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Sounds like one of my tricks. Can't remember what car it was on but I was involved in a brake caliper change where we got the left and right calipers on the wrong sides. The bleeders weren't at the top of the caliper so it wouldn't bleed.

Congrats! What a great looking ride! If it were me - the VERY first thing I would do is to put disc brakes on the front. I did that on my convertible and am TOTALLY convinced I saved one kids life who decided he coul dbeat traffic - he was wrong! He would have been dead wrong had I not upgrade to discs - car stopped way better. I still hit the little sob, but barely. I KNOW with drum brakes he would be dead or maimed. OK getting down off the pulpit. Car looks fantastic!!!

Jacin

Racin'Jacin wrote:Congrats! What a great looking ride! If it were me - the VERY first thing I would do is to put disc brakes on the front. I did that on my convertible and am TOTALLY convinced I saved one kids life who decided he coul dbeat traffic - he was wrong! He would have been dead wrong had I not upgrade to discs - car stopped way better. I still hit the little sob, but barely. I KNOW with drum brakes he would be dead or maimed. OK getting down off the pulpit. Car looks fantastic!!!

Jacin

Jacin,

The 442 has manual brakes and I believe ( I haven't gone crazy with the research ) that you can only run drums with
manuals...... You're the second guy to tell me discs are a must. I had a 1965 88 Olds that had 4 wheel drums and I never
even worried about getting it stopped, all I worried about was making it go faster! Time will tell with this one. I have
a bunch of things that need done before I go to the brakes. We shall see! Thanks for the advice!

GM

GMJohnny wrote: The 442 has manual brakes and I believe ( I haven't gone crazy with the research ) that you can only run drums with
manuals...... You're the second guy to tell me discs are a must. I had a 1965 88 Olds that had 4 wheel drums and I never
even worried about getting it stopped, all I worried about was making it go faster! Time will tell with this one. I have
a bunch of things that need done before I go to the brakes. We shall see! Thanks for the advice!

GM

I'll be the third guy to tell you discs are a must. And you can run them manually. I've had manual front discs on the Chevelle since '01.

-Dave

TireSmoker wrote:

GMJohnny wrote: The 442 has manual brakes and I believe ( I haven't gone crazy with the research ) that you can only run drums with
manuals...... You're the second guy to tell me discs are a must. I had a 1965 88 Olds that had 4 wheel drums and I never
even worried about getting it stopped, all I worried about was making it go faster! Time will tell with this one. I have
a bunch of things that need done before I go to the brakes. We shall see! Thanks for the advice!

GM

I'll be the third guy to tell you discs are a must. And you can run them manually. I've had manual front discs on the Chevelle since '01.

-Dave

Dave,

My 442 has a single reservoir master cylinder on it.... Does your Chevelle have a dual reservoir master cylinder or a single?

GM

I have a dual on the Chevelle. The Corvette has 4 wheel manual discs on a single. It can be done. It may not be 100% stock, (it certainly isnt on the Vette) but it does work.

-Dave

So, one of the things that was totally making me insane was the fact that my steering wheel
center had the Oldsmobile symbol leaning sideways. I popped it off of the wheel and tried to
see if there was a way to make it straight, and it wasn't happening. After looking at multiple
pictures online, I figured out that the center was the wrong one for a 1966, mine was for a
1967 steering wheel. I was able to find one on Ebay, for $20.00 shipped. I installed it this week
and took the car for one last spin. It snowed today, and now the car is under cover in the barn.
I'll work on it over the winter, but driving it again won't happen until spring.

GM

Christmas vacation started for me today and we took advantage of it. Out to the barn we went
to get the rear end out of the 442. We got the rear end out of the car and on the floor in a bit
over an hour. We took it to the repair man this afternoon. Soon to be installed will be the 3.36:1
posi rear end. I did find the id number stamped on the rear end, verifying the 3.90:1 open carrier
set up ("TG" code stamped on the right axle tube). It's cool to see that nobody has tampered with
the rear axle -- until now. There's a side of me that says leave it alone, but drivability is not
tolerable with that steep gear in the car. I will save (and not sell!) the factory carrier and gear so
anybody who wants "all original" can go back the other way. The rear end guy says it should be
ready to go tomorrow or Friday. I'd expect the install to take a bit more time, but we should be able
to get it in the car in two hours or so.

GM

I understand the reservation about changing or removing something that is....gasp....51 years old and has been there since it left the GM factory.
However, practicality and drivability sometimes have to win out.
My Chevelle was extremely original when I bought it back in 2009. But it was a 307/Powerglide/power drum brake car. The 307 and PG sit in the corner of my garage and all the original brake "stuff" is in a box in the attic. (Oddly enough, the '69 Camaro crowd loves anything OEM from 1969.....but I did not sell.)
I truly enjoy having a car that is a time capsule (for the most part) and being a maintainer of history. But some things do change for the better.
Keeping the original gears stored away preserves the history and your car's "provenance". Lower RPMs while cruising makes for.....better everything.

Tony,

You are 100% correct! The guy I bought the car from was interested in it being a "model"
as opposed to it being a driver. My car has to be able to be driven and enjoyed!

GM

Somebody took the time online to make a nice compilation of data for the 1966 Oldsmobiles:

http://oldcarmanualproject.com/manuals/ ... mation.pdf

I put it on TireSmoke so I can find it whenever I want!

GM

Ok! So the rear end guy kept his promise and got my axle rebuilt in one day. He also confirmed to me that
the rear end (based on the numbers in the picture below ) is of correct vintage for the vehicle and the
gear set matched the code on the axle. We brought it home on Thursday and installed it in Friday. We
installed an Eaton posi carrier and Yukon 3.36:1 gears. The install went better than expected and didn't
take us two hours. We filled the carrier with the required 3 pts. of gear lube ( 7 ounces of that was posi lube )
and slapped it up in the chassis. While the wheels were off, I tested my spare tire ( which I mounted with tire
irons on the floor the other day -- waiting to be balanced ) on the car and it fit perfectly, and is a great match
to the others on the car. After all of that stuff was done, I took the speedo gear out of the trans. I'm starting
to research which gear to get. From the preliminary research, it looks like I will have to change the drive gear
on the main shaft of the trans, but more to come on that. More steps forward!!

GM

I, too, left Richfield/JD Race with an Eaton Posi Carrier and Yukon 3.36 gears. They've worked great so far. Hope the same happens for you as well!

Jim really does do nice work and a is a great guy to deal with. Likes to talk a bit. Then again, he spends most of the day in his shop working on rear ends.

How was the train layout over in Claridon/Middlefield?

Glad you asked.
The Christmas Eve trip to Cornfield Hobby with Uncle John was great fun for Easton and Drew,
even Dad and Grandpa were amazed!
OK, just as thrilling and fun as TDR, especially when your 5!

Wow! When I was last there two Summers ago, the barn had just been built, the interior was painted by not lit very well, and they had just constructed the first "base" table or table top. Someone has been busy.

It's a pretty neat piece of property that they have. There's a small horse barn located on it as well.....and there is actually a real baseball diamond and field on the property, ala Field of Dreams.