Another test. Still apparently chickening out and lifting when I was pretty sure I wasn't, lol. I thought I'd post up the shift times as well and compare to my best run at Drag Week where I completely lifted. The average in this test is 0.708 seconds, with the quickest 0.542 seconds, and Drag Week's best run is 0.599 seconds with 0.516 seconds as my quickest shift. So no real definitive advantage observed yet, but I'm watching rpm's more than focusing on shift speed, but I still think there is going to be some advantage in running it.
Very interesting I could use traction control on my car even at 60 mph it still spins em... Cool updates keep it up I read them all!
On a completely separate note. I've been thinking of doing a preventative maintenance rebuild on the TKO-600. I've got at least 100,000 miles on it since 2008 as there were a couple years I racked up around 18,000 miles a year and a few others over 12,000 (each Drag Week has made around 4,500 miles in Septembers alone). Other than a little grumbly going into 4th when I don't lift on the throttle (the flat shift seems to have "cured" that), it doesn't have any outwardly showing issues. It's gotten five or six fluid changes over the years as well so shouldn't have any fluid issues. Just figure higher mileage inspection for wear and such. Going into that, it seems very difficult to get a rebuild kit, or even maintenance parts (like synchro's, bearings and seals). So I posted the complaint on Tremec's Facebook page and within 20 minutes they responded and one of their people messaged me about getting parts. The tech agreed that it seems odd that after nearly 20 years of TKO production they sell very few service parts for them. They put me in contact with a vendor that can order the parts and after talking with the vendor, they said Tremec doesn't offer any kind of kit, so they have pieced together one based on what they feel it should have. I brought the "lack of kit from Tremec" thought back to the Tremec representative, implying they may sell more service parts if they put together a rebuild package that is more customer friendly. And of course hoping there would be a cost break bundling the parts and hopefully make up the difference in new sales. Also mentioned if they did something like that, advertising a bit more boldly that parts are available to the DIY'er may generate a few sales as well. Many who do these types of swaps are hands on capable people. End of the day, the pieced together "rebuild" kit from the vendor is $550 (practically a 1/4 cost of a new transmission), and that particular shop charges around $200 labor to R&R it. The good news is the shop has the parts on hand and can mail them out quickly, versus Tremec that says it takes them 30-45 days to get parts out to the vendors after they are ordered. I was hoping for a ~$250-$300 price range for a few synchro's, bearings, seals and gaskets, so I'm not sure if I'll go down the path of rebuilding it this winter or not, but it's something I've given some thought to.
Ever since I swapped in the 9" rear and changed the driveshaft out for a slightly bigger one with 1350 u-joint's, it's had a vibration at highway speeds. A couple months back I did some measuring of the drive line angles, including the centerline, and everything fell within spec that shouldn't give me much vibration, so I started to suspect the driveshaft balance. So I took an old driveshaft I had laying around that was about 1.5" shorter than the one in the car, got some conversion U-joints and installed it. Sure enough, it cruised smooth on the highway with the small short shaft, pretty much confirming it's the driveshaft (I used the same transmission yoke on both). I had the shaft made at the closest drive line shop to here, and don't have much interest in giving them repeat business so was looking at trying to balance it myself. Then one of my friends showed me a video of someone balancing their quad copter motor's using their cellphone and an app measuring vibration, just move the weight on the motor until the vibration is at it's lowest point, so thought I'd try this out for the driveshaft! The two driveshafts. The bottom one is a OE GM one with a set of conversion u-joints in it and runs pretty smooth down the road, and the black one is a slightly bigger aftermarket one with 1350 u-joints. I welded a piece of angle iron to a nut and screwed it down on the shifter. Figured what better place to measure driveline vibration, short of against the transmission, than right off the end of the shifter? I took vibration measurements at 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, & 80 mph, all in 5th gear. Figured I'd have the Laptop connected with Tuner studio open to be consistent with the speed measurements. I took baseline measurements with the small driveshaft. 80mph was also 8.6. The phone app gives a Mean value on the vibration and it's reset simply by touching the chart, so once I was at a steady state I'd reset it and let it record for about 10-20 seconds then record the Mean into excel. The actual values don't mean a whole lot, just their relative values to each other, and the goal will be to get the lowest number possible. Typically there are two ways of starting out with placing the hose clamp on the drive shaft. One is to leave it a tad loose and let it settle on the heavy side then move it 180 and start from there, or mark the driveshaft in four places and move the hose clamp to each of the four places and start from the point of lowest vibration. I'm going to use the second method but go a bit further and marked out 8 lines. Then when I place the second hose clamp on there I can also reference them to numbers in Excel while testing. Unfortunately, I turned out I did not have big enough hose clamps on hand, so I need to get some tomorrow... The data shows more vibration with the aftermarket shaft. It peaks at 77mph then starts decreasing from there.
The big test will be tomorrow driving to work, but I can tell you with the wheels off the ground there is a significant improvement in the feel at "speed". Took a bit more work than I anticipated, but I also think there is a significant imbalance left as both clamps ended up in the same position and may go for a third hose clamp to see if the extra weight further smooths it out some more. This concerns me enough to say down the road I'll get a new driveshaft made up. Here is the data. The top is the summary of the data. The middle is where I moved one clamp into each of the 8 positions then plotted up the mean vibration number in a circle to see the distribution. I plotted a red line to show where the final weight ended up. The charts at the bottom are the same, just sorted differently. The one on the left is the test data in the order I did the testing, and the right side sorted by lowest mean vibration. I repeated the 4-3.5 position twice just to re-check and to make sure the result was repeatable. Since the lowest vibration was having both clamps in the same spot, I think it needs more weight in that spot, but that is just a guess at this point. And the clamps in place with the ends folded over to discourage backing off. I may eventually clip them.
That's a fair amount of weight. Did you chuck it up between centers to see if it is actually straight? (I didn't look upthread for this info- lazy, I guess)
I concur on the weight. By my best measuring abilities it's straight, but there is no guarantee on my accuracy.
Did you measure total indicated radial run-out with a dial indicator, say, about mid-shaft? Not knowing the thickness and diameter of the tube, I wouldn't be able to tell you what the unbalance would be, based on that run-out. Driveshafts are generally balanced with weights at each end. Putting weights anywhere else might cause deflection at speed. Of course, that relies on the shaft being straight in the first place. If the shaft is actually bent, I wouldn't use it for anything other than lawn art.
It was a new, 3" steel, shaft I got when I got the 9" rear end in 2013, and it's had a vibration since day one. It has weights welded on at both ends. I haven't put a dial indicator to it, but comparing it to the other shaft I have and on the flattest surface I have, it's not "apparently" bent. Again, no dial indicator to confirm. A friend of mine mentioned, if I'm going to put a third hose clamp on it, may as well go through this exercise on the transmission end and put one or two on that end. It takes about a minute per test run.
After the drive to work this morning I'm considering this work a verified success. Cruised along anywhere between 70mph and 85mph and running as smooth as the smaller driveshaft. I think some work can still be done in the long run, but for now it's waaaay better.
Not going on Drag Week this year (starts Monday), but went on a small 700 mile road trip out to Lake Tahoe after work Thursday and came back home yesterday. The driveshaft work sure did make driving a lot nicer, though it just meant I was driving faster. My mileage was a dismal 18mpg (cruising ~2400-2500rpm). I did have one hiccup on the way home, my primary high pressure fuel pump died. It had been making funny noises for about a month, so it wasn't overly surprising. I'm pretty sure it's the one that has been on the car since 2011, which is probably around 35,000 miles or more. I am slightly disappointed. Anyways, once I verified the fuse and relay were good and there was power at the pump, I simply unplugged my second staged pump (identical pumps) and plugged the primary pump wires into it and the car fired right up and got me home without issue from there. Had I been real savvy, when it died on me at highway speed, I could have put the gas pedal down to kick on the staged pump and the engine would of come back to life. The pump is a NAPA lifetime warranty pump, and a common on the shelf item so I should be able to just swap it out. I called this my "Pretend Drag Week Trip". Miles of mostly empty road. However I did stay on Highway 50, "The Loneliest Road in America", the entire way. Lake Tahoe.
Thanks for sharing (Re: TheSilverBuick's 1977 Skylark) Dear Randal and V-8 Buick caretakers of family heirlooms, Thanks for sharing! Those were some nifty pictures! These cars are meant to be driven just as they were in the "youthful days." . . . . Cheers, Edouard
No problem :TU: Going back a year, driving home from DW2015 I hit a road gator in Colorado that took out one of my electric exhaust cutouts, basically yanked the threads right out of the butterfly housing and broke one of the wires. Since then I had that one side removed and put a standard cap on it and pulled the fuse so I wouldn't mess with just the one side. Today I decided to actually take a look at repairing the damaged one, and in that time it appeared something broke one of the wires on the other one (I drive through a lot of mud and dirt). The butterfly on the one on the car ended up being stuck closed as well from a year of no use. The repairs were simple enough, I found a couple of screws one size up from the ones that got yanked out, drilled and tapped the needed holes, and done. The wiring interestingly enough on both broke at the end of a giant resistor that was wrapped up in the short harness on each cut out. so I simply trimmed a little insulation off the wires, slid a piece of shrink wrap in, re-liquefied the existing solder and added a bit, reconnected add a touch of heat to the shrink wrap and give it some loom and electrical tape wrapping for good measure and done. Popped the stuck butterfly loose and cleaned it and the seal up with some scotchbrite and gave it a light coating of moly grease then re-mounted both cut outs and they work like a charm FTW. Probably should have done this a year ago =P
The fuel pump saga continues. NAPA changed brands to Airtex two years ago and so far I'm batting two for three on junk pumps out of the box. This pump generates right at 43psi, which might get by on a stock Ford, but my fuel pressure regulator is set at 50psi so running at ~43psi makes it run lean. The pump specifications listed is 70-95psi. Since I installed it, the car had been running lean, which is very noticeable. I plugged the other pump in and right to the regulator's 50psi. So I'm going to replace it again this weekend, yay. This goes back, if you followed my Firebird's thread, when I first got it running two years ago I spent about six months troubleshooting a "vapor-lock" issue that would cause me to lose fuel pressure after an hour or so of driving. Turned out the fuel pump would just quit pumping fuel. I swapped in a pump from the Skylark and it drove for hours on end. Exchanged the defective new pump at NAPA and it's been running good and reliably since. Dandy. Edit - Doing some googling, it looks like there may be a better mousetrap available. Unfortunately still an Airtex, but their E8248 pump appears to be available off the shelf and has 3/8ths inlet/outlets versus 5/16's and is rated at higher pressures and almost double the fuel flow of a single E2000 I've been using, so I may try one of these. I'll probably leave a second pump staged in simply because I have it already wired and plumbed, and to have some redundancy.
Thanks for sharing - wagon has similar "issuez" (Re: TheSilverBuick's 1977 Skylark) Dear Randal and V-8 Buick fans of Electronic Fuel Injection, Interesting . . . . My trusty wagon has also had problem running lean. I've also had what appeared to be a "vapor-lock" problem that would occur after a modest drive when I would stop the engine for a few minutes to unload the car and then start it up again to put her in the garage. The preliminary diagnosis was a faulty fuel pressure regulator. I got a new fuel pressure regulator from Summit Racing (where else? :grin: ) but it turned out to be completely defective. I just got the replacement but haven't had a chance to have it swapped in. Nonetheless, Richard Nedbal, who is the guy who sold me my FAST Sportsman XFI Electronic Fuel Injection system, recommended that I check the pump as well. I'll do that even if that pump cannot have more than about 2000 miles on it. Thanks for keeping us posted! Cheers, Edouard :beer P.S. By the way, Richard Nedbal is really a cool car guy - even if he is Mopar type! http://www.richard-nedbal.com/
Yeah, have a fuel pressure gauge mounted on the end of my fuel rail so I can watch it. I've seen it wobble quite a bit, and of the few times I've had fuel issues I could see what was going on there. I've never heard a good thing about Airtex and unfortunately NAPA switched to using them a few years ago and I've got nothing good to say about them either. Even I get my share of "new" defective parts :error: All you can do is grumble a little and move on, otherwise it wears on you. I've only had one "fuel" pressure regulator issue (of the three I have) and that is with the regulator I'm using for oil pressure in the Firebird. It seemed to struggle to keep the oil pressure way down low with an input of 50-60psi. I solved it by putting a much smaller feed line on it than return. Otherwise, I haven't had any issues with them. Since I drive the car so much I do notice when it changes in running, such as running one full point higher AFR across the board. That's what a 20% reduction in fuel pressure will do. Easiest way to test the regulator, if you are using the vacuum reference line, is to see what the fuel pressures up to when the engine is off (the 5 second priming, my want to cycle the key twice) and then see what the pressure is when the engine is running. The pressure should be 5-10 psi less when the engine is running from the vacuum offset. The other test would be to adjust it while the engine is running, unplug the vacuum reference line, loosen the backing nut, run the adjuster up and down a few turns while watching the pressure and that should move the pressure around accordingly. Then reset it back to where it was. If the fuel pressure doesn't move in those predictable ways then there is an issue, which at that point you need to determine if the data tells you it's the fuel pump, fuel line size, or the regulator itself.
Thanks for the tips! (Re: TheSilverBuick's 1977 Skylark) Dear Randal and V-8 Buick EFI troubleshooters, My current EFI rig has an electronic fuel pressure sensor so the pressure is also logged. The pressure has always been a little bit low, on the order of 2 psi. However, when the engine would stall after it was hot and I as trying to get the car into the garage it would drop drastically. Since the car had no other issues, it seemed most likely that the pressure regulator wasn't coping with those conditions. Sorry to hear about your experiences with Airtex and NAPA. I have a Spectra Premium tank and those darn guys don't list the maker of the fuel pump, so I don't know which brand I have. Thanks for the advice. Alas, I'm struggling with some family health issues right now, so the trusty wagon is on the back burner until I can free up some more time. Cheers, Edouard
Spectra Performance has their own brand of pumps, though I'm not sure if they simply re-brand them or not (most likely). 2-psi isn't much to worry about. I usually find it difficult to suspect the regulator because it's such a simple piece of hardware. It's just a spring and a diaphragm that moves a pintle needle up and down. Typically the only way it fails is by leaking, but the spring tension could get compromised I'm sure some how. The pintle should never seat so it's shape isn't overly important, just as long as it doesn't change.
