1968 Firebird...Project Childhood.

[Josue]

Hopefully fixed my axle issue!

The original pads didn't work out either, the rear end was still sliding around on the leaf springs. I just couldn't get enough squish to the pads to keep the rear end in place I guess, the shock plates were touching the leaf spring perches, so I couldn't tighten them any more...

My dad had the idea to use some old sockets to center and keep the rear end from sliding, so I gave it a shot.





You can see how much I would have had to open up the hole in the shock plate to fit these A/M pads....terrible.



Originals all beat up now...







Finished...






And, probably shouldn't have drove much when the rear end was all jacked up like that...haha

[Josue]

- update -

Been enjoying the car as much as I can! Finally was able to hit up my first cruise-in of the year. Up till then, I was mostly just driving it to work, and running errands in it.



The vibration got worse though, to the point where I just parked the car until I could tackle the next thing on the list of possibilities....those pads.

Ran to Summit and got some polyurethane ones...



Finally got a good "clamp", so hopefully the rear end doesn't move anymore. (I cut those sockets back out)




Didn't help the vibration I've been chasing though, so on to the next item...pinion angle. Trying to research it, but there's a bunch of contradictory stuff. As of now, my angles aren't matching, the trans is pointed down a little over 3 degrees, and the rear end is pointed up a little over a degree and a half. Some say the angles need to match, but in order to do that, I'd need to tilt the rear end up even more than it is, and some say it needs to be pointed down as it is. Maybe tilt the trans up, by shimming the mount?

My brand new conversion u-joint DID take quite a beating though, so I'm sure that didn't help the issue. I figure this happened when I drove with the rear end out of whack for those few miles, then the vibration all this time did it in...

[Gil]

Hi Josh,
Did you also change your trans. mount pad ? if still the same from your page 2, should be big part of your vibration issue. This one is worn out...

Hope you'll find that quickly
Gil

[Josue]

It very well could be. I didn't change anything when doing the trans swap, whatever it came with is what I used, I just bolted it in and went.

I didn't have this vibration last year though, but maybe the new rear end is pitched differently than the BOP 10 bolt. I'm going to replace that u-joint this morning, and throw some shims at the mount to get the angle measurements a little closer to matching, see what that does.

In my searches, I also came across a guy that said bad SHOCKS were the cause of his vibration!? Unreal....who'd have thought!? I'm pretty much riding on just leaf springs in the rear too. The car has 20 year old air shocks that don't hold air, so they're pretty much useless back there. I've been holding out addressing anything suspension, because I plan on upgrading that next year and don't want to waste money in new parts that would only be temporary. My leafs are probably worn to hell too, as well as the bushings/shackles, so all of this combined can't be good!

My dad's '69 convertible came with a decent set of Monroes that we swapped out for air shocks (he's old school...haha), so I'm thinking I should swap those on and see what that does as well.

[Josue]

Shimming that trans seems to have done the trick! That, and a new u-joint, and the vibration is gone. It MAY have a little shimmy when taking off, but I can't say for sure. It IS a 48 year old car with all original suspension, so I'm not holding my standards too high. haha

I do need to try and get some shocks on the rear though. The shocks that came off my dad's car, I had to use the rubber bushings out of the bottom mounts for his new air shocks, so I'd need to see if they sell just those bushings if I want to use those to save some money.

[Gil]

Nice, glad you fixed it !
Bushings like these ?
https://www.summitracing.com/int/par...7a00/overview/

Now do something with the rear ride height ! ;)
Gil

[Josue]

No, those go on the top of the shock. I need the ones that go on the bottom of the shock. They were really a pain to get out of the other ones, so we'll see how this goes!

And yea, this suspension is really annoying me with how sloppy it is, but it'll have to due for now. I'm tapped for a long, long time, and that's a big chunk of change! I was going to go with ridetech's new street grip package, but the more I think about it, the more I want to hold off and do it right the first time....A/M subframe, R&P steering, torque arm rear, the whole 9.

[Gil]

I see, more like Hourglass eye bushings...
https://www.summitracing.com/int/par...202g/overview/

If you have the cash, just DO IT !!
Gil

[Josue]

Those are the ones, thanks!!

[68400BIRD]

Glad you got rid of the vibration. There is a lot of conflicting information on the web. I think a lot of it is due to what kind of rear end set up that you have and how you are driving the car. I talked to a rep at Inland Empire Driveline at a local car show. Told him that I was running leafs and just street driving. GM set the motor at 3 degrees down on almost every vehicle back in the day. I set my pinion up at 3 degrees and I have no vibrations.

[Josue]

That sounds consistent with what I just went through! I wish I would have discovered this earlier, so I could have shimmed the rear end when installing the pads all at once. After messing with all that so many times, I really didn't want to take all that apart yet again, so I chose to shim the trans. haha

Not sure how I feel about having all those shims under the trans mount like that though, so if I ever have to mess with that rear end again, I think I'll buy the shims and do it from back there.

I'm actually wishing I would have left the rear end alone. The minimal gains I saw going from a 2.56 to a 3.08 aren't worth the extra RPM's I gained. At 70 mph, it's at 3,000 even. The car is so slow as it is, I should have just stuck with the original rear end until upgrading the rest of the drivetrain. An OD trans will help for sure, but that's years down the road at this point. I would have never had to track down this vibration, or had problems with the rear end moving around like the new one did!!

Ah well, you live and you learn...

[Josue]

Small update...

I've been enjoying the car all season long, and one glaring issue that needed attended to, was the shock situation. My tires rub in the front quite frequently over large dips in the road, and sometimes when cornering hard.

I'm not positive, but are these original shocks??




Either way...they were worn, and needed to be replaced. Having big plans for the suspension eventually, I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money on shocks now, only to replace them in a few years. So, I went with some $32 KYB's.



Still not as stiff as I'd like, but I wasn't expecting coil-over performance from a $32 shock. They DID improve the steering and handling feel quite a bit, and it doesn't rub on certain places that I drive. Still can't escape rubbing on the big dips in the road though, but it is what it is....

No pictures, but I also finally got rid of the 20 year old air shocks that were on the back of this thing too! They weren't even able to hold air, so I was essentially riding around on leaf springs. I remembered that we took a nice set of Gabriel shocks off my dad's car to put air shocks on so he could even out his stance, so they were sitting around. Similar improvement in performance back there too, and they were free!

Oh, and I keep forgetting to show you guys....




What do you think? Should I leave the yellow Street Glow neons on the car?? hahahaha

[Gil]

Fast & Furious light style ... yeah back in 2001 ... Sweet ride !

[Josue]

Haha, another one of my dad's bright ideas for the car! (no pun intended)

Last year, when he was letting me borrow the car whenever I wanted, he'd always ask me if I turned those lights on when it was dark enough. I was always like..."oh man, I totally forgot about them!"

I think he finally got the point that they weren't my style, and has since stopped asking me!

[Gil]

Awesome if you lose your beer can or if you have a leak somewhere during an electric supply failure ;)
Now just get a nitrous purge valve to lift skirts ! Fashion moves about...

[Josue]

Not much going on the past 6-7 weeks, I've been battling an electrical gremlin that has left the car immobile for most of that time.

I thought my battery took a crap, but after a new one, it still drained and left us stranded a week or 2 later after replacement! So, new battery dying like that, had to be the alternator not charging it, right? Nope...alternator checked out fine by 2 parts stores. I even bought a new one for giggles and tried it, but I was still only getting 12.10v at idle. I also bought a new voltage regulator too, just to cross that off the list...

So, I just said piss on it and bought a one wire alternator to circumvent whatever issue was going on. The new alternator goes right to the battery....done. 13.6v at idle now, so at least I can drive the car again until winter hits and I can dig back into this. I'm probably just going to rewire the car, start with a clean slate.

I did finally get some halogen headlights though, driving the car at night has been a death wish!! I wanted to get some cool HID's or LED's off eBay or something, but it's hard to trust that cheap, Chinese crap, so I just got some Wagners from NAPA. Can't wait to see how they do on the road!

I'm told these old T-3's can go for a decent amount of money too? The driver side high beam was out, and I'm not sure why the driver side low beam was so dim like that, but the passenger side high beam is fine.








I've been fixing up the basement for when winter hits too. Wanting to gut the car of any extra, unnecessary electronics...I took the neons off finally. Couldn't see just throwing them away though, so I put them under my pool table!







Dig the '68 Grand Prix rear seat I found on the local craigslist! It was already bolted to a custom frame, and the speaker grill has a Pontiac emblem in it...too cool to pass up!

[/URL]

[Gil]

Nice Batcave !
Gil

[gator68428]

The dawg days of summer are here... I've been more active this summer now that I have the optima bug--excited for next year. Finally got my Project thread updated. And got the old photobucket pics replaced using postimages dot org

How's it going on the car?

[Josue]

I'll have to do that with my pics, not much of a thread without them! haha

I've been super lazy with the car this year, mostly because it fires up every time, and drives fine, so I don't feel like messing with a good thing! Hit up Goodguys PPG Nationals in Columbus, OH for the first time a few weeks ago, ridiculous amount of cars. And, there are some big events at our local drag strip that are always fun.

I do have a line on a nice 2004R OD trans I need to follow up on, and I finally found someone parting out an IROC-Z. I bought the steering pump so I can get the valve out of back to swap into mine. The original 68 pump doesn't have enough PSI to properly run my 3rd gen steering box, but swapping that valve is supposed to fix that.

[gator68428]

I'll have to do that with my pics, not much of a thread without them! haha

I've been super lazy with the car this year, mostly because it fires up every time, and drives fine, so I don't feel like messing with a good thing! Hit up Goodguys PPG Nationals in Columbus, OH for the first time a few weeks ago, ridiculous amount of cars. And, there are some big events at our local drag strip that are always fun.

I do have a line on a nice 2004R OD trans I need to follow up on, and I finally found someone parting out an IROC-Z. I bought the steering pump so I can get the valve out of back to swap into mine. The original 68 pump doesn't have enough PSI to properly run my 3rd gen steering box, but swapping that valve is supposed to fix that.

Yeah what a drag about photobucket. But on the bright side, I've found postimages dot org to be easier to use.

Very cool. Always a great thing when you can enjoy your ride. That's what I like about your build and others on PT--build it to drive it and not just look at it. That's how I do it, increments here and there with keeping it driveable as much as possible. Only downside is I've done the exhaust 5 times now! Getting good at it i guess.

Did you participate in the AutoX at GG? How many runs did you get. I'm curios because my only experience is GG 2014 and 2015 in FL and it wasn't as packed as normal GG events--which is likely why 2015 was the last time they came here unfortunately. But I sure got a lot of runs and some good practice (at least 25 or 30 runs by the end of the weekend).