Todd's 1972

Rocker, it may be a good idea to check with your local machine or tranny shop. They may know of other reason for your cracking flexplates. As wallaby stated it could be something simple that is the cause of all your troubles. I hope I didn't get you too worried but it could be something to be aware of. Good luck. Kmelton I am slowly putting the bottom rocker trim back on but I am lacking in the free time lately. Hopefully over the winter.

I had a friend with a 77 Chev pick up that had the same troubles. He finally found out what caused the flex plates to crack 150 miles in the middle of no where. It left him standed on the highway with a broken crankshaft it broke just before the rear main bearing. It ended up being a bent crank that was the cause of all his troubles. Mind you this may be worse case senario for your troubles. One thing to be aware of is if your motor has a vibration that you can't seem to pinpoint or get rid of a bent crank could be the cause.

With the 4L60 and 700 R4 the torque converter has what they call a lock up stage that drops the engine RPM when you reach a crusin speed. I can't remember how many RPMs it drops possibly 400-600 RPM which helps with fuel economy. The lock up solenoid (TCC Solenoid I think)in the transmission requires 12 V DC to activate it and if it is not wired in you loose the lock up option and the tranny ends up having hard up and down shift patterns. (Not good and you will likely cook the converter/tranny) The reason it is wired through the brake switch is when you are cruisin along the high way and you hit the brakes it cuts the 12 V to the solenoid to raise the RPM's back up and/or to provide a smooth down shift. Some people use a hard wired switch instead of the brake switch. Once you reach highway speed they flip the switch and supply 12 V to the solenoid. The the lock up engages and drops the RPM. However, when you slow down or drive in the city you have to manually turn the switch off so the tranny doesn't try and go into lockup. A bit of a pain in the @ss so that is why I opted for the brake switch. Hope that helps. Other may have a better description.

Grease, a pix would be great if you have the time. I am running a column shifter on the car. The cross shaft that you are talking about is it the shaft from the tranny linkage to the knuckel on the inside of the frame? Or is it the shaft on the end of your column? I assume you are talking about the linkage from the tranny just to be sure we are on the same page. Would you know what years of vehicles that came with the 2 11/16th linkage arm? Ex. 90ish Caprices, 3rd gen Montes and Regals or late 80's pickups? I may try and lengthen my arm like you suggested with a homemade adapter. I like to thank you for your help. Dave the tranny I put in is out of a 91 Chev P/U. It is a 4L60 and I had to modify the tranny mount. I cut the old mount off and lowered it by about 2-3 inches with a piece of C channel. I also had to shorten the drive shaft a couple of inches. I have yet to drive the car so hopefully it will shift nice. I wired up the lock up converter to the brake pedal circuit and the tranny shop modified the tranny so it only has 4th gear lock up. Otherwise, it would lock up in every gear. I will keep you posted.

Hello, I swapped in a 4L60 tranny into the Carlo and I am having difficulty adjusting the original shifter linkage so that I can use all four forward gears. I am finding there is not enough ajustment available when using the original shifter rods and linkage. I was thinking I should extend the arm length 1-2 inches to allow for more movement. Has anyone encounter this situation and if so did you swap in a different rod and linkage assembly or did you modify the original parts. Any help would be appreciated

Hi Aaron, maybe next year I will have to head out to the show. I spent the same weekend at the Old Time Drag's in Ashcroft and it was a good turn out. There was even a 70 Monte running in the in the pack for the street class. I was hoping to talk to him to see if he had left overs from cutting the weight. Lots of nice metal thanks for the photos. Todd

Hey Aaron, well you set foot in there at least once that I know of. Maybe next year it will be all back together in one piece and you can rubber neck it for me. I am still hoping to get down your way soon. Hopefully, during the Langley show. ------------------ Todd Tweed Kamloops, B.C., Canada ttweed@sprint.ca

Hi Aaron, the dumb dumb seal works the best, it is similar to plumbers putty. Lordco sells it in boxes - I believe it is made by Proform . They are round strips about 1 foot long and about the thickness of a pencil. Each strip fits directly in the groove of the heater core cover and once you tighten the cover on it forms to the shape of the firewall. ------------------ Todd Tweed Kamloops, B.C., Canada ttweed@sprint.ca

The door handle is bolted in place with two 3/8th or 7/16th bolts. You will never get it off unless you have access to the inner door assy. As for the lock it has a horse shoe type clip which holds it in place. Again without access to the inside of the door it is pretty tough. You may be able to knock out the key assembly but you may damage the door. It sound like the arm from the key assembly has fallin off. You somehow have to get ahold of the little arm and pull it to release the lock on the door latch. The lock mech is on the back of the door assembly where the door latches to the door post.

If you can access a slim jim from a tow company you may get lucky hooking the lock mechanism inside one of the doors. Or try using a coat hanger and attempting to hook onto the inside door release. You may end up chewing up the weather striping around the door window assembly which is not cheap to replace. Good luck. Someone else may have a better idea. ------------------ Todd Tweed Kamloops, B.C., Canada ttweed@sprint.ca

Has anyone installed a 700R4 into there Monte? If so, did you have to modify your transmission crossover at all? I have installed the 700R4 with a 350 Cu.in motor and I have about 2/16th of an inch clearance between the floor and the drive shaft yolk and about the same for the governor cap. Has anyone modified the tranny mount support on the cross over before? I was thinking I should cut it off and weld it about an inch lower for more clearance between the floor and the tranny. Any thoughts would be appreciated. ------------------ Todd Tweed Kamloops, B.C., Canada ttweed@sprint.ca

I just finshed repairing the bottom window corners on mine. I went to a fabricating shop and had them cut me a piece of sheet metal 18 gauge in a 2 inch (approx) wide strip and bend it in half at 90 degrees. I cut one bottom corner out with a die grinder carefully. I then took the new metal and made several V cuts approximately 1/2 inch apart on the bottom side, so you can bend it and form it to the original shape. I then made sure the chrome would fit and began to slowly tack in the new piece with my mig continually checking the fit with the chrome trim. Once it was right I welded up each V groove on the bottom window frame with the mig and the upper lip (edge)on the deck lid. I had to do a little cleanup to make the corner edge nice and sharp once I welded it up. A little filler and it came out really nice. You can buy the small pins to hold the chrome clips on from OPG or any rod shop. It did take a little time but it was alot cheaper then having a bodyshop do it. I would recommend the new deck lid for yours it would save alot of troubles. ------------------ Todd Tweed Kamloops, B.C., Canada ttweed@sprint.ca

I recently striped a 1971 Cutlass Supreme for the power window assembly. I compared it to the Monte's hardware and it looks identical. I also spoke with GM and they said that all the A body cars in the early 70 vintage should swap right in. Chevelles, Cutlass Supremes. Hope it helps, you may run by one of these on your voyage. ------------------ Todd Tweed Kamloops, B.C., Canada ttweed@sprint.ca