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I remember as a kid when the words "made in Japan" were equivalent to the current phrase "Chinesium". It's really sad that we don't find "made in the USA" on many products anymore.
I remember as a kid when the words "made in Japan" were equivalent to the current phrase "Chinesium". It's really sad that we don't find "made in the USA" on many products anymore.
Our politicians have given away our manufacturing prowess and all that goes with it. We're done. Right now they are looting the country. It's almost over.
I happy to report that the SKF wheel bearings solved my end play issue and I now have a functioning parking with the installation of new parking brake shoes, pads and rotors. I had to reroute the brake lines on the axles to clear the tailpipes while I had to car up in the air. Moving the mounting clip where the hard line transitioned to the rubber hose further outboard because it was rubbing on the tailpipe going over bumps. Now I'm fighting with leaking caliper hoses. Tried some new copper crush washers but they did not have ridges like the originals ones. I'm going to take off the calipers next weekend to remove the paint around the banjo bolts, also read on the web about reheating the copper washers to soften them up before reassembly. Here's a question for the CO brain trust; if I'm reusing the original AC Delco crush washers (with the ridges), should the ridges face outward toward the caliper and bolt or face inward toward the hose boss?? Thanks
Rodney
New wheel bearings, rotors, pads and parking brake shoes.
Leaking caliper hose. Going to try different crush washers.
The original AC Delco washers on the left have concentric ridges which the parts store replacements do not. I'm going to try reheating the AC Delco washers to soften them up for better sealing.
I finally got the rear calipers to stop dripping; the solution was new banjo bolts and crush washers and alot of muscle. It seemed like I would tighten the banjo bolts and they would drip, so I would tighten again and they would drip; after three iterations of this the drips finally stopped. With each subsequent tightening I would find the banjo bolts could be turned further, I guess the copper washers needed to compress between tightenings until they finally seated. I need to do a few more panic stops to dial back the rear calipers. With the current proportioning valve settings I have the rear pressure reduced about 30% and the rear wheels just barely want to lock up if the road surface is wet or uneven. I calculate the front-to-back brake bias to be 71:29 F-R. The car is very stable in a panic stop, very controlled, but I'd like a little more bite as the pedal travel is about 1/3 down before feeling the brakes start to work. I have Hawk HPS pads on the front with µF=.38; Hawk makes an HPS 5.0 pad with a µF=.44 which I might try for more stopping force.
I moved on to my crooked steering wheel issue. I had been moving the car around with an old beat-up steering wheel; I removed the horn pad so I could quickly remove the wheel to facilitate working on the dash and instrument wiring. When I tried to install the sport wteering wheel, I aligned the tick marks on the wheel to the tick mark on the steering column shaft and found the wheel was cocked a 1/4 turn to the right. I had centered the steering gear when I reassembled the front steering linkage and the pitman arm will only go on the steering gear at 90-degree intervals (which my misalignment was not great enough for this to be the problem. I discovered I had in correctly attached the intermediate shaft between the rag joint and the steering column. There is a small indentation on the steering column shaft that aligns with the coupling on the intermediate shaft. I happy to report that after realigning these two my steering wheel is now correctly centered. This took me less than 30-minutes to correct; I'll take the easy fixes any day of the week!
Next up: installing the cancel cam, horn contacts and the sport wheel. Once the horn is working I can get the state mandated vehicle inspection and a valid registration so I can "legally" drive the car.
Rodney
The steering column is on the bottom of this pic. The indentation allows the bolt to feed thru the coupler on the intermediate shaft.
I had some time yesterday after I got home from work, so I thought I'd reinstall the steering wheel, but first, I had to swap out the ignition key cylinder. Back in 2019, I had Jim from GMtilt build me a tilt steering column, but the key didn't match any other locks on the car. I tried to find a local locksmith that could re key my door cylinders to match the ignition key, but struck out. I really wanted one key for the doors and ignition so I bought a package set that included the ignition cylinder and the door cylinders all keyed to the square GM ignition key. With the steering wheel already off, I quickly pulled the turn signal switch and swapped out the ignition cylinder - easy peasy!
Then it happened, my screw driver slipped while reinstalling the locking ring and I broke the cancel cam for the horn button. Duh! Do you ever feel like there are forces at play behind the scenes conspiring against completion of your project? I jumped online, couldn't find one on Amazon that wasn't stupid expensive; surfed over to RockAuto, they have a Dorman replacement part but will take a week for delivery; I tried O'Reilly Auto and they could have it shipped to a store for next day pick up and it was half the price quoted on Amazon. Win!!
Hopefully, I can get the steering wheel back on tonight!
April 25th, 2024, 07:23 PM
