Joined: Wed Oct 12 2005, 01:10AM
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 2690
December 11/2007
Well finally got around to pulling the motor and tranny out of the 71 300 and they are now resting nicely in the wagon!!!
Now here are a few pics of the swap...
Motor and tranny came out with no major problems, other than an exhaust stud on each head snapped off....Doooh Will worry about those next winter when I pull the motor for a rebuild.
Here's a pic of the engine bay before....
And after....
The motor and tranny just dropped in with almost no effort at all, I really believe the ol' girl was grateful to have a motor and tranny back in her and was helping the best way she could.
I've done other motor and tranny jobs were I have had to fight tooth and nail to get the motor mounts to line up and than to line up the tranny, this was almost too easy...
Here's a pic of the ol' girl still up in the air, but motor and tranny are bolted in and secure.
Now I got a lot of looks from my neighbours and such, since it was -5C and I was out there pulling motor and tranny. Then it warmed up to 0C and I had the pressure washer out to blast off the motor....
Now to bolt everything back together and fab up the exhaust and finally move the ol' girl under her own power....CAN"T WAIT!!!!
<span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Tue Oct 20 2009, 01:38AM ]</span>
Joined: Wed Oct 12 2005, 01:10AM
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 2690
January 06/2008
Well I've been slowly puttering away on the car.....installed the mini starter, built my own main battery cables from junkyard pieces, installed horns and relay....man they don't give you much room to bolt those suckers in.....
Serviced tranny and installed a drain plug, installed new plugs since the manifolds are off.....I had forgot how long it takes to service plugs with the manifolds ON...
Forgot to put the tranny lines in before I bolted the motor in...took some bending and twisting to get them in place...."Mental Note on that one."
Repaired all the dry rotted rubber fuel line pieces and installed 2 fuel ffilters, ione before the fule pump and one after.
Installed new-er valve cover bolts, removed from mid eighties M-bodies...the ones with the captured triangle metal pieces to distribute the load....thought I'd see if these might help with vavle cover leakage.
I also decided last night I would hook up the kick down linkage, I assumed everything would be fine since the 71 and 68 are both C-bodies......NOPE....the single rod kickdown style of the 71 does not work on a 68 C-body.....lack of firewall clearance....so now I'm on the hunt for a 68 440 kickdown set-up. (See my want ad.)
Still lots to do the holiday season really slowed down my progress....
Hope to have it running and driving in another month or so.
Joined: Wed Oct 12 2005, 01:10AM
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 2690
Febuary 03/2008
Well got the kickdown sorted out, the set is off a 62 413 and is identical to the 68 set-up expept for the clips used on the lower rod ends, and the rods are thicker as well.
I have everything under the hood hooked up, less the A/C lines, just using the compressor as a pulley right now until I can install my new Bouchillion bracket kit for my Sanden compressor and the bouchillion under hood A/C kit.
The motor is read too fire but I have yet to sort out the exhaust and I'm presently working on the rear end. I pulled the original 741 case with 2.94's and have installed a set of 3.23's in a 489 case. Also pulled off the 11x2 rear drums and I am installing 11x2.5's instead, more parts available for these.
So once the rear is done, the drive shaft is in I can finally fill the tranny, and then fab up some temporary exhaust, good enought to get through Gov't insp. and then I can take it in to get NEW dual exhaust installed with my HP manifolds!!
So hopefully a couple more weeks and she'll be running and driving...then I still have to check the front brakes and make sure everything else on the car is ready for inspection.
Joined: Wed Oct 12 2005, 01:10AM
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 2690
Febuary 04/2008
Well I finished up the rear end today, got the drive shaft in and filled the tranny. Even though I have no exhaust on the car, just open manifolds, I couldn't resist cranking it over to see if she would fire up.....
We'll once the carb filled it fired right up!!! No sputter, no fuss, no muss....
I only ran it for about 30 seconds but sounded good....I'm very happy and can't wait until I can take her around the block. This is the first she's run in over 6 years, hasn't had a motor or tranny until a couple months ago.
Will update with pics when she's sitting in the driveway idling away....
Joined: Wed Oct 12 2005, 01:10AM
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 2690
Febuary 05/2008
I will be going with the A-Body under hood kit, since on my 68 T/C the A/C lines enter through the firewall behind the motor on the pass. side, much like the A-Bodies do. So with the 90 degree connections out of the firewall it should clear everything. I will then run the hoses along the firewall and up over the passenger side inner fender to the compressor and drier etc.
I'm not sure when this will get done, hopefully before next winter.
Joined: Wed Oct 12 2005, 01:10AM
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 2690
Febuary 09/2008
Well here's my fancy one man break bleeding system.....
Click for larger image....
Yup it's as fancy as it looks....used water bottle, used vacuum hose and a hole in the lid and a hole in the side to vent.....
I've done many cars this way and never had a problem yet...just make sure you don't run the master cylinder dry and after your final pumping let the system gravity bleed for a least 5 minutes before you close up the bleeder screw.
How do you like the color of that brake fluid I got out of the system...that is only for one quadrant of the system...
<span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Tue Oct 20 2009, 01:57AM ]</span>
Joined: Wed Oct 12 2005, 01:10AM
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 2690
Febuary 17/2008
Well a beautiful day here in BC on the LeftCoast.. 10-12 degrees C today and sunny and clear!!
I finished up the poorly constructed exhaust last night, cobbled together from existing and junkyard pieces. Goes from 2 1/4" off the manifolds to 2 1/2" collector then goes to 2 1/4" to and through the muffler then to 2" to the rear bumper.... But I only need it to get through inspection before I put the highflows on with new 2 1/2 inch duals!!!
Anyway that was the last thing I needed to do before I could fire it up and take it around the block under it's own power.
Car fired up fine, took awhile for the lifter to pump up though, and then the power steering high pressure line started leaking at the box, not sure why but some chemical resistant Gas fitters tape and it sealed that right up.
So here are a couple pics....
Click for larger image....
You can see in the engine pic that I have rerouted the heater hoses. I used an inner fender heater hose bracket from a 69 A/B body and re bent it and mounted it to one of the inner fender bolt studs. I like having my heater hoses out of the way, and I think it looks better than the factory routing.
Also the air cleaner has been slightly modified as well. I traded a drive shaft for this air cleaner, the guy already removed the single snorkle and so I left it alone, I kind of like the look. But since the motor is a 71 and the aircleaner is 68/69 the valve cover breather is on the wrong side of the motor. I had to use a breather from a mid 70's slant six so at least it looked right for the car. I didn't want to run a hose around behind the motor for the air breather so I bought an after market universal breather nipple and mounted it on the underside of the aircleaner base on the pass side.
You can also see my homemade positive battery cable, I used one off a 78 newyorker and then added and modified it from other junkyard pieces. Once everything lined up I rewrapped it in the factory style cloth tape and it looks very original. IMHO
The car runs fine, nice and smooth and lots of get up and go. But there does seem to be an issue with the brake booster I think. I have almost no power to the pedal while idling it's only after driving so I have enough vacuum to stop the car properly. So I guess I will be installing my new booster and aluminum master cylinder sooner than I thought.
So it was a GOOD DAY for me!!!
<span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Tue Jun 17 2008, 07:32PM ]</span>
Joined: Wed Oct 12 2005, 01:10AM
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 2690
Febuary 24/2008
I have been working on the little things to get the car ready for inspection.
I pulled the front drums off and checked the brakes, they were in great shape. I cleaned and repacked the front bearings and replaced the flex lines as well, the originals were cracking pretty bad.
So I gave the car a bit of a Carb tune up and got the car 20-21 inches of vacuum and the booster seems to work a bit better but if I apply the brakes too much then it goes rock hard.
wrote ... Originally posted by CBarge
Congrats!! Good Job!! Before you condemn the booster,try another check-valve that is stuffed in it. I had experienced in the past with my '68 that valve would be stuck or blown apart inside .I keep spares for the JIC moments when I have to two-foot-it off the highway !! LOL!!
I didn't realize that it was supposed to be a check valve...I always thought that they were just an open tube to the manifold vacuum. I'll pick up a new one and see if this helps.
I had to replace the turn signal switch today, the original was cracked and falling apart, I had a decent one in a spare steering column from a 69 C-body. So I pulled apart the 69 column to get the turn signal switch out then had to pull the switch out of the wagon. Easier pulling out an old switch then to feed in a new one that's for sure....
So several hours later and a fair amount of disassembly I had the good switch in and working. But then I had fast turn signals on the drivers side and one or maybe two blinks and then nothing on the drivers side. I figured it must be a bad ground so I went through all the lights and checked and cleaned the grounds, still the same....so I decided to check the flasher relay...well it was burnt out on one side of the relay....replaced it with a spare one I had and now everything works perfect!!!
I checked all the lights and only have the pass side fender mounted turn signal that isn't working.
So maybe in a week or so I can get it inspected and then can take it for a real drive!!!
Joined: Wed Oct 12 2005, 01:10AM
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 2690
March 01/2008
Well the car was almost ready for inspection but I couldn't get the brakes to lock up, or even work properly consistently. Two footin' it sometimes...worked fine other times...
I was rolling back and forth trying to get the brakes to lock up and was two footin' it when I heard vacuum leaking out from under the dash.....well guess I have to replce the booster...may as well do my upgrade while I'm at it.
Anyway pulled the booster and master today....not a bad job...way easier than when I did the booster in my 68 B-body years ago.
So got the system out and went to install my new booster and ooops....it would go all the way in...turns out the newer style booster, which I was told was a direct replacement for my car, has too big a hub on the back side of the booster to clear the hoe in the booster plate and firewall.
Click for larger image
So I had to grind open the hole with the old Dremmel...took an hour or so but eventually I got it to fit properly. Only had to open it about a 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch.
Click for larger image
So if anyone is going to install a newer style booster just beware that you may need to modify things a wee bit.
So since I was installing the new disc brake booster I thought I may as well install my new 2 bolt aluminum master and adapter. There was enough extra brake line to bend them carefully up and forward to mate up with the new master cylinder.
Click for larger image
So everything seems to work good now...it was raining and hailing so I only moved it a few feet forward and back in the garge but it seemd to lock them up pretty easy now!!
So hopefully I will get it in for inspection in a couple days.
<span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Tue Jun 17 2008, 07:34PM ]</span>