Non Pontiac Motors in Pontiacs includes factory 403,305,350 Chevy, Buick V6,
Also Pontiac Motors in non-Pontiacs!

          
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  #141  
Old 12-28-2016, 02:56 AM
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Update: I have been driving the car when I can this fall and even on Christmas day on a short run up to Anacortes. One thing I noted was that the temp gauge on the freeway at 75 or so stayed at 150°; way too cold! I bought a Bluetooth ALDL plug and will see if the PCM gauge is reading that value also. I also ordered a laser temp gauge to check that way.

Another cold weather issue was the floor vent for the heater did not work. Vintage Air has little stepper motors that move the vanes. I have not really been all that impressed with the Vintage Air unit, there are some things I think they too hotroddish for my taste. If it was me, I would have just fabricated an outer shell for the outside of the firewall and then put the evaporator in that (like stock) and kept the rest of the heater, fan, internal ducting and plenum stock. A simple limit switch when you slide all the way over to cold to tell the AC to turn on. Granted, you would not have dash vents, but cold air would come out of the floor just the same.

The 3.42 gears are growling - not sure if the guy I paid did a bad job or the gears are worn (they were a used GM set. I will install Motive 3.08's in a few weeks when the TA goes into drydock. Will alos pull radio our and send back so they can see why AM is not coming in...

  #142  
Old 03-24-2017, 12:39 AM
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One of the problems I had when I switched to the new dash for my 79 was that the dash was for 1970-77, and of course had the early car radio cutout. I had a vintage Audiovox Delco-clone unit from the late-Seventies in there and it worked fine but didn't fit the new Dash. I was disappointed.

I then decided to buck up and buy the top-shelf unit that was sold by Ames for the 1970-77. I received this unit: it looked gorgeous! I installed it as per instructions, hooked up the correct antenna and the thing got a D- for tuning; was very glitchy and you simply did not get AM! Bluetooth worked well. I sent it back to AAR for them to repair and a month later I got it back and it was marginally better but the tune was still glitchy: it has a digital tuner that has a mechanical needle that kind of jumps to where it thinks it's supposed to be it- doesn't always work. I got a hold of Ames and got a hold of the manufacturer in Florida and they graciously allowed the return. It was back on the hunt again.

I've been hearing really good things about the RetroSound unit versus another one that Ames also sells. I ordered their "Hermosa" model which included Bluetooth. I am very glad I did... This unit comes with quite a few different things to help you install it correctly, but I still had to make a couple things to get it fit the way I wanted it to fit. The brackets they supplied did not extend far enough forward and I need to also notch their face bezel to clear the new brackets. A pair of spacers were whipped up in the lathe with counterbores to clear the mounting nuts. This way there was no gap between the repop bezel and radio face.


Side of unit. Note CAT5 type sockets for shaft signal





Tools of a Tinner and the brackets made





Finished up and ready to mount. All sorts of inputs: USB, etc.





Mounted and working. Phone pic bites but phone flash would be worse... Ames supplied the bezel and knobs. I had to carefully grind the shafts with a Makita as the knobs are "D" shaped while the radio supply's split units. RetroSound does of course supply knobs but are a more generic offering. This runs $279 currently at Crutchfield's. Sound quality is excellent. Different color buttons are offered: chrome, black or ivory. They also supply a corded remote mike for the Bluetooth - trying to sort out best spot to mount, and a set of cute little overlays that make the unit look like a stock type AM radio.




  #143  
Old 03-31-2017, 02:52 PM
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That's really slick!

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  #144  
Old 06-02-2017, 02:52 PM
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One of the guys in our hockey group is a professional photographer - nothing is safe from him, even in the parking lot:





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  #145  
Old 09-18-2018, 11:27 PM
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In the interim from the last post I moved to Albuquerque. The TA was the first car down, driving the 1,500 miles. A vibration issue was bugging me, later to be found as a marginal driveline angle. That was fixed, but a vibration on acceleration was still there. Engine was smooth, clutch and trans good as was the driveshaft. mnnh.

I began thinking about the exhaust - I made a custom crossover box for the exhaust, not liking the "H" pipe. I wondered if the cutout inside was causing heavy turbulence?
I bought a X pipe kit from Summit and fabbed it up to directly replace the cross pipe assembly, painted it then went home.

My wife and I went to dinner with a friend, wife was wearing short dress and tall heels (rowl!). After the dinner we went to the shop to get the car, had to shuffle Lemans and forklift to get TA out. When we went to put in the Lemans it would not restart - arrggh! So we rigged up the forklift to tow it and pulled it around to park inside (nothing gets left outside in ABQ...). Quite the pic of her deadsticking the Lemans dressed as she was! Once all was secured we left in her car and Trans Am - a hard blast up an onramp proved the the X pipe cured the issue! Now I can examine other issues (like the Lemans).



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  #146  
Old 09-19-2018, 12:21 PM
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Excellent updates! I had fallen behind on tracking the progress of this project. Really enjoying this thread.

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  #147  
Old 09-23-2018, 10:13 PM
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Awesome project! What bell housing did you use between the Pontiac engine and the 6060?

  #148  
Old 09-23-2018, 10:15 PM
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Sorry, I just went back and read that is was a tko 600.

  #149  
Old 09-23-2018, 11:26 PM
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Pace Performance has a version of a Chevy truck unit that works.

  #150  
Old 01-04-2019, 10:39 PM
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Gearing up to do major work on the Lemans this Spring so the TA went into drydock to fix some issues. First were the door glass; these have been vexing me for a long time. The Lemans glass is excellent - does not flop around. And after seeing a 79 Camaro with low miles and noting how solid the door closed and glass was firm I was galvanized into action.

First noted that the doors had a bit of sag already. I was not about to try the cowl bolts - paint chip city! So I simply made some 0.040" shims to go between the lower hinge and door - worked fine. Second I noticed that the Legendary door panels did not hug the door very well, the "hook" angle was too open. A pair of sheet metal tongs and clamping it to the bench fixed that.



Minor adjustments were then made and now the doors close with a solid thunk like the Lemans (no ratles). The driver's forward upper window guide was worn, I peeled the material off and siliconed a fresh section back on - no more squeal.

When I peeled off the panel - none of those lower "Christmas Tree" push in fasteners released, they all pulled out of the cardboard and were rock hard. I said the hell with it and used painted trim screws to secure the lower edge. Another issue was one of those brown side sockets broke, I did not feel like waiting a week for a replacement and made one out of UHMW - worked fine.
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  #151  
Old 01-04-2019, 10:48 PM
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Second area to be addressed was the driveshaft. Kevin Crocie, Ken's son did an article in Hot Rod examing a vibration in a LS swap. The driveshaft was found to be 0.030" runout. I measured mine both ends, front was 5-6 thou, rear was almost 25! I noted measurement on the shaft with a sharpie, then unbolted it from the pinion and rotated it 180°. Still out 25 thou but in the opposite direction, so the pinion is the culprit... mnnh.



I mulled this over and came up with this cheat. I mounted a U-joint cap in the lathe and opened up the groove inwards 12 thou. I cut a small disc out of 10 thou shim stock and put it behind the opposite side's thrust disc inside the cap - so the body of the X will be pushed 10 thou in one direction. I bolted it all back together, it tested out to 6-7 thou runout and more vibration went away, but not all...
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  #152  
Old 01-04-2019, 10:55 PM
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...in the test drive I noted that the remaining vibration seemed to be on acceleration only. Perhaps exhaust still? Another area to examine was the engine - I had still not hooked up the MIL indicator. I hooked up my BAFX OBDII monitor, no connection! I called Speedhut as the gauges run off the PCM using CANBUS protocol - when the gauges are running the diagnostic port does not work, so I put in a DPST switch to blank off the gauges for test work.

Once this was done, the check engine light lit up and stayed lit, but no codes were showing (wtf?). I tried again and then with another OBD scanner: same result. I may head to an emissions test facility and see if they will scan for codes since they have the best equipment for this type of work.

  #153  
Old 01-05-2019, 02:50 PM
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One of the vibration issues I had was due to a worn pinion yoke, that stumped me for a while. No other 'true' solution than replacing the yoke. Did that, and a fresh u-joint, vibration gone.

Excellent info regarding the CANBUS and PCM diag port use, will keep that in mind. I'm on the wall right now, am going to do an engine for the 442, and can't make up my mind if I should go 455/4L80E or an LS swap. Still have about a year to think about it though...

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  #154  
Old 01-05-2019, 04:22 PM
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Where was it worn? splines?

  #155  
Old 01-06-2019, 12:41 PM
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No, where the u-joint caps ride. The u-joint would slide back and forth and not sit square, I guess from previous hasty installs, cap tightening.

The 442 original yoke (1310 I believe) the actual nubs that center the joint, at the end of the caps, were worn enough where there was play there too. Found that when I dropped the rear for a rebuild. Replaced with a 1350.

EDIT: So on the 442, from the outside, it looked fine, but the caps were further apart than they should have been, the joint would walk between the caps. Sometimes it would vibrate, other times not.

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1970 GTO Judge Tribute Pro-Tour Project 535 IA2
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1971 Trans Am 463, 315cfm E-head Sniper XFlow EFI, TKO600 extreme, 9", GW suspension, Baer brakes, pro tour car
https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...ght=procharger
Theme Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zKAS...ature=youtu.be
  #156  
Old 01-06-2019, 01:24 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HWYSTR455 View Post
...but the caps were further apart than they should have been, the joint would walk between the caps. Sometimes it would vibrate, other times not.
that would be a real ***** to diagnose!

  #157  
Old 01-06-2019, 02:01 PM
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Yeah, replace the joint twice and gave up. When I finally dropped the rear, found it, and it was a palm-forehead moment!


Think I've had a similar problem before, can't recall.

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1970 GTO Judge Tribute Pro-Tour Project 535 IA2
http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=760624
1971 Trans Am 463, 315cfm E-head Sniper XFlow EFI, TKO600 extreme, 9", GW suspension, Baer brakes, pro tour car
https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...ght=procharger
Theme Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zKAS...ature=youtu.be
  #158  
Old 08-18-2019, 05:59 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scarebird View Post
...Once this was done, the check engine light lit up and stayed lit, but no codes were showing (wtf?)...
Update: supposedly the MIL needs a resistor for it to go dark unless an issue arises. I will need to find out what ohmage to pay (groan) and how it gets wired.

New Mexico has really cheap rates on vanity plates available in 3 different flavors. I was go to to use REFORGED but amazingly this was still up for grabs till I got my filthy mitts on it:



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  #159  
Old 08-19-2019, 11:13 PM
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Very cool.

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  #160  
Old 08-20-2019, 08:05 AM
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Wow, maybe it was so obvious, everyone else figure it was taken! Heheh! Yes, very cool!


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1970 GTO Judge Tribute Pro-Tour Project 535 IA2
http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=760624
1971 Trans Am 463, 315cfm E-head Sniper XFlow EFI, TKO600 extreme, 9", GW suspension, Baer brakes, pro tour car
https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...ght=procharger
Theme Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zKAS...ature=youtu.be
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