So, I did a thing this week. Any of you Eastern Ohio guys remember a rusty red Stage 1 4 speed making 12 second passes at Quaker City circa 1990 give or take? I bought what was pillaged from that car, plus a bunch more. Supposed stage 1 4 speed in fire red with Pearl white bucket seat interior. Thinking of converting this automotive atrocity over to a 4 speed. I’ve been digging for 2 days on this latest purchase, and found what I think is almost everything I need to make it work. I would love it if a 4 speed guy would chime in and tell me what I could be missing. I found the ball that screws in the block also. Not pictured are the steering column with the extra clutch linkage boot, the entire gauge cluster with the missing “PRNDLL”, tach, gauges, and transmission, but I have all of it. The trans appears to be a t10, which I know is not original to the stage car. It would be the one I’d use if I were to take this on.
Most auto cranks are about .010 undersized. You'll just have to turn the bushing down a little on a lathe. Some have a "step" in the hole. In my case I had to make the bushing .090" short
I am not a 4-speed guy (with the Buicks), but it would also be a good idea to check the bushing fit on the end of the input shaft of the T10 before installing it in the crank. Was just reading where someone had this issue with a new bushing after they installed it in the crank.
Looks like your missing a reverse rod, the levers for the trans. Not sure wtf that piece is on the end of the reverse lockout. If you want me to rebuild your shifter just let me know
I found most of another shifter today, except the shifter itself. That has a reverse rod on it. I’ll post a pic tomorrow. And yes, I might take you up on the rebuild.
Hey Frank, it’s been a while. No, this is my gold GS that I’m sure you saw when you were at my old house. Finally doing something with it, even though it certainly won’t be to a lot of people’s taste. This is Dana’s truck I built her a few years ago. She’s a 3 on the tree kinda girl.
I thought I’d give an update since I haven’t in a while. I have been picking at it this past week. Couple things done: First, the oil dipstick tube wouldn’t clear the header flange on the Mickey Thompsons. Out with the motor mount bolt, and off with the header. I wanted to take as little off the flange as possible, so I basically cut a notch out of it with a round carbide burr. Tube now fits perfect and it’s hard to even see the notch in the header. Next, added the crappy pulleys from a bin of spare parts. I don’t have the part numbers, but I believe these are the right ones for a 70 gs with heavy duty cooling. The original crank pulley was rotted away in the first belt groove when I originally acquired the car.
Next, I decided to, not so diligently, inspect the original wiring harness. Funny thing is, other than the 2 small wires for the starter, there was no visible damage to any of the wiring from the firewall forward. I fixed the tan wire before I realized that it wouldn’t be needed with the HEI distributor. Yes, I used the closest thing I had to tan, which was yellow.
Found a newer a/c delco replacement starter that I actually pulled from my old regal limited. It turned that car over way too fast. Starter was installed, and I even wrestled with and installed the factory bracket holding the starter wiring. The next thing I tackled was the direct result of an impulse buy. I’ve always wanted a set of kenne bell valve covers to put on something. Just this week, a guy in New York posted 4 or 5 sets of aftermarket valve covers on Facebook. One set just happened to be those kenne bells. I paid almost as much for them as I did the entire car, but I have em, and they are badass. They aren’t even super nice, which make them a perfect fit for this heap.
Another update: Found a 7042240 carb on marketplace. Bought it and another later model 455 carb for $50 for the pair. Ripped it apart to do the rebuild. It was really crusty inside. Watched a YouTube video where a guy uses a little muriatic acid in water and let’s the parts soak, so I tried it. Cleaned everything up nice. After a fresh water rinse, I hosed it off with some carb cleaner and blew it all out with an air gun. Already had an extra gasket kit and new float, so back together it went. I probably should have got some pics of that mess, but I didn’t. Engine now starts and idles until it empties the float bowl. Next up was to install the fuel pump. I bought this from another board member for my X, but looks like that car didn’t need it after all. The pump was slightly used, but was said to work good. Blew the dust off my old tubing bender and made a new line from the pump to the carb. Looking forward to seeing if my back yard carb rebuild is gonna turn out as good as the 0246 carb did on my white car.
that picture of the engine almost looks like the twin to mine years ago when I first acquired a pair of those rocker arm covers. I cant find my pic with the covers but, its close
Update time. The last couple of days have been productive. I acquired what I believe is a usable gas tank from a local buddy. I will know just how usable it is when I actually put gas in it, but it appears ok. Cleaned the inside out as best as I could and installed a new sender I got from Todd. Once the power wire gets here that Todd sent me today, I’ll have the tank in for good. I gave up trying to fix the trunk floor right, so it’s in for function only. Ran a few self tapper tek screws (left over from my ceiling job) thru the pan into the supports. Tack welded it in around the edge so it would be easy to remove and fix right, if I ever decide to restore it right. All in, it only took me about an hour.
