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I don’t have an F body so I don’t care. You guys realize this is not an F body site right?
You are on the wrong site if that is what you think.
1 - We are an inclusive site. This started as primarily an F-body site and expanded.
2 - You posted that comment on a thread in the Firebird Section .... Firebird is an F-Body
3 - Look at the banner at the top of the site ... the first 2 cars are F-Body.
4 - Some of the sponsor icons (and the marketplace banner near the top of this page as I'm writing) has an F-Body on it.
5 - If you don't care, why are you here posting? I'm not particularly interested in the migratory patterns of pelicans, so I don't go reading and posting on bird sites.
I just got my '99 Firehawk back from the shop where it received a new clutch, trans, and gears. The clutch is a McLeod RST twin disk with a new 24.5 lb. steel flywheel. The clutch has a light pedal, engages smooth just like stock, but it can handle up to 800 lb-ft. of torque. The trans is the new T56 Magnum-F. This thing is a dream to shift and I got it with the close ratio overdrive. 5th gear is 0.80, and 6th is 0.63. I feel like 6th gear is finally useable because it keeps the revs up a little higher. The rear gears are 4.10's in a Strange 12 bolt and they whine a little at 60 MPH. Overall, it feels like a new car again to me.
I sold the old trans for $2,000. The old flywheel is a Fidanza 12 lb. aluminum piece that I want to sell for $75. You can get a new steel insert for $80 at Summit and have a new flywheel for less than 1/2 the cost of a new one.
Hi everyone, I'm new to the site. this is my second post. I'm slowly restoring my Firebird to showroom quality. The biggest difference is, I swapped to a WSQ hood. I plan to repaint to factory Midnight Metallic Blue. Anyway, I always wanted to upgrade my wheels. I have Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate P245/40ZR18 tires, and wheels are Platinum brand 438U Gyro. I wanted to keep close to the 5 spoke classic style. I couldn't make up my mind to save my life! I had to pick something because my tires were coming in soon, and I didn't have a place to store them. So I bought some good looking cheap rims, and I'll upgrade later. Wheels and tires were installed on 1/18/2022. repaired rust on my bottom rockers. Yes, I scraped the other side too. New 18" wheels installed. I wanted to do a variation of the 5 spoke wheel. Also, I replaced the both bottom rocker panels. I painted the calipers with left over (factory color) spray paint, from my bottom rocker repair.
18" x 8", 5x120.65 Bolt Pattern, 74.1mm Hub.
Been fighting a steering issue, that I think I caused when I swapped columns. So I got my old column out and took the adapter off........ which was a ******* chore!!!!
Been fighting a steering issue, that I think I caused when I swapped columns. So I got my old column out and took the adapter off........ which was a ******* chore!!!!
Why did you change your steering column? What brand column did you install?
John
@JohnR its kind a story.......I did an aftermarket steering wheel swap, but when I installed the hub adapter the wheel wasn't centered. No biggie I'll just pull it right?? Nope nailed the hub adapter and broke the threads for the pullout tool....... so I decided it would be easier to swap in another column and start over. So I swapped an oe column in, nothing crazy.
Now granted it's been a while since I drove it the wheel feels terribly stiff, even with the wheels off the ground it requires a lot of effort to turn the wheel. So I'm troubleshooting to make sure it's not the column.
The pics are of my original column and me cutting off the speed on hub adapter
So the hub adapter had threaded holes to use absteering wheel puller. Tried it 4 or 5 times and the only thing it did was mangle the spindle the factory wheel goes on, that's not a diddicukt part to replace, but to disassemble the column you need access to all of the stuff behind the adapter.
I'll probably edit this part after posting this, but the adapter is 2 materials. A cast layer outer layer that is possibly aluminum but I didn't check it with a magnet, and the part that goes over the spindle is a machined metal as well as the ring with the 6 points to mount the after market wheel to. That part got pretty gnarled up so I cut it away with a cutoff wheel. This allowed for better access, to the main hub, and I used the same cut off wheel to make relief cuts from the center where the spindle is (just close doesn't have to be right up to) once I'd cut as far as I could since the plastic collar onnthe column is over lapping this a bit you can only go so far. But with a deep enough cut you can wedge a prybar, screwdriver, chisel pick your poison and drive it in with a hammer. Cast material will Crack like porcelain with enough stress applied andnthe relief cuts give it room to flex. I had to cut in 3rds to break the cast metal away from the machined section onnthe spindle.
With that done I took a dremel with a rotary bit and ground down until I got it as thin as possible or broke through as there are some spaces thst will be hollow. Unfortunately there isn't much meat left at this point to pry at and the only thing to get leverage on was the threaded portion of the spindle...... so small pry bar I was able to separate the metal off the spindle but it was so tight I had to repeat that 2 more times to get it to release. What ever they used was soft enough that when torqued on It just bit the two together and they didn't want to release.
for those wondering i did try to heat it, but its such a large piece it gets hit and started to discolor the column plastic so that's a no go. Took about 2 hrs to get it completely off. I may be able to re thread the shaft but that remains to he seen. Unfortunately I did Crack the collar and if course it's dead center on the top where it's most obvious. I didn't really take many photos other then what I posted though I have all the left over bits to reconstruct it. I honestly hope no one has to go through this. Column swapping is mechanically easy if you have worked on foodies enough, but the vats and key stuff has to be sorted out if you can't tune It out.
Hopefully 5his corrects my steering issues after all this effort, but I'm a bit skeptical. Time will tell Hopefully all thst is clear above, i know pictures would have helped a bit but honestly didnt thinknanyone would ever need to repeat this
Discovered that my catalytic converter was so clogged that it was causing the PCM to work too hard to compensate; therefore ruining several EGR valves. Yeah, I got the life time warranty on the cheap Autozone EGR. It was a very weird problem. The fault codes, and trouble shooting had me all over the place. I got some good help from the members, that pointed me in the right direction. I'm proud I did this myself. I would have never believed the dealer, and I was ready to spend that money! I'll be replacing the Cat very soon. One bottle of CataClean got the engine light to clear, and slight improved the acceleration, where it's more drivable on the highway.
Discovered that my catalytic converter was so clogged that it was causing the PCM to work too hard to compensate; therefore ruining several EGR valves. Yeah, I got the life time warranty on the cheap Autozone EGR. It was a very weird problem. The fault codes, and trouble shooting had me all over the place. I got some good help from the members, that pointed me in the right direction. I'm proud I did this myself. I would have never believed the dealer, and I was ready to spend that money! I'll be replacing the Cat very soon. One bottle of CataClean got the engine light to clear, and slight improved the acceleration, where it's more drivable on the highway.
I got my Flowmaster American Thunder muffler installed (welded) on my 2001 V6. I wanted something a little stronger than the stock muffler, and I wanted to upgrade to a dual exhaust. I still need to buy tips. I like the look of the dual exhaust on my Firebird, but I think these mufflers sound better on a V8. Flowmaster designed the American Thunder muffler for the 4th gen Firebirds and Camaros, but I think they had a V8 in mind. I'm about to go put it on the highway and run it for about an hour. I'll take more pics too.
Wrapping up the new motor, should be going back in the car soon. TMS aluminum 383, reusing top end from the LS1, PRC 225s, 231/242, .617/.593, 112lsa, TSP 1.72 roller rockers, ~11:1 compression, havent decided between the FAST 92 or 102 yet.
11-15-2021, 01:34 PM
New Wheels 
