushrod, adjusted the prop valve and on and on. Finally through research I figured out that the larger bore master I had was not providing enough pressure for the tiny little 45mm SSBC caliper pistons.
BTW, none of my neighbors could figure out how to help me bleed the brakes, they all sucked at it. One time one of them was pumping the throttle saying there were no brakes. Seriously! I'm under the rear end on my back and I'm like, what the heck is that squeaky noise? It was the throttle return spring! Hard to find good help around here.
Next major hassle was a hard starting/no starting problem. The car was almost impossible to start, either hot or cold. I was literally roasting my starter. What I initially thought was a tuning issue turned out to be a wiring issue. (naturally) The distributor pickup wires were reversed causing the timing to be too advanced. MSD does not mention this potential pitfall in their installation instructions so I had to read through their forums to figure it out. I started a thread on Moparts about it and one of the more experienced guys pointed it out early on. I had no idea what he was even referring to though until I went back and read through it again. I admit, I would have never thought to switch the pickup harness polarity since I had it wired correctly based on the instructions.
So once I understood what to do, I went out and switched the wires. The car started right up and stayed running. Whew! Man, this hot rod stuff is supposed to be fun but sometimes it's really not.
Also had to go back and make some additions to the charging system. The way I had the car wired at first, the car would shut off with the disconnect switch but the charge wire was still hot. Not good. At one point I was under the dash and had the disconnect off. I noticed the A/F gauge indicator was on. WTF? I stuck my test light on the firewall terminal and yep, voltage. Crap.
I killed my brand new voltmeter somewhere during this time too. Probably should have known there was a problem when the voltage sensing wire from the firewall terminal tried to weld itself to the gauge when the disconnect was off. Blew right through that red flag! :shock:
So more research led me to the conclusion that I needed to have a continuous duty solenoid (basically a giant relay) in the charge line between the alternator and battery. Unless you have a cut off switch that can handle alternator output going through it, (which I don't) you gotta either go directly back to the battery or install the solenoid (or some such device) to prevent the charge wire from being live after the switch is off.
My charge wire was too short to go back to the battery and I was not about to rip apart the interior of the car again to replace it so I got the solenoid. It's not cheap, about $45. The guys at the parts store thought I was nuts, (like usual) they couldn't figure out what I was doing with this silly solenoid but I had a plan. Had to make a bracket for it but I got it all wired up and it went in pretty easily. It handles the load and renders the charge line dead when it's off. It's powered from the battery side of the cutoff switch. Problem solved.
So I'm kind of in a holding pattern with the car right now. I ran out of money this week so I have to wait for a bit to get the master cylinder. Hopefully it will provide me with enough brakes so I can start driving this thing more aggressively to be able to sort it out. Still also needs to be aligned but I couldn't do that before the brakes. Pics below.
Here's the culprit that denied me brakes, ye olde truck 1 1/8 master cylinder.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj214/rmchrgr/IMG_0163a_zpscb24b31d.jpg
You measure the bore here with a small scale or with a dial caliper inside the flange.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj214/rmchrgr/IMG_0164a_zps5eb20ec9.jpg
Here's the continuous duty solenoid (chrome one) wired into the charge line. I put some rubber caps over the positive side lugs on both of the solenoids to prevent mishaps.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj214/rmchrgr/IMG_0162a_zps6f08a02f.jpg
I also relocated the shift light from behind the now vacant ammeter hole to this spot. Wires did not reach the fuse box from the left corner of the dash.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj214/rmchrgr/IMG_0167a_zps96e72637.jpg
Thanks for stickin' with me though all this. I know I can be a bit long winded. More to come.
So since the last update I have taken a few steps backwards. :banghead:
First major issue was that I basically had no brakes which was preventing me from doing any significant road testing. Turns out the 1 1/8 bore master cylinder I have is mismatched with the small piston SSBC calipers I chose. It is a somewhat common problem with these calipers and should be solved by going to a smaller 15/16 bore master.
Unfortunately I did not realize this when I planned out the brakes. There are a lot of variables when using aftermarket parts I guess. I had bought the master a couple years before without any knowledge of how bore and caliper piston area have a direct relationship to being able to stop the car.
The real crappy part of this is that it took me FOREVER to figure this out. I must have sent about a gallon of brake fluid through the system trying bleed the brakes over and over. I adjusted the rears rock solid, adjusted the pedal pushrod, adjusted the prop valve and on and on. Finally through research I figured out that the larger bore master I had was not providing enough pressure for the tiny little 45mm SSBC caliper pistons.
BTW, none of my neighbors could figure out how to help me bleed the brakes, they all sucked at it. One time one of them was pumping the throttle saying there were no brakes. Seriously! I'm under the rear end on my back and I'm like, what the heck is that squeaky noise? It was the throttle return spring! Hard to find good help around here.
Next major hassle was a hard starting/no starting problem. The car was almost impossible to start, either hot or cold. I was literally roasting my starter. What I initially thought was a tuning issue turned out to be a wiring issue. (naturally) The distributor pickup wires were reversed causing the timing to be too advanced. MSD does not mention this potential pitfall in their installation instructions so I had to read through their forums to figure it out. I started a thread on Moparts about it and one of the more experienced guys pointed it out early on. I had no idea what he was even referring to though until I went back and read through it again. I admit, I would have never thought to switch the pickup harness polarity since I had it wired correctly based on the instructions.
So once I understood what to do, I went out and switched the wires. The car started right up and stayed running. Whew! Man, this hot rod stuff is supposed to be fun but sometimes it's really not.
Also had to go back and make some additions to the charging system. The way I had the car wired at first, the car would shut off with the disconnect switch but the charge wire was still hot. Not good. At one point I was under the dash and had the disconnect off. I noticed the A/F gauge indicator was on. WTF? I stuck my test light on the firewall terminal and yep, voltage. Crap.
I killed my brand new voltmeter somewhere during this time too. Probably should have known there was a problem when the voltage sensing wire from the firewall terminal tried to weld itself to the gauge when the disconnect was off. Blew right through that red flag! :shock:
So more research led me to the conclusion that I needed to have a continuous duty solenoid (basically a giant relay) in the charge line between the alternator and battery. Unless you have a cut off switch that can handle alternator output going through it, (which I don't) you gotta either go directly back to the battery or install the solenoid (or some such device) to prevent the charge wire from being live after the switch is off.
My charge wire was too short to go back to the battery and I was not about to rip apart the interior of the car again to replace it so I got the solenoid. It's not cheap, about $45. The guys at the parts store thought I was nuts, (like usual) they couldn't figure out what I was doing with this silly solenoid but I had a plan. Had to make a bracket for it but I got it all wired up and it went in pretty easily. It handles the load and renders the charge line dead when it's off. It's powered from the battery side of the cutoff switch. Problem solved.
So I'm kind of in a holding pattern with the car right now. I ran out of money this week so I have to wait for a bit to get the master cylinder. Hopefully it will provide me with enough brakes so I can start driving this thing more aggressively to be able to sort it out. Still also needs to be aligned but I couldn't do that before the brakes. Pics below.
Here's the culprit that denied me brakes, ye olde truck 1 1/8 master cylinder.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj214/rmchrgr/IMG_0163a_zpscb24b31d.jpg
You measure the bore here with a small scale or with a dial caliper inside the flange.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj214/rmchrgr/IMG_0164a_zps5eb20ec9.jpg
Here's the continuous duty solenoid (chrome one) wired into the charge line. I put some rubber caps over the positive side lugs on both of the solenoids to prevent mishaps.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj214/rmchrgr/IMG_0162a_zps6f08a02f.jpg
I also relocated the shift light from behind the now vacant ammeter hole to this spot. Wires did not reach the fuse box from the left corner of the dash.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj214/rmchrgr/IMG_0167a_zps96e72637.jpg
Thanks for stickin' with me though all this. I know I can be a bit long winded. More to come.