Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo. RIP

[NAS Backyard]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

Hey Scott, nice work! My step mom had a 74 Monte, good times in that car! Whats going to become of the take off Q-Jet? Please dont toss it. Heater core in the Olds was really easy, too easy...

[Blazerteam]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

I had to laugh for myself here when i read about the lowering ;D ;D.But i think its cool nonetheless.It looks clean and original as it is.It could have been much worse.I rather see it with 15x6 rallys,than 5 inches higher on 24"s :-[.

What people around here have seen when visiting the great old US,is that there aint any cool old cars on the roads anymore.Your friend is doing a great thing about driving this beaty then.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

Hey Scott, nice work! My step mom had a 74 Monte, good times in that car! Whats going to become of the take off Q-Jet? Please dont toss it. Heater core in the Olds was really easy, too easy...

It's around here somewhere along with all the AC parts I've taken off the engine. It just wouldn't run right.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

Have you priced a brass/copper radiator lately. YIKES!! $429 to replace the original three core that Bill's Monte leaky one. The tanks were repaired a bunch of times over the years, so recoring it was out too.

We had two other choices. The modern aluminum core/ plastic tank stuff; or for a few bucks more, a fully tig welded, bolt in, direct replacement aluminum one. We chose the latter on the advice of a trusted third generation radiator shop locally. $189 and an hour of work, this is what we had. We only had to do a bit of tranny line tweaking to get them in.

I apologize, we were in such a hurry that I didn't think to grab the camera until after we installed it. It's two core, one 1 1/2 inch, one 1 inch.

[antmnte]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

Scott,what is that little yellow wire on the drivers side of the radiator? up on top near the hose.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

Scott,what is that little yellow wire on the drivers side of the radiator? up on top near the hose.

It's to prevent electrolosis from happening like what eats away at aluminum intakes. It came with the radiator. To me, it's just a ground wire.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

One thing Bill found annoying since he bought this car was the speedo didn't work. We replaced the speedo cable, but not the housing, but still no speedo. Now, his insurance company is insisting he have a functional speedo in order to prove he doesn't driver 10k miles a year. So, now there was incintive to get it working.

A couple months back I pulled the cable and speedo gear housing out of the trans to see why it wasn't working. I discovered the drive gear on the out put shaft was not secured. I also found the clip to hold in it's place sitting in the bottom of the tail shaft housing.

With the clip in hand I drove down to a trans parts supplier in a seedier part of LA to get a replacement, along with a filter, filter gasket, and pan gasket. The whole shebang was a mere $10. I just love wholesalers, don't you?

After jacking up the car I got to tearing stuff apart. I seem to have too much fun doing this part.


The previous owner had the th350 rebuilt. It's evidenced by the replacement torque convertor, paint all over the case, and the rebuilder's name on the case. Now we know who blame for me spending the weekend under Bill's car. Rene you're in big trouble. >


After draining the trans I installled the new filter, gasket and reinstalled the pan.


I borrowed Bill's nifty little electric jack and a block of wood to lift the trans up and off the crossmember to get it out of the way. This way I can see and get to the tail shaft housing.


Here you can see that I just slid the cross member back along the frame rails to gain access to the tail shaft housing. The driveshaft is just sitting there too as the exhaust makes it somewhat tight to remove altogether.


After removing the housing and speedo gear housing on it's side, you can see the out put shaft and the speedo drive gear. Along with the clip falling off the drive gear is also cracked, essentially making useless.


It's getting dark and the trans shop isn't opened again til Monday, so I stopped here.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

You mean he doesn't keep a lie sheet? Yeah the mileage was last time they asked, so it's probably this now? I did that for the Skylark with the 3.23 gears, the speedo gear in the trans read fast so it was clocking a ton more miles than I actually drove.

Thanks for the pictures too

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

I drove back to the trans parts store today for a few more parts. Obviously, I needed a new drive gear, but I decided to get a few other things. I got a new gear for the cable, a O ring for the gear housing, and a new rear seal. The last two werent' really necessary, but will help prevent future leaks.



Here's a closeup of the drive gear and it's slot for the clip.


Here it is with the clip sitting in it's proper orientation. The tab that is sticking up will go into a hole on the out put shaft to keep it in place.


Here you can see the hole in the output shaft that the clip goes into.


And the new drive gear installed in it's place.


The tailshaft all reassembled and ready to go.



This is where things went awry. The speedo still didn't work, so I had to jack the car back up and figure out what I did wrong. I pulled the speedo cable out and connected the drill to it to see if it would drive the speedo. No it did not, so I pulled the dash cluster out to get to the speedo. I hooked the drill right up to it and it worked. So, then I connected the cable without the old housing to the speedo. It did worked. Here you can see the cable attached to the speedo and the drill.


It's really hard to hold the gauge cluster and operate the drill and take a picture of everything at the same time.


I ended up pulling the old cable housing out of the car to compare it to the housing that came with the new cable. Turns out the original one is about one inch longer than the new one. That means that when everything is installed the cable is too short. I installed the new housing and tested everything as I put it all back together. I'm sure glad Bill didn't toss the new cable housing when we originally didn't use it.

On the test drive, everything worked perfect.


On another note. Bill's car has this Motorola AM/FM stereo that still works great. Or, as great as radios worked back in those days. Trying to keep the station locked in is constant work. I don't think this is the original radio to the car and the speakers are aftermarket as well.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

You mean he doesn't keep a lie sheet? Yeah the mileage was last time they asked, so it's probably this now? I did that for the Skylark with the 3.23 gears, the speedo gear in the trans read fast so it was clocking a ton more miles than I actually drove.

Thanks for the pictures too

Bill misplaced it and forgot what he said the mileage was. Probably why he got a snotty letter from AAA.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

Bill's car wouldn't start late Thursday. With me working and leaving town early Friday, I tossed him the keys to the Caprice for the weekend. Today, tired and sunburnt we got to digging and found some problems that caused us to dig further. Well, it looks like Bill will be driving the Caprice for a while longer. Pics to come.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

With the engine getting spark and fuel; we had to look deeper. Fuel being sneezed out of the intake said something wasn't right in the timing. It had to be in the valve timing. We knew someone had replaced the original timing chain with it's plastic cam gear, but we didn't know how long ago.

Before we opened up the front of the motor we decided to check under the valve covers. We immediately noticed one rocker askew. After pulling the pushrod and found it was bent pretty bad. We then pulled the rest. A total of four were bent. Not good. Keep digging.


We pulled the front of the engine apart to get a look at the timing chain. It was still there, but it was so loose I was able to pull it off without loosening either gear. Not good again. Check out the cam gear along the bottom. It turns out they replaced the plastic cam geared timing chain with one made of aluminum. I guess the General was a slow learner.


With bent push rods and a loose timing chain, I was betting that the cam was going flat, so out it came with the lifters. I won the bet. Three lobes were going flat. They weren't gone, but they started to go. This is how the day ended.


Time to order parts and take tylenol.

[milner351]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

at least the parts will be cheap, probably about any off the shelf SBC "RV" type cam will work just fine.

don't forget to order extra of that cam break in lube....

[antmnte]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

Scott,
I cant believe how clean that car is underneath!
At least you have plenty of room under there with
the radiator and shroud out (plenty of room there
with them in too)

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Bill's Project 73 Monte Carlo.

The nose is so long that I nearly got the cam out without removing the radiator. Only two lobes and the back bearing journal were still in the block. I sat on the radiator, I'm skinny so I can, My feet rested on the steering stabilizer. I only had to watch my skull and not dent it on the hood latch.

I think I'm going to get something near GM's L82 cam 450/460 lift and 222 duration. The only thing different between the L82 and the L48 in this car was the cam.