Found some interesting new products for our cars today.
 

I came down with a pretty wicked sinus infection yesterday so I took today off. With nothing else to do but sit around and spend money on car parts online I found these two things I thought I'd pass along to you guys. I read about this first one last night in my new issue of HPP. I am seriously considering ordering one for my hardtop '78. Talk about badass..

www.covansthunderroad.com

The whiteface gauges on the carbon fiber dash look insane.

I found this on ebay this afternoon. Both Jegs and Summit carry them but Jegs seems to be a little bit better deal. Lecarra is making T/A formula wheels with brushed satin billet centers with real leather grips in either black or tan. Only thing I see is that is the only center color offered. No black or gold.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lecar...mZ200262654465

I saw it also !!!!!!!!! I'm getting it for my 1979 TransAm !!!! $600.... actually is a pretty good deal !! I can't wait.

http://www.covansthunderroad.com/temp.jpg



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That's what I thought. At first I thought it was a bit pricey until I realized most of the good tachs are almost $200 by themselves.

sweeettt thnx for this

Anyone know if the setup is supplied complete with the sending units, temp sensors wiring?

From the ad I read in HPP, if you get the electrical style gauges they supply the harness to connect to the factory wires in the dash. I might have read that wrong but I know it said something about one style getting dash adapters. They also said if you buy the full sweep style gauges they were guaranteed for life and short sweep had a 5 year warranty. Don't know what the difference would be but I'd be happy with the full sweep.

http://www.jegs.com/p/Lecarra/762685/10002/-1

There's the whole list of wheels offered -- black, gold or silver spokes, and a ton of grip colors.

The $600 includes the gauges?

That is the way I read it.

That's the way I read it also.

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I got a machine tuned face plate on E-bay, and bought 4 Autometer gauges. For around $300 I have an original looking dash with a small tach. Of course my :wife: was not happy having the dash on the dining room table for a couple of weeks......:censored:

I love the way the original dash looks on my '77, but those look pretty awesome too. and in the pic from ebay whats with the tach being in one of the smaller gauges on the right?

Hey man, did you buy that car down near Stephens and Edgefield? I tried to buy that car about a year ago and he didn't take my offer. You should bring it by my shop sometime. I'm up on 178 3 miles before you get to Donalds.

haha yeah I did. Right over by the Food Lion. A lot of people weren't too happy when they found out I had bought it lol.

I would bring it up there but it isnt running too well right now. It will crank up and run fine for a while but then it warms up and seems like it just quits. I give it some gas and it cuts off. I've replaced the cap, button, adjusted the timing, replaced the distributor coil, ignition module, rebuilt the carburetor, I mean the only thing I haven't check is the ignition system in the column and the battery, so I'm working on it lol

I would check your floats in the carb, they might be set to low and the car is running out of gas. Check your rubber lines going to the pump near the engine. I just went through a scenario where when the engine warmed up it would cause the rubber lines to get soft and collapse and starve the pump and engine of fuel. The tank might be dirty also and the sock could be clogged. When the car runs it draws all the garbage off the bottom of the tank and sucks it to the sock. When the engine stops some of it falls back off. When you start the engine back up it sucks it back on and the cycle continues.

After it cuts off it doesn't start right back up though, so that leads me to believe that it could be an ignition problem. I don't know though. My dad and I are gonna try some more things tomorrow. As far as we can tell the carb is set up just fine and fuel is getting to it like it should be.

It sounds like what Bonneville Joe mentioned. If there is rust in the tank, the strainer(sock) on the fuel sender unit in the tank will suck up rust sediment and stops fuel flow and you run out of gas. It takes a while for the rust to settle and fall off the strainer, so the car won't start back up immediately, unless you bounce the back end of the car to try to loosen the sediment from the screen. I'd pull off the tank and see what it looks like inside. Rinsing the tank out to remove the sediment will elimate the problem for a while, but if the surface is rusty inside, I'd go ahead and buy a new tank and be done with it.

sounds like a great thing to check, thanks! I'm really ready to get this thing on the road

It's gonna be cool to know I'm not gonna be the only guy in a black T/A running around town. That's the only thing that sucks about driving one of these cars. You don't blend into a crowd very well lol.... On the other hand one of us might get blamed for something the other guy did hahaha.

I think tanks are about $120 new and the sending units are about the same price. Small price to pay to know your engine is getting clean gas. I know that car has been sitting for along time. I guess your dad must have talked to my friend Dave and mentioned you got a bunch of parts with it also? I'm always looking for stuff if you don't need what you got.

lol yeah, of course standing out from the crowd isn't a bad thing:D By the way, what year trans am and engine do ya have in there

As far as ignition. Does it crank when it dies? Just run a test light to your battery connection on the dist with the ignition on in the run position. If the dist is getting juice I doubt its an ignition problem. Cars need 3 things to run Fuel, Air, and spark. Air is simple, it would be pretty obvious if the top of the carb blocked and check for vacuum leaks. Spark, check what I just mentioned. That leaves fuel which I would bet is the problem. Usually if it's a spark problem it just won't start to begin with. They either get spark or they don't.

Uh, I have 3 now. One is for sale on ebay.

I have a '78 Gold SE 4spd W72
I have a '77 black hardtop W72 auto
The one for sale is a black '78 hardtop with a '67 400 and original 6X heads. It's my daily driver. I wanna sell it so I can keep the '77 I just got.

Let's see I got two extra front bumpers, two front fenders, another steering wheel, a hood from a '79 I believe and maybe 1 extra grill. Yeah it has been there a while. The tires were dry rotted and the tank leaked some gas out when we got it home (after it sat out for about a week) After we tuned it up a bit it ran good and thats when I ran into that problem. The guy we bought it from said the carb had been loading up so we figured putting a kit in and replacing some old parts would fix it. That made it run even better but same problem still came up. Other than that problem I'm pretty confident in it. It has 2 thrush glasspacks on it but the one on the passengers side has a huge hole in it which is annoying. I'm thinking once I get this problem solved when taxes come back I'm going to have the engine rebuilt and have a bigger cam put it in.:burnout:

It will turn over when it dies and it tries to crank, last night we almost killed the battery trying to crank it and get it under the car port

When it's cranking and not starting, will it start and run on starting fluid?

If yes, you have a fuel problem.
If no, it's probably ignition.

To stay somewhat on topic, I like the looks of that gauge panel a lot, as well. I hope someone will post up some pictures and information if they spring for a set.

I've tried pouring some gas in the carb after it cuts off and still no start so yeah, the gas tank could still stand to be replaced either way

Sorry for like completely changing the subject by the way lol.

so whatever happened to these? anybody seen em installed yet?

For what it is worth, I picked up a Black leather LeCarra steering wheel (w/the silver spokes). Looks very nice. Will install in spring. The only downside is that the black leather they wrap the wheel in is a lighter (more gray) color than the black used on the factory horn button and foam wheel grip.

It mounts to the stock hub perfectly though, so I'm pleased with the steering wheel.

Now...if someone wants to give me some $$$ for the Covan's gauges.... hehehehe.


EDIT: Judging by where the leather is stitched on the wheel (about 5 o'clock position), I *believe* the LeCarra wheel is what is used on the YearOne Bandit cars.