I am having trouble (I think) with bleeding the power steering. Components:

PSC Steering gear
CVF Racing P/S pump and reservior (came with the BluePrint engine)
CPP Hydrastop Hydroboost

When I first started the engine, I had my son watching the P/S reservoir. He had to add about a bottle. I had already bled the system as far as I knew. After I stopped the engine, the reservoir filled up and overflowed.

After some research, I realized I had incorrect fittings in the P/S gear, which caused a pretty bad leak. I got the right fittings in and installed. So far, no leak, but I haven't restarted the engine until I am confident that the air is out of the system. Here is what's going on:

I have the front end in the air. I filled the reservoir. I started turning the wheel left to lock, then right to lock, then left, etc. I probably did that 50 times. When I turn to the left, the fluid in the reservoir goes down, when I turn to the right, the fluid reservoir starts to fill and bubbles come through the fluid. EVERYTIME, bubble continue to come up when turning right. Is 50 times not enough to get the air out?

 

I think I figured it out. What a relief. Along with the wrong fittings on the steering gear, the high pressure fitting from the hydroboost to the steering gear had a bad o-ring. Luckily, I had an extra fitting. Replaced that, fired the engine again and no foamy fluid. Yay!

Now, on to the tach signal. The instructions from Blue Print Engines (basically, the GM Connect and Cruise instructions) says to use a 5k Ohm 1/4 watt resistor. That isn't working. I've seen people suggest 10k Ohm, 1k Ohm and 680 Ohm. I doubt a 10k Ohm will work since a 5k isn't. I'll try the 1k and 680 next. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll find anyone with a similar experience. I am running Livorsi gauges, which are boat gauges and I doubt anyone else is running them. It's probably just gonna be trial and error.

After that I think I only have two things left before driving. I need to measure and order a driveshaft, but that should be relatively painless. I saw a leak at the transmission. I gotta figure out exactly where it's coming from.

 

I feel kinda dumb with the tach wire. After swapping resistors, hooking up another tach, I ran an extra wire outside the car from the ECM through the window. That worked and the spare tach started reading. Strange. Went under the dash to chase the wires. Found something interesting. The connector from the main harness to the connector for the gauges was pinned wrong. The tach wire from the main harness went to an empty pin on the gauge harness. Moved the pin and we now have connectivity. Now to clean the wiring back up.

Sent a request for a quote to the DriveShaft Shop. Also asked them if I should go with a CV joint driveshaft. My rearend angle is ~1° and the trans is ~3.5°. Need to measure again to be certain.

 

You need to estimate the angle of the driveshaft so you can estimate the operating angles in the front and rear.

Andrew

 

IIRC, I can run a string between the middle of the trans output shaft and the middle of the rear rear end yoke, then put a angle finder on that, yes?

 

Yes, that will give you a pretty good approximation of the driveshaft angle.

Andrew

 

Called The Drive Shaft Shop. Still won't be until mid next week to get a quote. Said I'm 4th inline. I am struggling with how it takes that long to get a freakin quote. However, I guess they are very good, so I'll try to be patient. It's the last hurdle before I drive.

While waiting on that, I started on the interior. Door panels first. Lots of router work, measuring and cutting:

Wrapped the first part of the door pane - the outer ring. Put a rabbet on the inside of the ring so it will fit flush with the vinyl and inner section material:


Don't mind the other circles drawn on. I was playing with a couple thoughts.

Now for the next choice. The inside will be upholstered in the same material as the seats. The bottom piece and moves up will be wrapped in grey or blue carbon fiber looking material. I initially thought the grey might be better (classier), but looking at the new blue carbon fiber I got, I think it's the way to go.

Blue vs grey next to door panel ring and exposed paint on the door. The blue matches pretty darn well:



Blue vs grey on the panel showing black vinyl on ring and seat material on the inside (I still need to sand the out edge):




Thoughts?

 

I think the blue on gray is a lot more dramatic and shows off the detail.

Andrew

 

I just read this entire thread from the start, it is amazing that even as a '10-footer' how much is hiding under the skin of these old cars. I purchased a '66 Chevelle roller in February of 2021 that the previous owner (who was a 'body guy') said only needed quarter panels and a trunk floor. Wellllll after tearing the car down and sand-blasting, it needs every piece of sheetmetal that is offered for the '66 Chevelle. Thanks for keeping this thread updated Jim with the journey, looking forward to more progress updates and seeing you able to enjoy the car!

 

Unfortunately, that is generally the case with these cars. Too often, what is hiding beneath the paint is scary

 

So I've had kind of a crap week. I absolutely LOVE my job, but this week was tough. On top of that, I got a decent stye on my eyelid (2nd one in my 47 years on this rock). Haven't had a lot of motivation to work on the Chevelle, but got back to it this afternoon and remembered why I love doing this. I think I figured out the door pulls, built them and covered them along with part of the package tray. This is only the second time in probably 20 years that I've worked with vinyl, so it's not the best, but I'm pretty happy.



Finished door panels and close-ups of the door pulls:













Package tray. Bottom piece will be black vinyl. The holes in the middle are for attaching the panel to the package tray to try to avoid rattles.


Also got a quote back from The Drive Shaft Shop. Need to order that. I'll probably just do a CV joint on the trans yoke up front to avoid having to redo anything. Any negatives to the CV joint? Any reason I shouldn't do it?

-Jim

 

Order the CV driveshaft with confidence. I will never have U-joints on any of my cars ever again.

Andrew

 

Thanks Andrew. I want to thank you and not thank you. Your suggestions have cost me a fair amount of money (no thank you), but your experience, guidance and posts have given me ideas and help me avoid future problems (thank you).

 

Being able to drive in the highway at 75mph without having the rear view buzzing, is priceless. You're welcome.

Andrew

 

So the Lokar electronic sport shifter was back-ordered for 6 months. So in the meantime, I ordered a tried and true B&M ratcheting shifter. Not what I wanted in the end, but something to move the project along. Literally, THE DAY AFTER I got it installed, I got a shipment notification for the Lokar shifter. ARGH. At any rate, I struggled for an entire day without success getting the Lokar installed. No matter what I did, it always had enough play to either not go all the way into drive, or not all the way back into park. After adjusting it 20 times and getting super frustrated, I gave up for the day. The next day, I took everything out and started from scratch. I changed a couple things and also installed the shifter on a slight angle so the cable wasn't quite as twisted from under the car into the passenger compartment. (Their cable is way too short in my opinion, and doesn't leave much room for manuvering). Seems to have done the trick. It shifts well in all gears. On to the wiring. The Lokar shifter has a neutral safety switch...no problem. But there are two other issues.

1. It has a switch to notify the controller to go into manual mode. Then another for bump up and one for bump down. However, my trans controller (MSD Atomic), only has two wires. One which requires a 3 second ground to go into manual mode. That same wire is the bump up shift. And the other is for bump down. So basically, on the Lokar, I use the bump up wire to the trans controller manual mode/bump up wire. To operate, I put it in manual mode and hold the upshift for three seconds to get it into manual mode, then normal operation. To get it out of manual mode, I hold the upshift for three more seconds. Not ideal, but I think I can deal with that.

The other issue, #2, is the bigger one. The Lokar shifter has NO REVERSE light output. Neither does the MSD controller. WTF! MSD and Lokar both suggest I get Lokar's Cable operated Sensor kit. Which is expensive and I honestly don't think should be required. The cost doesn't bother me too much in the grand scheme of things, but I don't think I should have to in order for my freakin reverse lights to come on. I found a couple posts where I can go to the transmission and find the grey wire, which should be reverse out. I'll have to climb under the car to check it out.

Does anybody know if that is the best place to find the reverse indicator?

Thanks,
Jim

 

Door panels look killer!

What speakers are in the door?

 

ESB. 5000 series - https://www.esbcar.com/5000-series. They have many levels. First time I've used them. We'll see

 

Hopefully this will help anybody in my position with the Lokar Electronic Sport Shifter.

Issue: The shifter has no output for reverse lights. I think the new all black one does, but the one I have does not. Nor does my transmission controller.

First attempt at fixing: Got the cable operated shift sensor from Lokar. This basically attaches another cable to the shift arm on the trans which goes to a sensor. Seemed like an OK idea. More $ that shouldn't be needed in my opinion, but it's what I have to deal with. I put it all in and went to program. Basically, you turn the ignition on and shift the car through the gears and press a button on each gear so the sensor notates where the arm is and can send a signal to the shift indicator. If you stop during any part of the programming, what was done does not register and you have to start all over. Not that big of a deal. EXCEPT that the sport shifter from Lokar stops in the overdrive position and you move the shifter toward the passenger side to electronically bump shift up or down. When you do this, the cable doesn't move. So the decoder box doesn't believe you have shifted. CRAP.

Second and final attempt: The shifter has a stop on it that can be moved so you can manually shift into lower gears with the lever. But it only has detents for Drive, 2nd and First. So instead, I had to program the shift sensor as if it were a TH350. Once that was done, I moved the stop back to the original position so the shifter physically stops at drive. I won't get indicators when I am in lower gears, but so be it. I'm so done with this. I don't think I will ever buy another Lokar product. There isn't enough information and their products do not work well together (in my opinion).

Issues with Lokar:
Too much play in the shifter. Had to adjust it literally more than ten times to get it to be in correct positions. I had NO issues with the old B&M shifter I put in
No reverse light output on a SHIFTER. C'mon guys
Required shift position sensor and shift position indicator display doesn't work correctly with THEIR shifter
Once I put in the shift sensor indicator arm, I had to readjust the shifter to get it to work in the gears.
The stop I mentioned before is loosened with a 1/16th (I think) allen and a 11/32 square nut on the inside of the shifter that almost NO wrench will fit it. Because it is square, once you move it, you have to have the square nut oriented the right way in order for it to work properly. Also easy to strip the allen head because it is too small. I ended up having to get another one from Lowes
The included cable is too short. It barely reached from my trans to the center console.
There is a separate manual mode, bump up and bump down switches on the shifter. No ability to program that differently. So it doesn't work correctly with some TCMs
I have their interior door handles and window cranks. Window cranks went on. Door handles did not right away. I thought it might be because the door handle mechanisms were to stripped from 55 years of use. I got new ones. Didn't fit either. Had to grind the inside of the Lokar handles down a bit for them to fit.

 

I am using the Lokar shifter in my GTO and I feel some of your pain. Mine came with the 4 foot cable, which is not nearly long enough. I call them and ask if I can exchange it for a longer one....Nope...gotta pay $150 for a new cable...

The shifter is sloppier than I would have liked and the little square stop nut is a joke. I don't have any problem with the lack of reverse light switch, but I can see how that would be frustrating.

I would be curious to see how you mounted the shifter and how you ran the cable, since we have very similar cars.

Andrew

 

Sorry Andrew. Just re-read this and saw you were asking a question. I don't have great pictures on the mounting of the shifter. From here you can kinda see the position:


I use 1/2" or 3/4" spacers on the front two mounting location of the shifter to raise the front so the cable slanted down a bit rather than horizontal. Then I cut a hole behind the shifter where the cable met the floor. Under the car, it then bends forward and it threads between the trans-mount and floor and heads to the trans. I'll try to get some pictures under the car later today.