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IOwnCalculus posted:I haven't yet, I've burned up what time I have to work on the truck so far getting the rest of the garage back in order. We're at the time of the year in AZ now where the only time I actually want to work in the garage is somewhere around 10PM or later, but on work nights I'm pretty worn out (and caffeinating is just going to keep me up until 2AM). I can only imagine the hell that is an Arizona garage in the summer. It's not much fun watching sweat drip off your nose onto whatever you're working on. At least in the lovely Chicago winters I can blast a ceramic heater at myself while I work.
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Jun 26, 2014 17:58
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 22:54 |
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Eh, it's not so bad if you wait until 9:30-10pm to start and give yourself a bit of time with the garage door open and a blower fan (I've got one of the same ones Dr. Pain uses to cool off hot cars, the thing moves some serious air and is remarkably quiet too!) to help blow the stagnant hot air out. Got the steering shaft drilled tonight, taking my sweet-rear end time because I really don't want to buy and cut down another  Unfortunately, the 5/32 hex key socket I was using snapped - either 25 ft-lb was just too much for it, or the old 3/8" torque wrench I have is waaaay out of calibration. It's a Husky so I'll be off to Home Depot in the morning to get that swapped out, and then Autozone to snag the brake line plug I need to run that Wilwood valve without replumbing my fronts.
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Jun 28, 2014 07:39
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Is your cluster otherwise stock? I recently did this on my truck , and while the tach I grabbed out of the junkyard doesn't work (it likes to just peg itself whenever it has power) it does look pretty nice, and has a high enough range for a more modern engine, unlike the stock tach. which only goes to 5k. I freely admit though I have no idea about what kind of tach. signal a LS1 puts out vs a HEI 350 or whatever, so I'm not sure if it would work for you.
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Jun 28, 2014 08:37
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Nah, mine is all Autometered-up now. Only thing stock is the plastic bezel (which is a repro piece anyway, the factory one was pretty gnarly and reproductions are both good and cheap). LS1s by default put out a 4cyl-style tach signal, but can be reprogrammed to put one out the same as a classic V8. Steering shaft is finally done. This is fully compressed, when installed it's just shy of fully extended (and has something like 5" of travel before it's fully collapsed again). Went ahead and popped it on the truck. I also finally figured out what's puking fluid onto the belt, and as soon as I saw it I had no idea how I missed it. The power steering pump is loving soaked. I'm hoping it's just that the new return line needed a clamp. The old one didn't but the new one is a bit less flexible. The other possibility is that my three-piece pressure line is either not fully tightened, or is failing somewhere as well. Still to do before I can test drive it: Verify power steering leak resolved Get fluid to the rear brakes somehow Install / torque LF wheel Check torque on all lug nuts Check torque on all master cylinder / booster / steering column nuts and bolts Then, a few things to clean up some niggling issues: Replace lower rad hose Find an appropriate 1.25" ID upper rad hose section, replace upper rad hoses and coupler Replace heater hoses with some that have actual 90 degree bends Hook up column shifter Sand / respray door panels, reinstall Finish rewiring "AC controls" Investigate possible rear end leak - if it's leaking I may just rip it out and have the thing fully rebuilt with a posi. It's the last original bit of the drivetrain.
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Jul 3, 2014 08:05
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So I decided that instead of loving around any further with the factory combination valve, which likes to get stuck in the full forward or full rear positions while bleeding brakes, I'd rip it out and put in the Wilwood 260-11179 valve I got for Christmas last year. Rather conveniently, the Wilwood valve has the mounting bolts in the exact same pattern as the factory part, so the support bracket is a direct bolt-up. The lines are a different issue. The valve again, for reference:  The ports are fairly self explanatory. FI is front in, RI is rear in, both FO ports are front out, and RO is rear out. The knob adjusts the pressure going to the rears. The port on the front is for an included pressure switch if you don't want to run a pedal-mounted brake switch. The two FO ports are if you have one hardline per front caliper, instead of a single line with a tee. In my case, I'm running a brake-pedal switch and I do have a single front brake line with a tee - so I plugged the switch port, and the center FO port. As it turns out, the replacement front brake line that came with my Early Classic kit (which is probably the same as a factory '71-'72 piece) already has the right fitting on it, so I got to leave that one alone. It lined up fairly neatly into the front FO port. For the RO, I needed to adapt the factory rear line to a 3/8-24 fitting. The other three lines, also conveniently enough, all end up with female/female connections on both ends, so I just had to buy a couple of PAA-G360 for the front input / rear out, and a single PAA-O370 (note the O and the 0 in the same part number, this gave the Autozone guy fits) for the rear input. The results aren't the prettiest thing around, but they are done with nothing more than hand pressure and a 3/8" drive extension to bend it around.  The union in the rear-output line is something that came in my Early Classic kit too so if anyone is looking to do this on their own vehicle, you might need to actually bother re-flaring lines with new fittings, or having to pick up a union to go with that. I didn't get a chance to bleed this yet since the wind is forcing me to work garage door closed, and thus work much hotter than it actually is right now. Unfortunately it's always two steps forward, one step back with this truck. After sitting with the LF jacked up for a while, there is now a wet spot maybe 3" in diameter of ATF beneath the tailshaft. I think it's the actual seal around where the driveshaft engages, so add that to my to-do list. 
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Jul 6, 2014 07:04
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I snagged a reproduction factory bracket and was very pleased to have it bolt right to the valve. I'm hoping to get mine installed on Sunday and then plumbing will be next. I think I'm going to have to get a little creative since it's mounted on the driver's side of the master and the ports on the master are on the passenger side. Baby steps.
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Jul 6, 2014 07:37
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There's always the option of swapping to a different master cylinder. Given the extremely wide variety of master cylinders I've seen swapped onto trucks on the '67-'72 board, I'm pretty sure that the bolt pattern for any given GM master cylinder is the same as any other, and you only have two pushrod depths (either a dimple, or about 1.6"). Play around online long enough and I'm sure you can find a master with the same bore, same output fittings (though that's less important if you're replumbing anyway), and same pushrod depth as your current one.
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Jul 6, 2014 07:43
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The master is off a 2000 Camaro and it's all getting re-plumbed anyway. I'm not that concerned 
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Jul 6, 2014 15:51
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Well then that'll do it! Got some time on the truck again yesterday. I was fighting an issue with my pressure bleeder that I think I resolved when I was cleaning up for the night - it didn't want to push any fluid, just air. I gave up on it and used my Mityvac to get poo poo done. When I drained the unused clean fluid from the pressure bleeder, I think I noticed the pickup straw a bit loose. At any rate, between the pressure bleeder, the Mityvac, and a few kicks of the brake pedal with the LR bleeder open (couldn't get anything out of that corner until I did that) I got a bunch of nasty rear end brown brake fluid out of the rear brake system. I think I got them mostly bled but I'm not convinced. I'll give the pressure bleeder another shot and see if I can get to a point I'm happier with. Ran out of time to do the fronts so I know there's still a ton of air in that half of the system. Still to do before I can test drive it: Bleed brakes again Verify power steering leak resolved Check torque on all lug nuts Check torque on all master cylinder / booster / steering column nuts and bolts Finish rewiring "AC controls" Then, a few things to clean up some niggling issues, roughly in order that I will do them: Hook up column shifter Replace 4L60E output shaft seal, probably change ATF and filter / install drain plug in pan while I'm at it. Nowhere near done on mileage but it's 10 year old ATF in there by now. Replace lower rad hose Find an appropriate 1.25" ID upper rad hose section, replace upper rad hoses and coupler Replace heater hoses with some that have actual 90 degree bends Sand / respray door panels, reinstall Investigate possible rear end leak - if it's leaking I may just rip it out and have the thing fully rebuilt with a posi. It's the last original bit of the drivetrain. Spend some time panic stopping and dial in the adjustable prop valve.
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Jul 14, 2014 23:27
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Yup, fixed the straw and it's pushing fluid like mad again. Got the fronts bled, I think I'll test drive it before I do the rears again but I suspect they'll need another pass and maybe some adjustments on the shoes. Torqued down all of the wheels, so the test-drive list is now: Verify power steering leak resolved Check fluid levels Check torque on all master cylinder / booster / steering column nuts and bolts Finish rewiring "AC controls"
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Jul 18, 2014 06:48
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It's loving brutally hot out here this week. I poo poo you not it's just past midnight and still 95 degrees out. Progress is slow because the only time I can work on the truck is way late at night, but since the garage is next to my daughter's room I'm limited to small, quiet jobs, like wiring. I finished wiring up the new blower / compressor / radiator fan switches, so now I just need to fabricate up the bracket and connect the ground lead. Following that, I'll do a last pass of torquing everything relevant, spend a disproportionate amount of time cleaning crap out of the bed and finding places for it to go in my garage, fluid checks during a warmup, and then test drive  If all goes well, that'll be Saturday.
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Jul 23, 2014 08:11
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Fingers crossed man. Looking forward to the video.
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Jul 23, 2014 13:47
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No video but I did sneak a test drive in today. It's been absurdly hot all week including some record highs over 115 so progress was slow. I kept it short and still in the neighborhood, partly since I couldn't find a garage door remote and partly because the brakes still don't inspire confidence. The steering feels miles better though. Less slop, firmer feel, but not any noticeable increase in vibration. A+ would ditch rag joint for Flaming River stainless U-joints again. But the brakes... There's just no real bite even at slow speeds. Booster is new and feels good, master cylinder and proportioning valve are new, system is bled and it doesn't feel mushy like there's air in the lines. I'm going to try adjusting the rear drums and actually set up the rear pressure, but it seems that the fronts should still be grabbing harder. Not sure where to go from there. Tempted to resurface the front rotors and slap new pads in.
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Jul 27, 2014 03:04
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I skimmed back through and saw no mention of brake hoses.
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Jul 27, 2014 03:30
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Hoses are... 15 years old at this point, front and rear. Fronts had to be done to swap to discs, rear had to be done because my dad overloaded the truck ages ago which resulted in the brake hose getting burned up by the exhaust pipe. Annoyingly the front is a custom piece so I'll have to order those from Early Classic. The rear is still a stock piece. Edit: gently caress it, ordered a full set of braided stainless hoses from ECE. IOwnCalculus fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Jul 27, 2014 |
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Jul 27, 2014 03:50
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I'm not sure how well it works for cars but Stainless hoses on my old 70's bike really helped improve the bite on my front brakes.
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Jul 27, 2014 06:26
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Not to start a  war, but going from original (at that time, about 13-14 year old) brake hoses to stainless made the brakes go from "meh" to "I just sneezed in the general direction of the pedal, now help me peel my face off the windshield" on my old Integra.It got new rotors and pads (AutoZone stuff) at the same time, but beyond that, brakes were stock. I suspect it was more replacing the original worn out hoses than anything that helped, but it took some serious right foot re-training to modulate the brakes after that. It was absolutely hilarious when I'd let friends drive it with me riding along..
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Jul 27, 2014 10:54
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some texas redneck posted:Not to start a Did the same thing to my E30. New SS hoses, new Ate Blue, fresh Brembo blanks, and then tossed in Hawk HP+ pads. Thank the gods that car had ABS or I'd have flat spotted those tires in record time.
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Jul 27, 2014 14:11
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Stainless braided lines always worry me because you can't visually inspect them for failures. You have to just say, okay, every six years I'll replace these, no matter what. That said, I don't think I've ever replaced soft lines for anything other than leakages.
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Jul 27, 2014 15:21
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Well aside from a required bleeding, I'm probably going to just throw these on and not mess with the pads or shoes, and see where that gets me. I'd like to hold off on new pads until I swap to five lug rotors.
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Jul 27, 2014 17:31
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Just new rubber hoses would be good. They can fail internally and bubble when you push the pedal, but still pass a visual inspection.
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Jul 28, 2014 03:20
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Getting the stainless braided hoses is only about $30-$40 more than getting the front rubber hoses from Early Classic and the rear rubber hose elsewhere.
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Jul 28, 2014 05:59
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And as a slight bonus, next time it will be a good bit cheaper still I've never worked with AN fittings before... but this looks an awful lot like them to me, so it looks like the ECE kit is just the right set of adapters and three braided AN-3 to AN-3 lines (fronts 12 7/8", rears 18 7/8"). These showed up today:  After unthreading everything:  The adapters to connect to the hardlines:  The adapters for the front calipers and the tee for the rear axle:  Measuring the OD of the male threads - all of them were as close as I can reliably measure to 0.370" on this:  Unrelated, got some progress in on this during naptime. It's a fun kit to put together so far.  So, can anyone with more experienced eyes tell me for sure if those look like AN-3 fittings? I can't imagine what else they'd be, though.
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Aug 2, 2014 05:49
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IOwnCalculus posted:So, can anyone with more experienced eyes tell me for sure if those look like AN-3 fittings? I can't imagine what else they'd be, though. If you can check the degree on the taper, AN fittings are 37 degrees. Looks like AN to my amateur eye.
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Aug 2, 2014 05:57
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IOwnCalculus posted:So, can anyone with more experienced eyes tell me for sure if those look like AN-3 fittings? I can't imagine what else they'd be, though. They look like AN/JIC flares but to get the size you have to measure the inside diameter of the fitting/hose. A #3 hose is 3/16 or .1875. -2 hose has an I.D. of 1/8" -3 hose has an I.D. of 3/16" -4 hose has an I.D. of 1/4" -5 hose has an I.D. of 5/16" -6 hose has an I.D. of 3/8" -8 hose has an I.D. of 1/2" -10 hose has an I.D. of 5/8" -12 hose has an I.D. of 3/4" -16 hose has an I.D. of 1" -20 hose has an I.D. of 1 1/4"
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Aug 2, 2014 17:35
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Yeah I can't see anything else it would be other than AN-3. Not like I need to buy them anytime soon but always good to know.IOwnCalculus posted:This is a big part of why I was quite happy to be able to get pre-flared, hand-bendable lines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhlUWBhlCa4&t=14s  I just haaaaaad to say that. Pardon the poo poo picture, but yes, that's the Autozone rental flare tool. Decided to tackle the rear line first. The hardline runs back to a crossmember behind the rear axle, then has a fitting to go to the soft line, then to a tee on the axle and hardlines out to the drums from there. The two hardlines to the drums were sketchy but I at least got them to come out without too much mangling. The hardline from the frame? No way in hell. Mangled beyond all belief and had to hammer the remnants of the tube nut out of the wrench. Miraculously I was able to successfully flare that one and tighten it down (we'll see how it leak-tests, though) but then it was time to attach the two hardlines to the new tee...and they didn't fit.  Thanks Early Classic, this tee needs 7/16-24 nuts when the stock lines use 3/8-24. So I snipped those off and put on new nuts, but three failed attempts on the shorter passenger line have left it too short to work. Time now to see if there's by some miracle some close-enough preflared line I can use since both hardlines are very, very easy to access... if not, I'll grab some NiCopp and use that.
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Aug 3, 2014 05:46
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I feel. Your pain.
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Aug 3, 2014 06:19
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In this case, the answer is no - if I could find an AN-3 to two 3/8-24 inverted flare tee then maybe, but I'll just do it right. Ordered some copper brake line and we'll see how the same tool handles it.
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Aug 3, 2014 07:38
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Good: Got the roll of copper brake line in tonight. Bad: Nope, still can't flare for poo poo, it's just easier to bend. Going to return the tool to Autozone and see if I can find a flaring tool that isn't utter dogshit. Edit: The one I rented is this:  But it looks like they have this one as well, which seems to be similar - if not the same as - the CTE in-line flaring kit that's extremely well rated on Amazon: 
IOwnCalculus fucked around with this message at 06:42 on Aug 7, 2014 |
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Aug 7, 2014 06:29
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Can't vouch for that second one, but I technically own the first tool you posted. I say technically because once I finally got it to flare right I flung it into the back of the garage and haven't seen it since. What a piece of poo poo.
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Aug 7, 2014 09:35
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IOwnCalculus posted:Good: Got the roll of copper brake line in tonight. I have every flaring tool ever devised, I think. With the tool you have had in hand, it's completely about the prep - cut off the tubing, make certain it's square, give it a REALLY good inside reaming (ha!) with a suitably sized phillips screwdriver (or a proper reaming tool) and clamp it in the bar, making certain the two parts are perfectly even, and that the tubing is sticking up past the bar the height of the base of the forming anvil, and tighten the wing nut with the handle of the little press part as leverage. Do this in the dark, with one hand, if possible. Clamp the long end of the bar (now holding your tubing) in a vise if feasible. Now put a drop of oil on the end of the forming anvil, the one that makes the first part of the flare, (essentially a bubble flare) and use the little press. Loosen the press, remove the anvil, small drop of oil on the cone of the tool, and tighten again. With a regular or NiCopp line, you should get a good flare. Stainless will press right out of the tool, you'll get no flare, and you'll throw the whole lot out the garage door. Or, buy the ridgid tool, or the mastercool set. Sweetness.
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Aug 7, 2014 13:14
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IOwnCalculus posted:Good: Got the roll of copper brake line in tonight. The main problem I keep having is that they make the loving thing out of such cheap metal, the taper on the yoke actually deforms while I tighten it down on the anvil. Once it hits a certain point (which takes about 1.5 flares), it won't complete the second flare for poo poo. Every single tool I've rented has done this. They're all garbage. Every single one.
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Aug 7, 2014 14:02
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I borrowed this from a shop owner I know once, and it convinced me the next time I need to flare brake lines I'm going to just buy it http://www.eastwood.com/professional-brake-tubing-flaring-tool.html
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Aug 7, 2014 17:13
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Brigdh posted:I borrowed this from a shop owner I know once, and it convinced me the next time I need to flare brake lines I'm going to just buy it EricTheCarGuy did a video with that one - yeah, if I could justify $250 for a tool I hopefully won't use again anytime soon, I'd do it. Shame nobody seems to rent that thing out. jhcain: That's pretty much what I was doing, right down to the vise and oil on the adapter when using the Nicopp line. The problem this particular set seems to have is that it's impossible to keep the anvil / adapter straight even with a tube that's properly cut at a 90 degree angle. It just wants to wander every loving time.
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Aug 7, 2014 17:39
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Annoying it's a purchase-only tool but it's still cheaper than any other viable option, and unlike the godforsaken bar clamp ones it actually works. First attempt with basically no prep on the tube after cutting and it made a workable flare. I expect that actually chamfering / deburring it first would make it even better. If I can sneak in any time to work on the truck this weekend (doubtful) I should be able to get the rear brake lines done.
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Aug 8, 2014 05:39
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Brigdh posted:I borrowed this from a shop owner I know once, and it convinced me the next time I need to flare brake lines I'm going to just buy it Yea my buddy has this one and its amazing. So, so worth it if you have the scratch.
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Aug 8, 2014 14:23
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Got the shorter hardline (tee to passenger wheel) made tonight. Flaring tool is still not perfect but is much, much easier to use than the loving bar clamp style. On this one as long as the prep work is good, it will work. Just need to make the longer hardline back to the driver's side and button it all together so I can bleed it. And yes, for whatever reason, the rear brake line on this truck goes from driver's upper firewall, down to the frame, across the front crossmember to the passenger side, back to the rear axle, and then back towards the center a little bit before it connects to the soft line. So if you actually want to bleed 'furthest first', you need to bleed the driver's rear first of all. GM!
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Aug 13, 2014 06:49
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What are you using to cut your line? I've been putting off renting another one but I really need to get my lines done.
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Aug 13, 2014 15:28
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You know, when I did all the lines on my truck, I just bought the pre-flared 5'-ish segments from o-reilly and linked them together. I think all-in-all I had to flare one, and it was the absolute pain that you're describing.
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Aug 14, 2014 08:51
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 22:54 |
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Im so glad I live in a country where we dont salt the roads and brake hard lines last longer than the drat vehicle they are in!
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Aug 14, 2014 12:35
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