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No Brain, No Headache!
SILVER Star
Picked up the new bottle of shielding gas for the mig. Tacked the driver side together, still have a few adjustments to make and I will weld them up tomorrow.
I needed an extra set of hands to help support the fender while I notched the tube to fit the final piece of the fender puzzle. Since no one was home to lend a hand in the garage, I resorted to hanging it from rafters to help relieve weight on the notcher and vise.
No Brain, No Headache!
SILVER Star
Made the adjustments on the fender/bib/hood. It was a battle to get the hood hinges loose on the cowl, but they gave up the fight and came loose. Tightened everything down and made a simple bracket out of flat stock for the power steering reservoir, leveled it and welded it in place. Still waiting on the ram to be finish so the steering will be complete.
No Brain, No Headache!
SILVER Star
Eliminating the slotted and phillip head screws any chance I get.
No Brain, No Headache!
SILVER Star
Yesterday I had a bit of a set back. One of the ends of the steam port tubing was puking antifreeze. I ordered a kit that eliminates the factory hardlines that run under the intake manifold. Suppose to arrive sometime today.
I did make some progress this morning, I got the hydro assist ram mounted. After several detailed texts from FC, double checking clearances, angles, grinding and prepping, I burned it in. Now to make the lines, before I pull it back apart to clean and paint the tie rod tubes, FC suggested to place a few tack welds on each side of the tube clamp to keep it from sliding.
No Brain, No Headache!
SILVER Star
Now that the steering is done, it is time to move on to something else. Since I am waiting for some brake line parts to show up to make new lines, I thought I would do something fun. I’ve had this little siren stashed away for sometime now, removed from my last 40, I figured I would mount and wire it up. Who doesn’t love rolling code 3 (well, minus the lights) in their cruiser!!! Not too loud, sounds more like a cat getting through a grinder
No Brain, No Headache!
SILVER Star
I received the factory GM throttle cable and racking my brain on how to adapt it to work with my pedal and how and where to get it through the firewall.
Ran a bunch of ideas through my pea sized brain and opted to drill a square hole in the firewall just below the booster. Utilizing a step drill and a file, I accomplished my goal of a square hole so the cable would “snap” firmly into place.
To achieve full throttle, the cable needs
1 3/4” of pull and I need to modify the Toyota pedal with a few bends, a couple of cuts, a little welding and it should work just fine.
No Brain, No Headache!
SILVER Star
Made a few bends to the factory pedal arm, slid on a cable stop.
No Brain, No Headache!
SILVER Star
Also got the steering wheel installed, more things getting crossed off the list.
No Brain, No Headache!
SILVER Star
Kicking around the idea of hooking up a hand throttle to the cruise control mounting stud.
No Brain, No Headache!
SILVER Star
So I had a few issues that needed to be taken care of with the clutch fork/throw out bearing combo and the bearing in the adaptor plate. I had the wrong clutch fork and throw out bearing for my set up. The bearing would not sit flat against the pressure plate fingers and the throw of the clutch fork was too short resulting in it hitting the bell housing. Working with my clutch guy we were able to nail it down to my bell housing requiring the older cast fork and tall collared t/o bearing.
The sm420 adaptor plate requires a bearing to keep the transmission output shaft gear in place. The bearing I ordered was a standard bearing that was 21mm wide, the bearing I needed was a specific Muncie transmission bearing that is 17mm wide. The difference in the width would not allow the t-case to mate to the adaptor plate, the bearing would push out preventing the t-case to sit flat.
Since the trans/t-case was out, it was the best time to install the AA twin stick. I was going to make my own pivot mount on the trans and it was not working out. I did a search what others were doing and I found AA already engineered one, the price was right and went that route. The plate works great and the twin stick was easy to install once I figured out where all the helms went.
Finally I bought a couple of paint pens and filled in the shift knobs so I can see them. Now to bride a few buddies to assist getting the combo re-installed.
No Brain, No Headache!
SILVER Star
Had a free afternoon so I re-installed the trans/tcase. Tie downs, a chain fall, a cheapy trans jack that would not lift the combo, the roll cage to use as a pick point and a floor jack, what could possible go wrong!
I got it close to where it needed to go but I required assistance to get it any further. The twin stick linkage was hanging up on the floor, so the mounting plate was removed from the side of the trans. After several failed attempts I threw in the towel and had my son help me get it safely in place and bolted up.
What I thought would be a simple measure and cut a hole for the shift tower turned into a tedious project of cut after cut before it finally fit over the trans. The floor had to be trimmed for the linkage to clear. Tomorrow I will be trimming more of the tunnel for the twin sticks and mocking up platform for the shift boots to mount on.
