badddoin

I'd probably always check the tires first. May have a seperation causing a bubble on one of the rears. I don't know what you have for suspension.I got lowering springs w/ air bags in em. If I put too much air in the bags it's worse than riding in my semi. So bad it seems dangerous.

I would definately redo it. It will leak. Had the same issue with mine (not wanting to start). Finally I pulled the fitting from the tranny and couldn't get 'em to thread in my hands. The fitting that came on my used tranny was junk. Unscrewed the fitting from my old junk tranny and screwed it into my new junk tranny and everything was good. That's a 3/8 flare fitting. No thread sealer should be required on the flare joint. However. you will want to put some on the threads to the tranny. Use a liquid sealer and start it about 1-2 threads back, to keep any from getting inside. Also, that fitting is probably a standard plumbing hardware piece. If there's a decent pllumbing supply around, they can probably hook yoou up. Good luck!

I haven't done a thing to my Monte in a few weeks. Been on the road trying to make some more Monte-money. On the up-side, though, I haven't broke anything either.

In Queens, NY you and your Monte are lucky you have that much space. Very lucky indeed. The new garage is plenty big enough to do the job - enjoy!

Really enjoyed the vids, Davey. That thing is awsome. Did I hear Red say you added some weight in the trunk to slow it dowm? Just curious. If so, how much? What'd ya use?

At that point you're still behind the thermostat, so it seems to me either a faulty stat (new doesn't always mean good) or a bad rad. cap, not letting it vent-off excess presssure. Your top rad. hose should get hot when yor engine reaches operating temp. I'd try running it without the cap on till it opens up. If it blows off then its a stat problem. If it blows after you put the cap back on its the cap. If it blows coolant out the radiator with the cap off, you changed the wrong gasket.

Was able to sneak home for a couple hours today and give mine a much deserved bath. No pics out of consideration for all the northerners. 70 degrees and sunny.

I have to get away from mine sometimes when I can't think of a single task that doesn't involve a big hammer.

Got my tranny in and took it for a littla ride. Seems to be OK. It's back to work tomorrow after three weeks off so I wont be able to do anything to it for a few weeks.

Yes, it's actually BTDC (before top dead center) on the compression stroke. If you have it TDC on the exhaut stroke if it runs at all it will be backfiring thruogh the carb, out the exhaust. You wont be able to get it right. I have no idea what the right way to do it is, but this is what I do and it works. First take your driver's side valve cover off and take out all your spark plugs. Looking at just the number one cylinder rockers, rotate the engine a couple revolutions until you are sure you are on the compression stroke (both valves should be closed. I usually put two marks on my timing indicator. See pic. One mark at TDC the other 8 degrees BTDC. Set it at 8 degrees BTDC and look to see where the rotor is pointing. That is where your number one plug wire must be. You're only gonna get it so close with your eyeballs, but it should be close enough to get you started.

Good job, Steve. Keep the photos coming.

Finally finished up with the cam and lifter swap. Got the motor all put back together, even put a shiny thing on top. Got it started, set the timing real quick and idled it up for the flat tappet initial run. Had a little gas leak and got it straightened out. Everyrhing was great: Sound good, good oil pressure, good temp, no water in oil, no oil in water, etc. So, after 25 minutes, I idled it down. Man, does this thing soud sweet. I was stoked!! So, why not take a little spin? 2 miles down dirt roads to the nearest paved road (some things about country living could be better). So, at any rate, I take off hammerin' on it. This thing runs great - not super fast but still plenty quick. So I turn around and do it again, this time manual shift first,second third - had to be goin near 100mph ( Spedo's goofy since I put the 4.10 gear in it) when BAM-THUMP-BAM-BAM-THUMP-THUMP. Definately not good. Front u-joint let go. Didn't spit the yoke, but was slamming the tunnel pretty good. Didn't bring my phone with me so a nice 2.6 mile stroll home. Luckily for me my uncle is a saint. He gets his trailer and truck and home we go. Didn't look to bad tore up the tunnel pretty good but no holes. So, a couple new u-joints, and we should be good to go' right? Well I got the driveshaft back in but it wouldn't go all the way into park enough to hit the nutral safety switch. So I look under there again and DEFINATELY NOT GOOD !!! So I get the tranny out without taking out a single bell housing bolt. Found this one on CL last night for $150.00 and picked it up this morning. Suppose to be rebuilt - we'll see. It does, at least have new seals and gaskets in it so it should have better manners than my last one. Also, it gives me a good excuse to put my new converter in. Bad as all that is it still beats working by a long shot. Sorry so long.

Thanks,Tony. I wanted a regular one; that's all they had. Might put my old one back on. It'sjust a little rotted around where the hose clamps. It'll probably be OK.

After a rainy start this morning, I was ready to get back on my project. I got the distributor, plugs and wires on. I also rattle-canned my valve covers and put 'em on. The carb's just sittin' on there. I tried to use the manifold vacuum adapter off my car but it hits the carb. Gotta get some tees and vacuum line tomorrow, and a plug. I find it easy to open those hard plastic pakages with tin snips. Might look on the clear side, though, next time to see what I'm cutting through. Luckily for me I got duplicate gaskets with my carb. I needed the rest of the goodies in that package. And they were all tin snip proof. At any rate that seemed like a good place to not work on the Monte anymmore today.

Got my motor mounts installed yesterday along with painting my oil pan and installing it and the timing cover. I should have pulled the motor to do this project. Oh well, live and learn. Today I got the heads on, bolted up the exhaust, put the balancer on and the intake. Starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. It's gonna rain tommorrow. Hopefully not too hard - I work in a carport. here's some progress pics. I'd like to get it started tomorrow. We'll have to see how hard and for how long it rains.

Went to put my oil pan back on and realized BOTH my motor mounts are shot. the motor's just sitting there. Went to Advance auto parts (30 miles) and didn't notice they gave me the wrong part 'till I got home. So, back I go and 3 parts houses later I get a set. So basically I did nothing to it and it took me all day.

Finished swapping out my valve springs and put a coat of rattle-can on. If anyone feels the need to buy this spring compressor from Harbor Freight, I would recomend not doing it! What a piece of junk. (I should go get my two bucks back.) I also got my cam and lifter and timing chain and gears in. Also got a couple other pieces rattle-canned. Tomorrow, I'd like to get the timing chain cover, oil pan, heads and intake put back on. We'll see.

Still workin on the cam and lifter swap. got the heads off today and cleaned up a couple brackets, rattle-canned 'em black they look pretty good. Sorry no pics. Also ordered a harmonic balancer and air cleaner. (Big chunk of rubber missing out of the balancer.)

I took all this stuff off my Monte. Looks like this now. Over the next couple days gonna bolt all this junk on. New cam and lifters, springs, intake and carb, torque converter, shift kit, and if I have enough energy, some new clutches and steels and seal up the tranny. At least seal that leaking pig up. This is where my car lives, so I need to catch a breah with the weather. I'm just glad i got a couple weeks off so I can do something to it.

My wipers work fine, although there's two different style arms on it. So far down the list of things to do it may never get done. Washer doesn't work at all ( Even farther down the list.)

Have the samewith my 72. Gotta take the caps off then roll the yoke to get it out. It's gonna stay that way - bigger fish to fry and plenty of 'em.

I finished installing all my new junk. Hotchkis boxed lower adjustable upper trailing arms, 1" lowering springs w/air bags, Eaton 3 series posi carrier, 4.10 richmond gear set, KYB gas adjust shocks. Everything seems to work OK. Sorry about the pics. Didn't have enough energy for it. That's way too much work for a fat truck driver. I'm hoping Santa stops by again next month with a rotating assembly.

I spent the whole day scraping 40 years of grunge off my rearend. Good times! I scraped and scrubbed all day and got it almost clean enough to paint. Then I painted it anyway.

Got my rearend out. Had quite a hard time with it. No lift or air tools. Finally barrowed some. Sorry no pics; will try to post some tomorrow when, hopefully, there's some progress.

I didn't actually DO anything, but Santa Claus dropped by a little early this year: I must have been a very good boy!! This is my challange for the weekend.