How are your projects going? + Science project 572

Who knew cataloging car parts was considered “essential”, I guess vehicle repair is
A pretty high priority... working from home has given
An extra couple hours due to lack of commute + no more weekly fuel fill ups Is saving
A few dollars, and this Is a reasonably good combo to get projects back on track.
I feel pretty fortunate to have the same coming in + reduced expenses.

That was a horrible run-on sentence, wasn’t it?
Sorry. I talk like that sometimes.

Mom had some pretty serious health issues and had to deal with that over the last few months,
That was difficult to say the least.
But staying home + most of the above has provided badly needed focus.

Next step with 572 is to get the damper hub honed, it’s way too tight as expected.
I’ve got an email out to possibly ship it + my mic locked into position + a return label, but I’m not positive
Who is open and who isn’t. Anyone fairly local who knows of open shops, holler.

How are your guys’ projects going?

I need to order push rods for my new build then its done and will wait till I want to put it in my Rampage.
I dont think PR companies are working

I'd think that a lot of smaller machine shops are open for business, especially if you mail them the damper and tell them what the ID is that you want to hit. You should aim for around 0.001 press fit.

I'm getting work done on my projects via email and having parts mailed to me. I've been rewiring the Coronet and working on Duster as things come up.

How much smaller is the hub on your dampener than the crankshaft mating surface?
I have heated up several dampeners in a oven to 160 F and installed them a lot easier than at room temps The dampeners had close to.002 smaller when cold
I do use a good brand antisieze on all the dampeners hubs and crankshaft snouts to insure they don't weld them selves together after installation and running them
What brand dampener are you using? ATI instructions say to never hone their hubs

Cab ATI says not to hone aluminum hubs, steel hubs are most of the time too tight....not trying to argue, just trying to help

http://www.atiracing.com/instructions/Super-Damper.pdf

Projects. Converter in the fat tire car ate its self ( thrust bearing failed) big mess in the trans. Old car has red stuff coming out of the bell housing.
Now waiting on 2 - 8" converters

Fischer Precision in Walled Lake. Engine Craft , Holly. Both these guys work out of home. Both do excellent work.
Doug

I'm wanting to re-wire my Savoy and install the roll bar but I don't want to make it undriveable in case something happens to me(virus) Not sure if I'm going to just strip all the wiring out and start from scratch or lay it in and remove wires as I go. Going to put the 5-Speed back in and do some racing this year if I can. Been doing some side work since I've been home so that pays the bills with not much play money left over.
Gus

I haven't notice those instructions before about the GM motors, thanks for pointing that out
I was using their all aluminum dampeners until one of their tech said not to do that, especially on race motors that revved above 5000 RPM
I now use their steel hub and 3 ring steel outer dampeners on all the motors I build for drag racing and any motor that will be revved up over 5000 RPM

Project was just done a little prior to all this down time. " Go Figure " Now the bucket is in the car trailer just waiting for the chance to take it back out to the track. Been working on installing a cage in my sons Honda Civic.That car is too darn fast not to have a decent cage in it..

So.... pretty much ALL of them!

Sounds like progress is still being made where possible, that's cool.

I haven't bothered to measure the ID yet, but I can tell it's way too tight by feel.
Goes on way too hard so I stopped.

It's ATI, steel 3 ring.

There is a small shop in Pontiac that I used decades ago, I thought they were closed down but
recently found out otherwise. A friend knows the owner, so I hope to find out about that place shortly
but have not been able to get ahold of anyone yet.

Send Doug a PM about the place in Holly as well.

Gas prices sure went down, $1.59 for Premium, so I busted out the C body to run errands.

After being lazy and then getting struck with any problem you could imagine with a transmission I hope to make mine go soon. All the parts are here and ready I just need to get it up on stands and put the trans back in, I am confident this time.

The trans problems were, converter snout broken, tore trans down put in new clutches and steels(first time) and put in A1 trans brake valve body and borrowed a converter.

Fired car up, reverse didn't work even with trans brake engaged, trans brake worked, and transmission leaked.

Put TA valve body back in, had reverse, had slow engaging high gear.

Tore trans down, changed high gear piston for one that wasn't drilled for the t brake, new pump bushing, new pump seal. Trans works great, high gear is rock solid, reverse works, but leaks like it doesn't have a trans pan.

New converter bushing, new seal, in a different pump assembly. LEAKS did this twice

Converter back from TA with A500 snout. After not doing enough research I took an A500 pump and put it together with a 904 reaction shaft. Didn't work totally my fault for not doing enough research.

So I bought an A500 style pump gear from A&A for a 904 pump, they were slow to ship it and I missed my install window, then this COVID-19 hit and the track closed anyways.

While I had things apart the converter I borrowed left a nice trail of fluid out the ENGINE SIDE of it while I had it laying on the garage floor for a few days. I cleaned it up with brake cleaner and left it sit on a clean metal tray and sure enough there was a nice puddle of trans fluid out of engine side of it the next morning. So I am confident that was my trans leak I couldn't find.

So the new pump is in the trans, the new converter doesn't leak out the back, and I just need to go put the trans back in.

Moved into a different garage a few monthes ago so getting the garage put away is priority but soon as there was a chance I pushed the car out and got the oil temp up.Fired right up and needed some tickling untill the heat came up a tad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_xtBi9mTws

Bad I admire your tenacity and toughness. I think I would have thrown in the towel on that long before you did. I am pretty sure I am not that tough!

Al the car looks great, that is cool you got it out for a minute.

I did this over the course of months, didn't have it in me to do it every weekend! I'll chalk it up to learning. The trans seems to work good, I did manage to make a good WOT 2-3 shift and was happy with the result just not the trail following me. I learned an auto trans is more simple than I thought and I comfortable tearing into them now.

Al, car looks awesome!