mike343sharpstick's 69 Javelin project

[SuperBuickGuy]

we are excellent at spending your money

[mike343sharpstick]

Did a little pre-assembly today, and checked that the dimensions are as ordered. Made sure the brakes all came together properly. Also threw a wheel on to check fitment. All looks good.
Started pulling the old axle out too.

[mike343sharpstick]

Well crap, there always has to be something.
As soon as I unpackaged the axle housing, I suspected there may be a clearance issue with the location of the fill cap. There is very tight clearance between the axle and the fuel tank.
I pulled the old axle out, and put the new one in, jacked up the car to see how it all fit... and unfortunately I was correct.
I think the best place to move it would be on the side of the case as shown in the picture, thoughts??

[SuperBuickGuy]

does the 3rd member have a fill hole as well? if not, then that looks like a good spot

[TheSilverBuick]

does the 3rd member have a fill hole as well? if not, then that looks like a good spot

x2. I'd just do away with the fill cap entirely if the 3rd member has one on it. Otherwise, the new location looks fine and you could probably make it smaller, like an oil pan drain plug kit.

[DanStokes]

That drain looks like it doubles as a breather. Am I right? If so, the higher the better - at least, that's where I'd put it.

EDIT: I looked again. Dumb question, but is that supposed to be a drain? Maybe the whole deal is upside-down?

Dan

[TheSilverBuick]

Looking at yours, and looking at mine, a few things pop out to me.

Mine just has the breather port right where you've indicated you would like to move it. It's just a brass fitting for a 3/8th hose, which I ran up and zip tied to the highest point I could and stuck a metal fuel filter at the end of the hose.

Looking at the brakes, I cannot tell where the bleeder screw is on the calipers (or the actual parking brake levers), but just would like to mention to make sure the calipers are on in the correct position to bleed.

I have the old "crappier" style of calipers off a Cadillac Seville, and are side specific. You'll notice one is front mounted and one is rear mounted. If one was mounted on the wrong side the bleeder (and parking brake adjuster), would be upside down. Probably another one of those things that changed with the later re-design. The key thing to see is that the bleeder screw is facing upwards.

[mike343sharpstick]

Dan, it's not a breather at all, there is a drain in it as well, and that's in the bottom just where it should be
The Moser aluminum third member (what I'm planning to use) doesn't look to have a fill hole in it
I emailed Moser to verify that I can move it to that new location, and they said it would be fine.

Thanks for the heads up on the brakes, I did double check on some high res versions of the pictures and the bleeder is on top, thanks for the reminder and heads up on that! Sometimes in a rush things get missed.

There is a breather fitting in the axle tube, you can kinda see it in the picture of the axle assembly on the driver side axle tube.

Here is a picture of the calipers before I painted them if it helps clarify what they are from. I pulled the piston out of one of them to figure out the parking brake mechanism, it's very simple but I can see how corrosion would lock it all up. You can see the bleeders in the picture too.

[TheSilverBuick]

Nifty that the cable goes over the top of the axle rather than under. And since you already have a breather tube, if the 3rd member has a fill hole (should right?) then I'd just eliminate that fill hole altogether.

Hmm, looking up their kits, I see why mine are set up on opposite sides, the car has staggered shocks and the caliper is set to the opposite side of the shock. The prices seem quite reasonable if I decide to ditch the calipers I currently have.

Also, if you look close at mine, I've added brake hoses to the calipers. The factory hard lines them in, but I rather not have to bleed the brakes to change the brakes, or adjust the parking brake, or change the rotor, axle seal, etc etc. Not that you do any of those activities often, but it adds quite a bit of time to a job if you have to bleed the brakes as an incidental.

Or like roadside repairs like on Drag Week 2012 when my axle bearing went out (what prompted the rear end replacement), I didn't have to mess with a possible broken hard line or re-bleeding the brakes. Just hosed everything down with brake clean after changing the bearing and seal.

[mike343sharpstick]

Hard lines to the brake calipers is crazy, very odd that the factory did it that way?
In looking at brake lines. The factory axle had a "T" about 8" from the end of the passenger side axle end. I'll do the same thing, and bring a stainless braded line to the passenger-side caliper from there. I am considering a single braided stainless line all the way to the other side as well. I can't think of a good reason to have a hard line from the T on the passenger side to the same location on the driver side, then a fitting to another 8" stainless braided line connected to caliper. One less connection to leak.
I'll put several of those insulated clamps in place to keep the line from flopping around.

At a glance, what you have looks to use the same brake pads as what I have?

[DanStokes]

My '78 Cadillac had the hard lines all the way to the rear calipers (in fact, those calipers look REAL familiar). Dumb setup but I suppose it saved $0.0008/car so they went with it. Actually, it worked OK and I did do the rear brakes w/o pulling the calipers but I sure didn't feel warm and fuzzy about it. X2 (or is that 3) on the flex lines.

Dan

[TheSilverBuick]

Semi-Metallic 52's in the Front and Organic 52's out back.

If you haven't seen them, looking under the Chevy trucks made in the last ten or so years, it looks like they have nifty ziptie looking brake line holders. I keep meaning to order some for my rear axles and re-do my lines, but never seem to get around to it.

[SuperBuickGuy]

rubber hoses would be crazier. metal has elasticity, and as long as the travel of those lines (or if they're made of spring steel) is within that dimension, why would it be crazy? rubber would be worse, rubber needs to exercise to stay pliable, on the rear, they just don't move that much - add to the issue the swelling of the rubber hoses and it maybe crazy, but more like crazy like a fox.

[mike343sharpstick]

Added this bit of aluminum today,..

[mike343sharpstick]

A few things to do to finish this up, I'll need to repaint the corner braces or course.
I'll polish up the aluminum a little, and use some nice stainless button-head screws.
I have been wanting to do this for a while, it seems now that I have heat in the garage things are getting done that I've been wanting to do for a while