69 Chevelle SS396 "Grizelda"

[Motown 454]

Nice work its looking good.

[GenPac]

Plumbing in new distribution block with adjustable rear circuit, work in progress.
Had to make my own bracket. I'll pick up some proper locking hardware later on and clean it up a bit.

[GenPac]

Alright, after many bent lines and a few curse words, the brake line plumbing is done... (barring any unforseen issues)
After a cursory inspection and rechecking my torquing, the lines are solid so far.

Doesn't look pretty. I need to invest in a nice flaring tool. I think I spent most of my time flaring and reflaring again...

[nvmyss]

Sears kit works good, about $60.

[GenPac]

Got everything bled nicely. A vacuum bleeder is only good for so far. I get funky bubbles when the line is near bled, so I use the vacuum bleeder to get the line close, then gravity bleed the rest of the way. I developed a few leaks here and there but no leaks in my areas I was worried about. Just neglected to tighten a couple lines. I used thread sealer on some of the worrisome connections and they are dry as a desert so I am happy there. All my makeshift lines and flares work!!
Pedal is higher now than it was with the rear drums and holds my strength steady for 30 seconds at a time before I get tired. lol.
I think she's ready for a brake pad bedding and then some adjustment of the proportioning to balance her out.

I'm topping off the rear diff at the moment and might have a test drive tomorrow or Thursday afternoon! (again, if my carb cooperates)

Edit: Oh forgot about wiring in the brake light switch. I have decided to use the Wilwood sw on the combo valve. I never liked the way the OE switch actuates eversince I moved the brake pedal clevis to the upper hole. This required me to remove the bolted in tab that the brake switch rested against. It could be adjusted out, but I am going to design a pedal stop at that position and incorporate a return spring since my OE power setup didn't have one.

[MCMLXIX]

Good to hear that all your connections are good... does this mean you'll try and drive the Chevelle to red rock this Saturday??

I thought Adam might have his car ready by this weekend but he dropped his stock front lower control arms off with my fab guy to be boxed...

Hope the carb cooperates with you on the test drive...

[GenPac]

Happens to the best of us...and me too. You still seem able to knock out more in a weekend than I can in a whole week, so keep up the good work. Also, please post up what Lokar tells you with respect to shortening the "nubbins" on the swaged cable ends if you don't mind. It's odd that the ends are interfering with the Wilwood/C5/C6 clevises.

Tobin
KORE3

Contacted Lokar tech support today. The support guy's explanation of the clearance issue was roughly, "The entire ball and swedged end is crimped."
Pretty much told me to only grind off enough to fit the brake actuation lever between the swedged end and the clevis pin. No more.

He also mentioned that they DID have a problem with the swedged end pulling through the cable so they redesigned the cable end to have more meat for the cable to hang on to. He did say that if I clearanced it and the cable end pulled through as a result, they would make it right and get me a new one.

I eluded to me saying I didn't think I should have to grind it to fit, and that the clevis needs to be about 1/4 longer, he replied that his guy that grinds down the ends after being crimped does hundreds of them a day. Sometimes a few will be longer than they should be, so intereference fit might be normal.

All in all, I am satisfied at the response and can understand that if a lone person is crimping and grinding down these cable ends by hand, I can live with loose tolerances as long as it doesn't affect the long term use of the product.
He also reiterated that if I grinded down the swedged end all the way to the ball that it would greatly reduce the end's holding ability.

My new Thunderbird specific cable housings (EC80FUTB) should be here in the next couple of days so I'll get these together then.

[GenPac]

Good to hear that all your connections are good... does this mean you'll try and drive the Chevelle to red rock this Saturday??

I thought Adam might have his car ready by this weekend but he dropped his stock front lower control arms off with my fab guy to be boxed...

Hope the carb cooperates with you on the test drive...

I still have a few odds and ends to clear up like ebrake cabling. I have most of the hardware installed so I need to get it finished. I am going to buy a timing light to check timing and replace a sticky carb float I diagnosed. I hope that was the only problem, lol.

[GenPac]

I was having a bit of slack in my pedal travel once I moved to a manual setup from my previous vacuum assist setup. Once I removed the tab from the upper hole on the brake pedal and moved the clevis up, I lost the brakelight bracket that the switch actually actuated on. Also, I was getting about 1.5-2" of travel slack in the pedal before the brakes actually get pressure. I don't want the brake pedal to sit higher, or else I would just get a longer pushrod.

Two things I was missing, the OE pedal return spring that was present on all factory manual brake cars and the thick rubber block that the pedal had to return on.

So, to remedy the pedal travel problem, I fashioned an adjustable pedal bumper/stop.

Pic of bracket without stop, before switching to manual, as you can see, no bumper, no return spring.


I used a 2" long bolt, a spare hood adjuster bumper, a fender clip/inner fender clip nut and a jam nut/lockwasher.




It works pretty well and I was able to adjust the pedal to about 1/4" before the pushrod actually starts to move the piston in the M/C. I can live with the slight extra travel and if I can find an OE return pedal spring, the pedal will rest comfortably against the bumper without worry about keeping even a little pressure against the M/C piston.

I also removed the OE brakelight switch and extended the harness to the hydraulic switch on my combo valve under the M/C. Switch works well so I'm happy with it.

[GenPac]

The EC80FUTB cable housings arrived today so I buttoned up my ebrake setup.

Here is a pic of how far I had to grind down the swedged ends of the lokar cables to fit around the ebrake actuation lever. It's all adjusted and working like a champ. with a relatively short press of the pedal, both rear seem to be solid. I'm sure I'll need to further adjust it once I am able to test it on the road, rather than in my garage.

[Roadbuster]

Two things I was missing, the OE pedal return spring that was present on all factory manual brake cars and the thick rubber block that the pedal had to return on.

GenPac,
Thank you for that nugget of knowledge! I was wondering why the pedal returned slow with my hydroboost!

Jon

[GenPac]

GenPac,
Thank you for that nugget of knowledge! I was wondering why the pedal returned slow with my hydroboost!

Cool. I haven't been looking very hard for one. I'm hoping one will fall from the sky.
If you find an online source for it, please let me know.

On a different note, I got some motivation to drive the car this afternoon after meeting some of the local forum folks. After unsticking my secondary float again, it did run. I'm sure I have a couple fouled plugs or worse, but it did make a small trip around the block.
I think I discovered one of my QS1 varishocks has developed a leak. So, the front end will come apart again... perhaps with some changes.

[tones2SS]

Nice work Dan. Looks great.

[GenPac]

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=313823

Turns out it was brake fluid from when I was redoing all my brake lines. Since I already have it apart, I am making some changes. Things I wanted to do when I had it apart the first couple times, but didn't have the budget for.

[GenPac]

Went on a fact finding mission this evening. First off, ran a wet compression test..

1. 203
2. 198
3. 185
4. 195
5. 195
6. 200
7. 188
8. 192

Pulled the Valve covers and found I have 3964291 Cylinder heads.
Dug through some old boxes I've been carting around the world with me for several years and came upon my Cam card... Looks like I'm running a Comp Cams Grind #CB 292H-10.

Armed with this new knowledge, I am now trying to decide the path I'll take for my powerplant.

[MCMLXIX]

LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx

[GenPac]

LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx LSx

I wish the decision was that easy...
If I keep the BBC, give the carb gods one more shot, I'll be able to afford the 5Speed and maybe even EFI a short while after.
If I keep the heads, drop in a big cube shortblock and stay Carb, I'll just barely be able to get the 5speed as well, but EFI will have to wait. If I go LSx, I'll have to budget for fuel and the steps to get fuel delivery in order, mounting, oilpan, trans crossmember, driveshaft, blah blah... Trying to do engine and trans simultaneously could have the potential to baloon my costs and increase delays.

I need to think about my future semi-gloss clear over flat paintjob!

[GenPac]

Changing gears for the weekend...

Received my replacement lower control arms and Springs all around to negate the spring adjuster to shock issue I discovered.



Quick swap from the Balljoints that come on the SPC arms to my Howe Tall Lower balljoints from my OE arms. I ended up using the aluminum coil spring spacer and one 1/4" steel spacer under that. I repurposed the urethane spacer from the spring pocket and fixed it up in the frame, guided by the spring guides. I feel the ride height is probably a little high for my liking, but I'm going to let it ride for now and see how I like it once I get it on the road.

Couple pics of them installed and one of the xmember clearance.





4.25" at the crossmember. Lowest point is still the exhaust.

[GenPac]

Following up on the manual disc conversion.

After a bout with some tuning troubles she is running well again.
http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=314556

This gave me the opportunity to bed the brakes and adjust proportion. Man, with not a lot of leg pressure, these brakes do the job. With my 4pt harnesses holding me and my butt on the edge of the seat (I was anxious), I felt the car come out from under me and wow I was pressed against the harness.

Takes not much more leg pressure than the OE power setup but I am loving the increased pedal travel for braking feel.

For a recap, I am using C6 front calipers, C5 front rotors. C6 rear calipers and C5 rear rotors with drum parking brake in the rotor hat. Hydraulics from a Wilwood 7/8" bore tandem master cylinder going through a Wilwood combination brake light / rear proportion / distribution block. Hawk HPS pads at all 4 corners. Rear bias is just about dialed in to where rear discs lock up a hair before the fronts do. To lock them up sharp and deep jab on the pedal is necessary. The tires are doing a decent job of holding traction so I have to want to lock them up.

Overall, I can now say I am glad I made the swap to manual brakes. Tobin @ Kore3 is the man when it comes to brakes. He confirmed many of my ideas about this setup and debunked a lot of myth when it comes to manual brakes. It really is all about the math in terms of piston area and M/C bore.

I need to change the oil and this car is ready for the next project...

[68firebird]

Very nice, I'm liking this build thread!!! car is looking great, I love the stance.