Oh yeah, I poured my frame rails full of molten copper. I hooked the negative on the battery to the frame core with 2x4 copper buss bar and then mounted the engine with a solid copper motor plate. The body mounting fasteners and bushings are solid copper as well. Not only do I have a better ground bus than both of you , I lowered my center of gravity as well. :clap: :fluffy: :dance: The scrap value on this thing is huge! Who needs insurance! :woot: :faint:

69,

Sorry for the screwing around. I must have missed it, who did you get the new shaft from? I have talked to Inland Empire and Strange. Don't need it yet, but finding a good place to deal with is important. I have to say I liked talking to both Inland and Strange.

Thanks,

A common practice in Pennsylvania...

In Las Vegas that tends to heat crack...

In Seattle it turns a nasty greenish... and grows fuzz.

Got it from Mark at http://www.pstds.com/

I worked with him once in the past on a 1,000 hp car that I knew needed some extra shaft...all the while neglecting mine. Doh!

By the way...on the battery cables.

I have the battery mounted in the trunk in the center right behind the back seat. The negative terminal terminates on a lug in the trunk. The positive goes to the front. It looks like 2 cables running down mytunnel, but the second is a vapor hose for the tank purge. It also has the tank purge solenoid wires that also got whacked running with it.

I have 2 ground straps from my body to the transmission. I also strapped from the transmission to the subframe...and from the subframe to the core support (for headlight and horn ground).

I am a huge believer in quality grounds.

THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' 'BOUT RIGHT THERE! :bow: :bow: :rofl:

Way to go!


Hope your new driveline works out for you!

Progress is what progress does.

Just back from the exhaust shop.

Been busting hump to get it all together - I also ordered a new trans mount today that will be here Friday to help reduce any chance of the trans wiggling around.

Terrible cell phone pic, but here is the 3.5 PST shaft installed and the loop.

Also, we ditched the old center exhaust. We had a homemade X pipe on it and went with a flowmaster 2.5" custom X center section. It might flow a little better.

Went around the corn fields a few times with a heavy right foot in 3rd gear - all seems normal, so I don't think we dinked the trans.

Headed to the dyno now on the 14th to try this again - then see you all at the challenge the end of the month.

:thmbsdwn:

Just loaded the family for a ride up town to a cruise-in....and, there is no lock up in the trans - it also is trying to get in and out of 3 - 4 at unusual times.

So, trans may have to come out. This means I'm out of the Muscle car challenge. There is no time or resources to deal with this between now and then.

Don't think the wife would appreciate me yanking the trans on mother's day after planning a day with the family.

We'll be back next time to try this again.

quick update - been talking it over - and am going to head out there now and yank it. We'll see if I can get things moving next week. I really have to have it ready by Friday for the completion of the dyno work before it goes any further.

stay tuned.

wife helped me yank it out last night. Nothing obvious wrong. I'll get the unit to the local guy Monday and send the converter off to TCI for a full review.

I have an over ride lock up switch in the car to command it on at will. Even activating the switch didn't work. The solenoid appears to be fine. I'll also test that to make sure it just didn't die.

I suspect since the car was in forced lock up by the dyno operator at the time, that when it suddenly broke free like that it might have sheered or snapped something in that portion of it - or third in general. The sticking in gear that it is doing too is odd.

first of all :lol: . second, that sucks about the trans. atleast you had a heads up that you could have had a problem and it wasn't a surprise.:(

Trans is at the shop and TC is in transit to TCI right now.

Shop is seriously backed up and hopes to crack it open next week.

He said it is common to bend the output shaft. The trans also won't up-shift now under WOT - so it isn't clear what went wrong there. If you back off the throttle it will shift.

Status....

Drum roll please..........

All the parts have shown up and or been delivered as promised on time! Now...it is up to me to get them in. :D

The torque converter came on Tuesday. The guys at TCI did an amazing job tearing it down...and getting it back in record time. The TCI street fighter 10" unit is good to go with a clean bill of health. He said the lock up clutch was burned.

On the trans...and $1,100 later, the local shop replaced the output shaft and went through the whole thing. It had sucked one of the check balls through the plate in the valve body. They perform their own tricks of the trade to get the most out of them. He upgraded many of the parts and feels confident it will perform to expectations.

My wife will bring it home tonight (she is driving the truck today).

We rescheduled the dyno for 5/27 as it was pushing too close to try it this Friday. Then...we are off to the mid west challenge.

I'm glad to see you getting your car back together and good luck at Mid West Challenge. :thumbsup:

Man I wish I could make this event! it looks to be a fun time. :D

BAd news.

Got the trans in and went about 5 miles - pure perfection.

Rolled back to check and top off the fluid. Went back out - and I lost 4,3,2. It has 1st and reverse just fine. In 4th if you accelerate on it it will try to catch and move the car.

So...trans shop is closed today, but I figure it comes back out.

took it to the trans shop.

He pulled it down and said he can't find anything wrong with it.

I may be crazy...but I know it wasn't working.

He suggested a converter failure. I just had TCI rebuild it and gave it a clean bill of health. I called them and they said since the car does have manual 1st and reverse that there is no converter failure.

ugh.....

:(

1st and reverse use the same clutch pack. does it not shift or does it go to netural?

it could be something simple like a stuck shift valve in the valve body or something deeper like a 2-4 servo or 2-4 band assembly.

If you put it in D or 3 or 2 it slips and if you rev it fairly hard it acts like it will try to catch...then slip again. If you put it in manual 1 it is strong as an ox and totally normal feeling. It won't select 1st when you put it in D. Reverse is solid.

I was curious if I had mis adjusted my shifter, so I grabbed the lever and moved it through easy several times from D to 1. It won't catch at all until it hits 1.

Is your TV cable adjusted properly? I didn't go back to discover what trans you have but ASSume with the mention of 4th gear that it is a OD trans and possibly a 700r4... and if so - a loose/mal adjusted TV cable would certainly cause bad or no shifts.

4L60E with no TV. All electronics were in proper working order prior to the drive shaft failure. No changes have been made to the PCM and this new problem is nothing like the one that I took it to the trans shop to handle.

its hosed. they need to do a full tear down and recheck everything. sounds like the clutch gap is out of spec. might have a cut seal. there is deffently a problem somewhere internal to the trans.

:lol: That's all I can do now is laugh! He said he tore it down this morning and applied the air pressure test twice and found no fault.

I have rebuilt two of these fluid breathing monsters in my time. Got lucky on both of them the first time. I figured I wouldn't chance this one since I have a looming deadline and wanted it right. Oh well! LOL

You know, it did work like a champ for about 5-7 miles or so. I had a big fat happy smile on my face.

Trans is ready.

He couldn't find anything that made him feel like it would cause this so...

He swapped the entire case, pump...and pretty much everything else out so it would elminate many possible things.

I'll slam it in tonight. Taking Friday off work to get it wrapped up. Going to run some miles to make sure we are good - then head over to Inidana for the challenge.

well??? r we back on the road?

Yes...thanks for asking. Turned out the problem all along was a bad speedo unit. It is a autometer gauge. The gauge appeared to be working fine. However, when you watched the scanner the speed over about 40 mph was all scrambled. So, the trans didn't know how to shift and that explains why it tried to shift down for no reason at 70 or 80 and would not go to lock up.

Anyway, unplugged the speedo and all is well. I called Autometer and they said it is a known problem. The gauge more or less sucks all the signal and starves the PCM.

I'm going to ship it back to them.

In the end, I didn't need a rebuild anyway...AND the first rebuild was defective when it lost all but manual low and reverse. The shop made good on that.

thats awesome! Glad to hear it. I had a very similar issue with a 98 camaro i had, at WOT the car would not 2-3 shift. ended up being a bad VSS also