"It's a driver!  Just needs a little work!"

7/6/03

Last month, I was as busy as I am this month, believe it or not!  I discovered that even my slick looking 3" exhaust was done wrong.  Argh!  The guy used generic mandrel bends... and didn't bother to adjust anything to account for the more complex bends needed. Instead, he just welded the Flowmasters in crooked and rigged a tail harness on the wrong side of the muffler/tailpipe connection. My God, what an idiot!  After a few days of hacking and re-welding, I managed to get it all fitting with new Summit mufflers.  MUCH better sounding, if you ask me.  Now at least the back of my teeth don't rattle.  I also did get the bad boy tuned up a little better, but it's still running a bit rich on the idle and bottom end. I'll get that cleaned up after the headers are done.

I have practically the whole drive train apart at the moment.  New 3.55 gears from Moser were installed by Patterson's Drive shaft over on the far west side of Indy. I also had them drop in new bearings and shims since the pinion was a little too wobbly for my liking and figured while I was it, I'd have them check the drive shaft balancing , too.  Guess what?  It was off.      It didn't take long at all to yank the pumpkin since the brake drums didn't fight me like most drums do... it also didn't take long to get the whole she-bang put back together, either.  What took me the longest was reading how to set end-play for the axles since I'd never had to on Ford or Chevy units.   Make sure you have a dial indicator unless you want to be guessing at it. You could probably make a good guess if you had to by running the adjuster in until you feel zero end play, then back off the ring three to four notches. It should only move in and out just a little bit when you're done.

I also yanked my chattering transmission out right after I got the Lokar kickdown installed and working. I don't know if it was always chattering and the loud Flowmasters kept me from hearing it or if I wounded its inner child when I started it dry.  Yeah, I know.... I wounded it.  I just like to let my ego think it was like that to begin with.  Besides... it's been run an unknown amount of miles without a kick down and has weld marks all over the starter area... not to mention buggered threads on the bell.  Krikey!  I  was all set to have it rebuilt when I decided it be a less troublesome route to buy a new setup and use this one to build something new up later if I need to.  I'm getting real impatient to get this mess on the road and see what else can fall off!   The new unit will be coming from Coan up in Kokomo. People love their torque converters.  Not many people seem to be running their 727's, but since I'm mostly hitting the street, I should be fine. They're local and cost only a tad more than Cope... plus they dyno test!  BTW, while removing the old transmission, I discovered that the oil pressure sending unit was leaking like crazy... good thing I had already bought the kit  to convert it from nylon to copper. 

While everything was apart, I also managed to install TTI headers this weekend and change the shocks and sway bar mounts.  King Dipstick (the prior owner) put rotted out sway links in that I'm surprised hadn't fallen off yet.

And let's not forget the 3/8"  fuel line!  Bought a new tank sender and pre-bent fuel line and replaced the whole mess.  And what a mess it was!  As rusty as the lines and the sending unit were, I think I'd be well advised to have the tank cleaned and lined this winter. Later on when I add a regulator with return line, I'll buy the 1/4" line and use it for a return.  I'm running fairly standard pressure anyway and don't plan to upgrade to any high volume electric pumps on this particular car.  KISS is my rule for this one. 

I'm also waiting for POR15 to get here so I can treat the differential and the rear floor area.

Here is the differential after the rebuilt and vat cleaned pumpkin was installed.  Yes, that's a '742 case Sure Grip.   

And while we're on the "before" pics, check out these super cool headers from TTI.  My God, they fit well.  The instructions were very clear and provided very good guidance... I had them installed in about 3 hours total work time.  Of course I haven't adapted the rest of the exhaust to fit yet, but that's no big deal.  Trust me!  hehehe

While everything else is torn down, I figured this would be a good time to yank the grill and headlight bezels for refurbishing.  They are a little too pitted for me to simply buff out the trim, but I can put a bit of a shine on them and repaint the all-too-expensive Argents where it needs them.  Unfortunately as you can see below, the grill needed a little extra work, too!

So there you have it... repaired slats, filled that stupid hole dumbkopf drilled through because the mounting boss cracked (guess he never heard of epoxy?) and also replaced a missing mounting boss.  Amazing what 10-24 all-thread can do hehehe.   Oh... and I almost forgot... even my GTX emblem was mounted wrong!  Instead of hunting for the right thread cutting nuts (ever heard of LOWE'S?), King Dipstick wrapped the emblem posts with lots of electrical tape and crammed it in.  Nice job, Dipstick!  You better pray I don't post your name for all to see!!!  

"After" pictures will take little while. As best I can figure it, I have 4 different colors to mask off and reshoot, so it may take until middle of next week to get it all done.