DragCat

Had to laugh, not trying to jump on the new wheels bandwagon in Tom's thread. My buddy dropped of a set of "lite" wheels yesterday, 15 X 8 , 4.5 BS that he's had "in stock" for awhile. They might not be the prettiest but they will do the job. Took a brillo pad to them, look better than when he dropped them off lol

Still putting on break in miles and dodging rain clouds lol. Did a final tweak on the tune up last week and it screams now with the 3.55 gears. Noticed a few greasy paw prints (have no idea how they got there after working on the rear for days lol) so did a quick spray on detail wax. Thought I still had some good stuff but the bottle was empty, so thats an order for Monday. I used the 303 aerospace protectant (recommended on a different thread) on the top and I thought it came out nice so I too would recommend.

I know i'm late on this conversation, but my buddy picked this up off eBay a few months ago, NIB if you want to go old school lol . We used it to time mine.

Welcome to the madness Erich, don't wait till its done for pictures, we like to watch progress on everyones cars!

Looking good Aaron

Thats where it is on my 70

Finished the project early yesterday eve, I was so spent didn't even take it for a test run lol. Since we changed the bearing we went ahead and repainted the ring gear, and rechecked the backlash and redid the shim calculations. I had to do a little grinding to the drums as they wouldn't go over the Strange centers. Got lucky this am still had some sunny skys so I was able to make a few test runs, my buddy thats been helping me also stopped by to have a test drive with the upgrades lol. The new rear gear was a great improvement on performance, now back under the hood to do some more tweaking and fine tuning.

Yes Dennis, they are HF stands, not the recalled ones tho lol. Theres a 6 ton on each side, and a 1 1/2 behind each. The bumper is only 37 inches off the ground lol. Cleaned up the series 3 unit and test fit, had a bad bearing on one end which we pulled and will replace today. Painted (probably not the correct term) the ring gear and that looks good and I think we have the shims correct . Hope to get it done today, fingers crossed, weather (hurricane) is possible in our future this weekend.

Well i'm still at it and the Monte is still on jack stands lol. Figured there were going to be a few speed bumps along the way but got thrown a curve ball yesterday. Pulled the posi out and its a series 2 unit, my buddy that gave me the 3.55 ring and pinion are from a series 3 unit. So we had to go back and check his "in stock" supply and luckily he had a series 3 in stock, so i'll be cleaning that up today. The weird stuff just amazes me, like the p/s brake drum fought to come off the axel, but the d/s popped right off. I noticed on the d/s inside had that (i call it junk yard chalk) writing inside the drum. Find out the p/s drum will accept the 1/2 inch wheel studs but i'm going to have to drill out the d/s. Never a dull moment.

Thanks Joe, I'll look into it. My buddy is coming over to educate me on the gear and axel swap as well as the roll control (line lock) project so i'll just be the foot pumper for now. But I do like having tools to be able to do jobs solo.

Glad you posted this question, both my manual mirrors will not stay set. I have bucket seats so it hasn't been an issue yet so its on my to do list and this will get me to at least start shopping lol

Got prepped for the planed axel and gear change tomorrow. Learned you can estimate the rear gear size by marking the driveshaft and spinning the wheel. Its always a good day when you can learn something new lol. And with this project I have picked up a lot, still so much to learn. My buddy had a set of 15x9 (don't know the BS) light drag wheels in stock, they wouldn't work so he'll bringing a set of 15X8's next to check.

Thanks Mark, aka Speed Racer. I'll say it again, digging the signature pic. Yea I try and follow the rules too but there is so much experience here I always like to ask when I have questions. I'm going to try the water jar test just because I need to at least in my own feeble mind check if the PO used DOT 5. Just like in my blue oval convertible weekend cruiser, I run AV gas because the car sits for periods and todays gas is not favorable to rubber fuel lines and carbs not constantly in use. And its definitely (especially in todays world) more expensive than pump gas. But I haven't had to pull the carb since I started lol

Thanks Joe, good points. I think i'll be using the leg method, i'll check out the Castrol DOT 4. Ive only owned the car for a little over a year, yea I know buy a car and start planning on rebuilding everything lol. Yea prices keep shocking me, like we were talking on another thread about the price jump on the gear oil. I found it for $10 a bottle from where I got my crate, but couldn't find enough other stuff to get the free shipping lol. Yea I probably could have whined and gotten it shipped for free, but I hate to use a "favor" on a little item lol.

Joe, I guess NOT knowing is really bothering me lol. I'm pretty sure i'm going to have to add fluid bleeding the system (if the current fluid looks clean and I don't have to flush). So trusting everything I read on the internet I thought the test scenario seemed legit lol. Plus figured someone might chime in why they like one over the other.