Progress on #782

[kevins2]

Hi Dan,

If you're going to put the hood weather stripping on in segments instead of continuous, you may consider a little trick I learned from an ERA owner. When cutting the weather stripping, pinch it between your fingers and cut at an angle. That gives the ends a nice tapered appearance instead of square cut. I don't know how that fits into the originality theme (probably doesn't), but would look nice.

Regards,

Kevin

[428street]

I think it's less standard and more craziness!

This is the info for the "most correct" WS I could find. The original WS actually had metal flake/thread like material pressed into the strip itself.

Ron Leonard
Sport G T Motoring
1812 Crestview Dr
Durango, Colorado 81301-4932

Phone: (970) 259-0108 (970) 259-0108

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by 428street

I think it's less standard and more craziness!

This is the info for the "most correct" WS I could find. The original WS actually had metal flake/thread like material pressed into the strip itself.

Ron Leonard
Sport G T Motoring
1812 Crestview Dr
Durango, Colorado 81301-4932

Phone: (970) 259-0108 (970) 259-0108

Thanks Frank - is it fairly soft and compress pretty easily? The clearances around these opening in a fiberglass car aren't too uniform in areas - tight in some and wide in others.

Dan

[428street]

Seeing I have the same car as you I would assume it not to be an issue but can't say for sure. I'm pretty picky and I had no issues with it. Maybe it was raised a bit when I first put it on but I quickly compressed it (hood and trunk) and left it in the sun. No ridges at all and it's been on for years...again, if you go this route there is a specific pattern that it needs to be installed. basically all around the opening but the WS stops about six inches from both from corners. Truck is the same but SW stops on two bottom corners.

[tkb289]

Dan,

Congratulations !!!

Never ceases to amaze me just how big those 427/428 motors really are compared to a 289/302. The manifolds will be challenging, I had to do some trimming and fiddling to get my FIA headers & exhaust setup to fit properly and I had a lot more room to work with!

Keep those pictures coming, car looks great!

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by tkb289

Dan,

Congratulations !!!

Never ceases to amaze me just how big those 427/428 motors really are compared to a 289/302. The manifolds will be challenging, I had to do some trimming and fiddling to get my FIA headers & exhaust setup to fit properly and I had a lot more room to work with!

Keep those pictures coming, car looks great!

Thanks - yes, it's tight. But it does fit. John (Grubby) had said it could be dropped straight down with the clutch and bellhousing in place. I had the clutch in place but left the bellhousing off. I think I would have had to do a little manuvering to get it in with the bellhousing on it. Tilting the motor is of no use. It needs to go in, straight down and level.

I still need to check it out with a level and may have to move it around a little on the mounts before tightening them down. The transmission mount has a some adjustment up and down and I guess I'll have to do a little checking of u-joint angles to make sure I end up with a couple degrees deflection to ensure the needle bearings rotate.

[strictlypersonl]

Originally Posted by DanEC

...
I still need to check it out with a level and may have to move it around a little on the mounts before tightening them down. The transmission mount has a some adjustment up and down and I guess I'll have to do a little checking of u-joint angles to make sure I end up with a couple degrees deflection to ensure the needle bearings rotate.

Just put the transmission output centerline at 3.5" (+/- .25") above the top plane of the X-member. If you have the Jag-based suspension, the differential angle varies as the suspension goes up and down. Matching angles with the suspension unloaded will not work.

We've used that height spec for 30 years, and never had a problem with the drive-shaft.

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by strictlypersonl

Just put the transmission output centerline at 3.5" (+/- .25") above the top plane of the X-member. If you have the Jag-based suspension, the differential angle varies as the suspension goes up and down. Matching angles with the suspension unloaded will not work.

We've used that height spec for 30 years, and never had a problem with the drive-shaft.

Bob - this is a timely note. I was just getting ready to write about this subject after playing around with an angle gage on the drive train this evening. I'll set it at 3.5 inches.

Thanks

[DanEC]

Jeeez - no body warned me I should have dropped the radiator in the car before installing any front suspension parts. I thought I would take a few minutes this morning to drop it in and it won't go - the lower outlet kept getting hungup on the pass side upper a-arm bolt. After taping and padding a bunch of things I was finally able to twist and turn the radiator enough for it to slide by that and then thunk - it hung up on the sway bar. So I had to remove the bolts from it so I could pull it down and get the radiator to fall into place. And then of course the top mount and baffle are a very tight fit and took a lot of fooling with. My 15 minute job took about 1-1/2 hours finally.

[ceslaw]

That trick with the pilot bearing was really slick. I always wondered how one would remove one after it was pounded into place.

[ERA Chas]

Did you soak the bronze bush in oil before installing??

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by ERA Chas

Did you soak the bronze bush in oil before installing??

No, I didn't. I had read conflicting reports on if that did any lasting good or not. I had thought about soaking it in a pan of hot oil, but in the end I just gave it and the pilot shaft a light smearing with Mobile 1 grease. Fortunately, my habits are that I never sit for more than a moment with the clutch disengaged and trans in gear. I usually park it in neutral and let the clutch out at lights and when idling.

The things use to be impregnated with oil years ago but they don't seem to do that now when you can find a bronze bushing. I didn't feel comfortable using a sintered steel bushing in there.

[Fullchat289]

Fantastic job, Dan!

-Allen.

[DanEC]

I received my exhaust headers and mufflers back from NitroPlate about 10 days ago but just found time this evening to unwrap them. They look very nice. They ceramic coat everything inside and outside - even the SpinTech mufflers from what I can see. They swear that this will not be a problem with slip connections but I remain a little skeptical. I'm anticipating I may have to remove it from the inside surface of the collectors (sanding drum on a drill probably) in order to seat the exhaust headers. I'm going to use the slip connector sealant that ERA recommends (see pic) which may add a little lubrication to seating the connections. I also got my copper exhaust gaskets so I'm ready to go. Now if I can get all of this installed without scratching anything.

I need to also fill the cooling system, hang the dash and plug in the harness, install a battery, run a pre-oiler in the engine and it should be ready to fire up - hopefully.

[DanEC]

Finally got my exhaust mostly finished up.











I still have an anchor to drill out and tap in the upper part of each wheel well that will hold the pipe firmly in position. Right now there is about a 1/4 inch minimum clearance from the frame to the pipe wrap and about 1 inch to the tire. Depending on the size of rubber insulator that I install at the anchor I can alter these dimensions somewhat.

[*13*]

Very nice! The 289 pipes were a snug fit with heat temp spray paint. Completely different setup, though.

[Fullchat289]

Enjoying your updates, Dan! I can see the girl sitting over there under the plastic... ;-)

- Allen.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Fullchat289

Enjoying your updates, Dan! I can see the girl sitting over there under the plastic... ;-)

- Allen.

Allen, what did you do to your stub axle and how did you manage to do it? Maybe a new thread so we don't hijack this one....

[dcdoug]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Allen, what did you do to your stub axle and how did you manage to do it? Maybe a new thread so we don't hijack this one....

Read my clutch thread and change the names (except at least he figured it out before pulling the rest of the drivetrain....)

[patrickt]

Allen needs to trot trot out to the garage with his digital camera in tow. Seriously, I know he has the ERA outboard braked rear in his car and, for the life of me, I can't remember the last time someone broke one of those.