GN Un-build?

[TurboTnZ06]

So, this is where I'm at. I need to finish installing the trans, do some wiring and plumbing. It's pretty much turned into a "pro-touring" car. But, I have no intentions of auto-crossing or road racing the car. I want to drive it and have fun. I'll still go to the drag strip, but I'll be driving it instead of trailering it. Pretty much the only thing I haven't changed is the motor and interior. It still makes enough power to make me crap my pants. I might add a radio and down the road a/c.

You got it, trailers are for boats! Drove mine 1700+ miles to BG to race, and another guy drove 1000 miles each way to race TAI too. Was certainly an adventure. A/C more important than radio, although, I had the heater on and listened to the baseball playoffs for hours while driving to BG this year.

 

[Roc87]

Absolutely love the rims! Suspension/brakes look nice too

 

[Bruce Urie]

Top notch work.....man, you don't screw around....very serious improvements.......I feel so small.....
superior work there....you know your stuff! I'm jealous, too.

(sigh) Guess I'll go polish my guitar for now....

Bruce '87 Grand National

 

[Mike E]

If this is/was accomplished while married with children, you are my idol. You have a car to be envied Mike!

I have the best wife. She knows I need my garage time and lets me have it within reason. Since our daughter was born earlier this year, my time has been severely cut back.

You got it, trailers are for boats! Drove mine 1700+ miles to BG to race, and another guy drove 1000 miles each way to race TAI too. Was certainly an adventure. A/C more important than radio, although, I had the heater on and listened to the baseball playoffs for hours while driving to BG this year.

I'm only 65 miles from beech bend. I want the a/c back in it, but it's a money thing. It would have to be a vintage air unit because the factory stuff is just too bulky and ugly. The VA unit is expensive and because of all the custom front drive stuff on my motor, I don't know exactly how I would mount the compressor. The stereo is a quick easy addition, but I'm not in a big hurry to get it in there. I'll be paranoid enough listening to new noises for a while without a radio adding to that.

Top notch work.....man, you don't screw around....very serious improvements.......I feel so small.....
superior work there....you know your stuff! I'm jealous, too.

(sigh) Guess I'll go polish my guitar for now....

Bruce '87 Grand National

Thanks. It's all about having the right tools.

 

[J-B Racing]

Holy Sheep Chit Batman!! Standard GN. You really took a 360 degree turn around.
Enjoy..

 

[Mike E]

I got a little done on the trans swap this weekend. My block has a lot of crank centerline offset because of a line hone issue a while back (that Chris Hogeland fixed thank god). So, that requires some offset dowel pins. I measured and had .039" runout. That is a .0195" offset. I was going to order a set of offset dowel pins from Robbmc.com, but they were on back order, so I made my own.

While I had the bellhousing on the motor, I measured for the hole for the shifter. This is the minimum I'll need to cut. It may need more cut once the trans is in the car. I'll make a sheet metal cover and put a lower boot from a mustang on the floor once I get it all situated.

Here is what the McLeod RXT clutch looks like blown apart. They sent me some metric bolts where I needed standard, so I can't put it in just yet.

I mocked up the slave and shifter while it's on the floor.

 

[gsgnnut]

I love it! should be waaaay more fun than a stock GN. I had a 4 speed set up for a GS and seriously thought about putting it in the GN. Ended up putting it in a 72 suncoupe. Love the WTF reactions when people look in the interior and love driving a 4 speed.

 

[mtocrs1]

Looks awesome and keep up the good work. I would love to have a manual in the GN!
I am curious to see how it performs when completed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[turbofabricator]

Nice work. Keep it going. I personally know how hard it is to keep going. Hopefully you aren't fighting extreme pain like I am. Keep at it.

 

[ttypewhite]

Nice job Mike. I really like the direction your going with in this car. Very interesting. Can't wait to see how it all works out.

 

[Mike E]

Clutch is in. I need a trans spacer before I can put the trans in.

Power steering is back on the car. Not real impressive, just a bunch of stock parts, but they work well so why try to improve them.

 

[Mike E]

Trans spacer came in yesterday and I did a little cutting on it to clear the hydraulic fittings. I had to wait until today for a friend to come over and help me stab it in. The trans by itself is as heavy as a th400. Add the clutch, flywheel and bell housing and It's definitely not saving any weight.

Notice I have also put the quick disconnect back on. I put a clutch in by brothers ford ranger last weekend and that QD setup was a lifesaver. We were able to completely remove the hydraulics from the truck, bench bleed them and then reassemble it on the truck with no issues. It was super easy to bleed like that. So I'm going to buy the McLeod -4 line with the male end of the QD on it instead of a simple hose between the slave and master.

I had to modify my trans crossmember also. I probably have a bit more driveline angle now and the mount is spaced lower than a th400, so I ended up remaking the trans mount.

I got lucky on the shifter placement. It's in the exact same place that my automatic shifter was. It won't take much cutting on the console plate and a nice shifter boot to get that looking good.

 

[Mike T]

This should have been an option from the factory. A coupe of years ago I had a chance to see a early 80's 4 door Cutlass that had a factory 4 speed in it. I didn't know that they could be ordered that way but the owner said it was original.

 

[Mike E]

I moved the trans up another 1 3/8" and had to remove a lot of trans tunnel.

I've been working on a new cover all day. It's mostly done, now I've got to figure out how to mount a piece of rubber sheet and have it hug the shifter for an inner boot. The new tunnel piece couldn't be any wider than this and still fit in the console.

 

[Mike E]

I got a plan for the shifter boots. I made another sheetmetal riser to get up higher around the shifter. I don't think I can cram any more sheetmetal inside the console.

I'm going to sandwich a piece of rubber sheet between that and an aluminum hold down ring. I machined that today. I have to find some rubber sheet this week.

For the upper boot, I found a grey universal one on ebay that I'm going to fasten to the bottom of this new bezel that I also machined today. I'll figure out the mounting better once the boot gets here.

 

[Mike E]

I haven't gotten much done in the last couple weeks. I did get the tunnel cover painted, installed and seam sealed. I put a piece of rubber to seal the shifter to the tunnel. I've stripped all the interior in preparation for dynamat (fat mat) install and some carpet pad to try to get the heat and sound down. I also figured out how to make the upper shifter boot attach. It turned out pretty nice and it matches the steering wheel almost perfectly except the steering wheel is a bit dirty. I'm thinking of either having a turbo 6 shifter knob made, or have it engraved in the shifter boot plate, then powdercoat the plate to match the ash tray cover behind it.

 

[Eticket]

what is the true trac? is it like a locker? or does it have the helical gears?

 

[Mike E]

It's the one with helical gears. A posi with no clutches. I think it's relatively new in 35 spline for a 9". The 35 spline has 5 sets of helical gears vs. 4 sets for lower spline counts. We'll see how well it lasts.

 

[Eticket]

similar to the strange unit?

 

[Mike E]

I assume you mean the s-track they have. I don't know anything about it, but it looks like it must be similar.