1979 Malibu wagon 4 speed questions

[Bonnewagon]

In my 1981 Malibu wagon I used a Pontiac 400 and Saginaw 4 speed with the 3:11 first gear, 3:23 rear. I have to say that was just about the ideal set up. That gave me the perfect 10 to 1 overall ratio. Easy take-off and highway speed was OK too. The 3:11 and 3:89 rears would be 12 to 1 overall and way too steep. The ST-10 with the 2:43 and 3:89 rear gives you a much better 9.5 to 1 but top end highway speed will suffer with that rear. But you must know that already. I think for just cruising around the ST-10 is your better choice.

 

[Mighty]

Gotcha. I doubt I’ll even put 1500 miles on the car a year. One other question for the group, anyone recommend me a good mechanical fuel pump? I’ve been out the hot rod/muscle car scene for quite a while. I was just going to get a Holley pump from jegs unless anyone has had any issues with them. I’m going to look over the fuel lines tonight and see if they need replaced

 

[Mighty]

Anyone have any idea off the top of their heads if screws/bolts hold this little plastic part on or some kind of plastic push pins? The fender looks like it has screw holes so I’m assuming that’s what I’m after. Passenger side is long gone and I noticed the drivers side flopping around freely. I was going to run to a hardware store and grab some screws for the interior on this thing. I’ve got stuff missing everywhere on this thing

 

[Ribbedroof]

7mm hex head (4.2MM screw size) screws with captured washers, GM still uses them.

 

[Mighty]

Awesome thank you very much Rubbedroof! I actually found the passenger side piece buried under a bunch of crap in the back seat still in tact so I’ll run out and grab some of those.

 

[Mighty]

My brother convinced me to take the steering column out of the car. I think I mentioned how back when my dad first bought it someone broke into it and tried to steal it (back in 1998 or 99). Key hasn’t started it since then. Instead you have to pull back on a little tab on the left side of the column and my dad had trouble starting it 20 years ago. Now he’s 72 so might as well try to fix it right for him. My brother gave me a steering column tool set and said figure it out. After 10-15 minutes of grinning he stepped in and got it all apart and pulled out the broken piece. I’d like to replace the broken plastic trim piece but I don’t know if it’s pretty specific to a stick shift car as I’m assuming there’s more column shift automatic pieces available. I have a guy local to me that I’m going to give a call to see if by any chance he has any. My dad did buy a complete steering column off of eBay way back then but it’s still sitting in the box in his basement so I’m going to have to dig that out soon.

 

[CopperNick]

As you say, Clean, V6/3's and more doors. They earned a few nicknames; Iraqi Taxis, Saudi Chebbies, etc. i posted a few years ago on the back story for them. Most of the factory OEM third pedal parts I have in my stash came from one of them. They used the Saginaw.

Most of the reason for the more door configuration was that over in the sand box, women ride in the back. Also, being manual on the floor is a male thing over there and since maintenance is zero/non-existent, they wanted a car that could be driven to death with as little upkeep as possible. Automatics need some care and would come with the shift lever on the tree which meant that a woman could learn to drive them and that was blasphemy in their version of unreality.



Nick

 

[CopperNick]

View attachment 218945
New driveshaft is coming….

When you take your pictures of the Muncie, pay particular attention to the midplate area. Stamped on the midplate or close to it ought to be a sequence of letters/numbers that when decoded will tell you the year of the box. A shot of the input shift will identify the model.


Nick

 

[Mighty]

I’ve heard the Iraqi taxi nickname before. I put the passenger side door panels back on which had been off since my dad replaced the window after it got broken into way back when. It doesn’t look terrible but a lot of stuff had been stacked on top of the panels and kind of warped the plastic. I couldn’t believe how cheap feeling the top panel piece is. It almost felt like cardboard with whatever the material is glued to it. The glovebox is going on next if I can find 3 more screws and the kick panel on the drivers side needs snapped back on. I saw on the back of it it said made in Canada. I think I read some where that a lot of the manual transmission cars were built up there then sent over seas? Out of curiosity, did GM still include build sheets in vehicles around 1979? I always watch the videos with the classic muscle cars and people talking about finding the build sheets in their random locations. I thought that would he kind of neat but I don’t want to tear the car apart any more than it already is just to look.

 

[pagrunt]

Those manual exports were for the most part part of an GM Canada contract with Iraq (Iraqi Taxis, which not all were) which were 4 door Malibus with the 229 V6 backed by the 3 speed. there were issues with them not holding up to the in country conditions & Iraq canceled the the remaining part of that order that gav the Canadian market a uch of stick cars. Not all sold overthere were those as I've seen a few during my time there (wishing I could of grapped a 4 speed coupe I was able to search over there.) Build sheets were still in the cars but by the late production their format changed & were less likely left in the cars.