Front Wheel Bearings

Today I took a shot at tightening the two front wheel bearings. They were indeed too loose, especially the right side. I thought I might have to take the outer bearing apart and cut down the sleeve insert that came with the disc brake kit, but I just needed to tighten them very tight and them back them off a bit. The right may still be a bit tight, but I will let it ride for now.

Started to measure for the adjustment to the rack so it will end up more or less level and centered. It needs to come over to the right about 1/2-3/4 inch so I will need to shim the left side out. I'm still not sure how I want to proceed with the worm gear steering, but it's here if I want to go to it. I'll adjust this and see  how I feel about it.

False Start

I was going to go over to Tyerman's for an alignment today, but when I pulled the car out of the driveway and began driving, I heard some strange klunking noises from the front wheels, particularly when braking. OK, I know what that is... these calipers are just not fitting inside the wheels properly. I had tried grinding on the calipers a bit and they cleared when I was turning the wheels by hand, but now with the weight of the car and pressure applied to the caliper, it's banging into the four tabs of the wheel center where they attach to the rim.

The good news is I had already ordered a set of spacers from Summit Racing and they've been sitting here waiting for a need to arise. I originally planned them for the '49er. Made by BilletSpecialties they are part number WSG5L375. You guessed it: Wheel Spacer, 5 lug, .375 thick. Done. But now it's 3 PM and I don't feel like trying to get over to Tyerman's this late in the day. I roll up the sidewalk out front at 5 PM. ;-) Another day!

But now that I have it back up on jacks to do the spacers, I got to thinking I wanted to re-visit the steering wheel to rack linkage again. It's not as smooth as it should be which tells me at least one of the joints is being angled too hard. I want to see if I can remedy that. I tore it apart and reworked it. Much smoother now. [Rerouted the starter cable as well.]

Lube Job

I had ordered some shorter steering arms in an attempt to get some turning radius back, but the Chevy ones won't work and I just decided I don't care enough about it right now to keep the car up on the jacks any longer. So I hooked up my new pneumatic grease gun and greased all the joints on the front suspension and steering, including the new tie rod ends, did some grinding on the calipers for a bit of extra wheel clearance, and bolted on the front wheels with the new tires on them. Then I pulled the car out of the garage and put the glove box door back on and attached the little panel for the shift indicator. I vacuumed the carpet and found there is a worsening tear in the seat on the passenger side. :-(

Need to take a day off to go over to Tyerman's for an alignment now.

Test Drive!

Put the front tires on and adjusted approximate toe-in, then carefully pulled the car out of the garage. Bled the rear brakes and re-bled the fronts just to be sure. Replaced the brake light switch and wired it up. Then it was time to test drive. The wheel centering seemed good. No pulling. There is more brake pedal travel before anything happens on this car compared to the '58 Cad.

Back at home I adjusted the pedal height a bit, then tightened down the clevis pin on the brake pedal. I had forgotten to remove the bleeder tool from the combo valve so I did that too, then went out for a second around the block spin. Did a few 30 to 0 stops with no trouble. Tried a U-turn to see how the turning radius was impacted. It has been, a little. I'm thinking I might want to order the longer Chevy steering arms to see if they would fit.

After the second drive I:

• Put the glove box light in (with LED bulb).
• Put the glove box back in the dash.
• Put the horn button back together and tightened down the steering wheel.

I had to trim a little off of the Steering wheel trim plate as it scraped the column pretty badly when I tightened down the wheel. I took off a 16th of an inch or so. Problem solved.

Vacation: Thursday

• Heater hoses routed and connected - tightened down
• Brake lines from master to combination valve bent up and tightened down
• Bench bled master on the car
• Started bleeding front right - checked connections - tightened loose ones... except forgot about the blockoff plugs on the right side of the master - tightened, re-bled
• Bled left front - no issues

At this point I have some pedal but since I can't bleed the rear circuit yet, I didn't expect much and got about what I expected. Bob even helped me confirm that I've got real pedal, not a repeat of the first go-round with my '58. He turned the rotor while I stepped on the brake to see that the caliper was actually clamping. Awesome! Now I am about as far with the brakes as I can go til I can pull the car out of the garage to bleed the rears, except for some neatening up.

One thing that is a bit alarming is the amount of flex the master/booster has when you step on the pedal. I suppose that is the downside of using the extension bracket. Will have to watch for signs of metal fatigue. Maybe add a brace later on.

I cleaned up the pulleys for the power steering. Wire brushed them and hit them with some black Rust-O-Lium.

I also pulled the Waldron dual exhaust kit I bought some time ago out of the back garage and inventoried the parts to see if the left collector pipe would work any better than the one that was on the car before I started the steering upgrade. I does need some modification and it will have to ride underneath the rack cradle, but it will work much better than the old one.

Vacation: Monday & Tuesday

• Heater valve linkage hooked up - rod is all the way in... may need to revisit and add some threads to the rod
• Cleaned up wires under dash - used what I thought was the original brake light power wire - blinkers come on steady when you step on the brake now - needs the old wire back
• Affixed shift quadrant with mounting tape - temporary
• Cut down and affixed the shift pointer with mounting tape - temporary?
• Evaluated neutral/backup switch options - no conclusions yet - attempting to modify the one supplied to work with my HydraMatic by eliminating the 2nd and 3rd start positions and makeing new backup terminals
• Right caliper mounted with hose
• Bent up hard brake line for right front caliper
• Adapted rear brake 1/4" line, bent to point up by the firewall, cut and flared
• Attached 10 lb residual valve a 1/4" line inlet
• Mounted combination valve to frame on the inner side, a few inches back from the steering cradle - there is a raised part on the frame there where the two rails become one boxed section
• Cut and attached intermediate hard line between combo valve and rear residual valve - so the rears are plumbed to the valve now

Didn't seem like I accomplished that much but I guess I did.

Booster Mounted

The power booster is now bolted onto the firewall brackets, all ready to accept the master. Meanwhile, I was going to order an electronic heater valve from OldAir but figured I could do a little finagling to get the old one relocated so it was still usable. It's mounted on the firewall and I'll have to hook up the linkage tomorrow.

Some Brake Progress

Turns out buying the power brake pedal conversion kit from Ecklers was very smart. It worked perfectly. I chose to cut off the old smaller pedal pad since I had screwed it up a lot already anyway and I wanted the pedal to sit a bit further away. I tack welded it, tested it for fit and angle, then welded it down tight. Finally the pedal is finished!

You can see that part of the swing pedal upper bracket that I cut off behind the assembly there. I used part of it later on the booster bracket. Nothing goes to waste! I want to buy the correct switch for the stop light now. I have one for a '73 Cad in there now and it doesn't work that well. But everything else is good.

So next I started working on the brackets I bought to mount the booster. Turns out this was also a very smart thing to buy, as I can stand the booster out aways from that uneven firewall and at the same time, the bracket angles the booster so the rod points to the lower hole in the brake pedal arm instead of the original hole. Much better!

You can see I had some fun with the left bracket, as that is the wickedest part of the firewall. I ran out of time and I need a longer bolt for this hole so I'll be making a hardware store run in the morning.  Now what am I going to cover the old holes with when I go to finish up this panel... ?

Parts ordered. I decided to try one of the mounting bracket kits sold on eBay to mount a modern booster on a '55 Chevy.

From eBay

What the heck. I figured after 55 years, the old Chevy pedal assembly needed a new bumper.

From Eckler's

I was trying to make this and made a mess so now I'll cut off the crap I did over the weekend and put this nice pedal on and keep my Pontiac pedal all together.

From Eckler's

Pedal Pushback

Looks like the master cylinder and booster I will be using is from the Jegs kit #555-631090 Universal Firewall mount Power Brake Pedal Conversion Kit. I bought it to use on the '49er, but I need parts of it for this car. It seems the spot I'm going to be mounting the pedal in will put the booster closer to the engine than will allow for a big booster like the 2000 Sierra one I bought to use with this car originally.

As I've been working to mount the pedal, I've come to realize that the firewall is a problem because it's not flat. I'll need to come up with some kind of standoff to push the booster out to the part of the firewall that is closest to the engine. Then the plate the pedal assembly is attached to will have to mount on the part that is furthest. Not the best. Also I'm not happy with the pedal pad I mounted yesterday. I think I want to cut the original pad from the pedal arm, make a new one from plate and mount it lower and sightly left of the original.

Brake Pedal Progress

Today I pulled the defroster plenum... unfortunately had to cut it. But with that gone I had room to start test fitting brake pedals. The Cadillac one I had will not work because it needs to mount too high and won't clear the cowl. I have the hot-rod one from Jegs and it could be made to work. But I think I like the '55 Chevy pedal best. I cut off the part that attaches to the dash as it doesn't mesh up with the Pontiac dash well anyway. Then I had a universal booster mounting plate I got from CPP awhile back and I cut that to shape and welded the Chevy pedal assembly to it. I drilled holes in the Chevy pedal pad plate to mount the Pontiac pedal pad. Not sure of this arrangement.

Gorgeous 80° day here today. Sunny and just wonderful for chasing away the blues and the last cold sniffles I had. :-)

Wheels and Lugs

Went over to Pep Boys and got new lug nuts to match the rotors. I felt like I would rather keep the heavier duty lug studs that came with the rotors. They take M14-1.5 lug nuts. Pep Boys just happened to have exactly 10 of 'em.

I also needed to grind down the metal lip where the wheel centers join the rim on the new wheels.

I seem to only have 3 wheels now. One wheel has gone missing. If I can't find it, I will have to get one at a yard.

De-Defroster

Today I started by installing the left caliper. The right will have to wait until I get the part as it seems to be hard to find these calipers all of a sudden. I had ordered the 10" hose (BH20996) and on the left at least, it is plenty long. I think it will be OK for the right too. Caliper went on without incident. Everything fit as it should without the  need to use the grinder on any parts.  ;-)  The easy work is over. Now comes the hard stuff.

I started to pull the old front brake line and found there was no way the lines were going to come off the distribution block without a big fight or a big pair of snips. I chose the snips. I quickly figured out it wasn't going to be easy with the original brake master in place. I removed the brake pedal first. One U-bolt around the steering column, two wires to the brake light switch, and a clip holding the pushrod to the pedal pad. No problem there. Then 4 bolts through the floorboard and the master/booster fell loose. But then I then figured out that there was not much chance of the original master/booster coming out from under the car because there is the starter and a hump in the frame blocking easy exit. I saw that the floor panel around the column was easily removable and the master/booster came through the opening without a fuss. It's got a rebuild sticker on it from Dallas, Texas. No telling if they did a good job or not. I would have it gone through again before putting it back on if I ever decided to do that.

With the master gone, it wasn't too traumatic to get the hard line for the right out. I ended up getting the right end loose and with that titled out over the radiator support, the left then came forward out  of the engine bay too. Had a bit of trouble getting around the fuel pump flex hose. The left hard line is short and was simple.

I figured I might as well continue to pull stuff off I wasn't going to need so I tried to pull the defroster. The shop manual is no help at all when you've removed the obvious two bolts from the sides and disconnected the linkages. The inspection mirror revealed a stud that has to be removed from the inside of the car and goes through the bottom of the defroster ducting manifold. The hoses don't leak too much fluid when they are unhooked.

Along the way I stopped in to my computer long enough to manually snipe bid a complete brake pedal assembly for a '55 Chevy. It looks like a good candidate to mount on the Pontiac firewall. Got it for a lot less than Eckler's Classic Chevy wants for a used pedal alone without the bracket. This one includes the stoplight switch, which hopefully is still good, and the return spring. The rubber foot pad doesn't show any wear either, but I ordered a spare anyway as they are cheap.

I guess tomorrow I can think about bending up some new stainless brake lines once I figure out where I'm mounting the proportioning valve.

Washers and Cotter Keys

Stopped off at the hardware store on the way home from work and picked up some 3/4" hardened washers  to push out the castellated nuts to the cottery key hole. The left side took two, the right, just one. Dust caps are in place. I can test fit a caliper tomorrow but I need to start work on the lines next.

Left and Right Front

Work continued as I created new steering stop bolts for each side from new grade 8 stock. I mic'ed the length of the old stop bolt and cut the new one to have the same effective length while not sticking out so far on the side the disc will be on.

I took the right side apart... this time I left the shoes and everything in place and just pulled the whole plate off as an assembly. Wonder why the hell I have been taking all the parts off each time up to now? This is much simpler and faster. I just cut the hoses with a pair of dikes because a new hose would be needed/desired if these dudes were to go back on anyway. So now I had the caliper bracket in place on both sides. I had the new stop bolt and I put in one new shorter bolt on the other top position. For the two bottom holes where the steering arm attaches to the knuckle, I used the original long bolts but with new lock washers and nuts. I torqued down all the bolts and put the inner spacer on the right side with Red Locktite, as I had already done on the left.

Next I got the left rotor and test fitted it to the spindle to check clearances. No problems! So I grabbed the inner bearing and packed it with grease. I used the same Mobil 1 synthetic I usually use. Inserted the bearing in the race of the rotor and carefully tapped in the seal. The seal looks like it pushes up against the bearing and distorts a bit when it's all the way seated but I think it will be OK. Then the outer bearing. That bearing did not fit right on the spindle but I noticed the instruction sheet said, "insert outer bearing and spacer (if needed)". The kit does include a second set of smaller spacers, and I figured out what to do.

Simplest solution is to start the spacer into the outer edge of the bearing. It will be very tight. Then with the rotor on the spindle, slip the bearing in place but without the outer washer. Put the nut on and tighten it down. The sleeve will push in nicely. You can do this before or after packing the bearing.

With the sleeve spacers in place and outer bearings packed, I put the big spindle washer on and snugged down the nut. The instructions say, "If nut bottoms out before hitting washer, add a machine washer on top of factory washer, and then secure with new cotter pin and new dustcap." Well the nut tightened down before bottoming out, but that left the cotter key slot too far from the top of the castelations on the nut to do any good. So I need to go get a couple of washers and with the nasty weather, that gave me a good stopping place.

I'm still short the left right caliper (RC4167) and I just found out it may take another two weeks from Amazon. I'm thinking I'll cancel and order from Rock instead, even if it's more $$$. [The instruction sheet wrongly identifies the RC4167 as the left caliper when it is the right one.]

More Parts

Lines, fittings and combination valve.

Ordered from Summit Racing.

Left Front Wheel Begins

So the parts have been arriving and I now have enough to get started... only missing the calipers as far as what is needed at each wheel.

Lined up and ready to start the surgery. 

First happy discovery is that the hub caps will work with the spare Buick/Cad wheels I have. The original wheels won't fit over the calipers. Hopefully the spare wheels will fit the rotors! I'll check that a bit later. [They do!] Meanwhile, I got the left wheel and drum disassembled. Note to self: the lugs on the left are reverse (Right Hand) thread. No, I didn't break any.

The drums look to be in good shape except for some weird wear on the hub flange. Looks non-critical but it's odd.

The shoes are riveted and look like they have plenty of life left. In fact, they almost look like they haven't fully bedded. Did someone replace the shoes recently and reuse the hardware, or were they replaced awhile back but the car went unused... These can't be the factory shoes because they would be more worn with 27K miles.

The brake hardware looks like it's been there a long time but not ancient. All pulled off now.

Cleaned up the spindle and popped on the spacer supplied by Scarebird using the recommended Loctite Red. Then I fitted the bracket to the spindle mounting points. The instructions say to trim the stop bolt by 1/4" to compensate for the thickness of the caliper bracket, but I don't see where that needs to be done. You always have to do a little secondary engineering on these kits because they are designed to fit more than one vehicle.

Brakes?

I am ready. I am tired of the original factory power drum brakes. I'm ready to admit I would rather have a modern split-circuit, power boosted, firewall mounted master cylinder than a defroster.

Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're our only hope!

Scarebird kit already in hand. I just needed to order the rest of the parts. That's the easy stuff and I ordered it all tonight. Some from Amazon, some from RockAuto.

Part	Application	Wagner	Raybestos	Supplier
Rotor	1995-99 WT1500 2WD front		56258	Amazon
Caliper, LH	1969-78 Eldorado front		RC4167	Amazon
Caliper, RH	1969-78 Eldorado front		RC4168	RockAuto
Inner Bearing	1971-76 Riviera, 88	BCAA5		RockAuto
Outer Bearing	1971-76 Riviera, 88	BCAA3		RockAuto
Wheel Seal	1977 Riviera	BCA Part # 8871		RockAuto
Dust Cap	1971-76 Riviera	Dorman 13977		RockAuto
Hyd. Hose (10-3/4")	1955-57 Pontiac (ex. Can)		BH20996	Amazon
Hyd. Hose (12-3/4")	1941-50 Buick front		BH5433
Hyd. Hose (14")	1950 Olds 88 front		BH5931
Thread locker	Red			Amazon

I've been looking at engine compartment pix of any tri-five Pontiac I can find to see where to mount, what size booster, etc. I have a few boosters sitting around, so maybe can use one of them. I pinged he Pontiac-'50s group and asked if anybody had done this who might have some photos, dimensions, descriptions of what was done. I want to do a very nice clean job since the car is in such nice shape.

Go for a ride?

Maiden Voyage #2: The first was a quick trip to AAA to verify the VIN, but today was purely for seeing how everything works. I took the Chief over to the gas station and fueled him up. I kept looking under the car to see if there were any leaks as the tank was filling... shades of the first time I filled the tank on Lucille. But nothing like that happened.

Brakes seem stiffer than they should be for power assisted brakes, even if they are drums. After all, my '49 and '58 Cads both have drums. The '49er's brakes are manual and they don't feel this stiff to me. I think a full brake system go-through is in order. I may need to send the vacuum booster out for service. I do have a set of ScareBird brackets to convert to front discs... not sure if I want to use them yet.

Suspension seems stiff in back, as I noticed before. When I was changing the mufflers I found the rear springs look dicey and they had some kind of air bag booster nonsense bolted on, probably added when the springs started sagging. The combination is restricting movement and making the ride stiff. New springs are on their way already.

Steering is generally good for a manual setup. I don't mind it until I go to make a sharp turn at slow speed, of course. Then you quite suddenly get the news that this really is a manual gearbox. When the car is moving, it's quite effortless and reasonably responsive.

Noise... from the front of the engine, as noted earlier. It sounds like it could be a water pump or generator bearing, maybe a noisy timing chain, or perhaps a bolt for the water pump that sticks in too far and is hitting something moving internally... hard to say. It doesn't seem to affect performance, and it doesn't seem to be getting worse, but it's unsettling. You just know it can't be good. I hope it is something in the generator... that would be an easy fix.

Engine seems to have a little blue smoke from the exhaust, especially the left pipe. Seems like it was less after driving it a bit. I am betting the car just needs to be driven. If he really only has 27K on the clock, he hasn't been driven enough. Not that I want to add tons of miles, but cars don't stay in good mechanical condition when they sit.

Transmission seems like a typical pre-'56 Hydra-Matic. It has the clunky shift points you expect but the TV rod adjustment is off. I use the trial-and-error method of adjusting it. Eventually it will get there.