MCfan

The table I shared is from the 1970 Monte Carlo Specifications document so it is possible that different/additional spring codes were used in '71 and '72. Yours is the first build sheet I've seen that has a different code but perhaps there are others. Maybe someone has the 1971 Monte Carlo Specifications document that shows the table of possible springs/codes used that model year. If the "AK" code is in the other series of "A" codes, it would be a mid-range spring. That seems surprising to me unless your SS is a lower optioned vehicle, especially with no A/C which adds more to total vehicle weight than any other option except a big block. My big block, 4-speed '70 was a very low option car (not even power steering) and was built with the AO front spring. A heavily optioned small block car could have a higher total vehicle weight than a low optioned big block car.

Ron, GM selected and installed one of ten possible front coils and one of 3 possible rear coils in each individual first gen Monte based on the total weight of that vehicle including all options. It had nothing to do with whether that car had a "small block" or "big block" engine as is commonly thought. You can find the "Free Height" listed for each possible spring in the table below (shown in the second column from the right). If you have a Build Sheet for your car, check Box 13 for the front spring Assembly Code that was selected for your particular car. If you have a reasonably optioned 454 car, the code will likely be GQ which has a free height of 18.13 inches. While the part number is also shown in that table for each spring, I don't believe it is stamped on the spring (unlike Moog springs which do have a stamped PN). You can also use a micrometer or digital caliper to measure the diameter of the coil wire (clean it first) and compare that to the spec given in the table. The overall free height may change over years of use but the coil wire diameter won't. Good luck.

I flipped mine over and use it like a tray. I'd rather have the spare tire against the jack than the jack against the trunk mat. If I understand correctly, those weren't introduced until the '72 model year but I managed to scrounge a couple for my '70s.

Yes, although I disassembled it only far enough to clean the exterior surfaces. I did not take the entire valve apart. I took quite a few photos but did not complete a photo journal of that project. As I recall, the primary task was to remove all of the black POR-15 that had been sprayed on the valve when the whole undercarriage was sprayed by a prior owner. As you may know, there are very few solvents that will dissolve POR-15. I used some lacquer thinner and a really stiff brush on the softer body parts and cleaned the steel arm, connecting linkage and air line connectors on my wire-wheeled grinder. While your's may not have anything as nasty as POR-15 on it, I doubt I would submerge it in water to clean it. However, if the line connectors were off so the internals of the valve were exposed to road dust and water, it might be wise to inspect and clean the inside of the valve as well as the outside. Happy scrubbing!

John, I've not had that problem but I refurbished all of the switches and their connectors before I installed factory power windows in my '70 (I made a photo journal of that project at this LINK if you are interested). I suspect the connector to the driver's master switch simply needs to be cleaned and tightened up and it is not difficult to do but takes some care and patience. You don't even have to remove the door panel to do it, just pop the master switch out of it's door panel housing and separate it from its connector (should be easy if it is already loose). As you can see in the photos, with the exception of the center locator pin, each of the pins on the master switch insert into a spring-clip wire terminal housed inside the black plastic connector body. Those terminals need to grip their respective switch connector pins securely for good electrical conductivity and to maintain a secure physical connection with the master switch. If you use a thin, sharp-pointed tool (scribe, awl or straight pick), you can close the spring clips just enough while pulling gently on its respective wire to remove it from the connector housing. Once you have it out, you can clean it inside with a small, rolled-up piece of fine emery paper and crimp it down just enough to give a good friction fit to a pin in the switch body. When the spring clip is cleaned and reshaped, just push it back into its correct location in the connector housing. I suggest doing them one at a time or taking a photo before you start to be sure you get all of the wires back in the correct location. Now is the best time to use some emery paper to brighten up each of the pins on the back of the master switch also. You may find that this simple fix also improves the speed and operation of any/all of the windows as good electrical conductivity is essential. Good luck.

Welcome back, Bob, good to hear from you! I realized you had "dropped from sight" a couple years ago but figured we all have our reasons for coming and going from time to time. Glad you were willing and able to care for your mom in her last days - you'll never regret that decision. I suppose your Monte has been kept inside and out of the Minnesnowta winter weather. I will be watching for whatever upgrades you decide to sell, although I am down to one '70 now and have put nearly ever upgrade available on it already. Hope you have the time and inclination to get involved with your '70 again. All the best!

I'm wondering if there might be a typo here? To my knowledge, a 3.5" backspace on a 15x8 or 15x10 rim will surely result in a "deep dish" look but it will also push a 275/60 or 295/50 right out the side of the rear quarter panel. On any first gen Monte there is more available room for a fat rear tire on the inboard side of the hub than the outboard side so a greater backspace (i.e. 5.5") is required to move the extra width inboard. I don't know any way to mount a super wide rear tire and wheel on a first gen Monte with much of a deep dish look if using a stock body and rear axle but maybe somebody can enlighten me. There are several excellent tire sizer websites that let you see how wider rims and tires with various amounts of backspace compare to a stock or known workable configuration. You might get away with moving the additional width of a wider wheel/tire combo outboard a small amount but most of it needs to go inboard.

A week ago last night I had the pleasure of speaking with Tim Pestinger, owner of the Dick Harrell prepped '70 SS with a transplanted LS6, 1000 cfm Thermo Quad and 4.10 gears. My first cousin and his family are personal friends with Tim and his family there in Salina, Kansas as two each of their respective children were high school classmates. My cousin arranged the three-way phone call and we visited for just over a half hour, mostly about the Dick Harrell and Tim's rare Monte. Tim and his brother Tom house a personal collection of rare and classic cars there in Salina - one that I hope to see some day. Tim confirmed everything I had already read about his rare car in prior threads on this site. I won't bother to repeat what has already been shared on this site but point anyone who is interested to this LINK for the transcript of an excellent interview conducted by Peter McLearen on 12/10/2001. Little has changed since then, although the car has been meticulously cared for and occasionally driven by Tim since that interview. Yes, it was shown at a National Corvette Show in Chicago a couple of years ago and Tim sent me some confirming photos like some we have already seen posted on this site. I'll comment briefly on a couple of things that stood out to me from our phone visit. The original owner, James Stewart, ordered a 1970 SS454 (LS5) from Don Hatten Chevrolet in Wichita, KS but had it immediately transferred to the Dick Harrell Performance Center in Kansas City, MO where the LS5 was replaced with a new LS6 from GM. A 4.10 rear gear, a 1000 cfm Thermo Quad, an oil pressure gauge and Dick Harrell badges were also installed. As others have long asserted, this lone Monte Carlo is not evidence that GM ever shipped an LS6-equipped Monte Carlo from one of their assembly plants. It is a unique, one-off, post-assembly, drag racer-modified vehicle - not even technically a GM COPO car. I guess I was most surprised to learn that the original owner only kept it for 6 months before it ended up on a Cadillac dealer's used car lot! Of course, it is still a very rare and very cool car and I hope to see it in person some day. Although I did mention FGMCC to Tim and asked him if he would entertain questions or contacts from any of our members who might be interested in learning more about his car (he is agreeable to that, BTW), I did not mention anything about our annual meets or the 50th Anniversary celebration since I was unsure of their status. If the Eastern Meet is actually going to happen (and I hope it can), Tim might be approached to see if he would bring his Dick Harrell Monte to the show. If someone wants to pursue that, just let me know and I can establish the contact with him.

Mark, I don't doubt that you would have to modify either of those connectors to plug them into the BAT port on your fuse panel, but that is clearly not the solution if you have multiple wires to connect to a single port. You can either cut of those original connectors and crimp a single female spade connector (probably the blue or yellow one depending on the wire size(s) you need to join at that connector) or you can try to emulate a factory installation. I have attached two photos of the fuse block on a bone stock '70 SS. You can see that the blue connector in the BAT position has three wires attached to it. As I recall, each of the three wires was short and terminated in another connector that looks like it would mate with the connectors on your new harness. Look at the connector in the upper right of the second photo. I don't know if it is possible to order that multi-wire splitter or if you need to make one up from parts, but I wouldn't hesitate to emulate the original factory installation, especially if it leaves your new harness intact. There is one other possible solution that may be the best of all. There is a naked 1/4" spade connector sold at auto supply stores that has one female end and two male ends. I call it a "piggyback" connector and have used them several times successfully. You simply plug one onto the male BAT spade and plug the two female plugs on your harness onto the two male spades. You probably will not have to modify the harness connectors since the piggyback connector has no plastic housing around it.

Welcome, Alan, to the club and forums! Your former '71 SS was indeed a striking car! I can understand your sadness and remorse for letting it go. I sincerely hope it fell into good hands and has been preserved somewhere in NA. Not sure if you are intent on tracking it down, but it should be easier up there than in the US. Good luck!

I agree. When I installed that same light on my '70, I connected the single power wire to a longer wire that I ran along the driver's inner fender to the horn relay on the backside of the core support, driver's side. You could run it all the way to the battery but it doesn't draw much current so the horn relay will work. I did not add a ground wire as attaching it to the hood with sheet metal screws served as a ground and that's the way the factory installation was on my other '70. Also, the factory installation has a shielded disconnect (inline plug) midway between the light and the horn relay so you can remove power from the light if you need to keep your hood up for extended period of time. I put a similar disconnect plug inline when I added the light so I could unplug it when I was at car shows or had the hood up while working in the engine bay. Otherwise the mercury switch will keep the light on when the hood is up.

Congratulations, Mark! Enjoy the power windows! 👍

Mark, Let's be sure we're dealing with the correct pink wire. Have you done a continuity test on the loose pink wire shown and the pink wire in the window relay connector? If there is not continuity, you need to trace the pink wire coming from the relay connector back to it's other end, wherever it is in the harness. Assuming that is the correct pink wire, the connector shown is exactly like the one used for the factory power window relay on my '70 SS (see photo below) so it is not "wrong", it just plugs into the factory harness with that connector and gets the IGN signal through a different circuit (possibly from a splitter that serves other power options as well). When I installed factory power windows in my low-option '70 402 (with minimum wire harness), there was no connection in that original harness for the pink wire so I crimped a female spade connector on the end and went directly into the IGN port. Since the connector you have probably won't plug directly into your fuse box, I suggest using a test lead to temporarily connect it to the IGN male spade connector in the fuse box and see if your windows will operate after you turn the ignition on. If that works, then you could replace the "factory" connector on the loose pink wire with a female spade connector and hook it up that way. Alternatively, I would look for another loose pink wire in your new harness that has a mating connector to the one you have already found. Sorry if this is confusing, but you need to get the pink relay trigger wire connected to you IGN port one way or another since it is a major security exposure to have your power windows operational without the key in the ignition and the ignition "ON". PS The pink wire and connector is seen in the upper left section of the photo below. Ignore that white thing in the corner - near as I can tell that is the corner of a dryer fabric softner sheet that I placed under the dash to keep rodents out.

Honest answer, Mark, I don't remember. It was obviously the yellow wire that I tied off as shown in the fourth photo above and the two additional photos below. There may have been a wiring diagram included with the light assembly. I certainly don't remember doing any trial and error routine and, believe me, I am not that lucky to choose the correct wire to eliminate and the other three pairings so I must have had some direction. Do your new light assemblies have the same four colored wires coming out? If so, I suggest you strip the ends of the three wires I used (even before you trim the length) and connect them temporarily with wire nuts to a 1157 plug as shown in the photos and install it in the upper socket. Now have a helper engage your headlights, brake light and turn signals while you watch. If everything works properly, as it does on my car, you know you have the correct three wires and respective plug connections. If the wire colors are different on your new light assemblies you will either need to do some comparative wire tracing, reference a wiring diagram or do some trial and error (hopefully not damaging anything in the process). Sorry my memory is not very good and that was a couple years ago now. That's the main reason I usually take lots of photos of my projects - hope they help.

Mark, I hope the photos below are useful. 1st photo: The 3-wire connector plugged onto the relay (Orange/Black = 12V into relay from power source; Red/White = 12V out of relay to regulators; Pink = relay trigger wire from IGN port on fuse panel) 2nd photo: Orange/Black wire is connected to the power source (mine is a 30 A-fused port on an auxiliary fuse block fed direct from the battery). 3rd photo: Pink wire is plugged into the IGN port on the main fuse panel. This triggers the relay only when the key is turned on. You should be able to find this pink wire coming out of your new wire harness somewhere near your main fuse panel. If you don't have the pink wire plugged into your IGN port, the system will not work because the regulators cannot get power from the unpicked relay. To bypass the relay (for testing only), I would unplug the 3-wire connector from the relay and insert a 10 gauge jumper wire into that connector between the Orange/Black wire (be sure it is NOT connected to a power source yet) and the Red/White wire. Now find the other end of the Orange/Black wire in your harness and connect it to a good 12V power source. You should now be able to operate any of the window regulators with their respective switches. By jumpering the power IN (O/B) and power OUT (R/W) wires, you are effectively bypassing the relay which would normally make this same connection when the ignition is ON (IF the relay is operating correctly). Good luck.