Well, my project is drawing nearer to a close.
This past weekend I installed my transmission w/overdrive. Had to buy
a new driveshaft as I buggered mine trying to put in u-joints.
Fortunately found one for cheap but I was mad that I ruined my
perfectly good, freshly powder coated drive shaft. Installed the new
one, balanced, today. I will be putting in the last three pieces of
carpet sometime this week.
I was very disappointed to find that my (formerly) perfect original
lower tail light lenses had developed cracks in them. One was
completely ruined (I can only surmise that I bumped it) and the other
had a long crack running down the middle. So I am now in the market
for new lower lenses. If anybody has a pair of outside screw lenses,
uncracked, I'm your buyer.
I have also had trouble recently with finding my rubber pieces
cracking. The headlight gaskets were badly cracked. When I called
Rick at SS he said that he was aware of the problem and sent me new
ones. Now I find that I have more rubber in the same sad shape.
Yesterday I found my throttle rod grommet badly torn, the choke cable
grommet cracking, the paasenger side harness grommet torn, the washer
nipple grommet cracking and the shift boot was badly cracked on the
underside and tore when I tried to install it. The shift boot I had
had for 5+ years in my parts bin, so I can understand it going bad, but
the other parts were all purchased fairly recently so I can't
understand why they would have cracked so easily. Rick said it was the
high ozone content in LA. They can put a man on the moon but can't
fabricate a rubber piece that won't degrade after a few months? I
don't understand it. Has anyone else had similar problems with rubber
pieces?
My motor is due back from the machine shop in 2 weeks. The head is
ported and the valves enlarged. All water jackets welded and
redrilled. I am installing custom 82.5mm forged aluminum pistons with
Chevy con rods. The crank has been cross-drilled for improved oiling,
nitrided and stroked to increase volume. I will be using the Isky mild
street grind with Isky valve springs and pushrods. The block will be
drilled and channeled for improved oiling. I'm using an early Series 8
1/2" clutch, pressure plate and flywheel. The flywheel will be
lightened as much as possible. I will try to post the specifications
when I get them. Not sure what all this will get me in the way of
horsepower, but the increase should be significant. I could get more
with Webers, but I want the motor to look stock on the outside so I'll
be using the CD150's. I have polished my carbs rather maticulously so
they should look quite nice. But man, what a pain that job was. I
must have put close to 40 hours into each carb.
So, that's about it. Hope to be driving it in a few months.
Christopher
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Sep 05 2000 - 10:19:13 CDT