Thread: Th350 experts needed....help!!!

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I'm curious Pops, are you guys using flex or rigid to transition the plumbing from body to chassis?

Bob, if you are referring to the brake lines, he is using braided lines that flex. He found some company that makes up braided lines in black tubing and had them make up 6 lines for him.........2 for the front wheels, 2 for the rear, and 2 that go from the MC under the dash to fittings on the frame. The rest of the frame is plumbed with rigid stainless steel lines.

We also installed something I had never seen before, one man bleeders on the wheel cylinders. They are like regular bleeders, but with a check valve built in. To bleed the brakes you just crack them 1/4 turn and start pumping the pedal. No need to keep shutting off the bleeder each time you do one or two pedal pumps, like you normally do, and no need for a second guy......one on the pedal and one on the wheel.

Don

Those look like some realy tall nuts to fit around a 9" or isn't that a 9"

Yeah, it is a 9 inch and the bolts are the ones Curry supplied with the rear housing. They are those bolts that have no threads on the end, just a tapered section to help you guide the nuts and center section on. They clear all around, even on the bottom two where you need to use a box end wrench instead of a socket.

The center section was built buy a guy in Pa who only builds 8 and 9 inch rears. The first one was a 4:00 ratio and as soon as we put in gear lube it started to drip out of the seal behind the yoke. He figures the seal might have been damaged when he installed it. We pulled just the yoke end off and sent it USPO to him 2 weeks ago but it never arrived, so since we have a time crunch, we had him send us a whole new center section, but this time we decided to go with 4:11's (I think Dan wants as much advantage when we line up at the Billetproof Drags as possible ) .

I just got an email from the guy that the Post Office finally found the part we sent and now I have the rest of the center section boxed up to return to him too. Lesson learned.......NEVER use the post office to send stuff again. Glad I insured it.

Don

I just got an email from the guy that the Post Office finally found the part we sent and now I have the rest of the center section boxed up to return to him too. Lesson learned.......NEVER use the post office to send stuff again. Glad I insured it.

Don[/QUOTE]

I ordered a hat for a Ham fest a couple years ago the guy said he sent it USPS.. 3 mo. later the USPS said the found it . When I got it it looked like it was under a truck tire .. But I've gotten stuff from UPS busted too. I think FedEX is the only one with a 100 per cent record here. HAHAHA

That's about par for the course, Charlie. I was trying to not only save a few bucks on shipping, but get it there fast too. FedEx and UPS wanted about $ 106.00 for second day. Went to the post office to see about Priority Mail. Lady there said it would cost $ 98.00 for next day but only $ 36.00 and it would be there Wednesday (This was Monday) I figured it was fine, but insured it for $ 400 just so we could track it. When it hadn't arrived by Thursday I called the main PO phone number and they said it wasn't showing up in thier system and I couldn't "track" it until April 7th, that is when I would put in my claim. At that point they would launch an official search!

So we just had the guy in Pa send us a whole new unit with the agreement that if the other one showed up he would not charge us for the second one. It looks like we are not going to have to go through being charged or having to put a claim in because he now says they sent him a notice they have it. Now I just have to send the rear portion of the center section to Pa, and you can bet it will be going UPS.

I bought into the USPO advertising that they have this flat rate deal and get it there quickly. No wonder they are in trouble.

Don

Transmission shop just called, Dan's transmission is fixed! He said everything looked good, but the front pump was wiped out. One of the tangs broke off and jammed up the gears in it. Looks like we didn't have the torque convertor installed deep enough would be my guess. Going to shim it up this time and make sure it's seated.

They treated us pretty fair, the bill was only $ 200, I was expecting more. So, it looks like tonight we can start putting it back in, and we are definitely going to run it through the gears BEFORE the body goes back on.

Don

Starting to look like you'll be going away for a few days

I sure hope so, Charlie. I just picked it up and spoke to the tech who worked on it. He said everything looks fine but the pump had been broken, probably as we suspected, from us not seating it all the way before firing the motor. I was pretty impressed with the service, the pump was about $ 140 and the labor was only $ 45, so they didn't rip us I don't think.

Maybe tonight, if Dan gets home from work early enough, we can start putting it back in.

Don

Last night Dan and I just didn't have the energy to want to work on his car, so we took the night off. Tonight we did go over and dug into getting the transmission out of my trunk and into his car. We spent a whole lot of time making sure the convertor was seated all the way in this time, and that it stayed in place until the transmission slid home. We shimmed up the TC to flexplate with 2 grade 8 flat washers per bolt, which gave us just a tad of clearance, like Mondello told me to do. I feel really good that we did it right this time.

We also wrapped up putting the rear end back together. We put in some longer wheel studs while we were at it so that some threads are now protruding out of the lug nuts. Should make the Techs at the drag strip happy.

This little setback wasn't all bad. It gave us a chance to do all the little things that are so much easier with the body off, like looming wires and stuff like that. We also got his radiator overflow tank mounted and installed a second new Lokar dipstick for the transmission. This one works as it should, and is easy to get the dipstick released. There was something wrong with the first one because you couldn't release the dipstick no matter how hard you tugged on it. I'll use the first one in my rpu because I will use the long braided dipstick tube Lokar sells, and will never have to release it at that junction.

Barring any unforseen issues we should still be on track for weekend after next at Billetproof. I don't want to jinx us, but I really hope we can make it in time.

Next time I post a picture it might be of the rear wheels turning on their own!

Don

Like I told you Don, I did the same thing with one of my Torque flight trany's.
And I like you took it to a second party to get it fixed because I was not sure if I had done something wrong at the time. The Guys at Cal Nevada Transmissions did a great job fixing it, then installed it for free and showed yours trulley how to make sure my coverter was seated right. then showed me how to set up my mechanical shift linkage.
I think they charged me $200 bucks of course that was 30 years ago now.
I hope all goes smooth this time with your install.

Great news, Don! Made my morning coffee a little better, reading that it was just the front pump, and that they treated you right. That's one of those shops that you remember for many years, and mention to others when they have problems and are looking for an honest place to take their car.

When installing my TC to the T400 I was told that when sliding in, and making sure the pump pins were aligned, I would hear a "clank" and the converter would be all the way against the bellhousing. Leave it that way and install on the engine. Then move it up and bolt to the flex plate. No problems.

Thanks guys. Yep Kurt, this shop only charged me under $ 200 too, which I thought was very fair, and they spent time showing me how to install the TC correctly.

Roger, I did some internet checking on several shops in the area and chose this one because they had 6 customers review them and all said good things. The one down the street was just the opposite, 2 people said stay away and one was suing them! I know feedback can be skewed, but in this case it steered me to the one I chose. There was another one in town that I used to recommend to all my friends but they screwed one over and that was the end for them.

sfort, that clicking was what they told me too. As you spin the convertor while pushing it in you will get 3 distinct clicks if it is seating correctly, and each time it drops in a little deeper. As I was intalling it this time I got exactly that and could tell it was all the way in. We used a bungee cord to keep it in place while we mated it to the engine so it wouldn't slide forward, and at the end we shimmed it with the washers to get the correct clearance. I think we are ok this time.

When Dan got home late from work last night he was too tired to go to the shop, so we decided to just go tonight when he gets home. He normally has Friday and Saturday off, but this week he is off Saturday and Sunday. Tonight we should be able to get the body back on and some stuff like the driveshaft in so that we can try starting the engine and shifting gears Saturday.

We talked it over and decided to not try the trans before the body goes on. It is too much of a hassle to jury rig some wiring as all the real wiring is inside the body. Plus, as Dan said, if there is still a problem it kills him going to Billetproof anyway, so it won't matter if the body is on or off. But I have a good feeling this time.

Might have a video of the first drive to post when we get home Saturday night (actually Sunday morning )

Don

Kool!!! Can't wait.