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What did you do to your Monte Carlo today?


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  • 2 weeks later...

I was able to get the 71 out this afternoon. The roads were clear and dry. A little bit of highway driving and some cruising around town. It felt good. We’re supposed to get some snow on Sunday so it was now or never.

F7E871F0-819D-439F-837A-01917889A62A.jpeg

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I bench tested the speedometer with a drill and it works smoothly to 120mph. Then, I hooked the trans cable directly to the transmission and eliminated the B&M converter lockup control module and short connector cable, and the speedo was bouncing all over the place and very inaccurate. Next I disconnected the cable from the trans and ran the cable and speedo from the drill again with smooth results. So the obvious conclusion is the transmission is the culprit. I have been down this road before and was wondering if anyone else has had difficulty with a TH200 trans with several speedo gears not reading accurately. Thats how mine is. Lucky for me there is plenty of time between now and the western meet to get this resolved and my speedo working accurately. Lots of work on the Monte, not much progress however. I had three things to fix after the last eastern meet, the headlight switch (done), the aux port for the stereo permanently mounted to the dash (done), and the speedo. Like Meatloaf says... two out of three ain't bad. 

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14 hours ago, Canuck said:

I was able to get the 71 out this afternoon. The roads were clear and dry. A little bit of highway driving and some cruising around town. It felt good. We’re supposed to get some snow on Sunday so it was now or never.

F7E871F0-819D-439F-837A-01917889A62A.jpeg

Nice backdrop! Keeping the oil up in the cylinders is good for the car and the soul!

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1 hour ago, cbolt said:

I bench tested the speedometer with a drill and it works smoothly to 120mph. Then, I hooked the trans cable directly to the transmission and eliminated the B&M converter lockup control module and short connector cable, and the speedo was bouncing all over the place and very inaccurate. Next I disconnected the cable from the trans and ran the cable and speedo from the drill again with smooth results. So the obvious conclusion is the transmission is the culprit. I have been down this road before and was wondering if anyone else has had difficulty with a TH200 trans with several speedo gears not reading accurately. Thats how mine is. Lucky for me there is plenty of time between now and the western meet to get this resolved and my speedo working accurately. Lots of work on the Monte, not much progress however. I had three things to fix after the last eastern meet, the headlight switch (done), the aux port for the stereo permanently mounted to the dash (done), and the speedo. Like Meatloaf says... two out of three ain't bad. 

Did you check the speedo gear?? Bad teeth?? How many MPH are you off? When I worked at a dealership we ran into changing this once in a while. There was a chart that showed all the different gears and how many teeth. I think each tooth added 2 MPH but I'm not sure. Also on the speedo adapters on the TH200 use to go bad so maybe the gear isn't spinning correctly in the adapter. Good luck

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21 hours ago, 1970mcss said:

Did you check the speedo gear?? Bad teeth?? How many MPH are you off? When I worked at a dealership we ran into changing this once in a while. There was a chart that showed all the different gears and how many teeth. I think each tooth added 2 MPH but I'm not sure. Also on the speedo adapters on the TH200 use to go bad so maybe the gear isn't spinning correctly in the adapter. Good luck

Funny thing is Antoine and I were discussing this very thing yesterday. My speedo can be accurate, off by 5 mph, or most commonly off by 15+ mph so the issue cannot be the tire size, wrong sized speedo gear, etc. I did a physical inspection of the gear and it looks fine so my guess is either the gear inside the tail cone that drives the speedo gear or the square hole on the output side of the speedo gear is worn. Im gonna check that today as I ran out of time yesterday. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I know this topic is what did you do to your Monte ...... BUT one word we see in this string of comments is the words, and we have all heard them, SNOWBALL EFFECT so in this post of mine I will only be referring to the Snowball Effect but not on my Monte because I have never experienced the Snowball Effect on my Monte.  This will be referring to the Snowball Effect I am having with my 1929 Model A Tudor Sedan.

This past fall I pulled my Model A out of the garage and as I was doing this the hubcap clipped the edge of the garage door frame and popped off the wheel hub.  To reinstall the hubcap you have to remove the wheel and tire from the car because once you reinstall the hub cap on the outer side of the hub, you have to bend some metal ears of the hubcap over into the center of the hub from the inside.

When I jacked it up and was removing the wheel I noticed considerable up and down play in the wheel.  Now, on a modern day car you would simply replace the ball joints but on a Model A that was long before they switched to upper and lower ball joints.  The Model A Ford and in reality all vehicles back then and even back in the horse and buggy days they used King Pins for the wheel to swivel on these king pins.  I had no idea these were so bad because they had always been kept lubricated.  

The last time I had replaced these I was 16 years old so that was 54 years ago so I forgot how much work this job is.  This is where the snowball comes in.  The King Pins are replaced as a pair, one on each side.  To do the job you have to remove the brake pads.  In doing this when I removed the brake drum I found the inner bearing race was spinning in the drum and the brake shoe lining had worn into the rivets and scored the brake drums.   so I need to install new lining onto the brake shoes, get the drums turned and repair the issue of the spinning inner bearing race. 

I then noticed the drag link was a bit loose and damaged so I removed it. When I removed the drag link I noticed bad wear on the Pitman arm ball and also noticed the two balls on the drivers side steering arm were also worn to the point it could cause steering issues.  When removed the Tie Rod from the drivers side steering rod I tried to remove the tie rod link from the Tie Rod to inspect it I found the threads were stripped I would also have to replace the Tie Rod and both Tie Rod Ends.  

For all of the parts I would need so far is over $600. I say "So Far" because my garage is so small I can only access one side of the car at a time.  Once I complete the drivers side I will have to turn the car around and then work on the passenger side.

Anyway, everything on the drivers side is disassembled.  Today my son and I drove over to New Springfield, Ohio to Snyder's Antique Auto Parts.  They deal only in Model A and Model T Fords and I was able to pick up everything I needed.  Now I have to clean everything up, paint it and reinstall it and make adjustments.  After that I can turn the car around and do the passenger side.  

One other thing in the Snowball department.  I opened the car door and yesterday and noticed a burning electrical smell.  I tried to turn on the headlights and got nothing.  I then noticed the ignition switch.  To turn on the ignition you turn the key and the ignition switch button pops out which means the switch is turned on and you would be able to hit the starter foot button to start the car.  When you want to turn off the car you simply push this button back in.  As soon as I noticed the ignition switch button popped out I knew what the smell was.  With the ignition switch turned on and the car not running it burned up the original to this car Coil.  I popped the distributor cap and found that when this happened the points were closed so they welded themselves in the closed position.  So while I was picking up these front end parts I also picked up a new coil and points and just in case a new condenser.

When I think about it, with this winter and all of the snow we have had, is it any wonder I have encountered this Snowball Effect.

rob

brake shoes upper spring and shoes.jpgfront brake springs and actuator wedge.jpgKing pin drag link steering arm and brake actuator tube.jpgtie rod  drag link  steering arm from back side and backing plate removed.jpg

backing plate and spindle with drum removed.jpg

drag link brake actuator tube and steering arm from front.jpg

King pin steering arm drag link and brake actuator tube from front.jpg

spindle and steering arm removed from axle .jpg

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37 minutes ago, Rob Peters said:

I know this topic is what did you do to your Monte ...... BUT one word we see in this string of comments is the words, and we have all heard them, SNOWBALL EFFECT so in this post of mine I will only be referring to the Snowball Effect but not on my Monte because I have never experienced the Snowball Effect on my Monte.  This will be referring to the Snowball Effect I am having with my 1929 Model A Tudor Sedan.

This past fall I pulled my Model A out of the garage and as I was doing this the hubcap clipped the edge of the garage door frame and popped off the wheel hub.  To reinstall the hubcap you have to remove the wheel and tire from the car because once you reinstall the hub cap on the outer side of the hub, you have to bend some metal ears of the hubcap over into the center of the hub from the inside.

When I jacked it up and was removing the wheel I noticed considerable up and down play in the wheel.  Now, on a modern day car you would simply replace the ball joints but on a Model A that was long before they switched to upper and lower ball joints.  The Model A Ford and in reality all vehicles back then and even back in the horse and buggy days they used King Pins for the wheel to swivel on these king pins.  I had no idea these were so bad because they had always been kept lubricated.  

The last time I had replaced these I was 16 years old so that was 54 years ago so I forgot how much work this job is.  This is where the snowball comes in.  The King Pins are replaced as a pair, one on each side.  To do the job you have to remove the brake pads.  In doing this when I removed the brake drum I found the inner bearing race was spinning in the drum and the brake shoe lining had worn into the rivets and scored the brake drums.   so I need to install new lining onto the brake shoes, get the drums turned and repair the issue of the spinning inner bearing race. 

I then noticed the drag link was a bit loose and damaged so I removed it. When I removed the drag link I noticed bad wear on the Pitman arm ball and also noticed the two balls on the drivers side steering arm were also worn to the point it could cause steering issues.  When removed the Tie Rod from the drivers side steering rod I tried to remove the tie rod link from the Tie Rod to inspect it I found the threads were stripped I would also have to replace the Tie Rod and both Tie Rod Ends.  

For all of the parts I would need so far is over $600. I say "So Far" because my garage is so small I can only access one side of the car at a time.  Once I complete the drivers side I will have to turn the car around and then work on the passenger side.

Anyway, everything on the drivers side is disassembled.  Today my son and I drove over to New Springfield, Ohio to Snyder's Antique Auto Parts.  They deal only in Model A and Model T Fords and I was able to pick up everything I needed.  Now I have to clean everything up, paint it and reinstall it and make adjustments.  After that I can turn the car around and do the passenger side.  

One other thing in the Snowball department.  I opened the car door and yesterday and noticed a burning electrical smell.  I tried to turn on the headlights and got nothing.  I then noticed the ignition switch.  To turn on the ignition you turn the key and the ignition switch button pops out which means the switch is turned on and you would be able to hit the starter foot button to start the car.  When you want to turn off the car you simply push this button back in.  As soon as I noticed the ignition switch button popped out I knew what the smell was.  With the ignition switch turned on and the car not running it burned up the original to this car Coil.  I popped the distributor cap and found that when this happened the points were closed so they welded themselves in the closed position.  So while I was picking up these front end parts I also picked up a new coil and points and just in case a new condenser.

When I think about it, with this winter and all of the snow we have had, is it any wonder I have encountered this Snowball Effect.

rob

brake shoes upper spring and shoes.jpgfront brake springs and actuator wedge.jpgKing pin drag link steering arm and brake actuator tube.jpgtie rod  drag link  steering arm from back side and backing plate removed.jpg

backing plate and spindle with drum removed.jpg

drag link brake actuator tube and steering arm from front.jpg

King pin steering arm drag link and brake actuator tube from front.jpg

spindle and steering arm removed from axle .jpg

See this would not have happened if you would have stayed in bed following doctors orders

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So I’ll add to Robs snowball not monte related. Tuesday night 3 inches of freezing rain than 4 inches of snow( yes I know the whole country is getting pounded right now)had to take Karen to work. When I went to pick her up in my Silverado I heard a grumbling sound from the front wheels. I say it can’t be wheel hubs I just replaced last year. Yep. Took the truck out and got new hubs at parts store. Coming home real loud growling from rear end. Now what. Put on the hubs in my driveway at 20 degrees because my garage is full of cars that I can’t drive in the snow(worthless in snow anyway but would be fun). Ripped the back wheels off and found locked up caliper. To the store in my car?  Nope dead battery. Replaced battery (I know a guy that has some 😬) nope but I did get it to remote start but no infotainment and every light that could be on and flashing was. Push button start wouldn’t even shut off the car,had to wait till it timed out and shut off. Did some goggling(remember everything you read on the Internet is true)traced the problem to water intrusion on the blind spot/parking modules. Disconnected the harness replaced infotainment fuse and hooked up battery and all was fine. I ordered 400 dollar modules kit from gm pick up tomorrow. Took the car and got my caliper. I hate snowballs. Lol. 

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6 hours ago, cbolt said:

So Rob, one could say your first and only real mistake was pulling your Ford out of the garage. 

 

J/K... I couldnt resist though. 😈

One could say that BUT one could also say it was a good thing I did and clipped the garage frame with the hub cap or I would have never discovered how badly worn that king pin was.

rob

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1 hour ago, MC1of80 said:

And that ladies and gentlemen is The SNOWBALL EFFECT.

I haven't even gotten to the passenger side due to the very limited space I have in my garage.  I have totally cleaned and painted the drivers side front brake hub and drum drum, backing plate, mechanical brake lever, new drag link, new steering arm, new tie rod and tie rod ends and the spindle  assembly.  Now, looking at the front axle I am thinking I need to clean  that and the radius rod assembly and paint the them both as best as I can without removing it.   Yep, snowball effect but I won't go any farther than that or so I think.

rob

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