Nice but I didn't see if your fuel-fill hoses were fuel hose or radiator hose. Radiator hose will not stand up to gasoline and will flake off, filling your carburetor with nasty bits. I did about the same thing with my 34 coupe but had to make some extra sharp bends from the filler to the tank. I actually used 2" bronze plumbing elbows from Ferguson plumbing supply. They work great and have a much sharper bend to them than steel tubing.
Less than inch of compression travel and lumber truck ride in the rear suspension is now fixed with these beauties. 3 inches higher ride height so the rake will change. Now there is a inch up and down of adjustment and a much improved ride. Likely the least traditional part but it is what it is.
With exhaust running under the axle there was no room for higher ride height so this stuff ended up on the garage floor. That's ok, it was leaking at the collector and those little glass packs are just to loud. Right sized and properly routed over the axle mandrel bent tubing with a nice rumble tone muffler is in the works. I kind of like the chrome capped cutouts so they will likely make it on to the next set of pipes.
Made a little progress these last few weeks. After cutting out the previous exhaust I needed to decide what to do about replacing it. I could have taken the coupe to a local shop and after an exchange of grunts and points I would have driven away with, well, a replacement system. But I thought I would like mandrel bent tubing and my choice of muffler. There are a couple of shops within 50 miles but I have a mig welder and there are plenty of online options, so after a few days this stuff appeared on the porch.
I did have plans to build in a removal cross over and I still might do that. I did get the pipes installed and did get to drive it to a local fuel station and put gas from the pump in it for the first time. I learned the hard way that even with what appears to be adequate size line and slop it will not take full flow from the pump. I'm thinking a vent line might fix this. So a couple of things checked off the list, but of course a few got added also. Ah well, more therapy. After the fuel cleanup I did get to put some miles on it. First time since bringing it home some 20 months ago !! It has been quite a while since I have driven a SBC but I got the impression this copy was not really running well. After a puzzlement time I thought to start with the basics, ignition timing and basic carb tuning. After blowing the cobwebs off the 70's vintage timing light I found #1 firing at 0 TDC and only about 12 degrees of mechanical advance. Hmmm, not what I was expecting. Who would have thought that I bought a car that needed proper ignition timing. I'll take the hit on the carb, it is my doing. A mouse drive later and I find right here on the hamb the suggestion of 12 degrees initial, with vacuum plugged and the expectation of 34-36 total at rpm. Disassembled the upper HEI and found the fly weights had some, well, restriction. Pretty amazing how some in therapy will force parts in that will mostly just fall into place correctly. If you let them. With it all back together and set to 12 degrees initial advance and nets a guesstimation of some 34'ish total advance at a, hmmm, a faster rpm. Out of the box the Edelbrock 1406 only needed a bit of a turn on the air screws. I'll do a more involved carb tune later. Time for another test ride, ohboy !!! Don't have to suggest that twice. Much better now. Exhaust has more rumble but not the sharp crackle I was not liking. Stab the throttle from stop and it will actually leave some of the tires on the street. Who could ask for more ? Sorry, no pics today, I was to excited to actually be driving it.
About a hundred miles put on the coupe this weekend. Fixed a pretty good sized oil leak under the driver's side rocker cover. Fuel gauge was not right, but I robbed matching sender from the tank that came with the car and presto, accurate fuel gauge reading. 15 gallon tank is actually on 12.5, that's ok. Speedo needs the trans tailshaft drive gear and the gauge set will be fully function. Going to have to wire in a 12v port for gps and phone charging. Electric fan works great but needs to be wired to bat hot and not key switched. All in all, very pleased and tickled to be driving !! Surely the answer is on hamb and I will search, but offhand, what should toe in be ?
So, it has been a few months, covid is an influence on us all. I have been able to use some the lock down for my own enjoyment and self isolation, behind the wheel of the coupe. Half a dozen fill ups and I came to realize I needed proper vent line on the tank. Adding it made filling the tank a bunch less messy. Out the floor and it vents to open air, but what else to do? While I was at it I added seat belts
Working on the tank vent and getting in some miles is not all I have been up to. I did put in a clutch pedal while working the brakes and I have been in the hunt for a manual trans. At first I was hot and heavy into doing a T-5. But the only one I could find is non-world class with 4.0 to 1 first gear. A bit to low of a first gear to be useful if not a bit of fun. After a bit of research, a thorough / nation wide search and even a false start I did acquire one of these. Advantages over the T-5 are these, has a manual speedo drive, has the same rear mount position (no cross member mod), overall length same as the th350 (no driveshaft mod). Bonus of having a 3 to 1 first gear. Pipe up if you know what it is, I'll post more on it soon.
The mystery 4 speed had issues when purchased. It was priced accordingly. Symptoms were complete lock up in 3rd, 4th and 1st gears. 2nd and reverse appeared to work normally while examining the unit without pulling the side cover. Pulling the side cover revealed that the 1-2 shift fork was in up side down and the pin in the reverse lever was broken off. Poking around in the gear oil with a magnet resulted in the discovery of these parts. Good thing it was not driven much in this condition and that there is a magnet in the bottom of the case to collect stuff. The pin is the reverse shifter and thrust washer should have been on the front end of the cluster. A complete disassembly was in order to fix this. Inspection reveals very new synchros and bearings. New parts but assembled by a rookie and thankfully not driven much afterwards. This picture shows the proper assembly of the reverse shifter and idler gear, notice the pin. New gaskets, new and properly placed thrust washers and reassembly completed. All of the shifter rods were improperly adjusted, likely what broke the reverse pin. After a few parts from the internet, little therapy time at the work bench and the thing is ready to go in the coupe. In case you did not recognize it, this is a New Process 440. Based on the Chrysler A833, except the GM version is a over drive unit. Should be neat in the coupe !!
Hi Vic nice build, whats with the loop in what I assume is the vent pipe? I have a similar set up but in mine it just drops out of the boot/trunk floor.
Having a bend at point higher than the tank is to stop moisture from getting up the vent pipe and into the tank, I'm about to do the same, well soonish anyway.
That A833od has very close ratios to a 700r4, should work good in your coupe. Suggestion on the rear suspension, I’d add a set of bump stops so it doesn’t bottom out on the coil overs. Pretty common issue when the coil overs bottom out bend either the mounts or the mounting bolts. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Horse46, thanks for the comments and the question. It will be a bit difficult to explain without a diagram, but here goes. Let's say that the top of the tank is at zero inches, the vent line highest point is 1 inch up from that and the fuel fill opening is 6 inches above the top of the tank. With this configuration any fuel up the fill neck above the 1 inch mark will push fuel over the top of the vent line and out the vent, making a bit of puddle under the car. If the pump does not turn off right away it could be a big puddle. With the high point of vent line higher than the highest point of the fill neck, say at 7 inches in the above example, the fuel fill neck will be completely full, shut off the pump and not over top the vent line. Make sense ?
Von, thanks for the comments. I did not consider stopping moisture as the reason for the vent line being so high. This vent line out the bottom of the car really should? have a "out only" valve / rubber duck bill on it. With the open vent line or a vented cap, the tank will draw in atmosphere (with moisture) as the fuel gets used. So I think there is no way to keep moisture out of the fuel system. Unless we build a completely closed system like is found on modern cars.
The factory trunk latch has proven to be less than desirable. Seams that every time I am out in the car the trunk will not stay latched. Below are some pictures of the upgrade. I do like the latch handle look versus shaved so I did keep it. I added a more modern latch and will add a mechanical release. The latch also has provision for a solenoid remote but I am not really considering it at this point. Here is a picture of the parts Henry sent, may have worked well originally. Here is a picture of handle and the spacer I made to replace the lock assembly and to provide a way to bolt things tight to the inner panel of the trunk lid. This photo shows the handle, spacer and latch hook assembled on the bench. The inner panel will be sandwiched between the block and the hook. The outer skin will be sandwiched between the block and the rubber gasket. Much care was taken to get this block squeeze things without any distortion to the panels. This is the latch and hook on the bench. The latch installed. The mounting holes in the front of the panel do offer some adjustment. Here is the hook installed. Function is excellent and dropping the lid from about 3 inches open locks the latch and the lid is held firmly against the rubber bumpers.
I put those small breathers on the end of my vent line. They sell them all over ebay, they look like a valve cover breather only a lot smaller and slide over a 1/2 in line. They keep crap and mud dobbers out of the line.
Wow, been a while since I last post. I have put a few miles on the coupe but not really any work until this past spring. I did acquire a second gen SBC, had it rebuilt and got it an the NP440 installed. This SBC is also 305 but now a bit bored out, flat top pistons, healthy roller cam. Edelbrock manifold for early heads that I had to modify the center bolt holes and build some wedge washers for but it is the manifold I wanted. Also installed a new distributor with external coil. I plan to get to a Stromberg 3x2 and the HEI dist will not fit with that. Not a lot of photos but here is one of the fit up of the 4sp.
The package went in with the expected challenges. The new 305 has tons more ponies than the previous one and having to shift makes the car much more fun to drive. I had forgotten how connected the engine is to the ground on manual trans cars so there is some discomfort during spirited moments for the passenger so I will have to chill some when she's along. The non posi rear will have to be fixed. Need those rear weanies to wear equally, ha. The Ford 9 inch needs oil containment and emergency brake work to complete it so that is the agenda for this winter. After driving the coupe with the NP440 for more than 500 miles now I have decided that I don't like it enough to keep it. The overdrive is great but the gear ratio spread is just to wide, 1st is 3.09 and 2nd is 1.56. So I have peddled the trans to another HAMB'er and am now for a 5 sp with a better ratio spread. Early on I had visions of pursuing a T-5 but it seems those are in short supply these days. Anyone have suggestions?
The NP440 is gone, in it's place is a TKX, pricey but well worth it. TKX is a dream, positive shifts at any rpm. Sorry no pics of the install. I just had to have a piston shift knob. I found a few on the net but they did not look real enough and are not worth the price. So I bought $8 50cc motorcycle piston and a $16 box of resin and cast this jewel. For the picture it has a pen in the threaded hole so the installed angle should be close to the picture. Diameter is 1.8" and it fits nice in my hand. What you think of it ?