Project No-Flight Update
September 2003
Most of the summer has been spent playing with the boat instead of working on the car. I did finally get back into "car" mode during late August and September. First thing I did was redo the front sway bar installation, as I wasn't really happy with the original. I retained the aft of the axle centerline location, but bent a new bar from 4130 chrome molly using my recently acquired (and VERY handy) 12 ton tubing bender. The sway bar uses forged end-eyes. The mount bushings and end-links are standard aftermarket urethane items. I like this installation better, and it does give me more clearance to the tires/brakes at full steering lock, so hopefully this will be the final installation.
I also obtained the "real" transmission for the car and installed it so I could rework the trans tunnel for clearance for the shift linkage and the TCC lockup electrical connector which were not present on my mock-up transmission. The transmission was custom built by CK Performance in New Jersey. It has a hardened forward drum and billet 300M input shaft and all the other heavy duty aftermarket pieces. It was built from a Turbo Buick core so that it would have the "good" valve body. Along with the trans they built a 3200 stall lock-up converter. Once the trans was installed I was able to mount the shifter. It is a B&M rachet unit.
Using an idea from the Chris ALston catalog I fabricated a removable shifter mount. It ties to the rear trans bracket and can be removed with a simple aircraft pull pin to allow for transmission installation (the trans is installed from the top in my car).
Next on the long list of 'nit' items was to finally work out an installation for the throttle linkage and the transmission throttle valve cable. With the Hilborn 8-stack it took a while to figure out an approach that would work. The normal throttle hookup for the 8-stack is a cross-linkage at the rear of the manifold. A fit check with the dual sync distributor for the EFI system showed there was no room to pass the transmission TV linkage past the distributor. I already had ordered some trick clamp-on injector throttle arms from Speedway Motors. A little re-work to move the linkage that connects the left and right throttle bore banks and I was able to install both a throttle arm and a TV arm to the right throttle plate shaft. A modified Holley throttle and TV cable bracket will be installed to the injector manifold brace bar and after a little tweaking lined up perfectly with the throttle and TV arms. Both cables will run over the top of the right rocker cover, then the TV cable runs down to the trans and the throttle cable runs through the right side of the upper firewall panel and back across under the dash along the cowl brace ....
... where it will connect to the bellcrank which converts the fore-aft travel of the throttle peddle to the sideways travel of the to-be-installed throttle cable.
You can also see the replacement for the factory cowl support brace which ties into the mounting location for the throttle bellcrank. The bellcrank is from a supercharger throttle linkage kit.
I also installed the EFI fuel pump so that I can finish installing the fuel lines to make sure I have all the required tabs and brackets welded to the frame before painting. The pump mounts to the forward end of the battery box. Not quite below the tank but as close as I can get.
Last thing to be installed this month are the toe-kick panels. The driver side is hard to photograph with the steering and pedals in place, but is basically the mirror image of the passenger side unit. I looks like I may still have enough room under the dash to install an AC unit, but that will be another project.
