moparmat2000
Well-Known Member
I love black steelies with chrome lug nuts, and body colored steelies w dog dishes. I am all about the poverty pack equipped cars
69 Notch Barracuda - Rebirth
- Thread starter JAndrea
- Start date
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JAndrea
Well-Known Member
“Poverty Pack”... love that. The body will stay exactly how it is... for a while anyway. I don’t like the yellow, but The paint is ORIGINAL, and I’m crazy about the overall heinous, wrongful, odious, or wicked nature of the machine. Thanks! ;)
moparmat2000
Well-Known Member
I love the yellow. I am doing my sleeper 408 4 speed no console 67 that very yellow, no vinyl top, yellow steelies dog dish caps and black gut. Gonna drive around in it wearing a sport coat and a fedora. Thats a color that flys under the cop radar.
JAndrea
Well-Known Member
I very much appreciate that! Sounds like we think the same on these matters. “Stay gold, Ponyboy.”
JAndrea
Well-Known Member
Finally installed a natural gas heater in my garage, and blew the insulation in.
Today I mated the transmission to the engine. It went together incredibly well.
It’s been a looong time since that transmission has called my benchtop home.
Today I mated the transmission to the engine. It went together incredibly well.
It’s been a looong time since that transmission has called my benchtop home.
1969cuda
Well-Known Member
Looking good!
Suggest also check axial runout to ensure tranny will sit square to the block - although I suspect it will be OK since your radial runout is very small. Plus it looks like tranny mated easily so I'm sure it will be fine.Dialed in the Bellhousing. This went very well. The most difficult part was setting up the damn dial indicator. I tried a couple of different methods but liked the Hurst method best. In the end my runout was .013” from farthest to closest of centerline. Divide that by 2 to get .007” from center... so that’s the size offset dowel pins I’ll buy from Robbmc Performance. Pins will be clocked to shift Bellhousing in the direction of the silver mark (0), the side closest to the centerline. At least... I think I’ve got it all figured out ;)
Jim
JAndrea
Well-Known Member
Hooked up the Hurst shifter, linkage, and filled the trans with fluid...
Thinking about dropping the engine in real soon...
Thinking about dropping the engine in real soon...
moparmat2000
Well-Known Member
Are you slipping it all in from underneath?
JAndrea
Well-Known Member
That was my initial thought... but I think I’m going to try from above first. I’m open to reconsidering...
Underneath is much easier with the K-frame and transmission crossmember attached. Don't even have to remove the hood.
JAndrea
Well-Known Member
Went in from top down (383 and A833... 
is with the 3’s and the 8’s???? 4 of a kind and 2 of a kind) today.... damn I just love this stuff...
Lessons learned:
is with the 3’s and the 8’s???? 4 of a kind and 2 of a kind) today.... damn I just love this stuff...Lessons learned:
- Don’t fill your trans with fluid before installing in car (if top-down is your approach
) - Disconnect shifter linkage at nuts on trans before install (don’t try to OVER save time)
- Remove Hurst shifter before install (don’t try to OVER save time, since you’ll need every single 1/2” of angle when going from top-down. Shifter adds about 3” of height at the tunnel that you don’t want)
- Raise rear of car as much as possible
- Lower front of car as much as possible (let air out of tires)
- Prepwork, prepwork, prepwork
- Older brother with half of a free day on zero advanced notice
- Memories of watching older brother work on his car when I was a youngin
- Engine hoist with enough lift power, extension, and tilt assembly add-on (also.. I pre-lubed tilt threads)
- 2 troubleshooting brains
- Wife who puts beer on ice because you are too in-the-thick-of-it to think about your own well being (refer back to prepwork in future)
- Solid wheel chocks, stands, and jacks (tools)
- Original paint and no cares about ruining engine compartment paint, or engine paint
- Extremely Minor knuckle scufs, rather than trips to the er
- Minorness of lessons learned
- Fora(bc)bodiesonly founders and contributors
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JAndrea
Well-Known Member
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Nice work. Great description, lmao!
JAndrea
Well-Known Member
TTI 1 3/4” polished ceramic long tubes come early next week. Looking forward to that challenge. I was all set to go with Schumachers, but when I found out about the hassle (and/or extra cost) with 4 speed mods, I decided to bite the bullet and go with TTI. Excited to see those pearly beauties...
Dropped the gas tank over the last couple of days. Wow... 20+ year old gas really reeks. It also looks exactly like Mountain Dew!! There was about a gallon of it still in the tank.
Dropped the gas tank over the last couple of days. Wow... 20+ year old gas really reeks. It also looks exactly like Mountain Dew!! There was about a gallon of it still in the tank.
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JAndrea
Well-Known Member
I’m gonna get a new gas tank and try to salvage the old sending unit, way too many bits and pieces in the tank to mess with... The straps are okay, so I’ll try to clean them up and paint them.
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JAndrea
Well-Known Member
The accessories...
61forfun
Well-Known Member
Wham, bam back on the road. Love how you get in there and just make it happen. Lot of good advice. Folks can get so caught up in the over researching they get paralyzed and make no progress. You move, improvise and your attention to detail is where it needs be. Spot on focus! Very nice thread and build progress indeed. Make it so #1!
JAndrea
Well-Known Member
Wow... thanks, my friend! Winter slowed me down... mainly because I was insulating the garage ceiling and installing piping and a gas heater (all for the A-Body, of course). No more slow-downs next winter!
Thanks for following and commenting... the inspiration helps.
JAndrea
Well-Known Member
In preparing to dry-fit the headers in the next week or so, I did a trial-run of removing the torsion bars tonight. My plan is to eventually get 1.03” (PST, Firm Feel, etc) bars, which will allow me to lower the ride height without the front end bottoming out on the bump stops (from what I’ve read anyway). I also have a 1.5” lowering block kit for the back end. I want the whole car to ride as low as possible, within reason and mechanical tolerances... nothing too radical.
I learned a lot about the front suspension system... and I have a lot more to learn. One thing I learned... take notes on every nut, clip, etc, since when you put it back together, and if you cross the same hardware off the list during reassembly, you’ll be more likely to get it together correctly.
Torsion bars (I just did one, then reinstalled it) were super easy to remove. I followed the manual, but it was a tad thin on the details. Once I wire-wheeled the gunked-filled cavity and clip at the end of the bar, I marked the end of the bar, as well as the hex slot built into the frame (for reassembly). I then removed the clip in the rear and stacked a couple of vice grips to try and drive the bar to the rear. What finally got it moving was to remove the nut on the end of the upper control arm, then rap on the threaded control arm post toward the rear. This pushed the t-bar to the point where I could then drive on the stack of vice grips, which finally pushed the t-bar out.
I learned a lot about the front suspension system... and I have a lot more to learn. One thing I learned... take notes on every nut, clip, etc, since when you put it back together, and if you cross the same hardware off the list during reassembly, you’ll be more likely to get it together correctly.
Torsion bars (I just did one, then reinstalled it) were super easy to remove. I followed the manual, but it was a tad thin on the details. Once I wire-wheeled the gunked-filled cavity and clip at the end of the bar, I marked the end of the bar, as well as the hex slot built into the frame (for reassembly). I then removed the clip in the rear and stacked a couple of vice grips to try and drive the bar to the rear. What finally got it moving was to remove the nut on the end of the upper control arm, then rap on the threaded control arm post toward the rear. This pushed the t-bar to the point where I could then drive on the stack of vice grips, which finally pushed the t-bar out.
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JAndrea
Well-Known Member
I also took some pics of the fuel line routing. I’ll be purchasing 5/16” (not 3/8”) pre-bent tubes. I’ve read that plenty of people with with big blocks with much more horsepower than I’ll be running are fine with stock-sized lines, so that will be good enough for me.
Be careful with the vise grips, I've never done that with a bar I wanted to keep. The highest level of stress in the torsion bar is on the surface, any damage there creates a stress riser and a potential location for the bar to snap.
I usually loosen the nut on the lower control arm and then put a pry bar between the K-frame and the lower control arm and push it back.
I usually loosen the nut on the lower control arm and then put a pry bar between the K-frame and the lower control arm and push it back.
JAndrea
Well-Known Member
Good tips, thanks. I’m not keeping these, or I wouldn’t have used the grips. I’m assuming there isn’t much of a market for these originals (?), so I wasn’t too worried about them.
moparmat2000
Well-Known Member
Factory 318 A body with A/C uses 340 torsion bars. You prob coulda sold em.
JAndrea
Well-Known Member
Interesting. Bummer.
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