Day of Rest...

Well, it is Sunday after all. Plus it's raining. So I used the time to think over the details of my neutral safety switch, backup light switch, and gear shift indicator.

What I finally came up with is an expen$ive but nice all-in-one solution. First, most setups are going to be for PowerGlide or THM transmissions. Nobody is making anything for these old Hydra-Matics. There are specialty switches one could adapt, but they aren't cheap either. ($60/ea x 2)

So I found a programmable solution from my old friends at Dakota Digital. The box will provide neutral safety and backup light switching, as well as showing the gear the transmission is in. 

 

The position sensor can mount on the transmission, or in the linkage someplace. It is basically a potentiometer and does not have any preset idea about what gear is at what position. It simply sends a signal to the decoder. When you program the decoder, you put the shift lever in a gear and tell the decoder what gear that is. When the sensor is in that same position again, the decoder remembers what gear sensosr position represents. If it is neural or reverse, it enables the started or backup lights accordingly. Pretty bloody brilliant for my needs.

 

The next issue is, how to display the gear position? DD offers a few options, and I chose to try two. The basic flat panel... which of course has the wrong layout but could be adapted. It could even be removed from this plate and maybe be incorporated into the original quadrant on the column? It was cheap.

The other one I chose is more expensive but smaller and more easily hidden or disguised in some way.Not sure how I would mount it or if I could secret it into one of the other gauges/controls somehow. I just thought I'd get it and do some visualizing with it to see if I get a brainwave somewhere. It could be painted, removed from it's bezel, put someplace inconspicuous but accessible, or ???

The bottom line is, I will get the backup light and Neutral switch I need, and I can do as I wish about the position indicator in any number of ways.

Rack Redux

• Rack remounted and reconnected to steering linkage. 
• Tie rod ends attached and initial spacing set.
• Power steering pump base mounted to engine.
• PS pump mounted to base. 
• Began rerouting the left exhaust pipe - it will be the same odd looping path as before, but some extensions need to be added to make it fir around the rack and cradle. It will hang a bit lower than before. I want to call Waldrons Exhaust and ask about how the single exhaust is routed to the left side of the engine. It might be better to go back to the factory single. 

A little hard to see the mount, but the PS pump is in place.

Rack back in place and tie rod ends fit this time!

--

Vacation: Friday

• Changed harmonic balancer/crank pulley- was able to use the small 3-point puller to get it most of the way off, then walked it the rest of the way with a pry bar in each side.
• Changed water pump pulley (actually could have just added the outer pulley but used both from my eBay purchase). Looks like original paint on all pulleys and fans was argent. Now the pulleys are black.
•  Continued fabrication of the power steering pump using parts from the kit and some heavy angle iron. Have it pretty well done and painted engine color. 

While changing the balancer, I made a discovery about my engine noise this car has always had. See the video.

The rack and pinion unit arrived back from Flaming River tonight, too late to do anything other than check the ends. They are OK... well, at least the one I checked was!

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: Wednesday

• Routed right-front brake hard line through the labyrinth of frame, hoses, engine and attachments like the original to connect up the caliper to the combination valve 45° upper outlet.
  Note to self: Next time, make sure of the fitting size to connect to the caliper hose before you route the line and then find yourself having to cut the flare off, put the correct fitting on, and re-flare in the cramped confines of a wheel well.
• Bent up and routed the left-front hard line through the inside of the frame, similar to the original, to connect to combo valve bottom outlet.Took two tries as the first tube was too short... I thought it might be but tried it anyway.

That was pretty much it for today... Running hard lines takes time as there are missteps (ahem) and tweaking of the bend, placing clamps, etc. At least I got pictures today.

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. :-)

Send It Back

So at 7-something this morning, I was on the phone to Kevin at Flaming River Tech Support. Nice guy. Had a hard time believing the problem I was having, but when I told him the jamb nut they supplied fit but not the rack end, he knew something was not right. He gave me an RMA number to return the rack for service and I went out and pulled it off right away. Just took the 4 bolts out that hold it to the cradle and released the steering linkage. Pretty simple. Took the rack over to my local pack and ship and it's happily on it's way back to Ohio. Should get there next Wednesday.

Note to self: When you put the rack back in, put the upper right cradle bolt in first, then swing the rack up to meet the steering linkage and reseat the u-joint on the rack input shaft before putting the other bolts in. With all 4 bolts back in loosely, push rack up as high as it will go before tightening the bolts down. Then tighten down the steering linkage to the input shaft.

It Don't Fit!

So the first of the two '68/'69 Camaro tie rod ends arrived tonight. The first thing I did was try on the jamb nut supplied by Flaming River in the hardware kit. It fit perfectly! Then I put the end of the tie rod up to the rack tube and... drum roll... It slipped in and out without threading... just slopping around loose like. BOO!!! Two thumbs down for Flaming River's Tech support. It seems the next size up is probably 11/16" and that seems like it's a Mustang part, not a Camaro part. Could it be the wrong rack was included in the kit? I'm going to be calling them in the morning. 

Ugh!

Flaming River Tech Support

I had posted a question on Flaming River's Facebook page over the weekend and this morning got a reply.

They say to use '68-'69 Camaro outer tie rod ends, Moog part number ES381RL. I looked up the specs on this item and the rod thread dimensions are .625-18R... that's a right handed thread. I have been dead certain that the threads on the rack are LEFT handed. I ordered the parts from Amazon but called the FR tech support guy to be sure. He swears there are no racks they make with left handed threaded tubes. OK. I am perfectly willing to be known as an idiot, and it would certainly explain why the jamb nut they provide is a common right hand thread. I am very willing to believe I completely screwed this up... I've been sick, the weather's been a mess, I'm busy jumping through hoops to get something to fit a car it wasn't designed for, as well as my normal, shoot-from-the-hip-ask-questions-later style of doing things. You're supposed to get smarter and/or wiser as you get older, but I think I do the reverse...

Still, the instructions don't mention having to buy tie rod ends or what kind are needed. In fact the kit is sold as absolutely complete, no need to buy anything except the hoses for the pump. True, the answer is just a phone call away... unless it's the weekend. And still no mention of how to adjust toe-in... do you have to pickle fork the steering arms each time? It's really not a big deal if you do, since you shouldn't have to do it often. But it would be nice to have it spelled out. (Feeling crabby this morning now.)

They did get back to me later today on Facebook about the toe-in adjustment.

"The small clamp on the boot must be removed, and then the sleeve/inner end can be turned either way. There is a ball socket assembly underneath the boot. If you have any other questions, I would recommend calling us at 1-800-648-8022 for instant tech support, and one of our technicians can answer any other questions you might have."

Turn Signals

Today was spent sorting out the turn signal wiring. The new column came with a male GM flat connector and a kit to make up the female half. I used the connectors from a spare column I had on hand so as to not cut anything from my original column. With those, I made up a little adapter harness that connects between the factory connectors on the car and the flat connector on the column. And best of all, everything works! It took most of the day because I had to translate the color code of the wires, scrounge the connectors, pull them apart, solder in new wire, solder in the pins for the flat, and test everything.

The white wire for the brake light is a passthrough for the brake feed. Has no power on it unless the brake pedal switch is closed. The turn signal power wire is from the flasher. So that power signal "blinks".

I may add the hazard kit later on. It would be nice to have.

Tie Rod Ends

OK this is getting frustrating. I got the new outer tie-rod ends from Eckler's today and of course, there is no way they will work. I thought perhaps the inner rod would be what was needed. So I called Cooper and he had a pair. Went and got them and... of course, same thing. the end just slides in and out of the end of the rack. What *looks* like it might fit is the inner tie rod end of the Pontiac, but of course that has the wrong end on it to connect to the steering arm. I called Jegs technical support since they are who I bought the kit from. They had no idea and they tried to reach Flaming River but no one was there as it's the weekend. The Flaming River web site is down today too. I searched every bit of packaging material from the box for something missing but no luck.I posted a message on the Flaming River Facebook page too... no answer. OK. I'm stuck til Monday I guess.

So meanwhile, I started looking at the power steering pump. It is much smaller than the orignal and I thought I was going to use the original mount but it turns out I am not. I can make a simple plate adapter that will bolt where the original went and let me use the mount Flaming River supplied. One thing, a fan belt was supposed to be included in the package and it's not here... not that I could use it anyway. I will need to dig out the crank and fan pulleys I got from eBay now.

Steering Linkage

Started on the steering joints and rods. I used a 3/4" dowel as suggested by the documentation for the kit. But with a dowel, you can't actually rotate the linkage much. So I got the lengths of rod cut but when I assembled, I found the middle u-joint is binding. Too steep of an angle. I don't know if there is a "wrong" way to put this linkage together, but I had to figure out a way to decrease the angle a little. So I reversed the setup I originally planned based on the photoshopped image I got out of the PDF instructions. With the lollipop where it was, I could not decrease the angle enough without running out of the longer shaft I had already cut and without making the angle of the lollipop too extreme. I needed to straighten the bracket that holds the lollipop a little to decrease that angle. I also shimmed it out about a half-inch from the frame with washers. That plus putting the middle u-joint above the lollipop made the angle work out pretty well. Of course, before I finalized the steering rods, I had to get the shifter link in place. With all the holes that thing has to adjust it, none would line up. I had to drill four holes between the existing holes and siamese them to give me a bit of adjustment once on the column. I *think* I have it set so that the upper detente-locked position of the shift lever is neutral on the trans. I won't be able to really tell how it works until I can fire up the engine and try it.

With the linkages set, I snugged down the column and turned to addressing the levers and wheel. For the turn signal lever, I made some modifications to the original to make it work with the new column by flattening the top and bottom of the round lever end, then spot welding a tiny bit of flat metal to the bottom to fill the wider slot on the new switch. And I also had to drill out the hole for the screw a little too. Not sure it was all worth it over using the Flaming River one... but since that one is shorter for smaller wheels, it probably is.

So that leaves the horn.The Flaming River horn contact needs a male spade lug to connect to. The simplest first attempt is to solder a lug onto the correct part of the horn ring. I know the joint looks dicey, but it had plenty of heat and flux, so maybe it will hold. If not, the next attempt will include drilling a tiny hole for a screw. It can't protrude far though, as the foam ring behind the horn assembly mustn't be damaged by it.

Column

Today's task. Get the steering column mounted in place! The floor mount provided in the kit is labeled as a 1957 Chevy part. But the Flaming River web site refers to it as a Tri-5 Chevy part... none of that matters as it can not be used with a 1955 Pontiac as-is.

Fortunately, it's aluminum and easy to modify. I used the felt ring retainer from the old column to help me center the position once I had cut and flattened the plate. Two new holes need to be drilled to line up to the two upper holes in the factory access plate. Depending how you cut the plate, a third hole will likely be needed at about the 5 o'clock position. I notched the left edge for the raised ridge in the access plate.

With the  plate modified, I reattached the machined ring that the split ring on the column will attach to. I also cut a small piece of galvanized steel to cover the old Treadle-Vac opening. I just used silicone RTV to attach the plate. Stuck one of the many Flaming River stickers that came with my kit on the plate, just for fun.

The column gimbal mount done, I slid the column in place and tightened the two setscrews on the floor mount outer ring. With the column swung up into place at the dash mount, I could see that I needed to add a bit more rubber cushion to fill the space as this column is not a thick as the factory one. A bit of radiator hose did the trick. Adjusting the column to the right position is easily accomplished and the dash mount tightened enough to keep things from moving around. I figure I need to leave them just a bit loose in case I have to make adjustments when I do the linkage and the steering shaft work... apparently stuff I won't get to today since it's raining again and getting dark, cold and depressing.

So with the column pretty much in place, I started to work on the steering wheel. I had seen an Ididit video where they got a factory GM wheel ready to work on one of their columns. This looked like it would go about the same way. On the back of the steering wheel is the turn signal canceler. You have to remove the three screws holding it on but leave the large trim plate in place and put the screws back in. Back at the column, I took off the wheel retaining nut, spring and the thing you see below which is a combination turn signal canceler and horn slip ring. The Pontiac wheel already has the needed hole at about the 10:30 o'clock position for the little tower of the slip ring to go into. The spring needs to go between the wheel and the slip ring, so I started the tower's wire into the hole and then held the spring in place while slipping the whole thing over the steering shaft. I tested operation of the canceler before putting the nut on. Again, I only did it loosely so I can pop the wheel off again if I need to adjust things when I do the steering shaft.

 So here we are with the column in place, the wheel loosely attached and the tilt and signal arms attached. I plan to modify the factory signal arm to fit the column, and *try* to do the same with the shift lever.

You might be wondering about the unpainted, unpolished state of the column... I bought the less expensive kit with the "paintable mill" finish on the column exterior. I planned to paint it, the same way the original was. But it's January, freakin' cold and I'm not going to paint it just now. It's stainless steel and I *could* polish it myself if I wanted to bother, but at least it won't rust while I decide what I want and wait for warmer weather.

Next up, I need a 3/4" wooden dowel to mock up the steering shaft setup.

Trial And Error

Perhaps because I already knew the bolt pattern for the steering gearbox was going to be different between the Chevy and the Pontiac, I decided to start messing around with the idler arm side of the cradle. I had the right idea, but made a bad assumption. With the pre-drilled lower hole of the cradle bolted to the lower hole for the idler in the frame, and one bolt through the closest steering box side to hold the cradle in approximate place, this looked like it hung properly. The hole spacing on the idler is narrower than the Chevy design, so I just drilled and new upper hole to match the Pontiac design.

Naturally,  I was wrong. Once I put both bolts in the idler side and went around to fully bolt up what holes I could on the gearbox side, I found there were actually two of the three pre-drilled holes on the cradle that matched up to the Pontiac frame holes. And the third was in an easy spot to drill the frame for. With the two good holes on the gearbox side bolted up and the third marked, I checked the level of the bottom of the cradle with the wire I had strung yesterday between the holes for the tie rod ends in the steering arms. And here we slap our forehead because we see we made an assumption about the idler that was just wrong. Fortunately, the mistake is easily fixed. measured the difference and pulled the cradle back out to re-drill it. The guideline, for anyone who might want to do this with your own Tri-5 Pontiac, is to drop the bottom hole about 3/4 of an inch center-to-center from the bottom pre-drilled hole. [NOTE: Later I  discovered that this was not enough. The right side of the rack needs something like an additional 3/4" for a total of about 1-1/2" raise from the factory holes.] Then use the idler arm to mark where the upper hole needs to be. This cradle is heavy steel plate. I don't think a couple of extra holes will be a problem at all, especially with the heavy, hardened washers in place.

With that little adjustment, the cradle sat just right. The holes are all big enough for plenty of slop in fine tuning the position of the rack once it's reattached to the cradle. So with the rack positioned roughly and all 5 bolts started, I put the rack up on the cradle and tightened up those 4 bolts. I don't have the new tie rod ends yet (more on that later) so I eyeballed the position of the steering arms to the rack ends. Lined everything up and tightened down the frame-to-cradle bolts.

Flaming River supplied 5 carriage bolts with washers and self-locking nuts. However, the two Pontiac idler arm holes have captive nuts so I used the original bolts there. The one bolt on the gearbox side will need to be loosened and the bearing lollipop positioned. But other than that, all the bolts are now tightened.

Flaming River's instructions leave a bit to be desired. They give a lot of detail about removing the old steering system but they seem to think you will just intuit how the new system will go in. To be sure, if this were a 1955 Chevrolet instead of sister Pontiac, it might be that some things would be more obvious. But, I was puzzling over tie rod ends. Nowhere in the documentation does it say that you reuse (or get new) original Chevy outer tie rod ends. And the end of the rack is female threads where I am used to seeing male threads that you would attach a sleeve to. How do you adjust toe in with no sleeve? I did find a video on YouTube where the vice president of the company just happens to mention you reuse your tie rod ends with this kit. I still don't know if I can just rotate the rack ends to adjust toe-in. They don't seem to want to turn.

Another thing I was not clear on was the lollipop bearing, the angled plate it attaches to that bolts to the gearbox side of the cradle, and whether the second u-joint should be above or below the lollipop. No written instruction on these. There is a picture, and I guess they figured that was enough. It's way dark though and hard to see detail. I got the PDF version of the instructions off the web site and took that picture into Photoshop. With some tweaking, you can now see the answers to these questions.

The white arrows are theirs. I added red ones with legends. One more burning question I have is if I can use my stock steering wheel. Nothing mentioned in the docs. Maybe this picture from the cover of the instructions answers that question...