TireSmoke.org

So yesterday I took the front of the exhaust down, the tranny crossmemeber off, removed the driveshaft, and pulled the rear tailshaft housing off the Caddy's transmission. What I found (after some investigating) is that the rearward bushing that supports the transmission yoke is GONE. What I also learned, is that my tranny yokes are too short by about an inch, and were never making contact with the front bushing.

The solution (I think) will be to get an adapter u-joint and run my Caddy's original yoke with the bigger driveshaft. As far as my measurements are concerned, this should work perfectly. If I'm not completely satisfied with the fitment, I can get another HD yoke and machine the inside teeth off to clear the rear tailshaft's o-ring, and I'll be good.

Hopefully during the week or by next weekend I'll get it back together. I'm going to reuse the tailshaft housing off the original turbo 400 as the bushings are in great shape and they appear to be steel where the ones in the TCI trans were brass.

Mystery solved.

-BP

Sooo... How did you end up with a tranny yoke that was too short:?:

That's what the guys that made the driveshaft put on it... Then I modified another one trying to solve the problem, but not understanding the problem, it didn't do anything for me.

-BP

Paul, I'm bettin' those bushing aren't steel, but steel backed babbit - just like a main or rod bearing. Still gotta wonder why TCI used brass - do you think it's harder than babbit?


Just wondering out loud...


Jacin

You might be right, but all I know is the one in the old tailshaft housing made it over 40 years, so I'm going to stick with it for now. I will get the other one fixed eventually too. My new yoke should be here tomorrow.

-BP

So the new yoke is installed, along with the old tailshaft housing, and so far so good. I only drove it about 5 miles so far, but there's nothing leaking and it felt pretty smooth. I guess that's all I can ask. Now I need to get some fresh fuel in there and clean out the secondaries a little more. I'm off from Wed - Sunday and plan to clean it and drive it quite a bit in that time. It felt good to run it around a little.

I still have to put my new drag radials on my new rear rims, then I'll be ready for the track again. Maybe on the 11th with SS327.

-BP

So much for racing on the 11th with the Caddy. If you read my S-10 post, you know I had Caddy problems. The problem is that my clutch and fan decided to disattach itself from the rest of my engine today. Somehow the water pump shaft sheared right off while driving and it took out my radiator and fan blades.

If you look close at the water pump, it's just plain old crappy metal. That water pump is probably 10 years old or so, but most likely doesn't have more than 10k miles on it. I'm going to replace the water pump, fan clutch, fan (proabably with something a little smaller with less blades), and radiator. This was a pretty pricey little failure, not to mention another couple weeks at least with the car down gathering parts and doing the work. Ugh.

Also, the rear trans seal is leaking again, but from the rubber part where it touches the yoke, but from around the outside of the seal. Normally I put a small amount of goo around the outside of the seals when I install them but this time I didn't. Oh well, I'm pretty good at doing these seals by now.














-BP

Ouch. Electric fans anyone?

One of the radiator companies makes an aluminum blade fan instead of steel that I'm going to get. I'll probably get a slightly smaller diameter too. I already have a big electric fan on the outside so if for some reason it does get hot (and it never does) I can help it out.
Also, my current radiator has more cores than the stock replacement one so I might be using that electric fan a little more often. When it's 95 degrees out, I usually don't drive it anyway so I don't think it will be that big of a problem.

-BP

That sucks. What a strange part failure.

As someone who has had his fair share of catastrophic failures this year,
I feel your pain....

GM

The radiator got dropped off for repair on Saturday morning. The local repair guy says around $125 to fix it.

I went to pull a part this morning and found a nice five blade fan with a clutch on it from some old GM V8 car and threw a quick black paint job at it when I got home. I also bought a new belt on the way home.

Hopefully by next weekend sometime I can start putting it back together. Then I still have to put a rear tranny seal in it again... and I have to work next Saturday too. Ugh.

-BP

Picked up the radiator today. Bought some coolant, trans fluid, and a new rear tranny seal. Now back to work...

-BP

Yesterday I put everything all back together. As it turns out, the junkyard clutch was the wrong size (my fault). I went to Autozone, but couldn't get a new clutch until Wed. So since I didn't want to wait anymore, I decided to just go with electric fans. I already had one large one on there, and at one point had a smaller one on there too, but took it off awhile back since I didn't really need it. Since the wiring and mounts were already there, I was able to put it back together relatively easily. I did chance the way I mounted them at the top by using HD rubber hose as a bushing to make a little more space between the fans and the radiator. (I'll post pictures later)
I also then pulled the driveshaft back out, pulled the rear trans seal and replaced that again. This time I used a Timken seal and put some RTV around the outside and so far so good.

As happens so many times, I worked all day on the car and it was reasonably nice outside. I pulled the Caddy out of the garage for a test run and it started to sprinkle outside. HOW DOES IT KNOW??? So I basically drove it for three minutes around my development. I did leave it idle in the garage for about 15 minutes though, and with the hood closed, it never got over 170 degrees, so I'm confident the coolant won't leak and the radiator won't overheat.

Next I'm thinking I'm going to buy a new carb. I have an 850 with center squirts and really isn't the most street frindly carb. Now, after sitting for what's basically a year and a half, it's got a pretty big bog anytime I get around 3/4 throttle. It really needs a progressive blade carb. I think I'm going to buy a new 850 Holley "double pump". I'm going to do a little research, but unless someone can convice me otherwise, that's probably the way I'm going to go.

-BP

I've been searching Holley's website and am convincing myself that this Street Avenger 870 might be the ticket for me:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HLY-0-80870/?rtype=10

I'm not usually a vacuum secondary kind of guy, but based on what I'm reading, for what I'm doing it might work out well. While looking, I found this interesting test that showed me that this carb actually does perform very well. IMO, this Buick's motor is pretty close to mine (except the compression, which I hope to rememedy):

http://www.summitracing.com/expertadvic ... rburetors/

I'm willing to give up a couple HP for driveability. Since I put this current carb on there, it's been a lot harder to drive around. Any objections?

-BP