69 Catalina Rescue

**OldMachinist** · October 15, 2012, 03:13 PM

Is it possible to drill out the holes in the links and use the larger size bolts?

**mrocketscience** · October 15, 2012, 05:32 PM

The 4 link bars are Alston's Pro Street setup, which has urethane bushings where it bolts to the housing. I could probably drill them out and use a new sleeve for the larger size. That's another possibility.

**mrocketscience** · December 3, 2012, 10:08 AM

Well, with all the rain we've been getting here in sunny SoCal, looks like the trunk on the Catalina is getting water in it. I've already put a new trunk seal on, but that's no help. I'm pretty sure it's coming in around the rear attatchment on the convertible top. Bummer, I'll just have to keep soaking it up with towels until I can get a chance to try and sort that out. Also, the bad steering coupler rubber got replaced so it doesn't have all that slop in the steering anymore. Makes freeway driving less of an adventure now

I bought the rubber coupler and was looking at replacing it myself, but the more I looked at it the less I wanted to do it. I called Pep Boys down the street from me and the quote they gave me was so reasonable I couldn't justify spending all day doing it myself. They wound up pulling the steering column back enough to make the repair, and while it was there I had them do a lube job on it. So now the front end creaks a lot less. Win/Win!

**SuperBuickGuy** · December 3, 2012, 10:33 AM

Originally posted by mrocketscience View Post

Well, with all the rain we've been getting here in sunny SoCal, looks like the trunk on the Catalina is getting water in it. I've already put a new trunk seal on, but that's no help. I'm pretty sure it's coming in around the rear attatchment on the convertible top. Bummer, I'll just have to keep soaking it up with towels until I can get a chance to try and sort that out. Also, the bad steering coupler rubber got replaced so it doesn't have all that slop in the steering anymore. Makes freeway driving less of an adventure now

I bought the rubber coupler and was looking at replacing it myself, but the more I looked at it the less I wanted to do it. I called Pep Boys down the street from me and the quote they gave me was so reasonable I couldn't justify spending all day doing it myself. They wound up pulling the steering column back enough to make the repair, and while it was there I had them do a lube job on it. So now the front end creaks a lot less. Win/Win!

Costco or Harbor freight tarps work awesome

seriously, how often does it rain?

**TheSilverBuick** · December 3, 2012, 11:10 AM

Over the last five or six years I've learned some stuff is just nicer to farm out. Sure I could do it, but I rather have my time than spend it on some trivial, but needed job. I had a local shop do the transmission mount on my Centurion a couple years ago because I didn't feel like spending time on it and it was only like $70 including the part.

**Scott Liggett** · December 3, 2012, 03:00 PM

Under the spare tire is a dip in the trunk floor that helps keep it from moving around. Its the lowest point of the trunk floor and there is a drain plug there gou can remove and it will help keep from you having to mop up water in the trunk. Also, the trunk sides hold a ton of water. There are plastic plugs just behind the quarters right behind the tires. If you pry them out a bit, it will drain the trunk sides.

**mrocketscience** · December 3, 2012, 04:36 PM

Originally posted by SuperBuickGuy View Post

Costco or Harbor freight tarps work awesome

seriously, how often does it rain?

Well, I'm not a rain lover, so it rains too much;) Yes, I could stick a tarp on it and probably will next time rainy weather shows up.

**mrocketscience** · December 3, 2012, 04:38 PM

Originally posted by TheSilverBuick View Post

Over the last five or six years I've learned some stuff is just nicer to farm out. Sure I could do it, but I rather have my time than spend it on some trivial, but needed job. I had a local shop do the transmission mount on my Centurion a couple years ago because I didn't feel like spending time on it and it was only like $70 including the part.

Exactly! I dropped the car off, walked a couple blocks home and did other stuff while they worked on it. I didn't have to get greasy this time...

**mrocketscience** · December 3, 2012, 04:41 PM

Originally posted by Scott Liggett View Post

Under the spare tire is a dip in the trunk floor that helps keep it from moving around. Its the lowest point of the trunk floor and there is a drain plug there gou can remove and it will help keep from you having to mop up water in the trunk. Also, the trunk sides hold a ton of water. There are plastic plugs just behind the quarters right behind the tires. If you pry them out a bit, it will drain the trunk sides.

Thanks! I'll check that out asap...

**mrocketscience** · April 3, 2013, 02:36 PM

Hey! I haven't updated this thread in a long time, mostly because the car has been running great and I've been using it a lot. It's pretty much in daily driver status at this point. I put in a new radiator, new tires on the back so we have all new BFGs now.
So now we have a problem that cropped up yesterday with the transmission. Kinda slipping and chattering in 1st gear. I looked at the fluid and it really seems to me to be kind of thin. So, what could be thinning the fluid? The only thing possible I can come up with is antifreeze. Maybe it's leaking in from the radiator trans cooler. Anyway, I made an appt with my trans shop to look it over. I really hope it doesn't need a major rebuild, thats gonna cut into the body/paint fund.

It's going in next Tuesday, so I'll update then.

**TheSilverBuick** · April 3, 2013, 02:59 PM

Hopefully it's not anti-freeze. The clutch material in the trans is glued in place with water soluble adhesive and when water gets in it the friction material falls away.

**Scott Liggett** · April 3, 2013, 04:34 PM

A paint job doesn't make the car go and stop. Good luck on the trans fix. Hopefully it's cheap.

**mrocketscience** · April 4, 2013, 08:11 AM

I hope it's not antifreeze too. I'll find out next week, I guess. Ironic that doing a good thing (putting in a new radiator) may now have caused damage to a perfectly good Turbo 400.
While true a paint job does nothing for the car mechanically, I was sure looking forward to an appearance upgrade! We got a couple of estimates on body and paint, and for a basic base/clear finish we're looking at around $3000. This is not show car quality, of course, but nice driver quality paint. We've been setting money aside for this purpose, hoping for paint in the summer, but a trans rebuild will set that back a bit. Oh well.....

**milner351** · April 4, 2013, 08:15 AM

TH400 should be pretty economical to rebuild - especially compared to any of the newer electronically controlled gear boxes.

9/10 - if there's a fluid mixing problem - you'll see it in both places - you should see ATF in the radiator - and - the trans fluid should have a milky / cloudy off color to it.

have you tried replacing the vacuum modulator yet?

**mrocketscience** · April 4, 2013, 08:44 AM

I have not tried replacing the modulator. Might be worthwhile to try over the weekend and see what happens.
I have not noticed any trans fluid in the radiator. When I pulled the dipstick out the fluid looked a very light pink and slightly over full. And it just dripped right off the dipstick more than I'm used to seeing, so thats why I thought it might be watered down. I'll do a little more investigation on Saturday.

69 Catalina Rescue

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