That's good to hear. I'll see if I can dig up the in between size that I was missing. It sounds like I may have caught yet another ghetto-rigged thing.
1983 Big Block Monte Slow Build
- Thread starter Supercharged111
- Start date
That's good to hear. I'll see if I can dig up the in between size that I was missing. It sounds like I may have caught yet another ghetto-rigged thing.
So I may have mentioned this already, but I did find that the driver's tumbler didn't match the trunk. Driver's door took a brand new key that was on the ring and the trunk took the old key. I found another door and trunk tumblers that matched the driver's door, brand new GM bits. Noice. The ignition tumbler, not so noice. The part you grip to turn is gone so all that load goes right to the key. I've done that in another old beater and it's not a good long term plan so today I ordered a new GM ignition tumbler. I assume it's made in Communist Chy-nah as it was only $30 on Amazon, but at least the keys will have GM on them. And I'll have 2 sets. After solving that mystery, I took another look at the exterior door handles I had on hand. It looks like a dorked up Dorman handle was removed in favor of something else. So as long as everything in the driver's door is working properly, there's nothing stopping me from putting the interior panels back on it. All this time. . .
I think part of what it is is there's so much low hanging fruit it's incredibly easy to feel like you accomplished something. On the other hand, aside from the rust, the car does have some goodies and I'm beginning to see a little light at the end of the tunnel in terms of how different it will be when I wrap up this round.
I slid out to the Monte 2 nights ago as I'd left the angle grinder out there which I needed to get the Camaro's clutch fork modified and reinstalled. I got the Camaro put together last night and the fork no longer crashes into the pressure plate, but since I was out there to grab the grinder I took a couple hours to putter on the Monte. I happened to have 2 different, random clips that fit the front rubber brake hoses so I clipped them into the factory mounts to hold that all steady. Next, with the help of my friend who was back from FL, I bled the front brakes (rears I'd previously done with the power bleeder) which ended up being a bit of a chore. Lots and lots and lots of air bubbles, I forgot how slow it was to bleed with 2 people vs the power bleeder. At any rate, I have a brake pedal again so crossed that off the list. Next I set my sights on that coolant plug in the intake. It was all sorts of gummed/mucked up, but it ended up being 1/4" NPT. I had to thread the plug in and out a couple times to get the threads clean enough to sent it in for good (should have brought my tap with me), but in the end I got it with a plug that I believe came from an LT1 head. Next I cleaned up the thermostat housing and intake mating surface and reinstalled the old 180 stat with just a gasket. Now watch the mfer leak.
It may not seem like much, but it still helps lower my blood pressure. I packed a bag full of hose clamps for my next trip as the one that's there drives my blood pressure up. As I type this, it appears I'm missing a fastener in the water pump pulley. Probably a busted off bolt in there just my luck. I also whipped up an upper radiator mount for the driver's side, but neglected to snap a pic. Got it all set up, drilled the core support for a 1/4-20 rivnut, and. . . realized I forgot the damn install tool. So that is also in the bag for my next trip out there. Now armed with info and control arm specs, I intend to set the rear control arms to their supposed stock lengths of 19.25" for the lowers and 11.125" for the uppers. I can deal with centering, alignment, and pinion angle when the car is more developed but right now it seems to me it's all wrong so less bad is more better. From there it's wiring, door handles, wiring, lock tumblers, wiring, front end alignment, wiring, and wiring.
It may not seem like much, but it still helps lower my blood pressure. I packed a bag full of hose clamps for my next trip as the one that's there drives my blood pressure up. As I type this, it appears I'm missing a fastener in the water pump pulley. Probably a busted off bolt in there just my luck. I also whipped up an upper radiator mount for the driver's side, but neglected to snap a pic. Got it all set up, drilled the core support for a 1/4-20 rivnut, and. . . realized I forgot the damn install tool. So that is also in the bag for my next trip out there. Now armed with info and control arm specs, I intend to set the rear control arms to their supposed stock lengths of 19.25" for the lowers and 11.125" for the uppers. I can deal with centering, alignment, and pinion angle when the car is more developed but right now it seems to me it's all wrong so less bad is more better. From there it's wiring, door handles, wiring, lock tumblers, wiring, front end alignment, wiring, and wiring.
I went out today with a fairly lengthy list of piddly stuff. I started by wrapping up the radiator mounting. Got the rivnuts set in, splashed the brackets with black chassis paint, trimmed the center bit of core support that stuck out the farthest, tightened it down, and filled it up. And I got rid of that mile long hose clamp too.
Getting cleaner, but I have a lot of wiring to clean up. Next I turned my sights to the rear brakes. I wanted to see if the 9" bolt pattern matched the GM stuff and it didn't on mine.
I traced it to a piece of paper I had with me. Also it turns out the washers I brought with weren't to my liking to stack up under the bearing retainer plates so dead there. I also figured out why the bolts felt bound up and wouldn't thread by hand. The way the plate sits, the threaded holes for the caliper mount sit farther outboard than the holes in the axle flange. Color me unimpressed. So tomorrow I'll return with the correct washers to get those bolts cranked down without distorting the plates, they need some lovin as they also hold the caliper mounts in place. Also super classy is the way that one side has the pads riding higher above the rotor than the other.
Next I undid the trans cable so I could slide some insulation over it. I tried again to count deiveshaft turns to get an idea of the axle ratio, but only the one side turned even with rotors removed. I keep getting less than 1.5 turns with one axle turning.
I then went about setting the rear control arms to stock length. The lowers already were, so I just tightened the loose jam nuts and went for the uppers. Unlike the lowers, these adjust like a turnbuckle. Upper right was easy peasy but the upper left had been extended in a way that mad with no longer adjustable like a turnbuckle so I had to remove it. What fun that was. I couldn't get enough @$$ on the upper bolt without the backup wrench popping off so I cut the b*st*rd. That was the easier of the 2. The one on the axle was an absolute m'fer to remove. The like new bolt acted like it was seized in the metal collar and fought tooth and nail to come out. When it did, I could see that it was galled. It was a 1/2" bolt in a 12mm hole. So I'll get new bolts and wrestle the other side out tomorrow so that's not a pain for future me.
Question now, this handle seems f00ked.
The other side has that plastic/metal rubber dealie intact. What's this side missing other than that?
Getting cleaner, but I have a lot of wiring to clean up. Next I turned my sights to the rear brakes. I wanted to see if the 9" bolt pattern matched the GM stuff and it didn't on mine.
I traced it to a piece of paper I had with me. Also it turns out the washers I brought with weren't to my liking to stack up under the bearing retainer plates so dead there. I also figured out why the bolts felt bound up and wouldn't thread by hand. The way the plate sits, the threaded holes for the caliper mount sit farther outboard than the holes in the axle flange. Color me unimpressed. So tomorrow I'll return with the correct washers to get those bolts cranked down without distorting the plates, they need some lovin as they also hold the caliper mounts in place. Also super classy is the way that one side has the pads riding higher above the rotor than the other.
Next I undid the trans cable so I could slide some insulation over it. I tried again to count deiveshaft turns to get an idea of the axle ratio, but only the one side turned even with rotors removed. I keep getting less than 1.5 turns with one axle turning.
I then went about setting the rear control arms to stock length. The lowers already were, so I just tightened the loose jam nuts and went for the uppers. Unlike the lowers, these adjust like a turnbuckle. Upper right was easy peasy but the upper left had been extended in a way that mad with no longer adjustable like a turnbuckle so I had to remove it. What fun that was. I couldn't get enough @$$ on the upper bolt without the backup wrench popping off so I cut the b*st*rd. That was the easier of the 2. The one on the axle was an absolute m'fer to remove. The like new bolt acted like it was seized in the metal collar and fought tooth and nail to come out. When it did, I could see that it was galled. It was a 1/2" bolt in a 12mm hole. So I'll get new bolts and wrestle the other side out tomorrow so that's not a pain for future me.
Question now, this handle seems f00ked.
The other side has that plastic/metal rubber dealie intact. What's this side missing other than that?
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I keep moving the goal post farther out with it. Usually it's the opposite.
I was in the neighborhood today so swung by the Monte. I measured the rear rotor dimensions in case I want to find a cheap replacement option prior to examining the Explorer rear disc option. Next I installed the new ignition, this one kinda kicked my a$$ a little. First I forgot to install the plastic dealie that rides on the little horn button thing, so out came the lock plate again. That plate didn't slide very nice the first couple goes, I think that whole splined area was a little f00k3d off from the steering wheel hub. Whatever hub the wheel uses has stripped out, that's the real reason the wheel had that slippage. It wasn't a poor install as I'd originally suspected, so I just need a new hub and the wheel can stop being all f00k3d up. Sweet. Eventually I got that buttoned back up, so now it was time to hook the starter solenoid wire back up under the hood. Once I put eyes on it I saw I could cut off an 8" section, including that horrendous solder joint, and resecure with a simple heat shrink butt connector. Didn't have to go back at all, wire was clean right where I cut it. Covered the other open joints, hooked up the battery, turned the key and the starter jumped to life. Awesome! Now I can start the car like a normal person, not sure why it wouldn't work years ago when I first tried to move the car. Next I swapped out the trunk tumbler. This had a bunch of Bondo caked under it and when I yanked the clip out that holds it in I lost a couple of chunks. It definitely affected the installed height of it and the fitment of the clip. It seemed to me that the clip was in upside down, but that it was the only way it could fit in there because of that. I still need to install a new tumbler in the passenger door, right now it's an empty hole though so for what is installed in the car, it all takes fresh new GM keys so still a win in my book. I'd hot tanked some 5.3 parts prior to this, I'm horsing around with the motor that it seems I'll never get around to swapping into the Camaro. Gonna port the oil pump and tack the thing together. I slipped a late LS1/LQ4 cam into it and cleaned all the dirt and crap out of it that got in when I was forced to remove the intake to get the thing out of the SUV it was in. I was forced to remove the heads and let out the magic smoke. After that I hooked up the trailer, tomorrow I'll stuff the Camaro in there until I get around to yanking that rear quarter for it off Camaro #3.
So with a VIN of 1G1AZ3793DR247250, can anyone tell me what the original power train would have been in this thing? And what these wires once went to?
I poked around with a test light and didn't find anything with switched power. I have no idea what the choke was hooked to before, it was either vampire tapped into something or just wires twisted together but I'll be damned if I can find a switched power wire. Really begs the question how did it work before?
I poked around with a test light and didn't find anything with switched power. I have no idea what the choke was hooked to before, it was either vampire tapped into something or just wires twisted together but I'll be damned if I can find a switched power wire. Really begs the question how did it work before?
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