Projects Mid Life Crisis 62 Vette

Looks like great fun.

So how many participants on the West tour?

John

 

I don't know, there were a thousandish? or so?

We made it home! yay.

 

Were does one find a new points distributor for a SBC? Couldn't find a single one on google.

 

Autozone had one in stock in Las Vegas.

https://www.autozone.com/external-e...uralast-gold-distributor-bdlg-gm10/194329_0_0

 

Two reviews one with ***** the other **. The two star buying complained that condenser went out in a week. Is that really a big surprise?

 

How can that be? This is verbatim from the ad copy:

"...original design weaknesses are identified and corrected, resulting in premium-quality, brand-new parts you can rely on."

 

But, what it doesn't say is, what you can rely on the parts to do.

 

Been working on the smaller replacement.



And back to the clutch noise. I pulled the transmission again, and the clutch. Yeah, the bushing is shot!



But it doesn't want to come out, it just laughed at my slide hammer, and it's giving the cape chisel a run for it's money.

 

The Lego ‘vette is super cool!

I’ve taken to just cutting a slot through pilot bushings with a small carbide but in my die grinder.

 

Have you ever used the peanut butter removal method?

 

Yep, the hydraulic method works.

 

I do too.

 

This time buy a bearing instead of a bushing.

 

Jim was it gray or bronze looking? I got one recently that was gray in color and I put a magnet on it and it stuck It went directly in the trash.

 

It's amazing the amount of crap products being sold nowadays

 

That bushing is suspect. I'd replace it with a proper oil-lite bronze bushing. I've seen other folks use those roller bearings and they dried out from the heat, failed, and destroyed the input shaft.

 

When I converted my 56 to manual trans I had a hard time stabbing trans despite using an alignment tool. Next thing odd was car rolled upon start up despite applying the clutch. Things got ok after next try at start up. Then a few month’s later the clutch would squeal. It was the pilot bushing. Changed it out and all good since the early 2000’s.

 

I got the old bushing out. I'll do some magnet testing in the morning. I have two replacements, one looks grayish (in a new Dorman package), the other looks bronzish, I think it came from an old Dorman orange bin.

The pilot on the input shaft looks ok, I polished it up again to be sure.

I don't like the bearings because they eat up the input shaft whey they go.

 

Obvious lip in the picture at the front of the bushing.
I know mopar had HP offset dowels so the engine centerline and trans centerline could be dialed in together because production tolerances could stack up. Maybe this?
https://www.holley.com/blog/post/ho...ing_for_maximum_transmission_and_clutch_life/

 

I agree Jim , I never use bearings .

 

I don't think it's an alignment issue.

Oh....remember those pesky leaking rear wheel bearing seals on my Drag Week trip? One of the new replacements is leaking now.

Fun

 

I had that problem on a Ford 9 Inch axle. The vent bolt was not drilled all the way through. Check that your vent is clear.

Russ

 

I used a bearing in the Barracuda, almost all the oem stuff is roller bearings and unless you sit with your foot on the clutch, in gear, it’s not really a factor, although I suppose the lack of turning may be equally as bad for it…

 

I made up a couple of bushings during my machine shop days, I should have made a bunch. I used the last one around 1984. I always put a good radius on the entry side and used a small amount of Lubriplate when I installed them.

 

I have seen this happen, when the block has been line bored. Needed to get offset dowels to correct it.