Graham’s Corvette Blog and Studebaker bits ‘n’ bobs

The alternator isn’t behaving itself. It shows 13+ volts when starting out, but as the engine heats up it drops the 13 and below. I have the 56 amp alternator from the ’82 Caprice. Buddy Don ran it up on his test machine and it seems to be OK and the bearings are fairly quiet. The regulator connections were a bit rusty and it’s hard to clean them in place so I opted to take the unit apart and clean up all the contacts and the corrosion on the case. The nuts and screws needed a bit of penetrating oil so they would come off easily without damaging the diode unit or regulator. I also added a tad of wheel bearing grease to the needle bearings in the back of the case.

Cleaned up the front half of the unit and then fit it back together.

All nice and finished and ready to go. Sadly it wouldn’t generate from the get-go 🙁

In talking to Don I remembered a side comment he made about someone changing the GEN light bulb in the dash. I then realized that I must have changed that bulb for a diode bulb when I replaced all the dash lights. The diode is on the left and the regular incandescent is on the left. With the key in the ON position I was getting a reading of about .55 volts at the R connection on the alternator (the two prong plug that goes to the alternator has a F (field) and R connectors). This is apparently not enough to trigger (excite) the alternator to start charging. After I changed the bulb I got a reading of over 2 volts and that was enough to get the alternator charging. Now there was a full 12+ volts at the R connection and the GEN light on the dash was out.

The Caprice 56 amp alternator in place and working fine.

My second problem was that the choke flap wouldn’t close when I pressed the accelerator with the engine cold. I finally traced it down to the aftermarket vacuum dash pot. The linkage was getting in the way of the choke linkage. Just enough to hold the choke open until you fiddled with the choke arm.

The solution was to put a wee bend in the arm to keep it free. Once this was done the electric choke mechanism moved smoothly and the engine started and warmed up nicely.

Next: if there are no more bugs it’s time to start tearing down the original 350 🙂

Old thermo fan installed. We’ll have to see if it is more quiet than the flex fan.

This is the speedometer gear on the original ’79 TH350. I’ll be moving it to the ’83 TH350C when I swap back the original engine in the winter of ’26/’27. Until then I’ll live with the incorrect speedometer reading. It’s roughly 20 kpm fast. It’s too much bother to re and re the driveshaft and trans tail shaft housing and all the underneath work that involves, but I’ll see how the work goes this winter. I have a number of upgrades for the ’66 Stude and not too much on the Chevy except for fitting in the Caprice cassette radio and maybe getting the floor covered with sound deadening material. Oh yes, and getting the seats re-upholstered, installing a new condenser and getting the AC operable. Not to mention the rebuild on the old 350!

Trans case clean-up finished.

Built a little dolly to move the trans easily. A bit of a grunt getting it off the work-bench and onto the dolly. I actually put it on my pneumatic work seat and then lowered it to the bottom and then slipped if onto the dolly. Can’t be too careful at 79. The back isn’t what it used to be. I”ll tuck the TH350 trans away – just in case…

A very successful test drive. The lock up converter works OK 🙂 and the engine is running fine – the heater is also working fine now. I had mistakenly attached the its ground at the starter to the starter solenoid connection – wonder I didn’t blow something up! And the engine is a whole lot quieter with the original thermo fan. So I’ll buy a new thermal unit, paint it up and use it.

Next: more bugs.

I finally put two-and-two together and figured out that the trans from the ’82 Caprice is a lock-up converter model TH350C. It has a different input shaft and a special lock-up valve body red arrows. Something I will have to test out. If it works OK I will keep this trans when I swap back the original engine. So now to find the parts needed to hook up the lock-up and have it automatically cut in and out 🙂

I was very fortunate in that the Caprice is still available and I was able to find and remove two important components for the lock-up torque converter. The item on the left is a vacuum switch and the round thingy on the right is a vacuum delay switch which stops the transmission from rapidly going in and out of lock-up. There is only one wire coming from the trans so I’m not sure where the extra output wire is supposed to be connected to. More Googling to find that out as I don’t have the wiring diagram for an ’82 Caprice.

I found an open spot on the firewall and got the vacuum switch and the delay mounted. The harness from the Caprice has two wires exiting from the vacuum switch. I’m not sure what the second if for so I’m leaving it wrapped up until I see how the lock-up works.

One of the problems with the last test drive was a very loud whirring noise from the engine that got louder as the rpm increased. I’m thinking it is the flex fan which surprises me since I have used them in the past and they have tended to reduce noise. Anyway I’m going to install the old fan and see if that makes a difference. I’ve cleaned it up a bit, but I’m not sure that the fan clutch is working OK. It does have some resistance, but there was signs of oil on the shaft.

Next: the next test drive will show if the fan and lock-up works and if there are any other bugs needing attention before it is ready for the next driving season.

Getting the newly painted hood back in place. I had to use this setup to allow the hood support on the left side to be loose so that I could adjust the left side hinge. After some fiddling I was able to get the hood fitted OK.

Then I tried to close the hood, but of course the new high pressure 90 degree AC fitting wouldn’t work.

Even with a straight R12 to R134A adapter the hood still wouldn’t close.

In the end I had to leave the original R12 fitting in place without the R134A adapter. I just put a schrader valve in the fitting and will put on the adapter when I need to charge the system.

First test drive and I have a bad valve cover leak on the right side. Not so much on the left, but a bit.

I installed a new set of Rubber gaskets thinking they were the best. Looking closely at the gasket ends I noticed that the gasket was not seating on about 2″ on either end – the black line was about as far as the gasket seated on the block. I don’t like to over-tighten the valve covers; I just tighten the screws as much as I can with a screwdriver handle and socket. I also use spreaders on each screw to distribute the pressure better.

Hard to see, but I’ve laid the rubber gasket beside new cork composite gasket (FelPro VS12869AC). The cork is noticeably thicker (7/32″). I had no leaks with the old cork units. So I have bought a new set from Car Quest is $35 – available from Rock Auto for $15 plus shipping which will be a better deal if shipping a few parts at once.

I like to coat my cork gaskets with a thin coat of aluminum anti-seize paste. Helps to save them if I have to take off a valve cover.

The charging (Generator) light came on a couple of times during the test run. I took it to my car bud Don and he was able to test it out and fix a couple of problems – rust and maybe a bad diode block.

Alternator and valve covers back in place. Almost ready for another test run.

One last thing before doing another test run. The engine seemed sluggish on takeoff so I’m going to check the timing again. I have marked the original timing mark (thin white arrow) and will attempt to check it against the original timing tab (thick white arrow) just to be sure I have set the temporary timing mark (red arrow) correctly and that I have 8-10 degrees initial advance.

Next: a bit of good news on the transmission.

Hood hinges back on and the hood brace in place.

Not a fun job, but the hood needed to be cleaned up and painted. I’ve removed the sound mat attaching posts. I’ll just paint it this time and next time I’ll put on some stick-on sound deadening when I’m doing the interior floors.

Hard to get a shot of a black hood in detail. Turned out nice. Just need to hand paint some areas of the front lip and a big paint chip.

All ready for the road. Just need to check the electric choke and set the timing. I’ll go with an initial setting of about 8 degrees which will give about 27 with the vacuum advance in.

My low pressure 90 deg. fitting came in so I can check the AC system for leaks. I found a serious leak somewhere when I tried to vacuum the system. It would vacuum to about -20 and then no more. When I stopped the vacuum pump the vacuum in the system quickly disappeared.

The usual way to find a leak is with nitrogen, but I couldn’t find any small canisters of the stuff. So I opted to sacrifice some of my R22 refrigerant instead. I sprayed all the connections with soapy water before I let a small amount of refrigerant into the system.

I quickly heard gas escaping from the condenser area. It turns out that the condenser is cracked near where the lower connection is located. Can’t really get a good shot. I sprayed more soapy water in the area and the bubbling was quite evident.

So much for the condenser. Rock Auto has them for $160 plus about $35 in shipping. I don’t want to delay getting on the road so I’ll order the condenser and put it in over the winter. I’ll need to take the hood off again to get at the condenser connections, but that’s not a biggie with help from a couple of my coffee buddies.

This about ends this session on the Chevy. Still lots to do and I’ll get at it over the winter. I’m looking forward to getting the AC working, reupholstering the seats, installing the correct antenna and maybe getting some sound deadening mat over the floors and under the hood. I’m not really happy with the aftermarket radio I bought so I may try and slip in the AM/FM radio I saved from the Caprice. The aftermarket radio starts every time I start the car which is irritating and the buttons are just too small. I does have a CD drive that I’ll miss, but the Caprice radio has a cassette feature so I’m not totally lost.

In the meantime I’ll post bits and bobs now and then as I go through the fall.

High pressure line connection to the orifice tube. The low pressure switch is a bit tight but it will work.

The low pressure line at the condenser is a bit pinched. I cured that by releasing the connection a bit and twisting the low pressure pipe until the kink was pretty well gone and then re-tightening the connection.

Ground and power leads connected with the kicker switch line travelling off to top of the photo

New throttle kicker switch in place. It will up the RPM by 100 when adjusted and the AC is on.

Time to tighten the rear struts. They have new bushings and need to be torqued while the weight is on the wheels. I’ve put a couple of layers of hard plastic on top of the wood blocks. This should allow the wheels to spread out and put the suspension on its lowest level.

The inner strut fastener was too close to the exhaust pipe so I couldn’t use a torque wrench. It calls for 65 ‘# so I gave it a good pull with a wrench and a wrench extender.

The lower connection needs 75’# of torque which is a bit of a bear to get in the small space for the torque wrench to swing. I chose to go to 65 ‘# and a bit more to get the cotter pin in place.

Last job underneath was to install the large ground wire from the frame to the engine block. I’ve smeared some dialectic grease over the frame contact to keep the corrosion away.

Next: Getting close to being back on the road!

Before I attempted to start the engine I squirted lots of oil over the valve rockers. I noted that the engine didn’t have a lot of oil around the rockers when I started it originally. I did clean a number of the lifters and then primed the engine with a drill and oil pump tool so I’m hoping that it will oil better. I’ll check it again later once it has run some.

I’m using a high mileage oil from our local Canadian Tire store. Supposed to be meant for older engines. I’m also adding a bottle of STP. According to a letter I got from STP it has all the zink and phosphates needed to protect the cam and lifters and it will help seal the rings on this high mileage engine.

No shots of the engine running, but it ran well with only a small leak at the thermostat housing and around the pan bolts. I snugged both up. The thermostat housing sealed and I hope the pan will as well. My distributor is one tooth out of position so my start up timing was way advanced. Once I got it closer to TDC it started fine. I set the initial timing at 4 degrees and idle rpm at about 650. I ran it to temperature and then shut it down. I need to remove the water from the rad and both sides of the block – a bit messy, but…

Before finishing up the AC hookup I need to get the new overflow tank in place.

As usual with aftermarket parts the tank holes didn’t line up very well. The top two screws lined up OK, but the lower one would not rest against the fender. I had to use a longer screw top reach the tank. I didn’t tighten it fully for fear of distorting the tank to the point of breaking.

Ditto for the high pressure AC line. The new one was just out of match enough that it wouldn’t mate up with the lower condenser connection. I had to do some hand bending to get it to fit. Also it came nowhere near the fender where the hole for the support bracket is located.

I’ve added 2 fluid ounces of Ester oil, that was supplied with the compressor, to the compressor low pressure port. I then turned the unit a few times to get the oil around. I will need to add 2 more ounces for the new receiver/dryer – as directed in the instructions with the compressor.

The replacement compressor won’t accept the adjustment bolt used in the old unit. It is a bigger bolt and it won’t fit in the adjustment bracket slot.

Once the bracket was trimmed to fit the larger bolt I was able to get the unit in place. The original spacer between the bracket and the compressor also wouldn’t fit so I had to swap it for a couple of large washers. Also the adjustment bracket mount on the block had to be ovaled to allow the bracket to rise so that the larger adjustment bolt would fit properly in the compressor. Because of all this I now had to use a spacer to get the adjusting bracket brace to fit.

I also had to use a longer bolt and spacer at the manifold to allow the bracket to fit flat on the aftermarket intake manifold. Lots of fiddling to get it all to work, but when I swap back to the original 350 it should be more straight forward.

I had to add a 90 degree fitting to the high side of the AC line so that it will clear the hood. I need to do the same with the low side fitting (blue) so that I can connect the AC gauges to charge the system. That part should arrive today I hope.

Next: More AC prep and onwards

Cleaning up the plug wire guides that fit on the block behind the heads and lead the wires towards the back plugs and the wire shields for the front plugs. Same routine of scraping, cleaning, sand blasting and paint…

All cleaned up with some rubber tubing slipped on to help hold the wires firmly. They originally had a thin coating of rubber which was destroyed over time.

While waiting for paint to dry I’ve started to hook up the electrics. I have put on the left bank wires and will get underneath to run #1 &3 under the wire shield behind the exhaust manifold.

I’ve also put the alternator back and hooked up its wires.

I’m also installing the upper rad hose. I like to use the factory wire clamps as they look a whole lot neater.

Foiled again! The upper rad water inlet is one size smaller than the replacement rad hose. So no option but to use a band clamp there. The replacement (China) thermostat housing has such a large ridge on the end that the wire clamp couldn’t be spread far enough with clamp pliers to get it over the end of the housing. I’ll try putting the clamp on the housing first and then push the new hose through the clamp.

I was able to do that so it looks more factory like. Unfortunately there are a number of band clamps on the fuel line.

Back to the exhaust.

The upper shot is of the original factory exhaust manifold. The bottom one is the China replacement. As you can see the internal bore of the original is much smoother than the replacement. I didn’t go to the bother of grinding out the new manifold, but I will when I swap the original engine back in if I don’t go with headers or custom ram’s horn replacements.

Time to install the new left side manifold. This is how the spacer will go back into the car. The spacer held the original flapper that channelled exhaust gases under the intake for cold start ups.

I’ve put a good bead of exhaust sealant on the side of the spacer that will fit into the exhaust pipe top. In the end there was no way I could fit the spacer in the system for some reason with the new exhaust manifold!

So I used a regular donut seal and it squeezed in place just nicely. Not sure what I would have had to do to get the original flapper/spacer in place if I needed the original intake heater to work.

I was able to get the wire shield installed on the left side, but with the 305 starter and bracket in place it was impossible to get the shield on the right side. So I mounted a cushioned bracket to a pan bolt and ran the #2 &4 wires away from the exhaust system. I’ve also wrapped the transmission lines with header insulating wrap where they run near the exhaust pipe.

AC brackets in place.

Next: pretty well time to start the engine. Just need to add water and oil, put on the chrome valve covers and it will be time to get it going to check for problems and set the timing.

New rad nicely in place. Then I tried to fit the fan shroud….

The rad had to come out again before I could get the shroud in place. It’s also the best time to install the fan pulley and fan. I’m going with a flex fan as they use less HP at speed and provide good air movement at idle. I’ve read you can gain 5 hp with them. That would cover the loss from the AC. I’ve yet to sand the fan pulley. I’ll use a short length of V belt and course sand paper to clear out the grooves.

Lots of bending and twisting to get the trans cooling lines close to where they need to be. I was supplied with a 90 degree and a straight fitting to make the radiator attachment. Turns out I needed to use a 90 degree fitting in both places. I also had to cut off a section of the output line. Here I’m using my double flare tool to make a bubble on the end of the line.

Works quite well if you just go a bit easy on the first step and don’t go all the way. The second 90 degree is visible on the right of the photo.

Both lines hooked up and ready to go:-) Not as neat as I would like and one reason I paid for custom lines! Not a happy camper about that.

Installing new studs in the exhaust manifolds. I have put never-seize compound on the threads just in case I need to remove them. I’ll also put the compound on the bottom threads as I will need to take the engine out in a year or so

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The bottom gasket came with the new exhaust manifold. The top ones are Fel Pro and they are easier to put in place.

Next: getting the exhaust system in place.

Getting the pulleys read for painting. I’ve cut lengths of V belt and held them in place with string. I painted the inside of the V slots in the pulleys before on a 360 Dodge engine. The belts tended to slip and squeal when reving the engine. It was hard sanding off the paint after.

Pulley painted and clear metal where the belts ride.

Pulley in place. The pulley bolts torqued OK without the engine rolling over, but I needed to put a blot in #1 cylinder so that when it reached TDC it was stopped by the bolt – I made sure that it was TDC on a compression stoke so that a valve didn’t get bent.

Exhaust manifold bolts and manifolds ready for paint. I’m using barbecue high heat paint. It’s good for sustained temperatures of 600 or so degrees and bursts as high as 1200 degrees. It doesn’t need to be heat cured so we’ll have to see how good it works.

I’m using the old heater hose water pump connector. It was scaly on the inside . Rubbing it back and forth on a course rasp file did the trick to clean it out.

The connector can just be seen on the lower right. Here I’ve installed the clear fuel filter and hooked it all up to the carb. I had to do this before I could re-connect the fuel lines to the fuel pump other wise fuel might just pass through the pump and onto the floor.

I’ve installed the electric choke that was on the 305 donor engine. I like them better than the original temperature units. Seem to work faster and more consistent. Fortunately it works on an earlier Quadrajet.

Getting the throttle hooked up plus the vacuum lines.

Next: one step ahead and then one back!