1971 Buick Electra 225 Limited -freshening up

Gabe,
Like Adam stated above, I have the 225/75R15. They were under $300 delivered to my door. I "think" they have a road hazard warranty too. HERE is the thread where I was looking for whitewall tires. Tirerack also has two different Kuhmo Solus KR21s in the 235 size, one is standard and the other has an XL load range. I was tempted to get the XL load range because I thought the sidewall would flex but no issues with the standard 225 tire. Hope this helps.

 

Short update. I put the Electra back in storage on September 26th. The next day I brought home the Super in my signature. The Electra is up on jack stands with a battery tender. I spent a few hours there this afternoon and removed the engine/headlamp wiring harness for some much needed repairs. Amazing how the original clock still keeps time after ticking away for months! I'm spending my new years making a plan of attack for 2011.

 

Sir, was happened to the very likeable idea to put a 6L80/90E in the Electra.

I have a car like you. 71 Electra 455 Limited and want to build up a performance motor wit a stroker kit, an overdrive tranny and a posi.

A 4l80 is not a big projekt, but a 6L80/90E would be sooooooooooo great
A short first and a loooooooooooong overdrive.

I dont think the computer is the major problem. Aftermarket-stand alone parts will do it.

I wonder if we could ever bolt it on the classic 455.
Will the shaft correspond with the converter and will the bolt circle fit, I am not sure even with an adaptor.

Drivewise - A performing 455 with a six-speed and lock up converter sounds quite hard beat.

 

Unfortunately I haven't done much this year with the car. School has occupied much of my time...that will end in May. I did manage to run it twice in December. The carburetor has issues from sitting and the motor has developed a miss. The list of work to perform has grown and grown. I've had a few days off from school so I managed to make progress on both refining the list and the actual work.

Today I changed the rear end cover gasket. Everything looked good, nothing worth noting. Gasket was Fel-Pro # RDS 55009. Limited slip additive was GM Part #1052358. I counted the teeth on the ring gear and pinion gear. I have a 2.73 posi, talk about a cruiser! :TU:

Took my spare carburetor apart that I rebuilt previously, including new throttle shaft bushings. The accelerator pump was already shot. I'm gonna go through the carburetor from top to bottom and see if I can track down some components that are more resistant to ethanol.

Pulled a spare set of 15x6 Buick road wheels out of the boxes and polished them, they cleaned up very nicely.

Ordered a new Bosch water pump and planned on painting that this week, unfortunately I'm out of DH1608 high heat red. I'll order a few cases of that if I can track it down.

Disassembled the original heads and sent them out to be enlarged for Stage 1 valves. I'm going to swap all the hardware from the "race" heads to the original heads so I can have a choke.

Ordered a new headlamp harness and engine wiring harness from M&H Electric Fabricators about ten weeks ago. Called today and they are both complete, inventory is just frozen while they inventory the warehouse. Should ship out the week after Christmas.

hannes_slanec, haven't made any progress on the thought of installing the 6L90E. I was hoping to get a core from work but none have failed.

 

Received the engine wiring harness and headlamp harness from M&H. Looking over each harness I see it was a much wiser decision to let them make a custom wiring harness for me. I have made wiring harnesses before, specifically for the last run of 2011 Ford Crown Police Interceptors for the Chicago Police....a mix of unmarked and marked. There is no way I could have sourced all the correct connectors, sockets and terminals needed for a "correct" harness. I did have the engine harness modified and have the resistor wire for the ignition replaced for an H.E.I. hookup. I will have to transfer the bracket that holds the engine wiring harness to the block along the passenger side on its way to the starter, to the new harness. Considering the chunk of change I spent, I am very pleased with the quality of the harness. I'm very excited to install the harness! :TU:

Also picked up three binders of '70-'71 Buick Service Bulletins.

 

cool!

 

Must be nice. No wiring company will even THINK of doing anything for our Rivs. Engine, dash, engine bay/lights, you name it and they won't touch it. Believe me, I've called them several times over the last few years.

Rob, with school done can we expect to see you at NTR in August???

 

Yea I got very lucky. The engine harness is for a Skylark, the headlamp harness was custom ordered for a 1972 Buick LeSabre with cornering lamps. Talk about hitting a jackpot. Otherwise they will build you a harness but it is labor intensive and the price would reflect that. Still a top-shelf part. I have to call M&H back to order the cornering lamp harness with sockets since my originals are unusable.

Yards, I'm hoping to be at NTR in August but can't promise anything just yet. I have a "scheduled layoff" of two months starting in April so I've been carefully saving money for that. I'll know by June if I'm bringing the Electra or the Lacrosse.

 

I've been slowly collecting parts including: New Bosch water pump, Spectra Premium fuel sending unit, Moroso 8.5 ignition wires, MSD Blaster 2 ignition coil, Crane XR-i electronic ignition conversion, viton valve seals, orange crush head gaskets, oil and timing cover gaskets, dipstick & tube assembly, neoprene rear main seal and a MSD Pro-Billet Distributor (not pictured).

I still have a few more things to buy. Heads are back from the machine shop. Tracked down some valve grinding equipment and will cut all 16 valves to except the viton valve seals. I hope to report back in a few weeks with an update of the motor being out and torn down. The plan is to work on the motor and the quarter panel at the same time.

 

Update: The cylinder heads are back from the machine shop, just need to do a little polishing for the Stage 1 valves.

Dropped the fuel tank this morning. No build sheet but that is okay. The tank is spotless on top and more importantly inside! The original fuel sender is much different from the replacement that I received. I'm going to send the original out to be rebuilt by Tri Starr Radiator in NY. The fuel tank still has markings that say, "Pittsburgh....Long...BC 1970"

I dropped the starter off to be rebuilt at a local shop. The guy was ecstatic that the starter was completely original. The starter functioned fine but I had put it through a significant amount of stress last season due to a problem with the starter wiring harness.

The engine wiring harness that I ordered has a few differences, it is for a Skylark. I'm going to evaluate that this afternoon and see what changes I will make to the harness so it will be correct for the Electra.

 

Good to hear of progress ...

... Even if you're twice as slow as us older guys


:bla:

 

Thanks again for the fender skirts Rob. I have them stripped and primed, just waiting for paint now.

 

The skylark harness will be the same as yours but slightly shorter. Basically expect all the wiring to lay out fine but the bulkhead connector may come up short by about 6" or so. Maybe you'll get lucky though since the aftermarket harnesses that I've come across tend to run a bit long. I found out the hardway when the hei wire from a skylark wouldn't reach on the electra.

 

Shipped the fuel sending unit out on Thursday to Tri Starr. Picked up my starter, looks fantastic. I'm a happy camper.

Finished the distributor, sort of. I used the Plast-Kote 209 and its not right. It looks more orange than red. But the distributor is converted to electronic iginition now with the Crane XR-i pickup.

The balancing sand for the tires arrived today too. Looking forward to ditching the lead weights.

 

I wish that were true to an extent. After looking over the two harnesses, there are seven differences between a Skylark engine harness and Full-size engine harness. I'll repair my original harness. It needs four new wires run the length of the harness and the positive battery cable.

45-46-48-49000 Series Engine wiring harness connector, 14 terminals.

1-Red wire 10g splits into: (1) 10g red with fusible link to starter solenoid turns to Dark Brown, (2) 10g red splits again into the voltage regulator terminal #3, (3) 10g red to Alternator, and (4) 10g red to the A/C High Blower Relay connector
2-Dark Green wire Compressor ambient switch, 18g, May be Dark Green/White. Other end of switch goes to compressor clutch. 3-prong connector leading to A/C harness
3-Red 12g to fusible link, turns to black then joins #1 at starter solenoid
4-Light Blue to A/C resistor, 16g, terminal 1 of connector
5-Brown to terminal #4 Voltage Regulator, 18g
6-Black/White to connector that feeds Transmission down shift solenoid, 18g
7-Brown to Temp Delay Relay, 18g single connector
8-White/Orange/Purple 20g,(resistance wire) splits to (1)Pink 18g wire that feeds positive side of Ignition coil & (2) Yellow 18g wire to starter solenoid
9-Dark Blue wire to Oil Pressure Switch, g
10-Black/Orange 18g to A/C HI Blower Relay
11-Purple wire to starter solenoid, 12g
12-Tan A/C resistor, 16g to terminal 2 of connector
13-Pink wire to Vacuum solenoid 18g, changes to Pink/Black 18g to connector that feeds Transmission Pressure Switch
14-Dark Green to Water Temp switch/CTS sensor on 455, 18g

44-44000 Series Engine wiring harness connector, 14 terminals.

1-Red wire 10g to splits into: (1) 10g red to terminal #3 of voltage regulator, (2) 10g red to alternator, (3) to fusible link to starter solenoid.
2-Not Used
3-Red wire 12g to fusible link at starter solenoid
4-Tan/White wire 18g to Brake Warning Lamp Switch
5-Brown 18g to terminal 4 of Voltage Regulator
6-Not Used
7-Not Used
8-White/Orange/Purple wire 20g (resistance wire, 1.8 Ohms) splits to (1)Pink 18g wire that feeds positive side of Ignition coil & (2) Yellow wire 18g to starter solenoid
9-Dark Blue wire to Oil Pressure Switch, g
10-Black/Orange wire 14g to Heater Blower Motor
11-Purple wire to starter solenoid, 12g
12-Black/White wire to connector that feeds Transmission Down Shift Solenoid (M40 only)
13-Pink wire 18g to Vacuum Solenoid, changes to Pink/Black 18g to connector that feeds Transmission Pressure Switch
14-Dark Green to Water Temp switch/CTS sensor, 18g

Differences between Skylark harness and Full-size harness by Terminal location

1. Does not feed A/C High Blower Relay connector
2. Does not have A/C Compressor switch
3. Same besides color after fusible link
4. Feeds Brake Warning Lamp Switch instead of A/C Resistor, Brake Warning Lamp Switch is fed by forward lamp harness on Full-size cars
5. Same
6. Does not feed Transmission Down Shift solenoid, is not used on Skylark
7. Does not feed Temp Delay Relay, is not used on Skylark
8. Same
9. Same
10. 14g on Skylark vs. 18g on Full-size feeds relay not blower directly
11. Same
12. Does not feed A/C resistor, feeds Transmission Down Shift Solenoid on TH400 equipped Skylarks
13. Same
14. Same

 

Good information for (us) full size lovers.

 

Looks to me like the issue is that the Skylark harness isn't for a 455 with A/C. I'm not seeing many, if any, A/C connections on that Skylark harness at all.

---------- Post added at 12:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:12 PM ----------

http://boattail-riviera-by-buick.com/library/documents/1971 buick chassis sm/index.html

page 1280 starts the wiring info that you want including the differences in the fuse blocks
page 1346 shows the actual wiring diagrams and such so you can see the differences and how to get one to work in the other

 

That is not the issue. The issue lies in the differences between a full-size engine harness with automatic A/C and any other manual A/C equipped engine harness.The engine harness is for a 1971 Buick Skylark with 455 and A/C, M&H #33005. It has the A/C wires (two), a 10g red and 18g dark green. Unfortunately the full-size Buicks use a different connection for the A/C harness and (three) wires total, 10g red, dark green/white 18g and 18g dark green. Adding to that this Electra has Automatic Climate Control so there will be additional differences from other full-size Buicks. Below is a picture of the A/C harness connections on the original engine harness (Left) and Skylark replacement engine harness (Right).

The information I provided in post #116 is from the 1971 Buick Service Manual. This can only be used as a guideline. Many of us know that changes made to the production run will not always be reflected in the service manual. Taking a look at the original engine wiring harness out of the Electra and the replacement from M&H there are fewer differences.

The Electra engine harness only uses 10 of the available 14 terminals. #4, 7, 10, and 12 are empty on my engine harness. The Skylark also only uses 10 of the available 14 terminals. #2, 6, 7, and 10 are empty on the Skylark engine harness. Each of the terminals that my Electra's engine harness is missing supply voltage to part of the A/C circuit. The Skylark harness was identical to the wiring diagram in the service manual with the exception of terminal #10. Terminals #2, 6, 7 are not used. Terminal #10 is supposed to be for the heater blower motor but this harness does not have anything in terminal #10.

Three wires, the red, dark green/white and dark green that make up the square'ish connection feed the A/C harness on my Electra. I will take a closer look next time I'm working on the Electra. The A/C harness for Automatic Climate Control equipped full-size Buicks is different than the manual A/C equipped full-size Buicks. Also below is the 45-46-48-49000 Series Automatic A/C Wiring Harness Diagram, found on page 13-165, figure 13-188. This shows the Automatic A/C wiring harness connection that is part of the engine wiring harness. Moving to page 13-170, figure 13-193 Automatic A/C Electrical Schematic this shows additional information regarding the harness. If you flip to page 13-75, figure 13-98 you will see the A/C wiring harness for a full-size Buick with manual A/C. There are no provisions for an Auto Relay or Reversing Relay, or Lo Relay. Manual A/C does have an A/C resistor, A/C Hi Blower Relay and Temp Delay Relay while the Automatic system does not. This makes up for Terminals #4 (Lt Blue 16), #7 (Brown 18), #10 (Black/Orange 18) and #12 (Tan 16). These four terminals are the difference between a full-size Buick with Automatic A/C and one with manual A/C. So even if a company offered an engine harness for the full-size Buicks, it would be specific to the A/C system used.

I hope the above makes sense to anyone else reading it. The short of it is that Automatic A/C equipped full-size Buicks will have a different engine wiring harness than manual A/C equipped Buicks, full-size and intermediate.

 

Sorry bout that. Most of the harnesses I come across have already been "played with" over the years so I never know exactly where all of them wires are supposed to go to. I tend to just use it as a starting point for a custom setup.

It seems though like you could repin a couple wires and then replace the missing circuits with the wires from the original harness. I'll tell you now that the pins that plug into the bulkhead connector from the engine side are very hard to find. Also the gauge for those pins are precise enough so that a 14 gauge wire will not fit into the 16 gauge slot. I found that out when I tried to use the hei wire from a later 70's skylark in the electra and after fighting with it I ended up braking the pin in half. I ended up tracking down a handful of pins from a dealer who just happened to have a couple burried behind other stuff on a shelf.