So.....I think one of the mysteries of the world was solved today.......Remember.....this is a just restored car when I bought it.....and......when I got it home I wanted to drive the car as it was for a while before taking it apart.......But...I found out the tail light circuit had some issues and would pop a fuse every time.......(no tail lights or Brake lights).......I unplugged everything to the back of the car and the fuse still popped........Hummm!!!.......I removed the fuse panel as it seemed that was all that was left......I found some issues on the back of the panel and straightened them out and thought I had everything fixed.....Put it back together and popped another fuse........That's when I decided to take the car apart and rewire the entire car.........
So....After getting the console wiring completed today I decided to re-install the console and check everything out.....while doing that I decided to just add power to the repro console clock just to make sure it worked..........I have a little dry cell 12v battery and added a couple of jumper wires for power........hit the terminals and "Zap!!!"...........checked it out again and "Zap!!!" again...........Hummmm!!!!.......Dead Short!!!........looked closer at the terminals and noticed that the Insulator washer was on top of the screwed down terminal rather than between the terminal and the case creating a dead short........Humm!!!.......Somebody in China wasn't told how to assemble the unit correctly........swapped the parts around and everything works correctly.........so ....the power feed for the console must be wired into the tail light circuit and now it seems the Clock was the problem all along..........Long winded story but maybe it will help somebody else with a similar issue downstream..........Heres a picture of the terminal after correction......still kinda hard to see and a Mickey Mouse way of getting the power thru the case....
Since I changed the shift cable assy on the trans.......I didn't like the way the mounting bracket presented the cable to the trans shift arm........so....I made a new bracket today and installed it when I got home.......Everything is now more in line and it shifts perfectly......I also got my kick panel speakers in from Custom Autosound......got them painted and noticed that the Parking Brake pedal nad the Speaker were fighting for the same space.......so......cut and rewelded the pedal over 1 1/4" and solved that issue.......another couple things crossed off the list.......
Got a couple of issues ironed out today......#1 was getting the oil pan/steering clearance issue resolved.......Now.....almost everyone with a Chevelle / A body LS swap has steering rod end/ oil pan clearance issues where some notching of the pan is required.........After getting the weight of the car on the front control arms today........I then started measuring everything with a load on the suspension.........what I had was a clearance issue turning to the left.....but turning to the right I had plenty of room between the rod end and the oil pan after hitting the steering stops.......so .....after checking every thing out I noticed that the center drag link was not centered to the engine.......after measuring everything six times......I went ahead and centered the drag link , then adjusted the steering rod ends to get everything balanced back out.....I now had clearance in both directions between the rod ends and the oil pan when at the travel limit in both directions..........Got Lucky......the engine must sit just high enough for things to work........
The next problem that needed to be resolved required the engine to be removed for the fix...... when I removed the original Camaro oil pan that had the factory engine coolant heat exchanger for cooling the engine oil........there was a fitting that fed the coolant out of the block to the cooler........when I removed that fitting , the sealant that the factory used ended up galling the thread while unscrewing the aluminum fitting........so ......the threads were screwed up in the block and needed to be repaired so I could screw in and seal the opening with a new fitting that I will make at the shop..........So......In checking the threads it ended up that GM uses a non standard thread.........M28x1.25 pitch...........you can get a 1.0 or a 1.5 mm pitch but not a 1.25.........so.....I had no choice other than to have a tap made by a specialty Tap manufacturer..........Now....Because the threads were galled in the block and didn't want to take a chance of the tap going in on a angle and making things worse.....I made a sleeve that was a slip fit for the tap so I could hold the sleeve on the sealing face of the hole ......this allowed me to keep the tap square ...............Held it in place and started tapping and I got Lucky as it picked up the existing threads and cleaned them out perfectly.......Cool.......I'll make a new fitting tomorrow and get the engine in for the last time ( I hope)........
Got the engine put back in today hopefully for the last time.........had to go and get a new yoke for the driveshaft......measured everything and having the driveshaft made........Everything else bolted up beautifully
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
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