Bluemalibu

Murphy, you usually need to immobilize the drum behind the face, to be able to work the push-on needle off of the speedometer to swap them out. Just two screws on the face removes it. Be sure to re-use the rubber insulators on the two rear screws in the middle of the back of the speedo to limit needle vibration. A quick band-aid fix until you find a donor floor-shift speedo, is to reface your own with the heavy vinyl adhesive face, covering the shift indicator. It can be removed later with a hair dryer if necessary. http://www.whitegauges.net/products/1970%252d1972-Chevrolet-Chevelle-Malibu-White-Face-Gauges.html Doug

I finished installing new foam rubber in the passenger seat and built the new mounting brackets for it as well. I wanted to leave more room in the rear for possible passengers, as my driver's seat now leaves but an inch between the back of my seat and the rear seat when it's adjusted for my height. So, I've set it up so the two seats are perfectly aligned for show purposes, when I adjust the driver's to its full forward position, and the passenger's to its full rearward position. Doug

That's a great way to strike fear into the heart of a member! I'm burning the midnight oil, chipping away at this giant snowball to be able to make the meet... The engine has been reduced to just a half-empty short-block; the aftermarket A/C is 75% installed, the side glass is removed, and the interior is gutted. The posi carrier is disassembled and the brakes are in mid-transition to disc; the sheet-metal and bumper are off of the front end in anticipation of their replacements and the rear bumper is sitting in the box awaiting a second set of hands to help it get installed. I finished redesigning the 20" bucket brackets yesterday out of 1/4 x 2" stock and polyurethane bushings that tilt the seats back 3", move the seats 4" rearward, and raise the front of the seat 1". (I'm a pretty tall guy) using the existing mounting points: then I installed new foam padding in the driver's seat, finishing at 2:30 this morning. (Thank goodness Home Depot is just three blocks from my house! If I'm even able to push the car into the trailer to get her there, you'll see my tribute to the Depot... the poor car is closing in on having more parts on board from the hardware store than from GM!) Doug

As Tony, Sam and Dennis have said, you really should be OK... each car settles out a little differently, so it's really a try-it-to-see. My tires are exactly 1" taller than the ones that you are contemplating, so yours certainly aren't beyond reason.

" ...What about the speedo gear? " You can have the tail-shaft replaced with a manual drive design for about $600 or add the Cable-X drive motor for $350 to keep your mechanical speedometer... I just picked up an electronic speedo unit after the fact for $100 off of FleaBay and added the adhesive face to match my other gauges. It uses the output from the tranny to operate it. I envy your 3.31's. The '72 had a new 33 spline Eaton with 4.11's and Strange axles when I got it, so the tallest that I could retro-fit in was 3.73's. Thus the swap to the overdrive from the PG. Doug

Check the line pressure. It sounds like it may be high going into reverse. The TV cable adjustment and mounting geometry is critical on these trannys. You really have to put a pressure gauge on the 700r to ensure that you get the pressure correct. If it is off, you can toast that tranny within 1k miles.

Mike, I couldn't help but smile as I read your question about the 4L80E transplant, ...as I was prompted yesterday to suggest that you think about making the conversion, but I didn't want to feel guilty about making someone else's snowball start cascading out of control. I spent $1600 total, building up a stout trans and converting the '72 for it. And, being that I am guilty of always wanting to use the best, I went with the 4L80E, even though I had a new 700R4 and a 200-4R both built with billet internals, sitting on the shelf already. The most expensive piece was the stand-alone controller. There are over half a dozen different flavors available now for $600 each, new. I went with the USshift.com Quick 1, as it is a plug-and-play unit out of the box, and yet also allows you to easily program each shift point in each gear; program in the multiple gears and rpms that you want the lock-up to occur in; and program how hard each shift hits in each specific gear, depending on your throttle pressure as well. (You can have the best of both worlds at once, by instructing the shifts to be feather soft at light throttle, and also dictate how much line pressure you want to be applied with a heavy go peddle.) Tranny donors are commonplace. I picked up mine from a rolled 2-yr old van with 23k for $300. Because I intended this tranny to live a long, spirited life, I then spent another $350 having new clutches, steels, and HD upgrades from the TransGo kit installed. http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/transmission/1309-rebuild-a-4l80e-transmission-with-the-transgo-hd2-kit/ And we already discussed the >$200 Freakshow converter. I was switching from a powerglide, so I had to swap slip-yokes. With your TH400, that won't be necessary. I went with Chromoly after seeing the telltale scars on the tunnel from the PO having had one let go due to the torque from this mill. I added a cast aluminum cover plate for $50 to button up the under-belly, and banjo fittings on the cooler lines for another $25 because the trans tunnel is a little tighter than with a TH400/PG. The case is larger on the 4L80E, but no surgery is required for the transplant. Lastly, it was about $40 to make a little bracket and buy a billet cable housing and a generic Throttle Position Sensor. When all was said and done, this lock-up tranny looks like it was meant to always be residing in the Monte.

Thanks again David, you are too kind. And, my apologies for the hijacking... or, car-jacking?

Sam, your advice should be followed more.... Years ago, a guy at work drove a '66 wagon as his daily driver. Just an unrestored car with a good running small block and faded paint. One day he comes to work and asked if I would be interested in buying his car. I thanked him, but declined, as I had too many project cars as it was. He persisted though, and confessed that the transmission had gone out in it, and he needed to sell it... he said, just give me $25 for it, the battery is only a couple of days old! What can you do... of course I bought it. When I looked it over, the bolts connecting the torque converter to the flex plate had merely come out. Doug

Thanks so much for the kind words David. As you well know, we see some crazy coincidences in law enforcement. Last summer I was in an auto repair shop in our town, and they had a silver SS454 on their rack, five feet in the air and on the far side of the garage from me. The mechanic said that it was a '71 that they were putting a new engine into. Seeing it got me missing the Monte so much that I went home and within a week I had purchased the red '72 that I have now. (A '72 was my first M/C, purchased at the end of 'Nam, and has always been my favorite) I drove 6,000 miles with an enclosed trailer to bring it home. Two weeks after having it home, I was in a muffler shop swapping 3" stainless into the '72 when a guy walks up and compliments the car, stating that the first gen Monte was the only car that he ever regrets selling. He then describes the silver SS that I had seen in the other shop. I told him that I was amazed that our little town would have two SS454 Montes when so few were produced, and most of those had been wrapped around trees over the last 40 years. And, I told him that mine had been stolen years before, ...along with my '51 Merc Woodie. Hearing that, he said: " I had a '51 Woodie too... bought it from the guy that I bought the SS from". All the alarm bells in my head went off then! It turns out that the silver SS was my Mint Green '70 that had been re-painted and disguised to look like the later front-end. It bore fictitious state plates, but the vin plate had not been changed yet. The drive-train and complete interior, including the dash had been stripped from it. And it had gone through three different setts of hands, each sale without titling paperwork, between the thief and the current owner. As I had already invested about 28k at that point, into the new car, and the last purchaser turned out to be a super-nice guy that was building the car back with his son, he and I reached an agreed-upon price to allow him to keep the car and to transfer my personallized plates to him: SS Bad S Doug

David, I love your '72. It makes me misty every time that I see it in your sig. It is identical to the numbers matching '70SS that was stolen from me eight years ago... and Mike, the search engine on Chevelles.com will give you loads of reinforcement... both Coan and Freakshow are well regarded there. Doug

I purchased mine from Eckler's... It was $10 more than the Parts Place and $10 less than OPGI, but there were too any people that found the seal that they were sent by the other two was too small to be retained by the spring keeper. Eckler's fit well. Doug

I have been sold on Freakshow converters, since long before their showing on Street Outlaws. (getting turned onto them from the YellowBullet boards). Michael there is a wizzard, with 25 years of success behind him... and he charges 1/3 to 2/3 LESS than big name, big volume (but low quality) dealers. Like you, I wanted to stay at 2400-2500 stall... pushing a 3980lb car with 640 lbs ft of torque through a 4L80E. Michael built a lock-up for me, and delivered it to my doorstep from Texas to California in four days. For less than $200. (325) 701-7830 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Freak-Show-Performance/347148098639532 This is from one of the 1320 guys: FreakShow Torque Converters "I just tested mine out this past friday. The converter it replaced was a holeshot 3600 B&M. With the B&M my 60's were all over the place (2.02 at worst to 1.87 at best, in one night, usually 12.30-12.60et) When the sun went down, the swing was worse. I was pulling my hair out... With the new freakshow, off the trailer, it went a 1.79, and all 4 other passes were 1.79. The ET was the same: 12.389-12.399 (messing with shift points every pass) My MPH only fell off by .5, from before. I am more than happy with mine. I was worried at first, (buying for the first time) and with everyone else quoting me $800-$1000 for a converter, but Michael hit the nail on the head with the stall. It was the best $320 I spent..."

Even my Super Vic fits a 2 3/4 element with the 2" drop base.

Sacrilege!!!!

Glad to help, Murphy. It wasn't really a lot of effort though, ...rather than re-engineering the wheel, I simply cut-n-pasted an explanation that I had previously seen. I am really drawn to your '71. Each time that I see it I am reminded of my first Monte that I purchased at the end of 'Nam. (And which got me hooked on the breed) It was a '72 that was pumpkin colored. Doug

Kat, did you have the u-joints replaced a very short time before you began to feel the vibration during acceleration? If so, I would suspect that they did not index the joints correctly, or that a needle bearing laid down inside the cap during install.

Thanks guys... The well just looked wider than I remembered being on my '70SS. I was up underneath it last night to install the rear disks and got a pleasant surprise. The rear axles turned out to be Strange 33 spline with their C-clip elininator.

I concur with the rest Sam... classic symptoms of air infiltration due to warpage / wear / dried gasket /or a crack. The worsening symptoms after running a few minutes tends to make me lean towards warped mating edges or a crack, as the warming metal would open a fissure wider. I had one that started acting up (Surging due to a vacuum leak) that I rebuilt twice.... without success. I then turned it over to the best mechanic that I have ever met. He too struck out. The carb was mailed off to The Carb Shop, and after a month they contacted me, stating that they had completely gone through it three times; piece by piece, and could not find the source of the leak. They then offered to rebuild a replacement core for free, if I would send them one. Problem solved.

Hey Rob... Speaking of mini-tubs, what is the stock wheel-well width. I know that the PO replaced some pieces on my '72; it is 13 5/8" wide presently, is that factory width?

The wires may be a little more visible to it... pink and purple. On one of my vehicles it was just suspended in the air above the column, and on another it was at the base near the neutral safety switch. Doug

Hey Scott... try flipping your bolt around, so that the nut and excess threads are inside the frame instead of pounding on the muffler. This will buy you an extra inch.

Will, pull the balancer and check it for signs of grind marks or drilling/filling with tungsten. Most machinists today try to shy from altering the harmonic balancer and flexplate as part of balancing the reciprocating assembly on an internally balanced assembly. This allows for these elements to be replaced as is frequently required. Should the dampner on this externally balanced engine exhibit evidence of having been altered for balance, a replacement can be created by a good machine shop... and any altered balancer should be scribed with matching marks that would identify slipping between the outer and inner parts of the dampner. Murphy, here is a pretty good explaination of the strengths of the internally balanced cranks: the differance between the INTERNALL BALLANCED CRANKS and EXTERNAL BALLANCED CRANKS is the stress levels the crank and block are put thru, (both methods work, but the internal ballance has far less stress) and keep in mind that the EXTERNAL ballance cranks normally use a 8" dia. damper which can cause clearance problems on a frame that designed to clear a 6.0-thru 7"" internal ballance damper dia. on either method the rods and pistons,are matched as to weight first to the lowest common weight to the lightest of the 8 in each set on an EXTERNALLY balanced crank the entire crank, rods pistons, are then ballanced as a unit by adding or subtracting weight from the damper and flexplate/flywheel mounted at the ends of the crank. on the internally ballanced crank, the crank itself is ballanced first, so it is equally in weight radially from the crankshaft center line then the damper and flexplate are mounted and they are match ballanced to the cranks ballance why does it make a differance , you ask? well if your externally ballanced the crank is constantly flexing the crank from one end to the othrer while the ends are trying to slow or speed up to absorb or release energy from the piston/rods thrust on the crank due to cylinder pressures on an internally ballanced crank that thrust force is basically working only against the individually crank throw again, Im sure your thinking , whats differance well it might help you get a better grip on the concept if you have a strand of UNCOOKED spageti (PASTA) I cant spell) and use a black majic marker to draw a line on one edge only place a single strand between your index finger and and your thumb on each end of the strand and roll it rapidly back and forth, thats similar to INTERNAL BALLANCE STRESS, notice the line stays strait now do the same thing but roll the pasta from only one end while holding the other end to provide resistance, notice the line spirals first in one then the other dirrection, this same flexing happends to the cranks under hundreds of pounds of cylinder pressures exerted over the four cylinder pressure points and millions of times at up to 60 times a second, , now youll have a nearly impossiable time breaking the pasta using the internally ballanced roll test because the pastas under almost no stress, but add resistance to the EXTERNAL test and the pasta SNAPS EASILY keep in mind stress is cumulative the internally ballanced crank has the individual cylinder exert major force over one throw, externall cranks absorb the stress over the full crank length, now add to that the fact that many cheaper externall ballanced cranks are comonly cast steel with smaller counter weights and many of the more expensive internally ballanced cranks are comonly FORGED STEEL with larger counter weights making ballincing easier,and youll find the differance in resistance to flex is a huge differance

Thanks Rob and Dan. The inner seal was so much thicker than the outer that I had considered cutting the rubber sealing surface from an inner set and adhering it to the mounting plate... it's nice to know that it will work with just a few holes drilled! Doug

Larry, shiftworks offers an adjustable stainless cable. It's part #K100. Doug