wallaby

Has anyone here converted to a hydroboost system? I'm considering it because my stock system just feels too "mushy" for my liking. I could go the cheaper route and get a new plated vacuum booster and master combo, but I'm worried that the braking performance (pedal feel) will be the same as what I have now. If I were to go with the hydroboost conversion, I'd like to find everything needed in a single kit or from a single supplier... I don't want to have to scavenge for oddball adaptor fittings and such after the fact to make it work. Any experience out there, or words of wisdom?

As stated above, the bolts that hold the manifold to the engine aren't too bad...it's the nuts down below that hold on the exhaust pipe that tend to give trouble. You will probably want to use a 6-point deep socket and some tecnique when loosening them. Oil them down first with PB blaster or some other penetrating oil. When you go to loosen them, they will likeley crack loose and then jam up and not want to go any further...at that point, try tightening it back up a bit and then unscrewing it again. It's this back & forth motion as you go that will clear the threads and eventually it should come apart. A constant forcefull loosening often results in something breaking.

Mine was that way for a long time; I had to run a lot of base timing to get any throttle response and a decent idle. The problem was with my centrifugal/ vacuum distributor, it started running rough as rpm went up. It wasn't real bad, but obvious not running real smooth on the highway at cruise. With that much timing it was hard for the starter to crank the engine when restarting. My problem turned out to be fuel mixture. I had it running way lean and it liked the high timing to mask the issue...but as speed went up it was too much. I was able to fatten the idle mixture and it let me run less timing and less idle speed. Do you have eye-burning exhaust fumes?

It looks as if the front guard mounts just to the inside of that big crack in the bumper. LOL I haven't done this, but aren't the lower holes on the front bumper pre-existing? Seems I remember a series of holes on that edge. In the rear it looks as if you have to drill all four holes yourself. I remember drilling through the face of a bumper years ago to mount fog lights or something, and it wasn't an easy thing to drill through.

Or HEI ? The obvious is that dang little filter you mentioned in the carb inlet. They have a very small capacity for holding dirt & crud and plug up easily. The factory type was a sintered bronze type and looks like a bunch of tiny BBs pressed together... they filter well, but clog fast. The parts store also has a pleated paper type, and those have much more surface area and don't clog as often. The paper type is the better option. I've had cars in the past that would get that filter clogged and they would restrict the fuel flow to just a trickle. The engine would run for a while until it eventually emptied the fuel bowl of the carb faster than it could be refilled. Most of the time it would starve quickly if the engine was put under load, but seemed to run fine if driven conservative.

I guess I'm old school too then. I always do the final adjustment with the engine running. I guess I don't trust 'em till I've seen them in action. lol

The hard part is finding it in blue or green.

It sounds like for whatever reason, the starter motor isn't getting the signal to crank. It needs to have power at that 3 O'clock solenoid terminal. The question now is why isn't the key switch sending power to the solenoid terminal? It could be the switch itself, the neutral safety switch, or some bad wiring in-between. The next step is to try starting the car with the shifter in the neutral position. Try holding the key in the start position while wiggling the shifter around. The neutral safety switch won't let you start the car if it thinks you are in gear, and maybe it's worn or mis-adjusted. Moving the gear selector to neutral will use a different set of contacts in the switch that may work fine even if the switch won't work in park. Wiggling the selector may find a sweet spot where the switch will activate the starter if the switch is slightly misadjusted.

Rod, is this a recuring problem? and the joint is breaking in the area between the threaded area and the tapered area? Looking at the joint, this is the weakest part of the assembly. My first thought was a wobble in the tapered section and it's letting the shaft move from side to side while the nut is trying to hold it still...the constant bending of the shaft breaks it. The tapered design would make you think this is impossible; but if the wide end of the spindle hole is too wide, the ball joint shaft seats firmly at the narrow end only. This would be a spindle problem, not the fault of the ball joint. The other possibility is over tightening of the retaining nut. It could be almost pulling the treaded section off all by itself. Because it's a big nut and going over a hardened steel shaft on an important suspension part, you'd think it should really be tightened down tight... but the specs say it should be 33 ftlbs. I was surprised. That number is quite a bit less than even a lug nut. I just did a quick web search to get that torque value: double check the manual. The taperd fit design should hold the shaft firmly and prevent any side loads from reaching the retaing nut. At first glance it would look like the weight of the car is compressing the taperd shaft into the tapered hole...but it's the opposite; the weight is trying to pull the shaft out of the hole. That's what the retaining nut prevents.

And there are two types of filter: there is a pleated paper type and a sintered-bronze type. The paper kind are less prone to clogging. They filter about the same, but the paper has more capacity.

To some of here it may be obvious, not so for others. I'm talking about the crazy fuel line fitting and filter arangement on the Q-jets. If you dive in to change that filter, make sure you use TWO wrenches! Use a 1" wrench to keep the big nut still, and a fitting wrench to undo the fuel line. Once the fuel line is off you can unscrew the big nut on the carb to access the filter...but be aware that the carb is only potmetal and the threads are very fine; they have a habit of stripping or crossthreading. It's pretty straight-forward, just don't skip any steps. I tried to do a favor for a friend years ago and learned this lesson the hard way. It was an expensive lesson, and that was back when replacement carbs were easy to get. As for the shutting off, it sounds like it could be ignition related. Most of the time fuel starvation makes the engine lurch or kinda gradualy slow down & die. An instant shutdown sounds like you described: the ignition being shut off. If you still have gas in the carb afterward, I'd search elsewhere for the problem. HEI is a little tricky...how do you know you have spark? The distributor module and the rotor are prone to give these symptoms.

My '71 has one that runs between the positive battery post and a junction block on the radiator support. it's a small pigtail mostly hidden by the battery.

This is a good question. I don't have a difinitive answer, but I've been thinking about it. I know when installing the press-in half of the joint into the driveshaft, you press the joint hard against the c-clip, then turn the shaft over and press it hard again in the other direction against the c-clip. The end result is both caps are as far out as possible and the u-joint has a bit of "float" and is not bound up when done. There is no real bearing surface at the ends of the u-joint cross shafts; they shouldn't be tight against the ends of the caps. The question is how much end play is acceptable? I tried to do some searching for this question about lateral play and got varied answers...most seemed to think that the caps should be tight against the ears and lateral movement should be nill. Others felt .010 or less. I guess the real answer will have to come from a driveline expert.

It's possible that the actual linkage arm bolted to the trans is different. Maybe you can swap that piece and solve your problem. Chevrolet was pretty good at keeping things the same from car to car so the assembly line didn't have these issues, but it's still possible that piece is slightly different. Other than that, you might want to try once again to adjust what you have by putting the trans and column in neutral and adjusting from there.

Ac belt goes on first, then PS belt, then alt belt. When you tighten them down, tighten the PS belt before you tighten the AC belt.

Try from the other direction: put the trans all the way into low and select low on the column...then adjust the linkage to fit in between.

I haven't done this mod yet, but I'm just thinking: doesn't the increase in width come from the thickness of the rotor itself? I know a brake drum is surprisingly thin where it gets sandwiched between the wheel and axle flange, while a disk rotor has more meat to it in that area.

Something looks screwy with that starter. From the picture you gave, it looks like the gear needs to be nearly flush with the rear face of the mounting block when it's at rest in the withdrawn position...right now it looks like it's sticking out nearly 1/4 inch too far. As it sits, to make it correct you would need something like a 1/4" shim between the motor assembly and the mounting block, but that sounds excessive to me. You might even need to find longer bolts to hold it all together once the shim is in place. In reality you don't need to shim the starter so it withdraws as far back as the original starter, you only need to shim it enough that it pulls away from the flywheel. The original starter may pull away 1/2" from the flywheel when 1/8" would be enough. It just seems that this starter should have this problem figured out before you even try to mount it. I mean it should be able to function as it is without all the adjustments and shims. I'm wondering if there is something hanging inside the solenoid assembly that's preventing the gear from pulling back as far as it should; maybe the return spring isn't doing its job? You can't really use this thing as it is, so there's no harm in removing the solenoid assembly to see if there's something obviously wrong in there. Just be glad your stock starter is doing the job for you now.

I wonder if a shop that does smog tests would let you put the car on their rollers and run her up to speed? From the outside it might be real obvious where the problem is.

Yay! Sounds like you're set to go. The wiring you did to the fusebox needs to stay for the HEI to function. There's no longer any need for the original wire between starter and distributor/coil.

The starter itself is the same for both flywheel types; it's the mounting position that is different. Here is a picture of a starter that is drilled to fit both size flywheels... you can see the 4 holes along the top edge of the mounting plate. On the left side there are two holes, and on the right there are two holes. If you were to number the holes from left-to-right as viewed in the picture, the big flywheel mounting would have you put your bolts through holes 1 and 3. Small flywheel would use holes 2 and 4. It's a bit like the rear gears on a 10-speed bicycle: in the back there are several gears with different diameters and different tooth-counts, but the chain still fits them all. I don't know that I've ever seen a smll flywheel on a V-8. The small flywheel was used with the 4 & 6cyl engines.

Starter noise during cranking and after the engine fires is often a result of too much or too little distance between the starter pinion gear and the flywheel. A high pitched whine during cranking (before the engine fires) can be caused by the pinion and flywheel being too far apart. Likewise, a whine after the engine starts (as the key is released) is often a result of the pinion-flywheel relationship being too close. In both cases flywheel damage can occur. Shims are available in 0.015 in. (0.4mm) sizes to properly adjust the starter on its mount. You will also need a flywheel turning tool, available at most auto parts stores or from any auto tool store or salesperson. If your vehicle's starter emits the above noises, follow the shimming procedure: 1. Disconnect the negative battery cable. 2. Remove the flywheel inspection cover on the bottom of the bellhousing. 3. Using the flywheel turning tool, turn the flywheel and examine the flywheel teeth. If damage is evident, the flywheel should be replaced. 4. Insert a suitable prybar into the small hole in the bottom of the starter and move the starter pinion and clutch assembly so the pinion and flywheel teeth mesh. If necessary, rotate the flywheel so that a pinion tooth is directly in the center of the two flywheel teeth and on the centerline of the two gears, as shown in the accompanying illustration. 5. Check the pinion-to-flywheel clearance by using a 0.020 in. (0.5mm) wire gauge (a spark plug wire gauge may work here, or a standard paperclip is about right). Make sure you center the pinion tooth between the flywheel teeth and the gauge, NOT in the corners, as you may get a false reading. If the clearance is under this minimum, shim the starter away from the flywheel by adding shim(s) one at a time to the starter mount. Check clearance after adding each shim. 6. If the clearance is a good deal over 0.020 in. (0.5mm), in the vicinity of 0.050 in. (1.27mm) plus, shim the starter toward the flywheel. Broken or severely mangled flywheel teeth are also a good indicator that the clearance here is too great. Shimming the starter toward the flywheel is done by adding shims to the outboard starter mounting pad only. Check the clearance after each shim is added. A shim of 0.015 in. (0.4mm) at this location will decrease the clearance about 0.010 in. (0.25mm).

That reminds me: I have a set of C-clamps made by a company called "adjustable". Gosh, whatever you do, make sure you get adjustable C-clamps! LOL

Yea. Don't try bringing the wire tru from the back of the fuse box. You need to snake the wire through from some other passage...maybe the grommet where the steering column comes through the firewall, or some other area or hole where wires already pass through. Once you get through to the inside with the wire, it simply clips onto the IGN terminal on the front of the fuse box. There is no access on the back side of the fuse box.

Don't ask me how I know, but the dishwasher is the perfect device for this job.