1 Sep 08
Three day weekends rock. Actually, this update is two weekends' worth though.
On the first weekend, I ran out of steam early on Saturday -- it was very, very hot out. Not that anyone cares.  I did a lot of cleaning up -- got the last of the inherited tools put away and the garage clean enough to work in.

I also got to the point where I was ready to start cutting the LCA mount off -- and I was really, really nervous about doing such a thing.  Go figure.
Here you see the mount, and the test-rod that points out that it's not in the right place.  Theoretically, the rod should slide through the front mount holes, and then through the rear mount holes.  Here, it hits the upper right corner of the hole by just a little bit.
Sunday when I came out, the door wouldn't open.  Guess that spring does more than I would have thought, I just couldn't lift it -- and no door means no work, since the garage is very cramped and where I was working really needed that access.

Might be just as well, it was very hot out.

Okay, I have no pictures from the first part of this Saturday. I don't know if I failed to take any, or the camera failed to save them. Given that it no longer turns on, I'm going to go ahead and claim it to be the camera's fault. The day started with the ceremony of the cutting off of the suspension bracket. What a pain. I used the 9 inch grinder with the cutoff wheel where I could, falling back on the sawzall where I couldn't fit the grinder. I only had two metal cutting blades for the saw though, so when they were done, I was done with the frame and had to move on to other tasks..
The broken AC box?  The spare 70 AC box in the attic was identical, except for the broken part.
This bracket that held some piping had to go.
Started to try to mount the Camaro AC coil by notching the box to fit the tubes.
This tab is a problem, but was easily bent down (hope I didn't poke a hole in things when I bent it though)
There was a tab here on the other end of the coil -- could have sworn I took a pic, but I don't have it now -- but the tab is just attached with clear goop and it came off easily enough.
Here's how it fits with the tab bent.
Not such a good fit, that pipe is in the way.
Notched the firewall to clear the pipe.  I'll have to also notch the inside box.
Closed the whole thing up.  I'll have to block off the bottom part of the box -- this coil isn't nearly as tall as the original.
Moved on to the clutch.  I'd sent the dual-disk off to McLeod to get rebuilt, and I have it back now.
I'd picked up some ARP bolts for the flywheel.
After disassembling the clutch, it was simple enough to attach to the crank with those bolts.
Disk 1, and then the floater plate.  The numbers written on the flywheel?  They identify which group of spacers and shims go there.
Spot 1 is the group with one nylon tie, etc.  The spacer goes on the flywheel side, and then the shims closer to the floater.
Assembled.
Hurrah for transmission installations.
Except when you can't get them to line up.  I've torn this apart a couple of times and tried to get the boy to help get it in there, and it just isn't working.  Will continue to try once the engine isn't sitting in a nose-down state -- that complicates it a bit.
Sunday.  Saturday night I went and picked up new blades, and the rest of the mount came off within a matter of minutes.  Sharp blades are a good thing.
Here the mount is just held in place by the rod and the LCA (LCA is on a jackstand).  Amazing how easily the LCA moves when the mounts line up.  The difference, for the most part, was that the LCA needed to be moved back on the frame about 3/16".
On the outside, used a punch as a spacer to put the mount in the right place for tack welding.
The MIG is still set up for .023 wire; the TIG is not driven by thick enough power cables to put forth enough juice for this, which leaves stick-welding, which I suck at.  I am not too worried about penetration -- I blew through enough that I can be pretty sure I'm melting the metal, but I a) leave some ugly welds, and b) have to clean up a lot of blowthrough.  The inner and outer edges of the frame are mostly welded.  I think I've had some warpage from the heat, the rod still slides right in but it gives some resistance to turning.  I'll need to put the LCA back in and verify all is still well (didn't want to do it while everything was hot, hate to melt those bushings)
The fore and aft edges of the mount are not welded.  I'll have to make some bits to fill in the gaps -- both edges have some area to fill.
In the back, the gap is about 1/8".  The front gap is more like 3/16" or 1/4".  I had to stop welding because the stick welder puts out some interference that was ruining some stuff other folks were doing.  Plus it was really hot with the welding gear on, so I think I was happy to stop.
Here's the AC box from the inside.  Personal self-improvement list:  Measure more before just cutting things.  I think once I started cutting on the car, it became too easy to just cut things -- frames, tunnels.. where does it end?

There is another update in here somewhere, from when the site was down.  I'll get it put up soon, but not much happened.

 

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