How many times have you heard that....
1983 Big Block Monte Slow Build
- Thread starter Supercharged111
- Start date
Boy there is some what the heck were they thinking going on there. Makes one wonder if our resident monte carlo expert tynan put this thing together.
Eeeh gads!
You have your work cutout for ya. The crossmember is a winner, but the lower radiator inlet frame clearancing is trophy worthy.
You have your work cutout for ya. The crossmember is a winner, but the lower radiator inlet frame clearancing is trophy worthy.
Long term it's getting a new frame, so we'll be turning a blind eye to that for the time being. I'll head back out tomorrow with a bunch of stuff to take a crack at it. Tonight I need to get the Camaro on stands to deal with the clutch fork beating against the pressure plate with the pedal all the way down. Apparently not super uncommon in the LT1 world.
Cracking into this now, started with the shop vac. I'd forgotten about this treasure chest.
Did the interior and exterior, so much better. It wasn't terrible like 20 years of neglect or anything, too much has been replaced in recentish years, but good to have it where it is now. I'm kind of doing an inventory as I go, found some seat belt receptacles in the trunk. Good thing I bought some off of here a couple years ago. Next I dropped the tank to get rid of the wires that were crappily zip tied the length of the frame. I had this sender on hand.
So I figured he'd done the tank with old sender and had a problem.
Nope. Looks like he got one without the charcoal canister line. May as well swap it since I'm here. Can anyone confirm if this wire is for the fuel gauge?
It dips into the factory harness. The fuel gauge has always read E and that's an item I want to address, at least back here. Inside the car is easy.
Did the interior and exterior, so much better. It wasn't terrible like 20 years of neglect or anything, too much has been replaced in recentish years, but good to have it where it is now. I'm kind of doing an inventory as I go, found some seat belt receptacles in the trunk. Good thing I bought some off of here a couple years ago. Next I dropped the tank to get rid of the wires that were crappily zip tied the length of the frame. I had this sender on hand.
So I figured he'd done the tank with old sender and had a problem.
Nope. Looks like he got one without the charcoal canister line. May as well swap it since I'm here. Can anyone confirm if this wire is for the fuel gauge?
It dips into the factory harness. The fuel gauge has always read E and that's an item I want to address, at least back here. Inside the car is easy.
I just opened up the Dakota manual and they want you running a dedicated ground so the sender grounds through the Dakota box itself, so I'll just run speaker wire to it. I'd like to sneak it in through the trunk then under the carpet, likely under the door sills if that was still a good place for wiring back then. Speaking of wiring, I really opened up Pandora's box today. I have to get the key to start the car again, I'm so sick of striking that wire off of a battery post to get it to go. It'll definitely feel like less of a turd then. So I peeled everything back off of the harness on the passenger's side. I can't undersell how gd many zip ties I cut or how many rolls of electrical tape came off. I can't say with any level of confidence that that was all my dad, that looked like a lifetime of ignorance. Stuff cut up everywhere, wires going every which way, vampire taps galore, it's a wonder it ever functioned as a car before the 454 swap. View on your computer for maximum enjoyment, the phone screen won't show it I'm adequate horror.
Seeing it in pics now doesn't do justice to how long it took to uncover, or how p!$s3d off I was in the process, cursing whatever m'fer went to such lengths to butcher this so badly. Every piece of tape that came off revealed another and another and another atrocity. I also removed a bunch of extra crap that went nowhere, but was intertwined with the rest of the mess.
I don't have time to get it perfect, but I can butt splice what's there so the thing isn't such a fire hazard. I really only went this deep to get at the starter signal wire. Since I was in the neighborhood I decided to mock up the HVAC box. Aside from A/C bits, what all am I missing here? I'm ASSuming that it's an AC car since the HVAC control inside has A/C on it.
Am I missing much? What goes here?
Also, can anyone ID these bits?
No pics, but the car has had a substantial ATF leak for some time. It looked like the pan to me, so I dropped that and picked up a filter and gasket tonight. I'll jam that back in tomorrow. I also noticed 2 loose fasteners on the tail housing so I'll remove/clean/inspect/reinstall tomorrow. I see orange silicone smeared up in there so probably some fv€kery up in there too. Last but not least, the speedo cable was on and the nut tight, but it was pretty floppy. I unscrewed it, pulled it out to under the hood, gave a light tug and the other end popped right out. Why oh why did my old man not install the VSS? I had it with me, screwed it in with its fresh rubber seal, routed the harness nowhere near the exhaust, and it's ready to be hooked into the Dakota box. I did a bunch of other odds and ends too, got another load of tools and supplies for the car to get moving forward on it tomorrow. It's pretty well broken down now with most all I'm going to fix characterized. That is, until I start digging again tomorrow.
Seeing it in pics now doesn't do justice to how long it took to uncover, or how p!$s3d off I was in the process, cursing whatever m'fer went to such lengths to butcher this so badly. Every piece of tape that came off revealed another and another and another atrocity. I also removed a bunch of extra crap that went nowhere, but was intertwined with the rest of the mess.
I don't have time to get it perfect, but I can butt splice what's there so the thing isn't such a fire hazard. I really only went this deep to get at the starter signal wire. Since I was in the neighborhood I decided to mock up the HVAC box. Aside from A/C bits, what all am I missing here? I'm ASSuming that it's an AC car since the HVAC control inside has A/C on it.
Am I missing much? What goes here?
Also, can anyone ID these bits?
No pics, but the car has had a substantial ATF leak for some time. It looked like the pan to me, so I dropped that and picked up a filter and gasket tonight. I'll jam that back in tomorrow. I also noticed 2 loose fasteners on the tail housing so I'll remove/clean/inspect/reinstall tomorrow. I see orange silicone smeared up in there so probably some fv€kery up in there too. Last but not least, the speedo cable was on and the nut tight, but it was pretty floppy. I unscrewed it, pulled it out to under the hood, gave a light tug and the other end popped right out. Why oh why did my old man not install the VSS? I had it with me, screwed it in with its fresh rubber seal, routed the harness nowhere near the exhaust, and it's ready to be hooked into the Dakota box. I did a bunch of other odds and ends too, got another load of tools and supplies for the car to get moving forward on it tomorrow. It's pretty well broken down now with most all I'm going to fix characterized. That is, until I start digging again tomorrow.
Well, the wiring looks better (& safer) than what another member has with is Monte with that racing 305 getting a new hipo cam. You should have a bracket there that the windshield/cowl lower trim screws to. The long rubber strip goes along the bottom of the door between it & the door panel.
Can you find any pics of that? I may just have that bracket in the Rubbermaid tote pictured from earlier.
Sorry, but I did laugh my *ss off when I saw those wiring pictures,
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