Build Thread 1978 Fairmont. I bet somebody back home’s thinkin’…I wonder why he don’t write..?

Back in the 90’s it seemed that I was building a new race car every 2-3 years. Starting with the Black and white Zephyr in 91, I had an 80 Notch with a 460/C4, a 79 Fairmont ( that had the running gear out of the notch when I wrecked it) and another 80 Zephyr w/a SBF/C4 through the end of the decade.
I used the same place to build the drive shaft in all three cases.
In the early 2000’s I had 2 additional drag cars, and one that started as a street car, that I fcked up, and converted it into a drag car.
(An 87 351w/PG Mitsubishi Starion, a 87 Chrysler Conquest, ( a 347 N/A/TR 3550 powered street car that ended up as a twin turbo’d drag car with a R block 363) and the 86 hatch that had the meth fueled R 363, but with a gigandor single 95 mm wheezer instead.))
In every instance above, I used a different guy to build my drive shafts.

Now that I’ve wasted your time with my automotive memoirs, I’ll get to the point of today’s update.

The new driveshaft guy moved his shop to a place about 30 miles north of the city. I called that guy a couple of weeks ago to get an idea of how much a new shaft was gonna cost me. He tells me between 300-400.00.

Last Monday, I was prepared to make the trip up there and have him do it, when it dawns on me that there was a shop I used to use 15 minutes away…So I call them instead.

This morning I go to pick the completed driveshaft up from the original shop, and he gives me the bill.
“ I had to charge you for a new joint, because the one on the yoke end wouldn’t work, otherwise it’d be a little less..How about 185.00?”

I threw 200.00 at him and said “keep the change.”

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Another brick in the wall…..

It's good to find someone who does a good job and is fair. Too many people are azzholes and think their chit is bitcoin.
 
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Another “ what can I get away with” kinda day, with an extra heaping helping of “ not today of all days” piled on top.

My idea of a Fathers day, is to let me do what I want up until later this afternoon when my two boys ( who live in their own damn houses) will come over for dinner and drinks or something like that.

I‘m sure Kate has a different version of how this day is supposed to go however.

I need to make a new transmission crossmember and mount. Counting the original version that held the 4r70, the second version of that one, the completely redone version that held the 4l80, and now this new one for the Cd009, this’ll make the 4th trans crossmember ive designed, and made for this car.

I want to put the tunnel back in for real this time ( i’ll still have to bolt it in, this trans is just as much of a bitch ( actually more so) than the 4l80 was to install)).

I need to fix that madness that is the wiring harness so that i can start to consider putting the dash frame back in place.
The dash frame, and console need to be sanded and painted ( i just can’t wait to fck that up)

And then there’s the rear end gears..
 
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That console really turned out nice! Impressive work!
I would say that it looks as good as a factory setup, but no factory console is that slick. This is like concept car stuff - art and function! *hat tipped
 
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Some people don't believe in evolution, but I disagree.

Pg 1, post 7: Manual transmissions are dumb, said with a slight arrogance.
Pg 100: Check out my new manual swap.

Lulz.
I believe I said that I preferred not to go slow with a manual, not that they were “ dumb”.

This statement made before I had any ( read zero) seat time with the 2j, or any experience with the pig that was in the tunnel, gobbling up the power like water pouring out of a pipe.

I fully expect that the manual trans will be slower in an 1/8th mile with me driving it, especially when compared to something like a glide, but I’ve always hated powerglide transmissions, so no chance I’ll ever have that auto back in now to even compare it.

from a dig I expect this’ll be faster, up until the 2-3 gear change. ( at least till I get comfortable with it).
 
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Because I have zero sense of what I can get done in an allotted amount of time.

Today I’m laying out the plan,…Do I want to finish the dash and paint it, :chinor Drop the rear end for the gear change, :chinor Install the starter, and steering shaft, fill the transmission, and put the tunnel back in place.:chin
or…
Do I want to fabricate the rear tail shaft mount so that I can remove the jack stand that’s there holding the trans up.:chin

Hell,…maybe I can paint the dash, and while it’s drying, install the starter, and reinstall the steering shaft, then fill the transmission, ( since you can literally see the fill plug from above now that the tunnel is out) and put the tunnel back in place.
When that’s done, I’ll fab up the trans crossmember. I mean, how long could all this sht actually take?:shrug:

So at 8:30, I set out to get what I need.
I go to oreillys to get 5 qts of gear oil, and the paint for the dash. ( cept they don’t got no paint) But I got my oil.
I need steel to build the crossmember, Metal Supermarket is only 10 minutes past O Reilly’s.
I get my steel.
On the way back, I stop at Home Depot to get the bolts to hold my future crossmember.
I get my bolts.
Advance is right next door, I have to go there to get the paint that oreillys didn’t have.
I get my paint.
I stop off at Chick-fil-A to get breakfast.
I get breakfast.
When I get home it’s almost 10. I start out building the crossmember.
At 2 I stop to eat.
I’m still building the crossmember.
At 4 I let the dog (puppy) out of his pen, and let him run around awhile. I go back downstairs 30 minutes later so I can continue building the crossmember.
At 6, I’m done building the crossmember.
:nonono:
I don’t know….maybe I’m slowing down..Maybe things like a completely fabricated crossmember mounted to the floor through a piece of 1/8” plate just happens to take all freakin day. Maybe I made the thing way more complicated than it had to be.
Or….
Maybe I just suck at estimating what I can, or can’t get done in a day.
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When I first built this car, I welded 8x8 pieces of 1/8” plate to the sides of the tunnel. The crossmember bolts through that plate, and is made up of more 1/8” plate underneath.
The center section drops out, and the legs that bolt to the floor remain. But they too can be unbolted should I decide to do that.
 
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For better or worse, I’m gonna undertake the gear change out myself. I just got back from HF. I bought a bearing separator, a 25” long breaker bar, and a drive adapter set ( 1/4>3/8, 3/8>1/2). I’ll need that to check pinion bearing drag when i get to the part where i attempt to reinstall the new pinion.
I’ve decided that I’m not gonna remove the rear from the car, and will attempt this with it in place. The benefit being obvious, ( I don’t have to R&R the housing, and i’ll be able to let rear itself help hold the pinion flange when attempting to crush the crush sleeve by jamming a breaker bar against the ground.

Im sure it’ll still be a bitch trying to do this while laying under the car, but to me it’s the lesser of two evils..I really dont want to remove the rear end.

So I guess I’ll just have to dive in, and see if i’ve bitten off more than I can chew.
 
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What’s the rush anyway? Once you have it done you will be bored and need to change something. Take your time and enjoy the work.

PS, I must have missed it, or forgotten. What breed puppy did you get?
Meh….I‘m getting tired of doing stuff that doesn’t turn out that I have to do multiple times, or accept something that is less than for the sake of getting it done.
I sanded and sanded, and freakin sanded the dash bars trying to get rid of chips that have accrued over the years. I washed the thing off with wax and grease remover, wiped it down, blew it dry, tacked it off, blew it off some more, and painted it.
It fish eyed on the top corner on the driver side..Right where i’ll see it every freakin time.
 
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For better or worse, I’m gonna undertake the gear change out myself. I just got back from HF. I bought a bearing separator, a 25” long breaker bar, and a drive adapter set ( 1/4>3/8, 3/8>1/2). I’ll need that to check pinion bearing drag when i get to the part where i attempt to reinstall the new pinion.
I’ve decided that I’m not gonna remove the rear from the car, and will attempt this with it in place. The benefit being obvious, ( I don’t have to R&R the housing, and i’ll be able to let rear itself help hold the pinion flange when attempting to crush the crush sleeve by jamming a breaker bar against the ground.

Im sure it’ll still be a bitch trying to do this while laying under the car, but to me it’s the lesser of two evils..I really dont want to remove the rear end.

So I guess I’ll just have to dive in, and see if i’ve bitten off more than I can chew.
Mike, I’ve done more 8.8 gear swaps than I can remember. It’s super simple... an old racer taught me a trick. DO NOT use a new crush sleeve! Take your old pinion and sleeve to an anvil or brick, etc and hammer the side of the sleeve while rotating on the pinion. This lengthens the old sleeve. It’s softer than a new sleeve, 100x easier to crush, and won’t budge after installing. It saves TONS of effort and works fantastically. New sleeves are so hard to crush you’ll hurt yourself or something else crushing them. I also don’t bother retrieving the old shim, as long as you use Ford gears drop a .020 shim under the new pinion bearing and go. Keep your carrier shims (L&R) in order and everything goes right back in place, every time. I use a new pinion nut with thread locker and zap the nut with an impact a little at a time to crush the sleeve, checking preload by hand until it’s close. I can usually nail it as to when checked with a baby torque wrench it’s right. I did my first 3 or 4 checking preload torque. I don’t bother now. Never had an issue either. I would suggest checking preload on your first venture, however. I honestly can’t remember the spec on inch lbs.. you’ll have to search that.

edit: The caveat here is swapping Ford gears for Ford gears. If you do that, your checks (depth and backlash) will fall into place every single time. Not so much with Yukon or Richmond gears. That is a nightmare. I refuse to use them at all anymore.
 
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Mike, I’ve done more 8.8 gear swaps than I can remember. It’s super simple... an old racer taught me a trick. DO NOT use a new crush sleeve! Take your old pinion and sleeve to an anvil or brick, etc and hammer the side of the sleeve while rotating on the pinion. This lengthens the old sleeve. It’s softer than a new sleeve, 100x easier to crush, and won’t budge after installing. It saves TONS of effort and works fantastically. New sleeves are so hard to crush you’ll hurt yourself or something else crushing them. I also don’t bother retrieving the old shim, as long as you use Ford gears drop a .020 shim under the new pinion bearing and go. Keep your carrier shims (L&R) in order and everything goes right back in place, every time. I use a new pinion nut with thread locker and zap the nut with an impact a little at a time to crush the sleeve, checking preload by hand until it’s close. I can usually nail it as to when checked with a baby torque wrench it’s right. I did my first 3 or 4 checking preload torque. I don’t bother now. Never had an issue either. I would suggest checking preload on your first venture, however. I honestly can’t remember the spec on inch lbs.. you’ll have to search that.

edit: The caveat here is swapping Ford gears for Ford gears. If you do that, your checks (depth and backlash) will fall into place every single time. Not so much with Yukon or Richmond gears. That is a nightmare. I refuse to use them at all anymore.
Well thanks for that. And they are Ford gears in both cases. The side bearing preload is what gets me…The freaking things are in there so tight, it’s a MF’r to get the carrier in/out.
 
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Well thanks for that. And they are Ford gears in both cases. The side bearing preload is what gets me…The freaking things are in there so tight, it’s a MF’r to get the carrier in/out.
Use a pry bar to gently pop the carrier out. Be careful, it will fly out and land on your head if you don’t watch it. When reinstalling, put one side shim in and GENTLY tap the other in with a small hammer or dead blow. Be careful, the shims are cast and will break. Been there, done that.
 
This is what i’m talking about..
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Seemingly good from far….but
Far from good.
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I think they call this solvent pop..paint under didn’t get a chance to adequately flash off before i shot a second coat.
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And there’s this…good old contaminated substrate,…something on the surface that the paint i sprayed on top didn’t like and reacted.

And this is what I gotta accept. Especially now that these new layers of an enamel paint have been added to the already substantial base layers. Firstly, attempting to sand and spray a rattle can top coat is full of peril, as there is a fairly long cure time before that can be attempted w/o running the risk of the whole freaking thing wrinkling. Second, there’s already a buttloads of paint on the thing as it is.

If i knew for sure that there wasn’t any body filler in these parts, ( dash, console, door bars) i’d just take this stuff and have it powdercoated, but i don’t know/remember where it is for sure. I’m pretty sure it’s there though.
Even if I do, Ill just fck that up trying to get the mesh on.
 
Use a pry bar to gently pop the carrier out. Be careful, it will fly out and land on your head if you don’t watch it. When reinstalling, put one side shim in and GENTLY tap the other in with a small hammer or dead blow. Be careful, the shims are cast and will break. Been there, done that.
Oh it has a broken cast shim on one side already..I found that out the last time when I changed the differential out from a 28 spline T-loc to the 31 spline Tru-Trac that’s currently in it. When i saw the thing crack, it was already seated, i figured it wasn’t gonna go anywhere, so I left it.

But that side is already busted.
 
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