[The Boss]

Originally Posted by muscle_collector

bob I am amazed at your handi work and progress. are you retired? if not how do you find the time to get so much done on it?

Gary - I'll tell you his trick but you can't tell anybody about it.

Bob has a special watch that gives him 28 hours in a day - that gives him more than one extra day in the week. That's how he does it.

[Bentwheelbob]

Originally Posted by muscle_collector

bob I am amazed at your handi work and progress. are you retired? if not how do you find the time to get so much done on it?

Har, har, har...I wish that was the case, although my boss and wife might disagree and say that I might as well retire to the garage. I don't need much sleep and am pretty good at planning and making sure I have what's needed to keep moving forward. My Pal Dave is a big help and keeps me from getting lazy, and I've also got several more projects lined up that I can't wait to start and that's always a great incentive. So much to do and so little time...

Originally Posted by 78 TA KID

Bob your doing an awesome job !!!! Seen a lot of people with restoration thread no buddy restores them correctly until your thread job well done Bob do you plan to bring this car to the Trans Am Nats you will kick a$$

Thanks for your kind comments. I'll probably bring it to the Nat's if I can figure out a good way to get two cars there. I don't think, however, the Gold Car would do that well at that venue. The Nat's is mainly a beauty contest and this old girl is no beauty. She's more like a 37 year old divorcee that has a few wrinkles, a little gray hair, and some blemishes and bumps, but deep down inside that experience counts for something. Pop her hood, and get on her, and she'll give a ride that you won't forget. Sometimes the beauty queens think just showing up and looking good is enough.

Originally Posted by The Boss

Gary - I'll tell you his trick but you can't tell anybody about it.

Bob has a special watch that gives him 28 hours in a day - that gives him more than one extra day in the week. That's how he does it.

Actually it's the bourbon that makes time expand, but a time machine watch would be a nice addition. We get something like that starting next weekend when the time changes and we get an extra hour of daylight.

[Bentwheelbob]

It's been kind of a slow week around here, but a couple things got done. Mainly the EGR and backpressure valve got disassembled, cleaned up and put back together. I believe this is the original piece and I am tickled with how well it cleaned up. The gold plating is still fairly fresh looking and the inked part numbers are still visible. I just gently cleaned and clear coated the gold cad parts, but the metal bases were cleaned on the wire wheel and then painted with POR 15 manifold paint. Both this assembly and an extra one that was on the spare intake I bought had a blue striped vacuum line which I replaced. MPD has gotten his hands on some metal gasket material and we'll use it to cut a new gasket where it connects to the manifold. Here's a few pictures including a pretty cool picture of the garage. We had a big snow yesterday and that combined with the nearly full moon made a nice photo. The elevated walkway connects the house to the apartment over the garage.

[Bentwheelbob]

Kind of a slow weekend, but a few things got done. The main thing was getting the original radiator shroud cleaned up, primed and painted. It is finished and looks really good. It had been shot with some type of gloss clear that made things difficult. Ultimately, it all had to be sanded to get it off. I then primed with SEM high build and duplicolor high build primer, sanded it with 320 grit, and then primed it again and sanded with 600 grit. I used used Krylon Plastic Fusion in flat black to paint it and generally applied three coats. I am happy with the results.

I also got a lot of the intake manifold stuff sorted and in process. I got several things prepped to send off for gold cad plating and got the brake booster and carb to vapor canister hard lines cleaned up, cleared and ready. The choke heat tube is also mostly cleaned up and ready for some manifold paint, the radiator is ready for paint, and I plated two more batches of bolts.

Here's a few pictures.

[The Boss]

Amazing work again Bob! Can't say it enough.

Do you keep a running tally of hours or dollars on these cars?

[Bentwheelbob]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Do you keep a running tally of hours or dollars on these cars?

Hah. hah. hah...I would never get anything done if I kept a running tally on my spending, and if I did I would be afraid to drive them once finished. I do try to save all the receipts and have kept pretty good files for each car. Now my wife is another story. She probably has it broken down to the nearest dollar and quarter hour...

[Bentwheelbob]

Can someone help me understand what wire is pictured below? It attaches to the distributor, but I am not sure if it is the tach feed or power feed from the ignition switch. Any help would be appreciated. It is one of only a few underhood wires that I am not replacing.

[dreamn69]

Bob,
On mine: Brown connector = tach, white connector = battery

[Bentwheelbob]

Originally Posted by dreamn69

Bob,
On mine: Brown connector = tach, white connector = battery

Thanks for your help.

....On another topic, I have been wanting to try the Eastwood Bronze carb paint so I bought some. I tried it out tonight on the rear vacuum fitting and it looks ok. I sprayed it really lightly so it wouldn't look "painted". More of a dusting. Maybe it needs a little heavier coating, but it looks much better in person. I'm not sure I would want to do a carb with it. The can says gas resistant, but the reviews in that regard were mixed. I'll spray something else with it this weekend and test it's resistance. Here are some pictures.

[The Boss]

Good technique.

[Bentwheelbob]

Originally Posted by Bentwheelbob

The harnesses are new from M&H. Everything on them has fit great with the exception of the two wire plug that connects to the windsheild washer pump. These wires should come out right near the firewall at the same location as the connection for the brake indicator light, but on the M&H harness they had it exiting about 20 inches further downstream toward the front of the car. Approximately over the front wheel centerline. MPD and I fixed it without a lot of issues, but it would have been nice if it was correct from the box.

I called M&H today and tried to explain the error, but they kept insisting that was the way it is shown on the original GM print. I tried to explain that if they would think logically they could understand that it would make no sense to have these wires located over the front wheel. I don't think I made a lot of headway, but I did get an email address that I will send pictures to of the original harness and where the wires connect. I have also offerred to send them the original harness and stressed that it would be good for them to get it right so customers don't have to redo what should have been right the first time. We'll see.

So, I heard back from the email I sent M&H on the problem with the forward lamp harness wire location for the windshield washer pump. They are at least 50% wrong and I think 100% wrong. According to them, 1978 Firebirds without the pulse wiper feature had the windshield washer pump in the washer fluid reservoir. I am dubious about that being correct and would appreciate any feedback on that statement.

They also said that their connector was designed to fit that washer reservoir pump and would not fit on the firewall mounted pump because the connector was different. In reality, the connector is exactly like the one on the original harness. Below is the email from M&H and pictures of the old and new connectors.

"Bob,

I was able to find more information about the washer wiring. Based on the research I was able to find, the 78 Firebird had two different options for the washer. One way was for all the cars that didn't include the pulse wiper (wiper delay)system. This system included the washer bottle with the washer pump attached to the bottom of it. With your wiper motor and combined washer, it appears that you had at one time the pulse wiper system. That system had its own stand alone harness that connected the switch to the wiper motor and washer. I wasn't able to find any documentation as to what happens to the wires that are included in the forward lamp harness when the pulse wiper system is used. This is why the wires did not reach the wiper washer on your application and also why the connector doesn't fit nicely on the washer motor when tied to the wiper motor. The washer motor mounted to the wiper bottle has as locking nub to secure the connector which has a locking tab sticking out. If you noticed the connector did not go on smoothly to the washer motor mounted to the wiper motor. The stand alone harness does not have the locking tab on the connector going to the wash motor. It is flat across so that it pushed on flush. Please call me at 562-926-9552 x 205 for more clarification if needed.

Best regards,

Darrin Grove
Customer Service
[email protected]"


Old Connector





New M&H Connector - Being Removed to relocate wire to proper location

[dreamn69]

Bob,
I have no pictures but the black 78 I used to have did indeed have the pump in the washer fluid reservoir. It was a non-impulse car. Check out this thread:

http://www.78ta.com/HTAF/index.php?topic=36057.0

[Alvin]

Hey Bob - sorry for the delay, busy, but I was all set to assist on the wire situation on '78's and took a peek @ ours and it is pulse w motor mounted in bottom of fluid reservoir...

Funny thing is, I never count on using washer fluid on these non-daily drivers for various reasons associated with little or no use over large quantities of time. Systems dry out, etc.

Ours is basic 3-speed wiper switch and was surprised to find pulse option...and you'll enjoy that our original wiring harness is not connected to the washer fluid pump!

I remember back in the day, the pump washers were notorious for leaking, reservoirs cracked and leaked, etc.

BTT

[Bentwheelbob]

Alvin - Thanks. I thought you might be boycotting me, har har....

I appreciate the information. Can you loook at your harness for me and see if the power wires connecting to the pump are taped in with the rest of the wires in the harness as it traverses the top of the inner fender? My theory is that they made one harness with the wires for the pump threaded in the convoluted tubing up to the point of the reservoir mounted pump, but not taped in beyond the point of the brake indicator switch wire. If the pump was in the reservoir - great. If not, because the wires were simply in the tubing, but not taped in with the rest of the wires, the guy on the assembly line simply stripped them out of the tubing back to the brake indicator wire. It was interesting that when we pulled these wires in the M&H harness back to the brake indicator wire, the length of those wires in the M&H harness was exactly as long as they were in the original factory harness.

Also, did you say you had pulse wipers and the reservoir mounted pump? That makes the location logic more random.

Thanks again.

[Grand73Am]

I'd think that 78's with pulse would have the washer pump on the wiper motor like my 79's.

[Alvin]

Turns out, my washer pump wiring IS connected...into the windshiekd washer pump mounted in the fluid jug.

Our's looks like this one

With the pump installed into the bottom of the jug...

I can only post a single pic per reply from my iPad so here is the series specific to our '78 TA BTW - the wiring is blue line & white line on seperate black wiring coming off of the harness up near the top of the fender close to the plastic air intake extension

Our wiper motor WITHOUT any washer fluid pump kit below

[Alvin]

Here's our dirty washer jug that pump is mounted below (including this for you as the grease highlights the part no's for you)

[Alvin]

Going to provide you w several images of the pump wiring as it comes out of the harness for you now

[Alvin]

[Alvin]