She's finally purple again! FC7 70 Shaker Cuda340

[Scooter]

Looking great, be sure to report back on the Dr.Diff chiunk parts and installation.

[usraptor]

I know I'm comparing apples and oranges here, but by '70 'Cuda with a 440 and 4-speed came with 4:10 gears.  While a rocket off the line the 4:10s were too low for driving any distance on the freeway.  I purchased a set of Dr. Diff's custom 3:23 gears, made for a Dana rear end, and had them installed, also with new gears.  What a difference.  The car is so much more civilized to drive both on surface streets and the freeway and I can still roast the tires in 1st, 2nd and part of 3rd gear if the urges comes.  I think we'll be more than happy with the 3:23s. 

[njsteve]

The Powr-Lok Sure Grip unit and parts arrived from Dr. Diff on Tuesday afternoon and I then dropped them off at Bontempo Brothers Competition in Linden, NJ. If you ever get a chance to stop in there, it is like a time warp trip to 1970. It is an old time speed shop with all four walls covered in NOS and used speed parts. VERY COOL! The back garage and warehouse has racks of engine blocks, heads, rear end parts, transmissions, etc. It's just amazing.

I dropped off the parts and the center section and axles. They disassembled, hot tanked, and reassembled everything in less than two days. Total labor was around $400.

Once I repaint the case and add the inspection marks, I will throw it all back in this weekend. Just waiting for the axle tube seals to arrive.

(The little white specs are styrofoam from the box I brought it home in. So I will be cleaning those off before installation, of course).

[njsteve]

I got the paint marks done and managed to manhandle the carrier into place in the housing today. Unfortunately the transmission jack I used to remove the carrier was not too helpful for installing since there was no way to load the carrier onto it and then lift it, since the jack saddle is already about 8" off the ground and won't clear the underside with the carrier sitting on it. So, I had to use the low profile floor jack and over-head lift the carrier while on my back so the flange was on the saddle and then jack it a couple times so I could wiggle it into a balanced positionon top of the jack. Luckily the exhaust was something of a safety barrier to prevent the carrier from falling left or right (onto me).

Got it up in place and bolted up and then had to adjust the axle freeplay on an 8-3/4 rear. It calls for a range between .008 to .018, measured from the left side. To get your correct play, you then adjust the spinning flange on the right side and bolt the keeper in place under one of the flange bolts in order to permanently fix the clearance.

It then took about an hour to pump in two quarts of traditional 85W-140 and a little bottle of Ford friction modifier, (that came with the posi unit). Nothing like trying to hand pump semi-solid, 35-degree gear oil. (Yeah, I should have heated it up in the house overnight). DOH!

[anlauto]

Everything you touch turns to gold, looks great Steve 

[njsteve]

I took the purple-mobile out for a spin today to test the rear differential installation. Bontempo Brothers did a great job on the sure-grip installation. Not a sound out of the rear end. Totally silent. Ran her through the gears for about ten miles. Didn't even have any popping out of gear under coast conditions. So maybe the transmission doesn't need synchros after all. Just needs to be warmed up and driven.

At 60 mph, the tach reads 2,600 rpm.

Here she is, in all her dusty glory. Next project might be to actually wash and wax her.

Things left on the short list:

1) S24MY Turbostart sealed Group 24 repro battery. Out of stock everywhere, even though Summit, Jegs, etc., will take your money and then tell you a fake future shipping date from the manufacturer. Even TurboStart themselves say they arent building them til at the earliest late March 2021. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/tbo-bb-s24my (Says 2/2/21 shipping date when checked on 1/18/21)
2) 1970 Bumper jack assembly, base plate, bumper hook, etc.
3) Sunny days to drive it and some cruise nights again...

[RUNCHARGER]

Those are all positives. You have rallye wheels as well for it?

[njsteve]

Yes, I have the original set of 14x6 Rallye wheels but other than cleaning up one for use as a spare tire, they won't be installed on the car. I like the era-correct, Day 2 look.

[njsteve]

I asked over in the drivetrain thread but not really getting an answer:

Anyone have an idea why the casting date is not below the casting number on my 8-3/4? What does the 30103 mean?

The small barely legible casting date near the large "9" seems to read as "D 9 70" with the "0" in 70 being partially covered by the screw location. The gears themselves are date 5-21-70.

[anlauto]

I would think the 30103 would be the vender code ?

[njsteve]

It's really weird. I havn't seen another like it on the interwebs.

[larry4406]

Nice car!

The orange brake drums seem a little out of place.

[njsteve]

They're acually red. (FE5 red is a perfect match, BTW). I matched the same color and amount of paint that was on there from the assembly line. It was a 1960's and early 70's thing the manufacturers did for added "bling" before "bling" was a thing. I'm old so I actually remember when cool cars had this on them at the dealership, brand new. 

[anlauto]

I believe it was done on cars with "open" wheels so that customers wouldn't see the rusted brake drums while the new cars were sitting on the lots.

[njsteve]

Youda thunk they would have painted them black then, if it was just to hide future rust.  I remember back in the day how it was a trend to paint your undercarriage and wheelwells white! What the hell were we thinking back then???