Have not been in the shop for a few days, the rear end is still mummified and I likely will not unwrap it until this weekend. Locally, to borrow a famous expression first offered by Robin Williams, "It's Hot, Damn Hot." Between the actual air temp and the humidity, by 4 pm it is in high 80's to low 90's. At that we are lucky due to being next door neighbours with the Lake.
So I thought I would shoot some pictures of a couple of items that I dreamed up and machined out of bits and pieces. The one on the left is fresh off the lathe; did it last night as a brief act of defiance against total fatigue and mental fog out, then crashed out for something over 9 hours before having to deal with the alarm. (Don't worry, no harm came to the clock, it is kept will out of immediate access range to avoid just that possibility.)
The second one is a lot older and something I did back when I ran a Holley Cathderal Bowl 4-barrel on my Non G-Body G-Body aka my G-10 Van. When the original 2 barrel carb and matched manifold were promoted to the status of paperweights, what replaced them was an Edelbrock 2101 and the Holley. The stock linkages for the old carb would not reach the new one so I had to make extensions.
This is the extension that I made at the time for the throttle cable. Just a short piece of aluminum, probably cut from a larger piece of scrap, that I drilled and shaped to fill the bill. The square end is drilled and threaded for the 1/4 inch bolt you see in the closeup and that is how it is attached to the existing eye end on the throttle cable. The other end is a plain 1/4 inch drilling that accepts a short section of 1/4 all thread with nuts and flats to secure it to the carb throttle lever and mount the tab. A little locktite blue is about all the additional insurance that I used apart from the anti-vibration lock washer visible beneath the bolt. Both it and its partner that I made for the old TH350 worked quite well for several decades; even got me to Sturgis on more than one occasion but when I swapped the 350 for the 700R4 and changed out the cable mount along the way, both of them became surplus and were removed. I do need to find somewhere safe, like my downstairs carb parts kit box, to stash them for another day.
And this is what I came up with as a possible solution to another problem. As many of you may have noticed, several years back I elected to park that Cathedral Holley in favor of an aftermarket fuel injection set up. My choice of mfgr at the time was FI Tech and, despite much of the bad publicity they have had tossed at them, they were quite helpful when I had questions or concerns and did answer my e-mails. Okay, all that aside, the only persistent problem that I have had yet to solve has been tip in on initial acceleration. This is not a computer issue, this is purely mechanical and stems from there being Two (2) return springs on the throttle plate shaft. Yes, they can be removed but it is not a "curbside quicky" in terms of the work involved and it will be something to pursue once my van is off the road again.
While fumbling around with Google and getting nowhere fast, i did happen to come across another forum where this issue had been brought up and discussed. The suggested cure was to change the mechanical advantage by moving the pivot point on the accelerator lever farther out from the shaft.
The only hole that far out is about a 1/2 inch in diameter and Surprise!! there are kits that can be purchased to make use of that hole, mostly by bushing it down to a smaller size. Not going to mention the supplier or how the item itself was created but a quick peek at it put me into buy vs build mode. The prototype was aluminum with a steel sleeve pressed onto it and although it would have fit, the hole for the stud required that a thread sert be installed to get to the right size and the drilling was correct but the tapping did not run straight. Put that back in the jar.
For the second attempt, I used a length of brass round bar that I had been using as a drift punch and set it up in the lathe with a floating steady to support it due to overall length. After that it was, make a cut, measure, lather rinse repeat, until I got to what I wanted. Along the way I gun drilled the bar using a chuck and bit adapter mated to the tailstock and that gave me a straight opening for the tap to track. I ran the first few threads with a tap and the chuck and then, with enough initial thread cut that the tap would track true, the rest got cut by hand.
The stud is just a section of grade 8 1/4-28 NF thread rod, the thrust washer is a oldie-moldie plucked off the bench and treated to some machine file love. The nuts will be one normal fine thread, and one nylock, also fine thread. Like with the other adapter, locktite blue will get used on the threads where needed just as insurance.
Physically, the brass shouldered bushing is less than 1/4 inch thick. Unlike the hollies and their cousins, who have finger thicknesses of room between the throttle lever and the carb body, the FI TEch is much closer and what I have designed may still have to be shaved a thou or ten to be able to get it to slide in from behind.
If I think of it I may take a couple of before and after pics. Depends on how much my patience is tried during the install process.
Nick
