well it is finally back on the road. my 76 lesabre's original 350/350(375B?) turbo were long overdue for replacement so i decided to make a major change to my daily driver, also known as "wild blue yonder". i bought a wrecked 92 roadmaster ($500) wagon to use as my donor car. not only did i install the motor, tranny and fuel injection, but also swapped in the insturment cluster and idiot light bank. i used the fuel tank from a 90 caprice. it is smaller than my original tank but already had the fuel pump in it and plugged directly into the roadmaster harness. to mount the tank i had to drill a new hole in each of the lesabre tank straps. pretty easy. for fuel lines, once i straightened out (with the help of a heat gun) the long plastic roadmaster fuel lines and cut/rotated the metal lines at the motor, no additional fuel lines were needed. on the power steering pump, i had to swap the rear fitting from my old pump to the new one so my 76 hose would still fit. here are some pics and comments i have gathered along the way.
one of my goals when doing these transplants is not having to cut the driveshaft. the 76 lesabre has a 350turbo in it so i didnt even have to hunt down a buick 350turbo yoke(same spline as a 700R4) and new universal joint like the previous 400/700R4 swap i did a couple years ago for my convertible. i start by noting where the transmission rear seal rides on the tranny yoke. i want to end up with the new tranny seal riding the yoke in the same place. ending up positioned at the same height as the original driveshaft will help prevent driveshaft vibrations from the driveshaft being out of phase. fortunatly since this car has an unboxed frame just sliding the crossmember back to a new spot worked on this swap. on my previous swap (the 74 lesabre convertible) the crossmember swept forward near the tranny mount (much different than the 75-76 crossmembers). that sweep made it impossible to use the crossmember with a 700R4 without first making some mods. the 700R4 needs its mount perch pointing forward and free of lateral obstructions since its tranny mount is right up against the extra wide fluid pan. if you dont make the mount perch stick out enough, you may end up with the crossmember in your way when you do a tranny install or fluid change. the first 2 things i measured were the distance from the rear seal to the center of the tranny mount holes (see A in the picture) and from the center of the output shaft to the tranny mount landing on the tranny(see B in the picture). comparing these two measurements taken from both the 700R4 and the 350turbo trannies will help me determine the new location for the crossmember.
on my previous car i built/used this little jig to set up my mototr mounts. basically once you have the crossmember in the correct spot, you drop this jig in and it helps you keep the motor mounts parallel and placed the correct distance from the tranny crossmember. you still have to make sure they are properly "leveled" before drilling and bolting them in. this jig can be made using your donor car as a template after you have pulled out the donor motor/tranny. before you remove the donor car's motor mounts you will need to re-install the donor car's crossmember. then you can make your jig.
you can see in this picture that the roadmaster fuel lines pop out of a hole on the front side of the engine cradle. from the rear of the car they run on top of the frame until they reach a hole on the backside of the engine cradle. i have to find a way to extend these lines in order to get them to work on the lesabre but it shouldnt be too traumatic. they are about than 8 inches too short (the difference in wheel bases of the 2 cars is 10 inches) and the frame on the roadmaster is also 10 inches narrower than the lesabre.
in order to make passing the wires through the firewall as easy as possible, i cut the old passthru from the roadmaster and used an advesive/seam sealer to bond it to a similar hole in the lesabre. doing it this way assures me that the wiring seal will be good (much like when GM did it). the screws that mount this plug will thread through this piece of metal and into the firewall to assure it all stays in place.
after carful measuring, i cut my new hole using an air body saw. this hole is real close to the bottom of the AC box outside.
i traced around the wiring plug so i could trim the passthru to it's bare minimum. lessening the chance is it running into the heater box while trying to install it.
the test fit of it looks good. i will have to put the adhesive on it and clamp it into place with these holes lined up with the ones in the new piece. that way when i screw the wiring plug to the passthru the screws will also thread into the lesabre's firewall making making the fit tight.
harness streamlining is not for the faint of heart. you need good lighting,minimal distractions, an ohm meter, and it really helps to have wiring diagrams that pertain to the exact vehicle that was used as a donor. here are some of the things i need to do with this harness. the gauge cluster from my 1992 roadmaster donor car is pretty comprehensive so i decided it would be a cool addition to the 76 lesabre. it is similar in size and should take up less dash space than the lesabre cluster that had a cable driven speedometer. the donor cluster is almost totally operated from the donor harness with these exceptions... right & left turn signal, high beam and parking brake indicators will need connected to their appropriate sources in the original 76 harness. the dash lights' power wire will also get the same treatment. also the "bulb check" feature will still be functional.
to make installing the harnesses easier and more of a "plug-in" affair, i installed plugs like this in several places. this particular one shows the transfer of the turn signal and bright light indicators from the old plug to the new harness. besides crimping, each connection was also soldered just to give me a little more peace of mind (i really REALLY like to solder). other connections where i used these handy little plugs were, the fuel gauge and pump wires, bulb test wires, insturment panel lights and brake light indicator, and one that runs the relays that operate the roadmaster harness.
as i compare the two clusters i see that there is hope to have my new speedometer contered above my steering column and still be able to maintain the cluster within reach of the original dash trim.
to support the cluster, i made a bracket by welding a 3/8ths inch grade 8 bolt to a piece of angle iron (old bed frame). the bolt passes through (and is bolted to) the steel support in the dash that the steering column is mounted to. this lower mount is fastened to the cluster with 8 inches of stuff called "extreme velcro". i did this so when dash bulbs need to be changed the cluster can easily be removed and re-installed. there are upper brackets to the cluster that are shown in some other pictures. after this pictures was taken, i modified this bracket to hold the cluster about 1.5 inches closer to me. this mod can be seen in some of the other pictures.
the plug wiring receptacle that limited how low the cluster could be mounted is circled in this picture. as you can see it ends up very near the top of my CD player sleeve. if i had a factory radio in the car the cluster might not fit at all without MAJOR modification to the cluster. even with the CD player in th car i still had to change the wires in the plug so that they exited the plug upward instead of downward. thats how tight the fit was on this right side.
here is a pic from the back side with the plug installed after i changed the wires to the "UP" position. it was close to a tight fit.
on my first dash pad test fit i was surprised to find no resistance. looking closely at the fit, i figured out that i could possibly make it fit even better by simple adjustments to the brackets i had used to install the cluster. first, by lowering the cluster i could make it easier to read the top of the speedo and tach. second, if i could flip the cluster lense upside down it might allow me to move the cluster closer to me and at the same time make a better fit with the dash opening trim. with the lense flipped, the angle of the new cluster lense is an extreemly close match to the original 76 cluster's lense. in other pictures you can see where i extended my two top brackets and my extension of the lower velcro "platform".
by welding this plate to the bottom of the "bed rail", it lowered my cluster about an eighth of an inch and help move the cluster about 1.5 inches closer to me.
the upper part of the top bracket is made from a section of a metal stud used for building interior walls. it is connected to the cluster with some velcro-like stuff called "superlock" (if you have ever used the stuff you know it rocks). once all of the fitment of the cluster was finalized, i used gorilla glue to permenantly glue the super lock fasteners together. on the lower part of the rear bracket you can see the extensions welded to my original brackets. these were needed in order to move the cluster closer to me than i had originally planned. after installing these extensions, it was MUCH easier to re-install the duct work. now that it is finished .... in order to remove the cluster (like if i need to change a dash light bulb), after removing the trim panel and dash pad, i unclip the shifter indicator cable, then i loosen the bolts (circled in red in the picture) so they can slide out of their slots and allow the cluster to roll towards me releasing it from the velcro. then i unplug 2 wiring harness plugs and it's out. this new cluster ended up mounted just as solid as the original cluster.
i bought this bumper repair kit for $1.99 this at a local salvage store. it works great and sets up fast(in about 15-20 minutes). just mix the 2 parts equally and go to work. i would glue a part to the trim piece and hold it by hand(clamps wouldnt work well due to the irregular shapes). after holding it perfectly still for about 5-8 minutes the part would hold well and could be let go. then i would mix up another small batch of glue and right before i set the next part, i would plaster some of the fresh reinforcing glue on the back side of the previous part kinda leap-frogging as i went. once the glue had cured for a couple of hours i would use my jigsaw, dremel, and files to contour the rear edge of the new plastics to match the curve of the lense on the insturment cluster. this takes time and patience and alot of care to keep from popping the glued joints loose from excessive power of the tools.
here is what the right side of an original (an extra one i had laying around) 75-76 B-C-E dash panel looks like. i could have left mine uncut but it would have been hard to read the odometer on the right side and to read/reset the trip odometer on the left side of the dash.
here is what the left panel looked like after i got all of the pieces glue into place. i had to angle the rear piece in to help cover the end of the new cluster's lense. in the camera shot the glue is pretty shiny but in the car looking at the panel you can hardly tell the glue from the plastic. i may paint the panel in the future, but for now i am satisfied with its looks. this car is my daily drivier so it dont get primo attention in the looks department.
