Mike

I just watched the video on this tool. I never knew that was adjustable. WOW. Thanks for the tip Scott.

Thats a great idea. Im putting in a 4L80 next week. Gonna do that!

Good Score! That one celebrity painter...kbmer... if i had to drive a car painted by him I would sell it and buy a rusty Yugo. UGH. Some weird hybrid pokemon crap, i didn't get it at all.

If you are not leaking i guess i wouldnt worry about it. My stainless tranny lines were new from InLine tube and they said they had the factory fittings. Really not sure if they did, i just assumed so. All i know is the male and female were off by two threads, hence the adaptor.

I havent thought about the tranny temps. I changed the filter and fluid a few years ago and it was great, no burn. But i also have one of those Derale pans with the tubes in it. Swapping to the 4L80e shortly!

Turkey Run was a blast other than Friday night, total rain out. Saw 6 other first gen montes there, only one had a big block and it was an incredible blue 71 SS. Gent from Gainesville owned it, there with his lovely wifey, daughter, and four frenchie bulldogs LOL. I have met them there before. Good folks. Parked right next to them near the sausage vendor at Turn 4. Oddly enough, only saw one other second gen monte and nothing else. Saw two brand new 1970 rear bumpers in the swap meet for $100 each! Total steal. I dont really need one so I passed. But both sold. Picked up some new Motion valve covers for my big block. A buddy i was with bought a 68 Impala Custom with numbers matching 396, 58k miles, $20,000. No rust, couple odd little dents in the hood and some paint scuffs, but overall a super solid car. Drove it 5 hours home, flawlessly. Seemed like a good deal, and there were quite a few good deals. If i had another garage space.... Been prepping the wife about a new garage... She aint with the program...LOL

Definitely doing the harnesses and dash/gauges at the same time. I just started two threads because the harnesses seem to be fairly cut and dried, but lots of variations on what people do with gauges. ANd yes I would def call AAW. Thank you Willie.

Hi folks, I have owned my 1970 with a BBC 402 (425hp) for about 12 years now. Originally came with a 3 row and ran about 220 on a hot florida day. Stainless flex fan with no clutch and a 180 stat. When that started leaking I upgraded to a 4 row. Temperature dropped to 200, so a 20 degree drop. I eventually dropped in a 454 with 555hp and temp went up to 205 maybe, not much of a change. Then a year went by and i stabbed in an aluminum radiator from Auto City (bought at the turkey run from their booth) and temp went to 180! Much better. I think if i stuck in a lower stat it might go down a bit since it sits on that 180 regardless of weather. The only caveat is I would not buy the radiator from Auto City again. The guy told me he used the GM factory tooling/molds to build the radiators and it was an exact fit...well that was bullshyte. The physical size was perfect, went right in. Both necks were spot on. But when i connected the tranny lines they both leaked. I backed them out thinking i just did a rookie mistake, threads looked ok, ran them back in...still leaked. Then I went back to basics and got my thread gauge out. The male fitting was not the same as the female in the radiator. If i recall right, one was 16 tpi and one was 18tpi....barely off! So i called the guy and he said "Yeah, didnt you buy the adaptor?" I was peeved. If he had told me the threads were different I would have certainly bought the dang adaptor. Especially since I had already cut my lower radiator hose already and when i put the adaptors on it pushed the lines back, hitting the hose. ARGHHHHHH. Fortunately, i chased the female threads with a tap and they were salvageable. No leaks for the past few years. So I defintely recommend the aluminum radiator. BUT, i would buy it from NPD and not Auto City. They have great glass, but obviously NOT the original GM molds. My buddy has a 1970 Chevelle with 12:1 compression, a radical 107LSA cam and bored 454 (468CI). He also had the identical results as me, runs at 180F on the hottest florida day. But he got his from NPD and the threads were the same as his tranny lines. Be cool amigos!

Hi again folks, this is my summer 2025 project (along with wiring harnesses in the whole car). I am torn, i was going to just rebuild the gauge cluster I have but a lot of you are talking about the Dakota Digital product. I go to lots of car shows, 90% of the time when I see some aftermarket dash, I am thankful i dont have a crowbar handy. I generally hate em. BUT, i have seen a few in some TriFives and camaros that are not too hard on my eyes. The main thing I am after is brightness. I figured all new factory gauges with LEDs would suffice. Who has done that in their Monte and been happy? And its a 1970, so it has to be green. I saw two pics in the forum and both were white lettering on the Dakotas. I assume they have a green? Final thing i read here was about accuracy, the dakota product is more accurate. In what respect? I wired an aftermarket tach and drove it, my dash tach was spot on the rpm. ANd the speedo is fine too versus the android app double check. Both of those will get replaced anyways since they are 55 years old but they seem to be fine in terms of accuracy. The temp, fuel, and amp gauges are so small, i never paid attention to them much anyways other than the fuel one. The only other gauge i have is oil pressure, which is underdash. What is your experience with original versus Dakota?

So, this summer my 1970 will be in the garage for some work. It will be hot as Mars here in Florida and i am looking forward to using my new mini split AC unit in there! I have read TONS of threads on here so first off...THANK YOU to all those who contributed. I learned a lot already. Seems like a lot of you like the AAW harness/kit which i hadnt even considered until reading here on FGMCC. I was piecing individual harnesses out of Ausleys, npd, etc... but the AAW kit looks like what i want to do. Question, does it allow for all options? I have power windows, does it have that/those harnesses? I would also like to add the under hood and courtesy lights under the dash. Car is originally a BBC with A/C, does the harness accommodate that? I see some, like on Ausleys, where it might be different if it was a small block. And where y'all getting your LEDs from? I replaced a bunch back about 10 years ago, cant recall where i got them from. Those all need to go too. Will also be replacing the instrument panel but that will be a separate post as I know its a lot to cover. Thank you for your help!

I havent had any issues with them other than i am waiting on a shifter and console. I have had good luck with Konicks and NPD. I will take a look at the others. Thank you again Joe. I have a dash project planned for next summer so that will be a bunch o parts. Whats the best place for all that stuff? Going with all new gauges, harness, etc..

I did notice two little...tits or something on one of the long sides, nothing on the other. Mighta broke off. I did a perimeter of super glue, and it kinda fit good without it. If it doesnt hold...its OPGI time for the $73 replacement. Thanks again Joe

AHHHHH, hmmm. I was able to get the board to kinda snap in, but the fitment is not firm enough. I'm sure it will rattle off. But what you put me onto is that harness ends in that black plug, and that plugs into the back of the bakelite that is part of the switch assembly. I thought the bakelight was part of the harness. THAT i can work with. Might just super glue it back together. When i wiggled it out the bakelite came away from the outer switches, probably loose for a while since my windows were sporadic at times. Thank you Joe.

So i went a little further down the rabbit hole LOL. Having a hard time understanding the assembly. Tell me if i am wrong, but it looks to me like the bakelite board that holds the contacts and harness will nest into the rocker switch assembly. But i dont see anything that would keep it in there. So this clip in the attached picture must be doing that. I have the chassis service manual but could find nothing on this. It looks like i should push the harness thru the door hole, assemble the switch with this clip, and then press the whole assembly back into the door ring that i backed with that plate. It doesnt seem all that substantial. So i am wondering if a part is missing? I did find a round hard piece of plastic in the bottom of the door but that turned out to be where the window settles at the bottom of the door. Nothing else in there. I thought i paid close attention to taking it apart, but since it was already wonky I might not know an important step here. Does anyone have a diagram or procedure for installing this switch into the panel? Thank you.

So I pulled the door panel off to see what the issue was. Looks like the panel board that the door material is mounted to was just old and coming apart. The cover material was in great shape so I didnt want to remove it all. I found some .025" thick aluminum (in the junk pile I never throw anything away) and cut a new backer plate for the switch. She sits in there solid as a rock. I would have used a different metal if i had any around. The aluminum is soft but in that thickness it works well and it works well. And its easy to cut with a sabre saw. Also, had to drill some holes and screw the plate down between two pieces of wood so I could get the saw around. I used the "sleeve" that the switch pushes into (last pic) as a template and just traced around it. Then drew the same shape again inside so i could get the tightest fit possible in the old panel.