350 36-1 trigger wheel for EFI

Discussion in 'Small Block Tech' started by BbyCbra, Jul 10, 2007.

  1. rdj59

    rdj59 It's like sex on ice

    This is good news to hear. Any of my testing wouldn't come until spring time. I need to finish my Jeep and sell my Intrepid to get money to rebuild the 350 (spun rod bearing nasty knock when under load and a nice glitter in the oil). As long as the spacing of the teeth is the same as the F*rd product i don't see why it wouldn't work. I wish i was ready to install right away but in all reality I'm not. Sounds like Sean is getting close to firing his up so he would probably be the best candidate for this.

    If anyone has any questions about Meagsquirt i will do my best to help or at least point you in the right direction. E-mail me at rdj5905@aol.com
     
  2. BbyCbra

    BbyCbra streetfighter TR-6

    Just off the phone with the waterjet shop and the parts are shipping out to me today. but per his request I'm going to make the following changes and ask for people to signup as a group buy -- he said that if he had to do it again he'd raise the price considerably and asked for a minimum 5 unit order to help keep his manufacturing costs down.

    So what I'd like to do is start a list (see below) and have people put their names on it and lets see how many we can get on an initial order, IIRC there were more than 5 requests above so this shouldn't be a problem to hit the minimum. If you signup, also PM me your name and shipping address info, once we get the final order together I'll send the list down to the shop, then you can call the shop directly, pay them with your visa/mc (no paypal or check, I did ask) and they will ship directly to you. Again - I'm not making anything off this, but want to help the waterjet shop out by just sending them a list and say "make X wheels, and they're shipping to these guys, they'll call you direct to pay for them"

    K, pricing - he's still going to honor the $30 + $10 shipping as long as we can do minimum orders of 5 units, single unit orders are $60 + shipping. if we can get 34 units then price per unit drops by prob 10%, told him that I didn't think we can get 34 (price break hits at $1000, 34x$30=$1020) but that if we did I'd call him back and firm the pricing up - remember that you don't pay till the order goes in. more than 34 wheels picks up more discounting, all TBD once we get a final order quantity.

    testing - so far I have no takers on someone who is megasquirt savvy and can install the wheel right away in a MS system. sooo... I gotta go with the fact that if all the little holes match the pins and holes on the balancer, and the TDC marks match up, then its prob going to be a go on publishing the info. Wish I could make sure that it works to trigger a known good strong signal with a VR...

    I hope this is ok with everybody, if not try to do your best to work with the situation for now and let's get the initial order out of the way.

    "I'm interested in a 36-1 for the 350" list:

    1.
    2.
    3.
    4.
    5.
     
  3. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

  4. rdj59

    rdj59 It's like sex on ice

    Put me down for 2. I'll be sure to keep 70 bucks from my paycheck this friday.

    Jeramie
     
  5. BbyCbra

    BbyCbra streetfighter TR-6

    so far:
    1 .sean Buick 76
    2. sean Buick 76
    3. sean Buick 76
    4. sean Buick 76
    5. rdj59
    6. rdj59

    possibly expressing interest:
    NixVegaGT
    Nothingface5384
    Jim Blackwood
    Gasoline
     
  6. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    Come on guys! Mark is now offering a MPFI front mounted TB X factor intake so lets make the jump to what technology can provide on our awesome 350s!
     
  7. Nothingface5384

    Nothingface5384 Detail To Oil - Car Care

    i'm not sure if i'm going fuel injection...still iffy but i''ll still be in for one
     
  8. BuickCityPsycho

    BuickCityPsycho TopFueL wannabe

    Sean Etson I am in for one
     
  9. BbyCbra

    BbyCbra streetfighter TR-6

    1 .sean Buick 76
    2. sean Buick 76
    3. sean Buick 76
    4. sean Buick 76
    5. rdj59
    6. rdj59
    7. BuickCityPsycho

    Nothingface5384 - feel free to add yourself to the list if you'd like to get in on this.
     
  10. BbyCbra

    BbyCbra streetfighter TR-6

    1 .sean Buick 76
    2. sean Buick 76
    3. sean Buick 76
    4. sean Buick 76
    5. rdj59
    6. rdj59
    7. BuickCityPsycho
    8. Nothingface5384
     
  11. Gasoline

    Gasoline Pitbulls and Kudzu

    Put me down for one.

    Thanks
     
  12. BbyCbra

    BbyCbra streetfighter TR-6

    1 .sean Buick 76
    2. sean Buick 76
    3. sean Buick 76
    4. sean Buick 76
    5. rdj59
    6. rdj59
    7. BuickCityPsycho
    8. Nothingface5384
    9. Gasoline

    be sure to remember to PM me you name/address info
     
  13. BbyCbra

    BbyCbra streetfighter TR-6

    look what showed up today:

    [​IMG]

    couple of issues off the top that and one that I didn't consider:

    - inner circle is too tight by .006-.008 so its a press fit to cinch it down to the HB, I'll open this up more in the drawing and run a file around the inside a few times to open it up a bit.

    - man, those are some sharp edges, you could get a close shave with the spacer alone.

    - looks like the cutting head wasn't perpendicular when cutting the big holes, they look tapered to the eye. confirmed this by laying the spacer on the HB, on one side the top of the spacer sits flush with the top of the protruding HB ring, flip the spacer over an the ring sits on the top outer edge of the HB spacer. if the holes were cut wider I don't think that this would be an issue/noticeable - but with the tight fit it stands out. again, nothing some fine tuning with a file wouldn't quickly and easily take care of.

    on the good side:

    it does seem to fit, TDC matches up well, and the outer holes seem to hover over the pins nicely. will need to take the file to the inner hole to open it up so that the wheel will seat without requiring pressure to confirm this

    didn't consider:

    - in hindsight I made my tolerances too tight, should have added .005 - .010 to each hole for some spacing/padding

    - the .25" height of the 2 plates put together is higher than the lip of the HB for the pulley, the pulley isn't centered on the inner ring but now relies on the 6 bolts for centering - not sure if this is an issue or not, just eyeballing it at this point. not sure there is a solution for this, 2 plates are needed - 1 to get the wheel up off the rubber spacer between the inner and outer part of the HB, compress that spacer and it defeats the benefit of the HB. my HB is old and the rubber doesn't sit up much but I've seen others. the ring sits about .22 above the face of the HB and has a chamfered top lip so I lose a bit of the .22 there too. don't want to go too thin on the metal, will talk to the shop in the morning to see what they might suggest.

    a quick idea for pulley alignment: maybe keep the 2 centers that get cutout from the spacer and wheel so that when you go to install the pulley on top of the wheel you can lay "the donut hole" into the ring for alignment - it will provide a lip that sits up above the 36-1 wheel to help you center the pulley when you cinch the bolts down - then remove the "donut hole". glue/epoxy the 2 'donut holes' together to get a higher lip for pulley alignment.
     
  14. BbyCbra

    BbyCbra streetfighter TR-6

    Just off the phone with the waterjet company. This has been a good learning experience for me:

    - taper in the holes is due to the size of the sheet and the inability to center the waterjet head to ultra tight tolerances, on this size they look for taper in the hole tolerance @ +/- .010 which is inline with what I saw in the taper on the parts I got. I'd already opened the inner hole as well as the holes on the outer ring of holes in the drawing so the taper should be a non issue moving forward.

    - I've re-spec'd the material to 11g vs the 10g that I'd previously spec'd, the thickness on these is a bit of overkill. however the thinner material will not resolve the issue with the pulley alignment, see below for more on that, it may help in keeping belt alignment for the other accessories

    - 2 possible solutions below on the pulley alignment issue - the goal here is to temporarily simulate an extension/protrusion of the center ring on the HB out further since the 36-1 spacer and wheel will occupy most of the space on the existing HB center ring creating the possibility that the pulley might be mounted out of center causing it to wobble on the crank and creating unwanted engine vibration.

    when the 36-1 spacer/wheel is installed there will be a hole created inside the center above the lip so when you add the one of the 2 extender solutions below it will automagically provide centering for the pulley when the extender is laid inside the center hole of the wheel (I hope this makes sense):

    1) they will ship the 2 donut holes with the order if requested, I'd encourage you to do so. epoxy the 2 pieces together and use them to extend the length of the raised ring in the center of the HB after the 26-1 spacer and wheel are installed to provide a lip to align the pulley. the kerf on the waterjet cut is .030 which will provide the desired tight fit.

    2) if you have a lathe then cut a large wood/plastic dowel down to 2.125 diameter and use it as the centering vs the donut holes. currently i have the center hole @ 2.14 diameter giving you .015 clearance on the dowel which should be fine for aligning the pulley

    just waiting for rjd59 to PM me contact/address info and I'll get the order in and info out to everybody.
     
  15. BbyCbra

    BbyCbra streetfighter TR-6

    just sent the order info off to the waterjet company

    those on the group buy list above will need to:

    1) contact Nathan at Thunderbird Products in El Cajon, CA
    2) tell him you are on the group buy list for "Mike's Buick 350 wheel"
    3) let him know if you want the "donut holes" as part of your order
    3a) Sean thinks that he can find a source for lathed pins, contact him if you have more interest in pursuing those vs the "donut holes"
    4) provide Nathan payment info for your part of the order - Visa MC
    5) confirm your shipping info with him
    6) ask any final questions

    The order will be processed and shipped once everybody on the list goes thru the steps above - so if there is a delay by someone then that holds the others up. His turnaround was quick and my parts arrived by UPS.

    http://www.thunderbirdwaterjet.com/

    Thunderbird Products
    1148 North Marshall Ave
    El Cajon, CA 92020
    (800) 65 TBIRD Phone -- (619) 448 9072 Fax

    info@thunderbirdwaterjet

    I really hope this works well for everybody, keep in mind this design is not field tested at all so YMMV, I've done my best with the design but expect a hiccup or 2 just in case. Open to all suggestions on reworking the design as we move closer to installing them. Next step is a design for the VR mounting bracket on the timing cover... Should be lots of room under the pulley (he says optimistically....)
     
  16. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    My wheels will be going straight to Burton Machine so if the other buyer want we can have them all go there to be fine tuned before shipping to you.
     
  17. Nothingface5384

    Nothingface5384 Detail To Oil - Car Care

    i'd like mine to go to burton machine too
     
  18. Nothingface5384

    Nothingface5384 Detail To Oil - Car Care

    hey sean are you still getting the donut holes are just going with the lathed pins?
     
  19. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    Yes Mike donut holes... I'll call in the morn.
     
  20. Nothingface5384

    Nothingface5384 Detail To Oil - Car Care

    well i followed the steps, so i should be done :bla:
     

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