Craig, What kind of lift is that? I built my garage and didn't get to get 10 ft ceilings and that would work decent for my garage..
More progress... more elbow room to operate. The lift is a EZcarlift, it is quite sturdy, adjustable to any height and provides good accessibility.
Wow Craig, nice to see you back. I wondered if you still had your car as it was always one of my favorites. I like the direction you are going with your car. Looking forward to more photos.
Thanks Gary, yeah, it has been a while... To recap: here's a couple before pictures: 1st - Before the move, and still with the street/strip 15" rim setup 2nd - After the move in the updated garage, with the new Forgelines installed on the old suspension/brakes setup. Riding a little high, but the Scavengers don't drag too much...LOL Really hate to go with shorties but the awesome sounding longtubes must go for the new direction :-(
Progress! Lowering the car ~2" moves the front pivot points of the rear control arms down, this moves the instant center (IC) too close to the rear. This is mostly due to the UCA being so short that the angle changes more than the LCA, this moves the IC too close to the rear. The attached pictures show how I moved the UCA front mount up about an inch...this moves the IC intersection back towards the front of the car (where it was before). I also re-drilled the new bracket where the original point was (lower one) to re-attach the old diagonal bar that (again) will help tie-in the cross-member to the front pivot point of the LCA/frame. The last picture shows UCA installed on the left, the diagonal bar is not installed on the left but you can see it on the right.
I realized that the coil-overs were going to interfere with my current 3" tailpipe routing. The solution was to find a gas tank that provided extra room on the front corners of the tank. After some searching I found a solution that I liked. Also since my frame mounted Mallory 140 was not keeping up I decided to move to a fuel injected pump mounted in the tank. I went with the 255 Walbro pump, it is rated for 800+ Hp. Since I have a good regulator and a 1/2" return line, I figured I had a good ~chance that I would be able to regulate the pressure back down (I got lucky and had no issues). Also with pump located inside a tray in the tank it would help prevent starvation and should be much quieter. I also went with the option of a 1" deeper tank profile at the front to keep the standard capacity (with the cut back corners). This provided plenty of clearance for the pipes. Heres some pic's of old and new:
Nice setup! I'm running a tanks inc in tank setup, and in hindsight sight really wish I would've went with the tank with the beveled corners.
I noticed the original fuel tank has three vent tubes and the new one has none - that I could see in the pics . With a non-vented cap how is tank pressure relieved/regulated? Cheers Bob
Good question Bob! The new tank/pump combination actually has two vents; one is the center port of the outer pump housing ( also visible in photo above ...297s), the other vent/nipple is located in the middle of the tank about 4" away back from the pump assembly mounting flange. I used the "Y" adapter that came with the pump/tank and combined them together and routed the rubber line and vent fitting up high close to the tank. I used a simple fabricated bracket to secure it in place. I don't have a picture of the vent, but it's a short aluminum cylinder about 1" diameter and 1" tall with a window/screen visible on the side.
Ah ha! Craig, thank you for that extra info. Will help me down the road finding an alternative tank for the Electra. Cheers! Bob
Rear sway bar mounting. Both front and rear sway bars are splined with arms... the bar is held by bushings on each end inside a support tube. The support tube would need to be welded in position permanently. Finding a mounting position that worked for the fixed length was a challenge. Initially the plan was to mount the bar under the tank with the arms extending forward and links attached to the axle tube. I did not like this arrangement due in part because the tank could not be removed and the support tube would also interfere with the exhaust. I laid it out instead with the support tube and bar directly under the differential with the arms extending forward and links attached to a fabricated bracket at the rear cross-member. I did have to slightly bend the arms in to avoid the LCA's, you can see it in a couple pictures. I did replace the LCA with adjustable this also gave me slightly more clearance and allowed me to position the rear just right (I already had adjustable UCA's). Ground clearance is expected to be ~6", significantly above the scrub line. More on the rear disc brake setup...maybe tomorrow.
Rear brakes... I also had to do some fabrication on the axle retention bracket (re-drill hole pattern and machine for offset adjustment) and the backing plate (also re-drill and machine for offset adjustment) to get the Wilwood disc brake kit to fit/work properly. I had to modify the offset distance between the diff housing flange and the axle flange to get everything to line up. From the factory the offset is 2.75" but this bigger brake kit (140-9224) required 2.81". This dimension is to align the rotor/hat with the emergency brake shoes inside the hat. Luckily a friend has a mill I could use to machine the backing plate and retention bracket from Moser to get the offset right. All this was a pain... I could have just used the smaller disc brake setup (140-13511) for the rear, which would have bolted right up. I also had to order a Wilwood emergency brake cable, it did not come with the kit. I included a picture of the aluminum bracket to attach the new cables to the factory E-Brake cable. Here's a variety of pictures to show some of the pcs. I also had the rear bearings and seal replaced, pictured is the before replacement photos. Sorry for the lack of organization, if you have questions just ask.
Few more pictures: 1 - This one shows how the seal protrudes out past the differential flange, pictures shows both stock backing plate (thinner than wildwood) and axle retention bracket. 2 - one showing the machining of the new retaining bracket to get raised section further recessed after flipping it over to be flush with seal 3 - one showing backing plate rear side after installation, recessed about 0.065" after machining for offset Combination of #2 & #3 used to get proper alignment to support protruding stock axle seal... all while making sure the offset is reduced from the 2.81 of the kit to the shorter 2.75" for the Buick 10-bolt..
A single Walbro 255 in the real world runs out of flow right around 450 rwhp...you can stretch it a tiny bit by running it directly to the battery, using a 30-A relay. I'd recommend stepping up to one of the newer Aeromotive Stealth 340 pumps or even one of the 450's. I was able to stretch my 255 in one car to 522 rwhp (fuel injected turbo 4-cyl!), but you're going to wear it out quickly like that. The 340's are around $120 on Amazon...
