She's finally purple again! FC7 70 Shaker Cuda340

[njsteve]

I also rebuilt the April, 1970 alternator that came with car as a spare. The car had a later model squareback unit on it when I got it. It took a while for the brushes and bearings to arrive from rockauto due to the holiday postal backlog but everything finally showed up over the weekend. So I finally stripped it and tested everything. All the old diodes were good, so they were reused. Sadly it looks like the unit was rebuilt once before and heavily sandblasted, so the front date code is no longer readable.

[anlauto]

You're certainly a "jack of all trades" Steve 

[njsteve]

Thanks! it is born of frugality - I hate paying someone to do something that I can do after a little bit of research.

[njsteve]

I finally got the other seat track assembled and installed on the driver's seat. I then carefully walked the entire seat up from the basement, through the house, and out the front door into the garage. And into the car it went!

I then spent an hour vacuuming up the several hundred hog ring remnants (old and new ones) and assorted mouse crap, acorns, and rotten old upholstery residue from my wife's basement work area which I had transformed into my temporary upholstery shop. She was quite pleased with the early Christmas gift.

So the interior is all done now. Just waiting on the 1970 turn signal switch from my friend, who is having a couple of them restored at the moment. As you may recall, the 1970 E-bodies used a one-year-only turn signal switch that had the emergency flasher button that pulled out to activate, instead of pushing in to activate like from 1971-up units.

Next is the shifter/steering column lockout mechanism, since the last bushing finally arrived a couple days ago.

[anlauto]

Don't forget the front lap belts go in between the seat and the hinge cover 

[njsteve]

I was wondering about that. Do both sides go through or just the door side retractable belt? Got any untouched original configuration photos or diagram handy?

[njsteve]

I found some diagrams for the belt routing, so it is just the retractable belt that threads through the side cover.

I tried to install the shifter/column interlock hardware yesterday but I figured out that I have to remove the clutch cross bar to do it as the bellhousing mounted bracket for the interlock cross bar actually has a hole that the clutch crossbar ball-stud goes through. Ugh! That will take a bit more time this weekend. I also had to make my own .610 wide, thin, plastic bushing for the column lever that engages with the rod to the interlock cross bar. Anyone have an actual part number for that particular weird bushing? Since the cotter pin hole is so close to the rod's shoulder, the bushing has to be rather thin for it to slip over the end of the rod but still allow for a thin washer and then the cotter pin to access the hole. You cant just use a grommet on the lever - the rod end won't protrude far enough out to insert a cotter pin or clip.

[anlauto]

Oh yes that little bracket....I forgot that once on a 70 340 Cuda I restored.....you only need to forget that once....   you won't forget the next time

[njsteve]

DOH!

[njsteve]

Well it looks like it was right about being wrong.

After finally getting the bellhousing mounted bracket installed (after completely removing the clutch cross shaft) and then reinstalling the clutch cross shaft and then the shifter/column interlock cross shaft, I could see that I had identified the wrong end of the linkage arm as the one that engages the column lever.

One of the problems you run into when referencing factory "catch-all" diagrams is that they don't show all the possible permutations of the parts. Nowhere in the books do they show a diagram with both the clutch cross shaft bracketry and column lock out bracketry combined into one picture. And the linkage arms they show aren't necessarily in the right position in real life as in the diagram - the "flipped" arm being a prime example. If I tried to install it in the orientation shown in the diagram, (with the small end up), it runs right into the clutch cross shaft and never reaches its corresponding mounting arm.

So, once I got the lever flipped over, I could see the longer "nub" would actually clear a regular grommet and sleeve on the lever. So I got that all installed using some old GM grommet and it works great. You place the shifter in reverse and turn the key off and remove it, and the column locks the shifter in the reverse location. Until the key is turned to the run position, the shifter will not be operable.

So now I guess I can hunt down the Mopar factory 1553304 grommet and 1553305 sleeve in order to be "matching part number correct."

[njsteve]

And I got the seatbelt routed through the seat back cover as requested. 

[anlauto]

 

[usraptor]

PM sent re old seat covers.

[njsteve]

and replied. 

[njsteve]

I started on the rear differential. It is a 3.23 open and I wanted to at least put in Sure-Grip unit and replace the half-century-old bearings. I was considering upping the ratio to a 3.55 but after discussing it with Cass at DoctorDiff.com he said to stick with the 3.23's. The amount of change would be negligable. The reasoning was that a 3.23 running relatively short 26.45" tall F70x14 tires will be running almost the same rpms as a set of 3.55's with a set of 28" 275/60x15 tires. A real gear change like a 3.73 or 3.90 would result in some actual seat of the pants gains but I am looking for a crusier not a quarter miler with this build.

So essentially I already have the actual performance of a 3.55 with the shorter 14" tires.

So I am ordering a new Sure-Grip "Powr-Lok" unit and the install kit and axle bearings as well. https://www.doctordiff.com/8-3-4-clu...-powr-lok.html

Here's the smelly parts after I got eveything out today. The gear lube was dark but smooth. I had a piquant bouquet with thankfully, no metallic notes. The pattern looked nice.

Looks like the gear set is dated 5/21/1970 and a 1971 casting date on the housing. It appears to be a 29 spline pinion - it takes a 1-1/4 socket on the pinion nut.