Well, today did not turn out exactly as planned. We were thwarted by 0.1", literally...
It all started well enough. Eric and I installed the transmission which went smoothly. As these things tend to do, it all took a bit longer than I expected, but we were trying to be thorough and keep everything clean like it originally was. After the transmission was in, we stuck the driveshaft and reassembled the exhaust.
Next up was dropping the car to the ground and finishing up the plumbing which remained. PS hoses, radiator hose, PCV hose. Then pour in some fluids and look for leaks. So far, so good.
Finally, time to reconnect the battery. I do so, get in and flip the switch, and voila! Fuel pressure... I needed to confirm the program in the Holley HP, which we did, then reconnected the O2 sensor. Sensor readings looked ok, gauges were ok, and it was time to see if she would fire.
So I pushed in the clutch, turned the switch, and the engine started to spin. I let off the switch pretty quickly, and I had a strange kick back through the clutch pedal. Hmm, never had that happen before. I was about to hit it again, but Eric talked me into checking to make sure all was ok. I'm glad we did...
I'm using the hydraulics from my original American Powertrain kit, which consists of the Hydramax slave cylinder. The bearing moves forward and back on a shaft, and it's kept in the correct position by a ~2" long stud. It needed to be about 0.1" shorter.
When I measured for the throwout bearing clearance with the new LT1 clutch, I was in the right clearance range of 0.100" - 0.200". But it seems that there is a ring on the outside of the fingers that is further away from the flywheel than just the pressure plate fingers. The stud on the clutch slave was at the same height as the throwout bearing face, but 2" from the input shaft centerline. Long story short, the ring on the clutch caught the stud and snapped it...
After some cursing and moments of despair, Eric and I hopped on the computer and started searching for solutions. A local Chevy dealer had an F-Body slave in stock, but we needed a way to connect up my hydraulic lines. Eric knew the parts we needed, but at 4:00 on a Friday, how am I going to get them? Turns out a call to Speedway and a $65 Saturday Delivery shipping charge later, and I'll have the fittings tomorrow morning. So we have the pieces on the way to rectify this.
After getting past that panic, we started looking closer at the broken stud. Eric determined it was just a piece of mild steel that we could probably remove and replace. He was able to extract the snapped off piece, and we decided that we could use a bolt to replace it. So I picked up a 4" long Grade 8 5/16" bolt which we then cut to the correct (shorter!) length to give us 1/4" of clearance while still providing plenty of clearance to the clutch ring.
We put it back together and measured everything twice to be sure we will have the correct clearance. We then decided to call it a night. While we hated not to get her started today, we would hate it more if we rushed to put it back together and made a mistake. We'll start fresh tomorrow...
We did find one other problem. My new PS pump reservoir is cracked and leaking. I'm pretty pissed about this actually. I ordered a new pump from AGR to match my rack and pinion I purchased from them last year. It took a couple of weeks for them to build it and send it. The thing looks like it was all beat up. I should have complained, but I've been dealing with other things of higher priority. Sure enough, the damned thing leaks. Thankfully we still have my other pump on-hand, so we are going to swap the reservoir from it to this pump to take care of it tomorrow. That means draining the fluid and making another mess though (I'm a little tired of smelly fluids!).
So... Hopefully tomorrow we'll have better luck and get everything fired up. Onward and upward!
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
and 
Linear Mode
