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I remember as a kid when the words "made in Japan" were equivalent to the current phrase "Chinesium". It's really sad that we don't find "made in the USA" on many products anymore.
I remember as a kid when the words "made in Japan" were equivalent to the current phrase "Chinesium". It's really sad that we don't find "made in the USA" on many products anymore.
Our politicians have given away our manufacturing prowess and all that goes with it. We're done. Right now they are looting the country. It's almost over.
I happy to report that the SKF wheel bearings solved my end play issue and I now have a functioning parking with the installation of new parking brake shoes, pads and rotors. I had to reroute the brake lines on the axles to clear the tailpipes while I had to car up in the air. Moving the mounting clip where the hard line transitioned to the rubber hose further outboard because it was rubbing on the tailpipe going over bumps. Now I'm fighting with leaking caliper hoses. Tried some new copper crush washers but they did not have ridges like the originals ones. I'm going to take off the calipers next weekend to remove the paint around the banjo bolts, also read on the web about reheating the copper washers to soften them up before reassembly. Here's a question for the CO brain trust; if I'm reusing the original AC Delco crush washers (with the ridges), should the ridges face outward toward the caliper and bolt or face inward toward the hose boss?? Thanks
Rodney
New wheel bearings, rotors, pads and parking brake shoes.
Leaking caliper hose. Going to try different crush washers.
The original AC Delco washers on the left have concentric ridges which the parts store replacements do not. I'm going to try reheating the AC Delco washers to soften them up for better sealing.
I finally got the rear calipers to stop dripping; the solution was new banjo bolts and crush washers and alot of muscle. It seemed like I would tighten the banjo bolts and they would drip, so I would tighten again and they would drip; after three iterations of this the drips finally stopped. With each subsequent tightening I would find the banjo bolts could be turned further, I guess the copper washers needed to compress between tightenings until they finally seated. I need to do a few more panic stops to dial back the rear calipers. With the current proportioning valve settings I have the rear pressure reduced about 30% and the rear wheels just barely want to lock up if the road surface is wet or uneven. I calculate the front-to-back brake bias to be 71:29 F-R. The car is very stable in a panic stop, very controlled, but I'd like a little more bite as the pedal travel is about 1/3 down before feeling the brakes start to work. I have Hawk HPS pads on the front with µF=.38; Hawk makes an HPS 5.0 pad with a µF=.44 which I might try for more stopping force.
I moved on to my crooked steering wheel issue. I had been moving the car around with an old beat-up steering wheel; I removed the horn pad so I could quickly remove the wheel to facilitate working on the dash and instrument wiring. When I tried to install the sport wteering wheel, I aligned the tick marks on the wheel to the tick mark on the steering column shaft and found the wheel was cocked a 1/4 turn to the right. I had centered the steering gear when I reassembled the front steering linkage and the pitman arm will only go on the steering gear at 90-degree intervals (which my misalignment was not great enough for this to be the problem. I discovered I had in correctly attached the intermediate shaft between the rag joint and the steering column. There is a small indentation on the steering column shaft that aligns with the coupling on the intermediate shaft. I happy to report that after realigning these two my steering wheel is now correctly centered. This took me less than 30-minutes to correct; I'll take the easy fixes any day of the week!
Next up: installing the cancel cam, horn contacts and the sport wheel. Once the horn is working I can get the state mandated vehicle inspection and a valid registration so I can "legally" drive the car.
Rodney
The steering column is on the bottom of this pic. The indentation allows the bolt to feed thru the coupler on the intermediate shaft.
I had some time yesterday after I got home from work, so I thought I'd reinstall the steering wheel, but first, I had to swap out the ignition key cylinder. Back in 2019, I had Jim from GMtilt build me a tilt steering column, but the key didn't match any other locks on the car. I tried to find a local locksmith that could re key my door cylinders to match the ignition key, but struck out. I really wanted one key for the doors and ignition so I bought a package set that included the ignition cylinder and the door cylinders all keyed to the square GM ignition key. With the steering wheel already off, I quickly pulled the turn signal switch and swapped out the ignition cylinder - easy peasy!
Then it happened, my screw driver slipped while reinstalling the locking ring and I broke the cancel cam for the horn button. Duh! Do you ever feel like there are forces at play behind the scenes conspiring against completion of your project? I jumped online, couldn't find one on Amazon that wasn't stupid expensive; surfed over to RockAuto, they have a Dorman replacement part but will take a week for delivery; I tried O'Reilly Auto and they could have it shipped to a store for next day pick up and it was half the price quoted on Amazon. Win!!
Hopefully, I can get the steering wheel back on tonight!
O'Reilly came through for me; I picked up the cancel cam yesterday after work and reassembled the steering column last night before the big storm hit H-town and knocked out the power. A permanent steering wheel and working horn are welcomed additions to my checklist of completed tasks. Next up, replace the high beam head light bulbs, then get the state mandated vehicle inspection.
Rodney
Dorman #83232 cancelling cam; this part number does not fit standard steering columns, only tilt columns.
I got the locking plate and the snap ring on (without breaking the cancel cam).
All buttoned up ready for the steering wheel.
The final product: centered steering wheel, new ignition cylinder keyed to match the door locks, and a sport wheel with working horn!
According to the great state of Texas, the car is officially legal to drive on the public roads! I don't know why they gave me an April dated sticker, obviously, it's May almost June; but it's kind of fitting as I brought the car home from its previous home (a West Texas cornfield) on April 1, 2012. Yes, that's right, 14 years in the making. I wish I could say it was completely finished but I still have a few lingering interior items and the convertible top needs to be installed. I should take it to the upholstery shop in a week or two for the top install. I took the family for ice cream at Baskin Robbins last night to celebrate the occasion.
FYI, no ice cream was consumed inside the vehicle - LOL.
Congrats! Go ahead and just accept that "it's never finished" now.
I highly recommend looking at the Antique registration. Enforcement of the limitations is extremely sparse. Year Of Make is also nice and license plates can be found fairly easily. I had to explain what was happening to the clerk and they had to find a supervisor, but it went pretty smoothly. Also lets you use a single license plate on the back and a small plate with the small sticker instead of the windshield sticker.
Congrats Rodney (check your math) I don't think it's 2026 yet, give yourself a break it's only 12 years not 14
Tim:
You cracked me up when I realized my math error. It definitely feels like 14 years - LOL; and will probably be 14 years before I finish the lingering interior items. Anyways, thanks for brightening my day.
I've put about 60 miles on the car since becoming street legal and I'm happy to report the car is super fun to drive. Lots of pep thanks to the 3.42 rear gear and the steeper first gear of TH200-4r transmission. By my calculations, the effective starting gear is 9.37:1 which is comparable to a TH350 with 3.73 rear gearing. All my previous Oldsmobiles were basically stock with a little performance; never had a car with headers, or a lumpy cam, or high horsepower, so I'm very pleased with the outcome of my 12-year long pursuit of motoring happiness, The transmission needs some tweaking; down shifts are much too hard, the car really hammers into first gear when slowing down, the OD/lock-up engagement is too sensitive to throttle input and the 8 sec delay on the lock-up convertor is way too long. I'm gonna try a 4 sec delay on the lock-up engagement relay and will adjust unlocking sensitivity using the vacuum switch. For the overly hard shifts I plan to take the car to Century Automotive which built the transmission to see what they can do.
The car handles like its on rails. I installed some aftermarket upper control arms from SPC and tall ball joints from Howe Racing to alter the pathetic stock camber curve in the front suspension. The steering is very quick thanks to the 12.7:1 fixed ratio Saginaw steering gear. The power assist is way too much and would feel better if it was heavier with more road feedback; I could drive this car with one finger it's so light. Some day when I don't have bigger fish to fry I may pull the gear box and have the torsion rods changed to reduce the power assist. The car has a tendency to oversteer; once you get going in a turn it wants to stay in the turn. With all the improvements to the front suspension geometry I think I need a smaller rear sway bar. I have an 1-1/4 tubular front bar and a 1-1/8" rear bar; both bars are from Hellwig. The rear bar is adjustable and I currently have it set at the softest setting, but I will need to make a change to the rear bar for more predictable handling in the corners.
Another significant revelation after putting a few real world miles on the car is the exhaust is really loud. My family is too embarrassed to even ride in the car. I love the throaty tone of the DynoMax Super Turbo mufflers and there is no droning at cruising speeds, but the second I put my foot into the gas pedal it just screams "give me a ticket"! It's already gonna be a cop magnet, I don't need any extra attention from law enforcement. I started another thread to discuss alternative muffler choices, thank you to everyone who shared their experiences in that thread, but I was surprised to hear from the experiences of others that I would not likely find a quieter muffler than the Super Turbo mufflers I have on the car now. The best suggestion was to add straight-thru resonators to quiet it down a little.
On the advice of CO member CMCE (don't know his given name) I've purchased a pair of Vibrant 1792 resonators which are small enough and short enough to graft them into the tailpipes behind the rear wheels. The Vibrant resonators are only 4" in diameter & 12" long and should fit nicely in the space along the trunk drop down area. I kinda wish they weren't polished so shiney (I'd rather they be less visible) but not much should hang below the quarter panel so maybe they won't show as much as I think. I plan to work on this project tomorrow and will post some installation pics this weekend.
I have a C5 Corvette with the same problem. It's fairly quiet but when you stick it, it is like open headers. I never have liked loud cars. Not sure about your fix to the situation. Myself, I would have changed the stock location mufflers. Never been crazy about the resonators in that location as you have suggested, they don't look right. Great work and happy motoring! It's been a looong road for you.
I installed the LH side resonator last night and snapped a few pics of the install. I was able to tuck them up high enough that they really won't be seen from a standing gaze. Got up early this morning and finished the RH side and took her for a short ride. I can't stop grinning, I'm so happy with the sound. I have to give a hardy "thank you" to CO member CMCE for his suggestion to add the resonators; they certainly did the trick. The car still has the throaty, rumble I loved without the resonators; when I put my foot into it it still gets louder but it's easily half as loud as before. I would describe the sound as more refined, still gives the impression of power without drawing too much attention. I can actually hear other mechanical sounds coming from the car now which were completely masked by the loud exhaust before. I did pickup a little "droning" sound under light throttle, but it's not intrusive and still no significant drone at cruising speeds.
Rodney
Inside the resonator; straight through with damping material around a perforated inner pipe.
Undercarriage shot. I installed a hanger at the front of the resonator to support the weight. They are definitely heavier than the tailpipe. I had to cut reliefs into the flanges of the resonator so the band clamps could squeeze down enough; the joints would not get tight without the relief cuts.
Tucked up nicely into the trunk drop-off. I rotated all the clamps so the nut was above the pipes; all you see from the bottom is the smooth metal bands.
April 25th, 2024, 07:23 PM
