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Getting the A/C back in shape. I flushed the evap tonight and replaced the compressor with a used one that looks like it just came out of the box. The one pale on the ground is the first flush and the other is the last flush. I wish I did more research on compressors before I committed myself to a pancake compressor. Didn't know they were a POS. If this happens again, a sanden will be pumping the freon.
I'll never forget how many of those my Dad replaced when I was a kid. My mom and grandfather loved the 80's Caddys. They had that same compressor and I bet Dad put 5-10 on the 2 Fleetwoods of Mpm's and her Dad's. Good luck with it. Hopefully that new one will live. I've heard they've upgraded everything in them lately and they are a lot better.
Yeah, I've had a few of those self destruct, too. They always seem to fill the system up with crap. Like 40, I hope the new ones are better.
The Camaro needs a turbo or turbos......................................................................... :LOL:
Just sayin, that way you don't get beat by a 289..................................................................
I think I'm on the 3rd or 4th R4 compressor on the wife's 84 El Camino. n they work they work good........and then they don't :rolleyes: .
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Well the crappy compressor may turned out to be a good thing. As I mentioned before, my condenser line cracked and I was going to try to fix it but after all the garbage in it and it also being cracked, I went to our local radiator guy and auto repair shop to get a new one. I went there to pick it up today and when I was leaving I seen an aluminum 5.3 Ls motor laying outside. Stop reverse and ask him about it. Turns out it's got a knock in it , probably spun rod and I may have to give $50 bucks for it but worst case scenario I take the good heads off of it and put them on cast truck block. My first plan with it is to rebuild it though, It will be a good start to the Camaro. For now can take it home and use it to mock up the drive line.
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Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe
Or a bad 305 HO...............................
:LOL::LOL::LOL: Ya, I'm trying to let that whole thing go but wow, that whole thing just got worse and worse. If I get that 82 Camaro I think I'm going to yank the 305 out just so I won't be reminded of that thread every time I pop the hood :LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by NTFDAY
Rear sway bar question. I took the sway bar off a gen 3 trans am and It looks like it will work good if I make some mounting brackets that extend in front of the rear axle. With all the arm brackets and coil over brackets on this thing, moving the sway bar forward a bit looks like my only option. Is that an ok thing to do?
kinda like this- ish only with the eye bolt more straight than it is in the pic.
I don't see why it wouldn't work. As long as the mounts on the housing don't bend, it should be fine I'd think.
My front sway bar on the Jeep has the transverse part of the bar mounted atop the frame rails to the front, in front of the grille and the two extension bars then point back towards the axle and connect via sway bar links that are about 6" to 8" long. My links are after market, easy to disconnect from the pin that comes off of the coil spring mounting pad, for off-road runs for more articulation. My point here is that I think it's more common for the bar to be fixed at the frame, with the "ears" connected to the axle, which acts more like a torsion bar, twisting the sway bar across it's length. If you fix the bar to the axle, the motion of your axle is going to tend to bend the ear vs twisting the bar, especially on speed bumps or dips in the highway where both wheels move together, seems to me.
I checked out what you were saying Roger and all my vehicles are set up the same way. The front sway bar it attached to the frame like you described in the front, and the rear's are all attached to the rear end axle tubes including the donor vehicle I took it from. I'm no suspension expert, I wonder why they do that. I'm slowly learning at this thing, and learned not to weld then ask questions. I have everything tacked up and I'm waiting for final approval before welding it all up this time :)
I'm going to have to disagree. All the old trucks I've ever worked on have the front sway bar bar, mounted to the frame and the ends affixed to a mount on the spring or control arm, and the rear is the opposite. Why? Probably due to packaging. The engine cross member, steering, and or front drive shaft make it pretty hard to mount the bar on the front. Unless you are talking about ford 4x4s. They have the front sway bar bar, mounted to the axle housing on the rear of the axle housing and the ends attach via a link to the frame. They do work and work well. I've had several ford trucks and the heavy diesels don't drive as nice without those front sway bars.
All of the leaf spring rear wheel trucks and even cars I've been around have the bar attached to the axle housing and attach the ends to the frame. The only one I can think of that has the bar attached to the frame on the rear are Corvettes. Jags are probably that way too.
Now that I think about it a bit more it makes no difference. The bar isn't fixed, it slips in the rubber mounts so either way if both ends move up and down together the bar simply rotates in the mounts. When one end moves up or down, the bar twists end to end, whether it's mounted on the axle or on the frame. Sorry for the diverting thoughts....
Roger, other's thoughts sure help to figure out unknown or untraveled avenues in these situations and helps us all IMO. I know I really lean on you guys to make sure I'm not going to have to redo something I'm not sure of. :LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by rspears
I went with a different sway bar than the one off the Firebird. I took the one off of our 05 parts Trailblazer and it fits perfect and it's also thicker than the Firebird one which will be better. I can mount the bushings right on my 4 link brackets and the geometry for the links is more of a 90 deg angle which seems to be better in my mind. I ordered new bushings from speedway because the Trailblazer ones are mounted goofy, other than that I think it's a direct fit.
I pulled the fuel tank down to put a sump in for my fuel pump, when it got low it would catch a bit of air going up hills or turning. Turns out my wife had a small bread loaf pan that will work perfect. On a side note, when you check your fuel level before you pull the tank, make sure your kill switch for the fuel pump which is tied to the sending unit is turned on otherwise the tank surprises you on how heavy it is when your not ready for it.:LOL:
I also clipped of my crappy secret antenna that had terrible reception and got 10x worse when I started the pickup. I mounted the donor antenna under the running board and I got awesome reception in a metal building and no static when I started Rita either.:)
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Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5
Does she know her bread pan is missing???:eek::HMMM::LOL::LOL:
Good job on the anti-roll bar. And the antenna too.
( I actually had to go look up the spelling. No matter how many times I thought about it, it just didn't feel like I was spelling it right.) LOL..
"Sway bar" would have been easier....;)Quote:
Originally Posted by 34_40
I suppose you say soda instead of pop also :LOL: I messed up "antenna" 3x so bad spell check couldn't figure out what I was trying to say.
My wife handed me the pan so I'm safe :LOL:
Who knew the antenna would work under the vehicle like that??!! Hmmmm
Was that you who mentioned that? I got the idea from someone, but couldn't remember who. Thanks !
Well, if it works, maybe I should take credit for it....:LOL::LOL:! But, no, I didn't know it would work. If it works underneath, I wonder where else it might work?Quote:
Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5
Took the driveshaft off to make a new one. This one was a get me by for the time being, shortened by a local machine shop and never balanced. Anything over 65 and it would start to vibrate. Notice how I had a slip yoke on a slip spline driveshaft? It was an act of desperation if you remember me trying to get the 5.3 going to pick my wife up from work. When I took the yoke off I found that the snap rings popped out of the cross kit or they were never put in. Let's just pretend they flew out even though I've never had that before and I was in a hurry to get it running that day. I'm sure you noticed a lot of oil residue on the frame and everywhere else. I had a very leaky rack and pinion, running out of both shaft seals. I replaced it last fall but it sure did leave a mess.
Do you see any reason why this won't work? I got the return dumping on the screen to help prevent any cavitating from the return fuel making bubbles by the intake. The top of the pan stands real close to bottom of my fuel sending unit that I ordered too short so that should work well together in the end.
Would the returning fuel be hot, or is it coming from a bypass?
Just thinking if it is coming from a hot engine // under hood, there will be warm // hot fuel making the pump overheat or at the least, inhibiting performance of engine // fuel pump ?
I don't remember hearing of anyone doing it quite as such. Dumping the fuel into the tank allows the entire tank to absorb the heat. Your set up will significantly warm the fuel in the lines.
That was something I was wondering about, I know on Diesels the return is warm but I wasn't sure on a gas. I'll move the return to the outside of the bowl and I may make a new bowl just a bit bigger to better fit the screen.
When I first looked at the setup my first reaction was that I would add a u shaped tube into the hose.
That way any air / bubbles would be released towards the fluid surface and away from the pump filter.
Any heat in my opinion would be a secondary concern as that pump is also transferring it's heat into the gas as well.
OEM's do it with a lot of success.
There was a discussion on this forum some time ago, which discussed fuel temperature relative to return lines, in - tank pump, etc. I stated earlier the fuel in the lines would be significantly warmer, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Not to be confused with dangerous. I don't see any danger, just a marginal efficiency issue which would go away at Wide Open Throttle.
I hope I haven't rambled on too bad.
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Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5
Seth, I don't see anything wrong with your return line and would run it. You've got it just like the kits for high flow systems recommend, return beneath the surface to not introduce air, and restrained so the line doesn't flop around. I like the fact that you cut down the height of the bread pan, and returning to the pan will tend to help keep the pan filled if you're going up a loooooong hill with the tank very low ;):LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5
As for heat, it's kind of like standing by the diving board, peeing into the swimming pool - it's not the added heat that's the concern. The concern is maintaining constant pressure to your injectors, which is the reason return systems are better than dead head regulators. The heat will transfer to the tank volume, and then to atmosphere from uninsulated tank & lines.
Looking at the pan, I'm wondering if you could run out of fuel before the tank is empty.
I'd say the key is that Seth told us that his sending unit, which drives the gauge, bottoms out at the top of the cut down pan, so when his gauge is bottomed out "E" the tank is going to have an inch or two of fuel in the bottom, and with the bread pan he'll indeed tend to run out of fuel with a small amount still in the tank. On the plus side, the sediment and collected moisture should be outside the pan, and with the return oriented as it is the return flow will tend to keep the filter bag cleaner, at least in theory. I'd run it as it is, were it mine.Quote:
Originally Posted by firebird77clone
Roger is right, My tank is large enough where if I leave an 1 1/2 on the bottom, it's not a big deal. My sending unit says it's empty long before it is anyway and it doesn't seem to matter even though I know that, I still look for a gas station. I'm holding off a for a bit on putting it together because I'm somewhat thinking about cutting out a section in the bottom of the fuel tank and welding in a bowl type thing for the sump instead. Otherwise I may just run this setup for this year to see how it goes, I hate welding on gas tanks and my small list of things to do on Rita is taking me longer than I thought it would.
Back to original problem then.
The nut behind the wheel needs to stop for gas.
Lol, yea it goes awhile on a tank though. I'm also toying around with starting over and building a new tank , mine has been hacked and chopped quite a bit.
I noticed on the Tanks,Inc. setups similar to yours, that they have a small hole in the tray. I can only guess that this is to allow the fuel in the very bottom of the tank to get to the pump.
As to the return line, if you dump it into the main part of the tank and run low on fuel, the fuel would have to migrate from the return line to the pump. Returning it directly to the sump keeps it topped off, IMO. I can't ever recall seeing a factory return line that runs anywhere but into the area near the pump.