We've hit another milestone. Several milestones, actually.
While waiting for parts to arrive, we spent a week fixing the fiddly bits left over from sitting for 20 years.
- Interior lights. Fuse was blown. Not sure why. With a new fuse, everything seemed to work correctly. We replaced the dome light incandescent bulb with an LED bulb. MUCH better. It's a lot brighter and a lot cooler. We've ordered LED replacement bulbs for the other interior lights. It's amazing how something small like this can modernize a 40 year old interior.
- Replaced heater vacuum accumulator. We cracked the old one during the LS install.
- Sorted and connected heater fan wiring and tested heater controls. Not sure why it was all disconnected. Once I sorted the wires, everything seems to work just fine.
- New wiper blades. You can't imagine how dry rotted the old blades were. I would guess that my father hadn't changed them in at least five years before the car was parked.
- New brake pedal pad. The original was showing every bit of the 130K miles that are on the chassis.
- New rubber floor mats. My son bought these with an Oreilly's gift card he got for his birthday. The original floor mats were in decent condition, but they're nothing like the modern heavy duty liquid catching mats we use today. These should help preserve the factory carpeting for a few more decades.
- Installed a fuel evaporator purge solenoid delete plate. Since the LS emissions system stayed with the donor truck, the solenoid was just sitting there sticking up out of the top of the intake manifold anyway.
Then, we ran out of piddly things to fix. So, we declared Thursday night to be "hood night".
Hood Installation
The factory hood is in amazingly good condition. It's been "stored" on the car's roof for almost two years, since we pulled the factory diesel engine. And, I've been avoiding reinstalling it because I've been afraid that it wouldn't clear the top of the LS intake manifold and front accessories. We bolted the hood back on the hinges, stuck a ball of modeling clay to the top of the highest point (the alternator), held our breath and carefully lowered the hood. As I feared, the ball of clay was smashed flat as the alternator made contact with one of the inner hood braces. But, it wasn't nearly as bad I thought it would be. The hood actually closed, but the alternator was pushing up slightly against that brace. So, out came the cutting wheel. I cut a 3" x 3" section out of the bottom surface of the brace. I left as much of the brace intact as possible. The alternator now has about an inch of headroom. As long as my son doesn't do any hood surfing (and he better not anyway!), it should be fine. This felt like a major milestone because the El Camino is beginning to look like a car (er truck?) again instead of a pile of neat looking parts. I had pretty much resigned myself that we would have to order a cowl induction hood for extra clearance. As cool as those hoods look, they're not cheap. We'll use that money for the new exhaust system. Win!
On Friday, we got back to the mechanical work. I picked up the newly shortened and rebalanced drive shaft from the machine shop and the big brown truck delivered the CPP column shifter linkage kit.
Transmission Shifter Linkage
We spent most of Friday evening fitting the shifter linkage. The CPP kit is almost identical to the Lokar kit, but much less expensive. It's a little bit like an Erector Set (if you're old enough to remember those). It comes with all of the bits you need to connect the factory column shifter to a modern 4L60E transmission, but it takes some bending, cutting, and imagination to make it all work correctly. By the end of the night, we had it all connected and dry fitted. On Saturday morning, I fine tuned the linkage and tightened everything up. The factory column gear indicator is accurate in Park, Reverse, Neutral, and Drive (now Overdrive). Below that, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st are inaccurate, but they are all selectable by feel.
Pinion Seal & Driveshaft
Now that we have control over what gear the transmission is in, it was time to connect it to the rear end. But, if you've been following along from the beginning of the build, you'll recall that I replaced the rear pinion seal early on to address a leak. The leak persisted. Stupid leak. So, I gave it another try. This time, I ran a bead of high-temp RTV around the outside of the seal in hopes that will keep it from seeping gear oil. Time will tell... With the new seal installed, the driveshaft went in. This was a another milestone. With the entire drivetrain connected, the car could theoretically be driven. Almost...
Brakes
For those of you who have been with us from the beginning, you'll remember that my father parked the El Camino 20 years ago because the brakes went out and he was tired of messing around with it. Early on in the build, we replaced the front brake calipers and the rear brake wheel cylinders. The rears were an absolute wreck. I can see why Dad gave up on them. With those parts replaced, the brakes were fresh, but we never bothered to bleed the air out of the lines, since we couldn't test the brakes anyway. So, I taught my son to bleed brakes. Bleeding brakes is a garage right of passage. I remember the day my father asked me to help him bleed brakes. I was probably 14ish years old. I was so proud that I was allowed to sit in the driver's seat and pump the brake pedal over, and over, and over, and over. Ah the memories... Anyway, after sitting for so long since we replaced the brakes, most of the air had worked it's way up to the master cylinder. Let's hear it for hydrodynamics! A couple of good burps at all four corners and the brakes were ready to go. It seemed somewhat poetic that the item that caused Dad to park the car all those years ago was the last item to check off the list before it could be driven again. The vehicular circle of life.
Actual Movement?
After sitting dormant for 20 years, it was finally time. There is, of course, a ton of work left to do on the car, but it was finally time to see if it could/would move under it's own power. Since it's his first car, I let my son do the honors. He started the engine with a mighty roar (no exhaust system yet), shifted the car into reverse, and nothing. Crap! I forgot to add transmission fluid after installing the drive shaft. Before the drive shaft, I added just enough fluid to make it dribble out of the tail housing. After adding three more quarts of ATF, we tried again. My son started the engine with another mighty roar (still no exhaust system), shifted the car into reverse, and I'll be darned if it didn't start backing out of the garage. It was clearly still low on ATF, but it was moving. After backing up about four feet, I asked my son to stop and pull it forward to verify that it the transmission worked both directions. It was at that point that the El Camino reminded us just how long it had been sitting. As he pulled the car back into its spot in the garage, a large puddle of brake fluid appeared on the concrete. The hard line from the portioning valve to the rear end burst and was spewing fluid all over the floor. Hydrodynamics revenge!
Brake lines
The hard line was no surprise. This original steel line ran right down the driver side frame rail, just below the largest rust hole in the floor pan. It's no wonder the line was rusted paper thin and burst. On the bright side, now we know that the hydroboost system and the master cylinder are in working order. On the downside, I was reminded how much I hate working on brake lines and double flare fittings. After a run to the auto parts store, I cobbled together a new hard line out of nickle copper line. That stuff is SO much better to work with than steel line. But, I still hate my crappy old cheap double flairing tool. I'm not 100% sure that the new flares will hold pressure. We'll find out when we go to rebleed the brakes later this week. If the new line doesn't hold, I'm going to order a new (and much better) double flairing tool and give it another try.
So, that's where we sit. The car moves, but it's resisting. 20 years of inactivity will do that. While I was under the car cussing at the brake line, I also discovered that one of the AN fittings on the fuel filter/regulator is weeping gas. Again, this really isn't a surprise. Those were some of the very first PTFE hose ends I ever assembled. Once I figure out which fitting is leaking, we'll give it another try. All in all, we're in a good place. A few more productive days in the garage and we'll be ready to make an appointment at the exhaust and alignment shops. Stay tuned...
