78 cutlass W-31 build

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I think that is a Series 3 carrier from the pics, but it's hard to be sure without a measurement. The 4.11 appear thicker to me than 3.42's or 3.73's.

Moot now though if you have the spacer in hand.

Yeah I'll ether use it or have it and not need it. But only a few dollars spent and I know whatever I have will work now

 

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I don't think there's going to be an update this weekend. The parts for the daily finally showed up and Sunday is my anniversary so only one is getting fixed. My spacer ring showed up though so here's a picture

Sorry about buddy he always wants to be a part of what anyone is doing. He's a good boy. The little bag is a heater hose block off I ordered some time ago. The radiator has a port for a heater hose that my car doesn't use and I noticed it was leaking so I bought a better one.

 

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More progress today gotta love that!
Went to my local automotive chains store this morning and picked up the cheapest reman alternator they had to offer. Brought it to the shop and put it on now I not only have one that puts out 14.5V it also has the correct pulley and I was able to put the belts back on correctly the old one had a double groove pulley that was slightly offset so I had to run the power steering belt on the back grooves where the alternator belt should have been. All fixed up now.

Shiny like a new penny lol . I also installed the plastic air intake pice on the air cleaner off the one from the 260

I'd really like to find a new hose for it to the rad support I'm still trying to stay with a stock-ish look the original one is done!

I fixed that coolant leak on the rad too by installing the new block off cap. Then I put a timing light on it and fired it up. WOW! What a difference an alternator putting out 14.5V makes. I'm guessing low voltage was part of my problem all along.with that I got the timing in the ball park and called it good enough for now. When Eric plays with the carb settings he will play with timing and get it right. But I'm happy with my results.
I shot a video but once again I don't know how to upload it. The car sounds pretty good now. I'm going to take a little time to go through the parts a friend of mine just gave me this afternoon. See what I can use and on what car. Tomorrow I'll get into something else on this car

 

[olds307 and 403]

Great to see. How many amp is that alternator? It looks like a 10SI basic replacement, which is fine, if under 80 amps, like stock. The 100+ amp replacements don't last, due to less cooling than the 12SI that replaced them. Progress is always good.

 

[Clutch]

Great to see. How many amp is that alternator? It looks like a 10SI basic replacement, which is fine, if under 80 amps, like stock. The 100+ amp replacements don't last, due to less cooling than the 12SI that replaced them. Progress is always good.

Stock reman 63A

 

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Back at it today just slowly plugging away at it. I went through the Guage cluster and I think I got it all working. I used parts from another one I received in a box of parts from a friend. Had to change a few fuses and put it back together with some nicer dash bezels.

I'm still not sure if the gas gauge is working or the clock but I'm sure I will know in time. I also replaced the wiper switch hoping it would get the wipers working. It was wishful thinking but it's got a nice clean switch now.the heater controls always seemed loose in the car so I decided to investigate that only to open up a can of worms.

The fiberglass backing of the dash pad was busted around the cigarette lighter. So I did a little body shop hackery with some panel bond a paint stick and some vicegrips

I had to use 30 minute so I just left it like that I'll put it back together another day.
Of course my brother had to start texting me telling me how great his latest purchase is so here's those pictures

I was more interested in picking threw all my good used stuff than talking to him Plus my picking was getting out of control.

Yes I cannibalized another tack delete rally dash to fix mine but parts is parts and I have a few more. Driving it out today it still has a slight miss but today was all about the dashboard I'm going to try my hand at a radio rebuild some time this week because tunes would be nice. Until then it's back outside and I'm done till next time

 

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So today is supposed to be the day I go revisit the steering column. When I put the column together I wasn't sure if I was actually fixing the car and I didn't install a few of the parts so I was planning on going to the shed and finding parts for it but I don't have any ambition to go out in the rain and get wet. However I probably will anyway because I have to go to the shop and let one of my guys in that was out all week with his wife in the hospital. So right or wrong I'm going to get something done today.

 

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Seams my post didn't go up this morning when I typed it oh well.
Ben at the shop most of the day taking out one problem at a time.
Filled the power steering pump first so that annoying noise is gone. Then I spent way to much time trying to clean up the batwing wheel.

It was from an 81 t-top car that was at my uncle's yard the car was a late model wreck from copart when it went there with low miles unfortunately it sat 20 or 30+ years up there with no tops and the mold stained it pretty badly. You can see from the back it's supposed to be the correct color blue.

First I took it to the detail bae and hit it with purple cleaner and a scrub brush before power washing it. Not much result so I tried wheel acid. Still no luck. Back to my bae lacquer thinner and a paint gun cleaning brush a little more results. Then I lightly went at it with lacquer thinner and a wire brush. Better but not good.

So I moved on. I brought what was left of a theft recovery 84 Monte Carlo SS column and and what I had of an 83 Camaro column with me. It's really just a bucket of parts now.

I wet on to removing the old wheel that's falling apart. In the beginning of this build many years ago I redid this wheel filling the cracks with panel bond. If anyone is wondering the panel bond held up but the wheel was just to far gone and continuing to crack.

Then I dug into the column itself

and came to find I never installed the blinker contact pice that locks in under the lock cylinder or the spring or the lock cylinder bolt

obviously I needed parts and the Camaro pretty much already gave up the coast so I went into the theft recovery Monte column and there they were

some careful dissecting and I had my missing parts I used to do these columns all the time years ago buying a theft recovery g body was a good source of income if you could change locks and the top of the steering column you had a good car to sell. That's what my last Monte Carlo SS was but I changed the hole column in that one that's where these parts came from and there's not many changes in the Saginaw design car to car or even different car companies take Jeep for example same shot! I got you a picture of the parts out too

I then very carefully put it back together. I was missing the horn contact pin for the batwing so I 🤔 umm..... Borrowed! The one from my bosses 77 holiday 88.. I'll order him one no harm no foul. Maybe 🤔. All back together I did some testing

even dirty it looks mucho better imo and not only does it have blinkers now the cornering lights work!

and it has an annoying chime to let you know you left your lights on and a warning light on the dashboard that works

I wanted to revisit radio but I was hungry so I just took off last weekends vicegrips and reinstalled it with the nicer bezel and knobs I picked out last week.

i tried it but no tunes. It's broke. While I had it out I took some pictures of it to try and get parts for it online. I don't know how I'll make out with that but it's worth a shot because it doesn't work now and I want to stay with a stock look

Tomorrow is another day I've got to go back because I left the car inside and it can't be there Monday morning. I'll probably do something while I'm there tomorrow I just don't know what maybe I'll shoot to my brother's house in the morning he's got a new used set of kyb shocks off one of his cars I'm going to put on here he likes cars to have the original air in the tires and I want this one to drive nice. Maybe he want the shot original ones that are still on this car lol

 

[Rktpwrd]

Seams my post didn't go up this morning when I typed it oh well.
Ben at the shop most of the day taking out one problem at a time.
Filled the power steering pump first so that annoying noise is gone. Then I spent way to much time trying to clean up the batwing wheel. View attachment 194185It was from an 81 t-top car that was at my uncle's yard the car was a late model wreck from copart when it went there with low miles unfortunately it sat 20 or 30+ years up there with no tops and the mold stained it pretty badly. You can see from the back it's supposed to be the correct color blue.View attachment 194186 First I took it to the detail bae and hit it with purple cleaner and a scrub brush before power washing it. Not much result so I tried wheel acid. Still no luck. Back to my bae lacquer thinner and a paint gun cleaning brush a little more results. Then I lightly went at it with lacquer thinner and a wire brush. Better but not good.View attachment 194187So I moved on. I brought what was left of a theft recovery 84 Monte Carlo SS column and and what I had of an 83 Camaro column with me. It's really just a bucket of parts now.View attachment 194189 I wet on to removing the old wheel that's falling apart. In the beginning of this build many years ago I redid this wheel filling the cracks with panel bond. If anyone is wondering the panel bond held up but the wheel was just to far gone and continuing to crack.View attachment 194188
Then I dug into the column itself View attachment 194190View attachment 194191and came to find I never installed the blinker contact pice that locks in under the lock cylinder or the spring or the lock cylinder bolt



View attachment 194192View attachment 194193obviously I needed parts and the Camaro pretty much already gave up the coast so I went into the theft recovery Monte column and there they were View attachment 194194some careful dissecting and I had my missing parts I used to do these columns all the time years ago buying a theft recovery g body was a good source of income if you could change locks and the top of the steering column you had a good car to sell. That's what my last Monte Carlo SS was but I changed the hole column in that one that's where these parts came from and there's not many changes in the Saginaw design car to car or even different car companies take Jeep for example same shot! I got you a picture of the parts out tooView attachment 194195 I then very carefully put it back together. I was missing the horn contact pin for the batwing so I 🤔 umm..... Borrowed! The one from my bosses 77 holiday 88.. I'll order him one no harm no foul. Maybe 🤔. All back together I did some testingView attachment 194197even dirty it looks mucho better imo and not only does it have blinkers now the cornering lights work!View attachment 194196and it has an annoying chime to let you know you left your lights on and a warning light on the dashboard that worksView attachment 194198I wanted to revisit radio but I was hungry so I just took off last weekends vicegrips and reinstalled it with the nicer bezel and knobs I picked out last week.View attachment 194184i tried it but no tunes. It's broke. While I had it out I took some pictures of it to try and get parts for it online. I don't know how I'll make out with that but it's worth a shot because it doesn't work now and I want to stay with a stock lookView attachment 194181View attachment 194182View attachment 194183
Tomorrow is another day I've got to go back because I left the car inside and it can't be there Monday morning. I'll probably do something while I'm there tomorrow I just don't know what maybe I'll shoot to my brother's house in the morning he's got a new used set of kyb shocks off one of his cars I'm going to put on here he likes cars to have the original air in the tires and I want this one to drive nice. Maybe he want the shot original ones that are still on this car lolView attachment 194199

Nice work Eric.
I’ve got 2 factory 1980 Cutlass radios that still work if’n you’re interested. I’m never going to do anything with them, so they might as well go to someone that can use them.
They’re yours for the price of shipping, but they’re fairly heavy so up to you…

 

[Clutch]

Nice work Eric.
I’ve got 2 factory 1980 Cutlass radios that still work if’n you’re interested. I’m never going to do anything with them, so they might as well go to someone that can use them.
They’re yours for the price of shipping, but they’re fairly heavy so up to you…

Pm sent