Thursday, January 28, 2010

 

Install Day 2

Finally found the time and weather to work a little more on the truck.

Got the drive shaft installed. Clearly the axle has not had the same R&R as the rest. I think after I get it running again my next thing will be to change gear sets (from 2.73 to around 3.23) and clean this up a lot. I obviously have a wheel cylinder or axle seal leaking on that far side as well (I think it is the axle seal).

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I got the torque converter attached to the flex plate. The directions on the torque converter suggest I need 1/16 to 1/8" between the flex plate and the converter when the converted is shoved all the way back. I've got less than 3/16 but more than 1/8." I think I'm going to call Turbo Action to see how critical this really is. I can always add the washers they call for but attaching the flex plate and torque converter is a real PITA to do by yourself (crawl under, check for access, crawl out, turn crank, crawl under, install one bolt loosely, crawl out, turn crank 90*, crawl under, drat, went to far, crawl out.......).

Got the starter installed. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the starter. It works well. I was in a hurry when I got it (about 3 years ago) and I live like 30min from Summit. I didn't know about the conversion to the modern LA starter at the time. The bottom stud is very difficulty to reach and is never really all that tight. This, of course, will turn over a high compression race engine...but I don't have one of those. Lesson learned.

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I made a number of the other "on my back" connections today as well. That included the speedo cable, shift linkage, throttle pressure linkage, trans cooler tubes, neutral safety, and trans dust shield. The one thing I did run across though, and I knew it was something of an issue already, is that the trans is pulled really far forward (and the engine sits in its mounts all the way back) such that the trans isolator is really stretched.

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I really don't know what to do about this. It was like this before the "new" engine as well. I had what were clearly homemade engine mounts before and I hoped getting the right mounts would fix this issue. It hasn't. I am confident I have the hard mount and isolator on the engine in the right location. But I don't know about this thing. It doesn't look like there is a wrong way to install this but something ain't right here.

I also test fit my shorty headers and they hit the new bigger engine mounts. I used these headers before with the homemade mounts and they cleared just fine. ...I've got my buddies welder. I'm reeeeaaaaalllllly tempted to try to make up my own set of long tube headers and redo about 1/3 of the exhaust system. At the same time, I reeeeeaaaaallllllllllllllllyyyereallllllllyyyyyyy want to drive this thing again.

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