Hoses Clamped

I never had tied off the power steering hoses to prevent them from contacting the exhaust manifold so today I took care of that.

I also needed to straighten the slightly crooked front license plate mount and today seemed like a good day to tackle that too. I had added an addition to the factory mount awhile back, so that the plate was more in the middle of the bumper. Took the whole thing apart, ground the mounting bolts for the addition down so they don't hit the bumper anymore, and loctited the factory screws and square nuts that hold the factory mount to the bumper.

Steering Tweak Continues

Second new wheel came Thursday and today I put one wheel and one tire into the back end of the Volt to take somewhere for mounting tomorrow. Sunday my regular place is closed, but may be Pep Boys can handle it.

Meanwhile I have the steering rack and cradle all bolted back in. The driver's side has a lot of shims... I think I may consider making a set of spacers that would be more... what? Reliable? Stable? Permanent? Maybe. For now, I haven't decided for sure that this arrangement is staying. So, maybe after it is aligned again and I see if it performs the way I want it to, I'll consider improvements.

I also need to clamp the power steering hoses to keep them clear of the exhaust manifold on the driver's side. I ordered some 1/2" Rubber Cushioned Loop Clamps from Amazon and those will come early next week. Since I'll have to get both new tires mounted to both new wheels before I can do any driving anyway, I guess there's no hurry.

Wheel Find!

Hey! I found a wheel that works! This is a Cragar 3975750 - Cragar Black Soft 8 397 Series Wheel. Scarebird says their kit requires 1972-85 GM 1/2 ton truck or equivalent rims, usually 15 x 7". I've been trying to reconstruct how I found this wheel and I think I found it at Discount Tire by searching on a "1985 CHEVROLET K-BLAZER 235/75R15 2WD". Once I had a part with specs, I went over to Jegs and looked it up.

They will accept the stock deluxe wheel covers but NOT the poverty hubcaps that I don't have. It's OK, I think if I didn't have the deluxe covers I'd get something in chrome and call it good.

I've ordered a second wheel so I'll have two for the front. I'll try using the other two previously mounted tires on the back. Maybe eventually I'll get 4 + spare as a full set.

Meanwhile I've started putting the steering rack cradle back together. I need a big wrought washer for one bolt on the left side. I had to use spacers to take up the slop of shifting the cradle to the right. Just by eye, the cradle looks much closer to level now. I think I'll be happier.

Steering Revisited

Got motivated to continue... at least for today... the rework of the steering cradle. I've been thinking about if I even want to keep the rack setup and I pulled the Saginaw box out to do a little eyeballing. I think I will continue with the rack for now. I noticed that I can't use the right-angle exhaust elbow for the left side of the dual exhaust because it points right to where the lines come into the rack. I can only use it if I switch to using the Saginaw box. I got the cradle pulled loose to where I could get to the end that needs re-drilled. Kinda nutty how many holes I've put in that thing. But might do some reinforcing when I get the angles sorted out. Drilling done, ready to put it back together.

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.

Steering Redux?

So I need to do some fixup work on the steering, since I did not get the rack mounted level. Starting to think about doing that now. The weather is still too hot but it seems like I've gotten lazy and I want to get back into the cars. The rack and pinion system is nice in some ways but I am unhappy with it in others... for example, the rack seems to fight back just a tad when you turn the wheel very suddenly. Almost like the fluid on the one side of the ram can't get out of the way of the pressurized side of the ram fast enough. I can't say I've ever experienced that on the '49er's rack. Then there is the issue of turning radius... or the lack of it since the rack went in. With the '49er, the kit came with replacement steering arms. This rack was supposed to not need them, but that would have been while using the rack on the car it was designed for, which is not this Pontiac.

Thinking I might want to return to a conventional worm gear box... I just happen to have the one I started to prep for this car sitting out in the back garage. I'd need a set of tie rod ends and maybe an idler arm... or maybe not. I'd have to look over the original parts to see if they are at all worn or damaged. The car is low mileage but these parts are not expensive, so maybe I should just replace them anyway. Either way, I would retain the Flaming River pump and steering column. I can just sell the rack and it's cradle, or park it on a shelf.

Hmmmm...

Tyerman's

Alright, I made it to Tyerman's today, finally! I have to say, I am still not 100% comfortable driving this car, and the ride to Tyerman's didn't help. If I hit the brakes hard the right wheel kept screeching like it was going to lock up and the steering is just plain weird feeling to me. All that keeps going through my mind is that I made a terrible mistake doing these things to this car and I should never have started them. But Bob says I always act this way after I've made major changes and before they're all adjusted and I've gotten used to them. Fact is, the ride home with the steering nicely aligned was much better and the screechy right wheel was not really noticable anymore.

But, there really are a couple of issues to attend to. The guy at Tyerman's pointed out that the wheel bearing on the right (and he didn't mention the left but it might be the same) is loose so even with the nut pretty tight, the bearing doesn't snug down like it should. Recall that the outer bearings for this setup are for a 1971-76 Riviera and that to make them fit the Pontiac, the Scarebird kit includes a machined ring that fits into the bearing center.

It may just be that I need to tighten the spindle nut down really, really hard to fully seat that sleeve, then back it off to a comfortable snugness so the bearing doesn't heat. Maybe I didn't do that when I assembled the rotors. I can't remember and I do remember thinking myself that the bearings seemed loose. If that doesn't do the trick, I can contact Scarebird for advice.

The other issue the mechanic found... and I am really embarrased about this one... is that the rack is not mounted level! It is down about a half to three-quarter inch on the right side and while it is functional, it's not right. Recall that this is the side where I had to re-drill the mounting holes to fit the Pontiac idler arm bolt pattern. And I realise now that part of the problem is I measured but I measured from the floor to the rack bottom when the car was on jacks and the jacks were obviously not even. I remember thinking that the thing looked a bit off... but at the shop, being down in their pit, it's very freakin obvious how crooked it is. So... the simplest thing to do is to remove the rack bracket and redrill the holes lower on the right plate. Now, maybe one hole will be one of the ones I didn't think I could use originally... I will have to look once I have the bracket off. I think the rack can stay in the car, and only the lollipop bearing bracket will need to be disconnected.

There is no big hurry to do the rack adjustment, other than my pride and wanting it done right. But the bearing should get attention real soon as it could cause abnormal stress and wear on the spindle.

One step forward, two steps back.

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.

Paint Play

Got to mix up a small batch of my new paint I bought last week to spray the little panel I'm putting my shift indicator in. I really like this paint. It's Valspar 327 Series High Solids Acrylic Urethane Enamel. It takes a reducer and a hardener but I just mixed it ad hoc in the pot and sprayed. No problem at all! Dried nice and shiny and I'll let it sit in the garage til next weekend when I will mount the indicator and figure out how I am attaching it to the dash. I love single-stage paint.

New Wheel

Today was a nice day and a trip to the local wrecking yard seemed like a fine thing to do. I needed one more wheel since one of the four '70's Buick wheels had gotten damaged. I had to hit the ATM to get some cash first, then paid my $2 to gain entry to the yard. I had my big bucket with tools in it along so I could remove the wheel and maybe some other small parts if I found something interesting. Within a few minutes I found a '76 Cadillac which had all four wheels removed and laying nearby. I looked at the two fronts, deciding I'd like to get those two so I had one wheel as a spare. Both tires were flat and shot. I walked to the front of the yard to see if I could find a cart or wheelbarrow, but someone was walking off with the last one just then. So I walked back and grabbed one wheel and tire, and manhandled it with my tool bucket to the checkout windows. It seemed several other folks had wheels/tires in line too. It took forever to get through the line, and when I got to the window, I found out why... If you want a wheel AND a tire, you have to pay for both even if the tire is shot, as was the case with my prize. He said something like $20... EACH! Further inquiry on how to buy just the wheel I needed proved a little frustrating, since he did a poor job of explaining, which is why everyone with wheels and tires in front of me in line had taken so long.

Turns out to be a little scam. To avoid paying $20 for a worthless tire I would have to pay $3.50 in cash, in advance at this window to get a ticket to get the tire breaker station at the yard to remove the tire for me. Then I would have to come back to the window to pay for the wheel, which I think he said was going to be around $20 also. Well, if I took the tire home, I'd just have to pay a disposal fee at the tire dealer, probably about $5, so I'm money ahead... except the $2 I paid to enter the yard makes me $0.50 behind. Then too I gotta lug this heavy buggar over to the breaker and back with my tools. Up to this point I was thinking I would buy the one and take it to my truck, then go get the second... that idea died about here. Wait in line at the breaker, then go back... with just the wheel and tools so the load is lighter now... and stand in line at the window again. Then lug it to the gate and have someone smear red ink pen on the wheel and the receipt, then lug it out to my truck. I was done for the day after that.

The good thing is, I fit the wheel to the front rotor and it fits without scraping anywhere. I compared it to one of the Buick rims and it looks identical. All I lack now is a spare and I think I'll just order a chrome smoothie and get it delivered. Phooey. I think they run about $30 and when you figure the time and hassle, I think I'd pay double that to avoid the wrecking yard experience again.

You know, yards are great. I enjoy the self service ones for small parts I can manage myself. This is the first (and last) time I tried to get large, heavy items myself and I think it is definitely worthwhile to go to a full service yard or order online for those items.

Success!!!

I got the brain box back from Dakota Digital this week and finally had a chance to test it today. AND IT WORKS!!! Flawlessly!

Meanwhile, the under-dash housing I'm going to mount the indicator in needs to be painted so I took my glove box door over to the local paint shop to get a quart mixed up to match the dash. They were open but unfortunately I got there too late for them to mix it today. I had to leave the door with them and they will call me Monday.


What's left to do?

• Finish wiring the shift position decoder (safety relay and backup lights need done).
• Paint the housing and mount the shift position indicator. 
• Get new tires.(Should arrive next week sometime.) 
• Get a 4th rim.
• Get tires mounted on rims.
• Enjoy the car!

Where to Mount the Indicator

I have a small plastic pod from Old Air that was for mounting A/C controls, but I am adapting it to hold the indicator. At first I wanted to try putting LEDs behind the original quadrant. I had a pretty cool setup for mounting the LEDs, but when I tested it out, the LEDs weren't bright enough. And, no way to dim them for night use if you got them bright enough for day use. So, kinda stuck there. Will just use the DD indicator. It will mount under the lip of the dash under the glove box.

Good News! (I hope)

I got an email from Dakota Digital that should help with my gear shift indicator:

Our engineer made a minor update to the software code.  This will now support a PNOD1R or PND21R pattern.  You still have to make your false Park to start programming.

We can update that GSS of yours for no charge if you send that to us.

So that's good news. I'm shipping it out via two-day FedEx to them today.

Backup Plans

So today I went to the hardware store and bought a small sheet of brass, some brass screws, some epoxy, and a countersink.

I had already removed the original contacts and used the Dremel to smooth the inner face. I countersunk a hole that was already in the shell for one of the removed terminals.

 

I cut a small piece of the brass sheet to work with, and using the grinder and smaller tools I made a brass arc that fits the smaller radius of the switch case. Then I attached a "terminal" by soldering a screw to the back of the arc. That was fun. I had a heavy steel plate I set on the stove. Then I set the arc on the plate and the screw in the approximate position to line up with the terminal hole in the shell. Turned the stove burner on and then melted a little pool of solder around and under the screw head on the arc. I could nudge the arc off the edge of the plate and carefully pick it up with pliers and let it cool. Then insert it into the shell to see if the terminal lined up with the hole. It took three tries to get it right.

 

The arc isn't perfect, but it fits well enough. It doesn't need to be perfect, just has to stay in contact with the bottom half of the slider. 

 

Here you can kind of see how the terminal goes through the shell and out the back. This was a test fit before I epoxied it in. 

 

I used epoxy so the brass strip would not flex and stress the solder joint with the terminal. I put a nut on the back side of the terminal and snugged it. It can stay there and I'll have securing nuts on each of the screw terminal contacts. An outer nut will hold the attached wire to the indicator and relays. 

No Good

Well, fooling the programmable gear indicator box with a false Park (the P is programmed into the box in a spot that is beyond the mechanical limits of the linkage, making it a position that is never used) does give a consistent Neutral indication. But it does not solve the fact that the box expects the sequence P-R-N-O-D-2-1, P-R-N-D-2-1, or P-R-N-D-1 (L). If I move the sensor past where 1 would normally be to make a false Park (so N-O-D-1-R-P), then when I go to program the Overdrive position, it just keeps flashing. Clearly it sees the value from the sensor as unacceptable. If I do a false Park at the other end (so P-N-O-D-1-R), my results stored in the box end up being (P-)N-D-D-D-R. Nothing I can do will get it to indicate the O or the 2 unless I program the positions in the traditional modern PRNOD21 pattern.

So, I have to decide if this is acceptable... which I don't think it is... or if I want to pay $$$ for a custom firmware job... or look for/make something else.

I still have in the back of my mind to make over the Chevy column mounted safety/backup switch and I have removed the internal contact in preparation to start seriously working on converting it. Now that I have the digital gear position display, I don't have to use it with the sensor and brain. I can hard-wire any custom solution I come up with to the indicator and to backup/start relays. What I need is a strip of brass I can machine to fit the inside curve of the switch case, then some brass flush-mount screws to mount on the outer curve of the case. One for each gear position... maybe a few for reverse. Then I just need to mark off the positions, drill the holes for the screws and make a terminal for the common brass strip.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

I called Diamondback Classics today and placed my order for 4 new tires for the Chief. 215/75R15 with 2-5/8" wide white walls. I will mount them on my '76 Buick OEM steel wheels which I modified to fit and which will work with my hub caps that I want to keep. $214 * 4 + $117 to ship = $973.00. Well, I had to buy something with part of my tax return. :-)

I also talked (via email) with the folks at Dakota Digital today. It turns out to be exactly what I thought.

"While you can eliminate both Overdrive and 2^nd gears through double tapping, you cannot merge Park and Neutral."

As I explained to DD, one of the brainwaves from last night was to disconnect the sensor and move it forward a bit to where a theoretical "Park" might be if my transmission had one. I could set that, then reconnect the sensor linkage and go through the rest of the positions. With the sensor connected, the sensor will never be able to hit "Park" but that doesn't matter, as I have no Park and I don't want it ever to be displayed. I DO want the safety switch to let me start only in Neutral through. And I also want the backup lights to come on at the right time. Dakota Digital thought that might just do it.

"Fooling it into a false Park position could make it work for programming."

So next chance I get (hopefully this Saturday) I will give this a try. I hope it works out as I like the setup. I need to figure out where I am going to mount the indicator too. I don't want to cut any holes.

Frustration

Spend part of yesterday and most of today screwing around with the shift position indicator stuff.

I bought the GSS-2000 because I have a dual-range Hydramatic. Instead of the PRNDL/PRND12/PRNOD21 type pattern, my pattern is N, D-High, D-Low, L, R. I can not get the silly controller to completely be OK with that. If I program it as if each detente were the modern pattern, it works fine. So the position pot is detecting the correct locations. But the brain box gets flummoxed if I try to program it with Either N D 2 1 R or N O D 1 R. I can get it to recognize either N or P, and I can make that always N on the display. And I can get R to reliably be indicated, so I will be able to get the safety relay and the backup lights working, but the brain refuses to recognize 2. It treats both D ranges as D, no matter what I do, and sometimes wants to get Low as 1 and sometimes as a D also. sent a note to Dakota Digital to see if they had any suggestions. I bought this rig because it promised to be fully programmable regardless of the position of the pot sender. It seems to be only partially true.

I spent a lot of time screwing around with sensor position, arm length, etc., before I realized it's an electronic issue, not a mechanical one. I want to put the longer arm back on and the shorter linkage. Then, I want to try something I thought of since I came in and showered. Once I have the longer arm and thus, more room to sweep the sensor I want to try positioning the arm outside of the mechanical reach of my shifter to simulate Park. Then I will reconnect the linkage and program the rest of the positions. Maybe that will do the trick. The shifter will stop at Neutral, and never reach Park, but at least I won't be boggling it's brain by having N and P in the same position. That'll have to wait for next weekend, I'm afraid. I need to think about ordering tires this week.


What's left to do?

• Screw around some more with the shift position sender (working on this now).
• Program the shift position decoder.
• Permanantly attach and wire the shift position decoder, incl wiring to safety relay and backup lights.
• Put in shift position indicator. (Where?)
• Get new tires.
• Enjoy the car!

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.

Sway End 2

The sway bar end kit I got from Rock was for one end. That's why I ordered a second kit. Same part number, same price. The kit I got from Amazon had complete parts for both ends. So now I have parts for one spare end. Sheesh! But I need to get the rubbers for where the bar mounts to the frame now... later. Other than that, the sway bar is done. I also got a fine selection of hardened washers from McMaster to secure the tie rod ends to the steering arms. So that's done.