Learned a lesson today.. was reminded of another.. FIXED

[Steve1968LS2]

Lesson learned: If it ain't broke don't fix it...

Had some sort of bearing noise up front.. couldn't isolate it so I decided I would replace my tension and idler pullies.. while I was there I decided to replace my Powermaster alternator with the spare I keep on hand. It was working great, but has been ran hard for a couple of years now and I thought I would toss on the spare and have the current one rebult and put in the spares box.

Well, my f-body style mouting is low and a minor pain to swap, but we did and when everything was back together I fired up the car.. yep, no love from the NEW alternator.. checked everything and all was good, just wasn't charging.. SOOO I pull it all apart again and put the old one back on. Fire it up and it's charging. Went to drive home and my oil pressure gauge was low.. odd.. but my back up gauge in my Racepak told me I had good pressure. I turned off the ignition and did a restart to "reset" the gauge (it goes through a sweep deal and if started too soon will not function).. did this twice and then the car barely turned over, the gauges all went dim.. I shut off the ignition and when I went to turn it on everything was dead. Popped the hood and smoke was comming from the alternator.. sigh

Car was so dead I couldn't even use my electric popper to open the trunk. Maybe the alt fried the battery? We pushed it back in the shop and will go do an autopsy on Tuesday. My guess is a wire got pinched when putting the old alt back in. By then maybe the new one will be rebuilt.

So 9 hours of work to hit an event tomorrow and the car is in worse shape than when I started.. I love this hobby! lol

Lesson reminded of: Bolt on parts rarely do.

Got some sweet carbon fiber fender struts from Anvil Auto.. went to put them on they were too long to line up with my fabbed core support from Autorad. Seems the holes on the core support are off just a "touch" and the rods from Anvil are a fixed length.. So, we took heim end off and milled it shorter on the Bridgeport.. solved right? Nope.. went to bolt it on and the Autorad core support uses a bolt one size bigger than the factory core support.. which meant the bolt wouldn't pass through the heim from Anvil (and you can't drill out a heim). So, we drilled out the core support and used nut-certs to get a smaller "factory sized" hole. Going to call Autorad and suggest them move to the right sized bolt. On the cheapo stock bars it doesn't matter, but on these fancy aftermarket ones it does. So, a job that should have taken 15 minutes took over an hour.

Good news, shifter is fixed (stripped bolt).. and the new Spectre Performance air intake is done and looking good.

Now to fix my wiring.. and I hate wiring..

In unrelated new Track Rat is "back on track" and will be painted in no time.. BOS did a great job massaging the stretched rear quarters and making them look right. Thanks guys!

Tomorrow.. no cars for me! :)

[LeighP]

Its all fun till a part doesn't fit, and then its a blood sport...
Don't you love it when you have to coax them into running right?

[Steve1968LS2]

Its all fun till a part doesn't fit, and then its a blood sport...
Don't you love it when you have to coax them into running right?

I look at my header and say "who got red paint on my f'ing header!?!?"... then I noticed the gash on my hand.. lol

Oh well, if it was easy everyone would drive a cool old car.

[Chad-1stGen]

Lesson learned: If it ain't broke don't fix it [snip]



So 9 hours of work to hit an event tomorrow and the car is in worse shape than when I started.. I love this hobby! lol

[snip]

Tomorrow.. no cars for me! :)

I feel your pain Steve! Even though I wasn't having any overt oil pressure issues I tried to install a baffled pan due to all the track time my car has been seeing. I feel like I took half the car about trying to get the pan to fit. 10-20 hours later I'm still running the stock pan and my back hurts lol!

We all know that we go through these things but misery loves company :)

[MrQuick]

Lesson learned: If it ain't broke don't fix it...

Had some sort of bearing noise up front.. couldn't isolate it so I decided I would replace my tension and idler pullies.. while I was there I decided to replace my Powermaster alternator with the spare I keep on hand. It was working great, but has been ran hard for a couple of years now and I thought I would toss on the spare and have the current one rebult and put in the spares box.

Well, my f-body style mouting is low and a minor pain to swap, but we did and when everything was back together I fired up the car.. yep, no love from the NEW alternator.. checked everything and all was good, just wasn't charging.. SOOO I pull it all apart again and put the old one back on. Fire it up and it's charging. Went to drive home and my oil pressure gauge was low.. odd.. but my back up gauge in my Racepak told me I had good pressure. I turned off the ignition and did a restart to "reset" the gauge (it goes through a sweep deal and if started too soon will not function).. did this twice and then the car barely turned over, the gauges all went dim.. I shut off the ignition and when I went to turn it on everything was dead. Popped the hood and smoke was comming from the alternator.. sigh

Car was so dead I couldn't even use my electric popper to open the trunk. Maybe the alt fried the battery? We pushed it back in the shop and will go do an autopsy on Tuesday. My guess is a wire got pinched when putting the old alt back in. By then maybe the new one will be rebuilt.

So 9 hours of work to hit an event tomorrow and the car is in worse shape than when I started.. I love this hobby! lol

Lesson reminded of: Bolt on parts rarely do.

Got some sweet carbon fiber fender struts from Anvil Auto.. went to put them on they were too long to line up with my fabbed core support from Autorad. Seems the holes on the core support are off just a "touch" and the rods from Anvil are a fixed length.. So, we took heim end off and milled it shorter on the Bridgeport.. solved right? Nope.. went to bolt it on and the Autorad core support uses a bolt one size bigger than the factory core support.. which meant the bolt would pass through the Heim from Anvil (and you can drill out a heim). So, we drilled out the core support and used nut-certs to get a smaller "factory" hole. Going to call Autorad and suggest them move to the right sized bolt. On the cheapo stock bars it doesn't matter but on these fancy aftermarket ones it does. So, a job that should have taken 15 minutes took over an hour.

Good news, shifter is fixed (stripped bolt).. and the new Spectre Performance air intake is done and looking good.

Now to fix my wiring.. and I hate wiring..

In unrelated new Track Rat is "back on track" and will be painted in no time.. BOS did a great job massaging the stretched rear quarters and making them look right. Thanks guys!

Tomorrow.. no cars for me! :)

Lesson learned for you? Sounds like Modus operandi for you sir. This will never change my friend. LOL

Have a beer and enjoy the weather for us.

[Six_Shooter]

You were just following a different saying:

"If it ain't broke, fix it until it is."

;)

[parsonsj]

Yep, that sounds like a typical "repair" on any of these old/new cars. Not to mention fun.

Let us know what you find with the wiring. As for me, I love wiring!

jp

[Vegas69]

We've all been there, and it sucks!

[Steve1968LS2]

You were just following a different saying:

"If it ain't broke, fix it until it is."

;)

Now THAT is a bumper sticker!


Yep, that sounds like a typical "repair" on any of these old/new cars. Not to mention fun.

Let us know what you find with the wiring. As for me, I love wiring!

jp

Should fly your ass out here.. lol.. I think it's just a pinched wire, hope it didn't fry too much. This is my first electrical prob with Penny, so I was due and besides, it was most likely self induced.

Installation of fender struts shouldn't require a Bridgeport.. Not the struts fault, just weren't made to work with the fancy core support.


Lesson learned for you? Sounds like Modus operandi for you sir. This will never change my friend. LOL

Have a beer and enjoy the weather for us.

No, it's having small BS parts fail at events due to wear.. this is my reward for trying to be proactive. And yes, beers were cracked open yesterday. Most likely today too.

[David Pozzi]

Another good idea turned bad. D!ck must have a dart board with your picture on it!

[BonzoHansen]

I look at my header and say "who got red paint on my f'ing header!?!?"... then I noticed the gash on my hand.. lol
:lol::lol::lol:

[moreHP]

Who among us hasnt had a day or two like that?! Days when you would have been better doing just about anything other than going into the garage. I hate it when the car gods are mad at me!

[Steve1968LS2]

Who among us hasnt had a day or two like that?! Days when you would have been better doing just about anything other than going into the garage. I hate it when the car gods are mad at me!

As pennance I'm stuck at home today doing chores.. lol

[Steve1968LS2]

Another good idea turned bad. D!ck must have a dart board with your picture on it!

I think he derived humor from it.. when I pulled out the new alt I said "with my luck it won't work when installed".. prophecy? Besides, he needed practice on the mill.. I can say all the bleeding was done by me (he bled enough the day before after being cut by Track Rat)

[Tony_SS]

After one of those days, yardwork is always a welcome activity.

[GaRys69]

A bad day in the garage, is better than any day in the yard (unless its in the pool).

[parsonsj]

A bad day in the garage, is better than any day in the yard Well said!

[Ron S]

I feel for ya brother, I was ready to lite mine on fire this weekend. I didn't think those pretty cars put up such a fight. LOL

[tommycomfort]

After our current LS swap, I'm just glad to hear that I'm not the only one that has those days. It's just when I have multiple days like that in a row that the depression sets in...

[shmoov69]

Trade ya problems from yesterday!!! LOL!

[Steve1968LS2]

Trade ya problems from yesterday!!! LOL!

No thanks on that one!

[David Pozzi]

It's nice to hear Track Rat is moving forward.

[406 Q-ship]

Steve, we all have days like that sometimes. Mr Murphy made a visit to me yesterday. I was getting the Malibu ready for the Edelbrock Car show, I had to sand and paint the harness bar in the car. Why did I not paint it over a year ago when I built it, cause I'm stupid. So I am sanding off the big fuzzy rust covering the bar with 80 grit and noticing the tight spaces that I can't get too, so I go and get some metal prep from a friends. I descide to put on a show, it was a small tire frying.......why.....cause like it has been determined......stupid. Get to work to finish bar and find tire is loosing air. I find the hole right near the edge of the tread....too close to get a tire shop to patch.....damn. I have to get the car to the show but the tire will not hold, one can of fix a flat and the tire is fixed right? NOT, leak is slowwer but still going.....shoot. Air up the tire to get a plug kit and plug the tire, now I am clear right....not just yet, remember the harness bar? The paint will not dry, I think I must have kicked Murphy's cat into a fan in another life. Oh this is only what happened to me.

[Steve1968LS2]

Well screw Murphy! lol

Took both alts to the local rebuilder.. the new one was DOA and the working one had a noisy bearing.. had both rebuilt to 180amp (cost $200 each). They had better last forever. Nice to have a spare I know is good though.

Turned out the replaced alt did short to an AN fitting.. fried out a small divot and blew three fuses. Replaced the fuses, re-did the wiring and BP is better than ever.. running great and charging like a champ.

New Spectre Performance air intake looks good, although I'm tempted to powder it black.. or grind off the welds.. we'll see. Also like the Anvil fender struts with the new black ends.

Lastly we installed my new Mastercraft seat harness system. Look great and the release is EASY to use. I'm waiting for some new Anvil fiberglass inner fenders to show up, didn't do CF since they will be painted.

It was a good day in the shop.. made actual forward progress ;)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/05/2hh396s-1.jpg

[Scott Parkhurst]

Nice work Steve! That intake pipe would look 'right' no matter if you did it in black, body color, or (my favorite idea) the same tone as your valve covers. And yes- smooth out the welds. Everything else is slippery smooth on that car, so it's gotta match. Glad to hear you're back to 100 percent.

[John Wright]

Sometimes you have to make a blood sacrifice to keep them happy....glad you got her back together and better than new again.

[Payton King]

Hey Dude,

You have been a stranger lately...or maybe you are still the same strange, I am not sure. Could you post up the picture of the fitting you made on your rack to clear the alternator. Thinking about going back to the stock F-body acc drive. Feel free to email me at [email protected] I may even send you some spy photos of my upgrade.

[Steve1968LS2]

Hey Dude,

You have been a stranger lately...or maybe you are still the same strange, I am not sure. Could you post up the picture of the fitting you made on your rack to clear the alternator. Thinking about going back to the stock F-body acc drive. Feel free to email me at [email protected] I may even send you some spy photos of my upgrade.

Here's an image.. been swampped at work, and to be honest I got a little burned out on cars for bit. Happens when it's your hobby and your job. :) Better now.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/05/ng55e0-1.jpg

[Steve68]

Give us more info on the intake from Spectre!

[Payton King]

thanks for the pic. I know what you mean. I am a little toasty around the edges from what I thought was going to be an easy upgrade that has just snow balled.

Glad you are back at it.

[Vicinity]

Man, it blows my mind every time I see your engine bay. It looks like its vacuum sealed. And no wires...

I got work to do. :)

[Steve1968LS2]

Man, it blows my mind every time I see your engine bay. It looks like its vacuum sealed. And no wires...

I got work to do. :)

My wiring around my injectors looks like chewed up and spit out spaghetti compared to the cars out of DSE.. lol.. The raised coil packs really help hide the wires and make it look nice. Actually the Speartech harness looks nice, just not like that custom wiring I've seen done on some car. But thanks for the compliment.

We will be pulling it all apart soon to try some new big wheel tubs from Anvil (for the 67 and 68 cars).. should shave some weight and give me more clearance, would like to move to a 285 front tire. I will be painting them so the overall look of the engine bay should stay the same. These fabbed inners will move to the Track Rat car which doesn't need wider front tires (since I'm running 295s in the back)

[Steve1968LS2]

Give us more info on the intake from Spectre!

Not much to tell.. they sell 4" tubing in a crazy array of sizes with 5-degree bends (30, 35,40,45, etc).. and they offered the adaptor for the LS7 blade MAF.. if you don't want to weld they also sell couplers.. made the whole thing painless.

[Vicinity]

My wiring around my injectors looks like chewed up and spit out spaghetti compared to the cars out of DSE.. lol.. The raised coil packs really help hide the wires and make it look nice. Actually the Speartech harness looks nice, just not like that custom wiring I've seen done on some car. But thanks for the compliment.

We will be pulling it all apart soon to try some new big wheel tubs from Anvil (for the 67 and 68 cars).. should shave some weight and give me more clearance, would like to move to a 285 front tire. I will be painting them so the overall look of the engine bay should stay the same. These fabbed inners will move to the Track Rat car which doesn't need wider front tires (since I'm running 295s in the back)

Are those wells for sale now? Or are you getting an early piece? I've been waiting to see if they would come out with a set for 67-68's.

[Steve1968LS2]

Are those wells for sale now? Or are you getting an early piece? I've been waiting to see if they would come out with a set for 67-68's.

The CF ones are just now in stock.. I was waiting for just some cheaper fiberglass one (since I was just gonna paint them) but those are about 2 weeks out and Matt had a couple of CF blems that are fine for painting (since I'm impatient)

So to answer you question, yes they are in.

They are expensive, but in the end not much more than having metal ones fabbed and they weigh a ton less.. we will be doing weights, measurments, comparisons, and all the testing in an upcomming issue.

[wmhjr]

Man, Steve. Every time I see a pic of Penny I'm humbled again. Hopefully you'll be at either Motor State or Heidts so I can at least have the benefit of seeing the car in person rather than just being demoralized over the internet.

[JEFFTATE]

If It Aint Broke - Don't Fix It

I have had a recent lesson in this too Steve .
I just went through months of messing around with the 12-bolt in my Camaro .
I was trying to eliminate all gear noise by installing a new ring and pinion .
And in the confusion , I missed RTTC ..
Well , I quieted it somewhat , but I still have a little gear noise ..

Was it worth all the effort ???
I don't know. I'll see if it pays off on a road trip ..

[Steve68]

Not much to tell.. they sell 4" tubing in a crazy array of sizes with 5-degree bends (30, 35,40,45, etc).. and they offered the adaptor for the LS7 blade MAF.. if you don't want to weld they also sell couplers.. made the whole thing painless.

Thanks found all the info, now to get to that point!