Your car really looks cool from behind.  It has some unique curves.

 

I truly Love Pontiacs.

Your tranny looks HEAVY.  Just like the car.  No plastic involved.

Hello Al,

  The 4L60E is a big transmission compared to a TH350 or maybe the TH400 due to the 60E being a four speed.  Its definitely a longer transmission and the car will need a shorter driveshaft because of it.

  I've been getting up around 0430 these last few mornings before work when it is cooler to do things on the Catalina.  Mostly little things but I started putting the motor back together after last week removing the oil pan to cut up the windage tray to eliminate that tapping sound. A few days ago, the intake manifold went back on.  I refilled the engine oil yesterday, I got the power steering pump filled up this morning and the radiator filled up earlier tonight.  Then got the PCM engine computer hooked up.  With a quick energizing of the purple starter wire, the engine roared to life and settled into a good 650 RPM within 15-20 seconds.  

  As before, it went to 52 PSI on cold engine oil at idle RPM.  At maybe 1500 RPM, the oil pressure was 60 PSI.  And I'm happy to report that the tapping that you heard on the You Tube video is gone.  I ran the engine long enough for the thermostat to start opening and then shut it down. 

A small part of me wishes that I had installed the torque converter in the 4L60E to see if the transmission works.  But that would have forced the installation of a transmission cooler of some kind even if it was simply a hose from one port to the other.  I only paid $60 USD for this transmission because it was a warranty return back to the junk yard that I bought it from which means somebody found something wrong with it and brought it back.  It almost certainly needs a rebuild and very often, it'll be failed 3-4 gear clutch pack friction disks in a 60E.  The disk material will very likely be found laying in the fluid pan.

Rick

  

Hello,

  I continue to do engine runs to investigate the operation of this motor.  I've been chasing a slow fluid leak at the driver's front of the engine that I thought was the high pressure power steering pump fitting.   No, its the plug used to cover the hole for priming the LS engine oil pump before starting a rebuilt engine for the first time.  I did not prime the oil pump with this method - I simply cranked the engine (no starting) with an oil pressure gauge attached until it self primed.  I figured the rebuild shop left an O-ring or seal off of that plug but I checked the other LS engine that I have here on the shop floor and there is no o-ring or seal.  Its a pipe thread plug that uses a sealant to prevent leaks and I will solve this problem tomorrow once most of the engine oil drains back into the oil pan.

   There is a gnome or a small troll that lives in my workshop that hides things from me and she has hidden my infrared thermometer.  So I bought another one today and now I have two, somewhere.  I have been wanting to check temperatures on the header pipes as the engine warms up and they all seem to be reasonably close to each other.   The minor differences can be explained with variance in the flow rates between each of the eight fuel injectors. This is a motor for cruising and the flow rates don't need to be matched for maximum race engine performance.  These flow rates will also likely converge to become more equal as I run quantities of fuel detergents and cleansers through the injectors.  My favorite fuel additives are Chevron Techron and BG 44K Platinum. 

  I also bought my either / or 5-volt or 12-volt LED lamp with wiring assemblies today for three bucks each. These will be used as Check Engine Lights / Malfunction Indicator Lights connected to the powertrain control module.  The PCM has been throwing a trouble code indicating that I didn't have a lamp installed and now this problem will be solved.

Rick

   

Hello,

  The next major phase of restoration got started in earnest earlier this evening - installing the fuel tank.   As previously mentioned, the new general purpose GM B-Body tank from the good people at Tanks, Inc. fits but I had not created the suspension strap bolts until today.  My braided steel push-lock fuel line kit also got delivered today and the Cat will soon be going up on jack stands so that I can pull the old lines out and put the new lines in along the same path.

   It is possible that I will need to order an extended fuel inlet pipe because it appears that the new tank fuel inlet wants to hang farther forward on the suspension straps than I'm going to like during a gas station trip.

  The tank will need to come out one more time to extend the two sending unit wires and to tape the rubber insulator straps into place that go between the top of the tank and the bottom of the trunk floor.  I also need to look very closely at where to cut the trunk floor to mount the new access panel that will be immediately above the in tank fuel pump and sending unit.  An access panel makes it very easy to service the fuel pump and sending unit if they ever need to be replaced.

I will try to get a few pictures of this shiny new tank and straps this weekend.

Rick

 

Hello,

  I got the tank back up into the car on its suspension straps with the new fuel filler neck extension on. The pictures will show the new filler neck and the old filler pipe was three inches shorter.   It now has plenty of length and has the tank vent hose and baffle / debris screen attached all the way from the forward side of the tank to the top of the fuel filler neck at the cap.  This bit of height for the vent at the cap will help with good venting.   With the tank laying on its straps, the fuel filler neck will need a small amount of upwards bracing at the cap for best aim of the gas pump fuel nozzle - no big deal.  The hardest part today was putting the bolts anchoring the far back end of the new suspension straps in.  Those bolts were tough to put in place and then tighten - there's not a lot of room there with the rear bumper still attached. All in all, its a good fit for a B-body tank that was meant for a mid 60's Chevrolet Biscayne.

  I got the rubber isolating straps taped to the top of the tank and I have the fuel pump and fuel sender wires loomed a little in readiness for connecting. 

  I have not decided if this tank may have to come out and go back in one more time.   I may be installing braided steel fuel lines to replace the very high quality, high pressure, internally woven cloth reinforced Parker Hannifin rubber fuel lines that I've been using for my LS engine testing.  These rubber lines have been very dependable with no leaks but the braided steel lines will force me to use 3-4 different adapters, connectors and fittings that will be sources of potential fuel leaks.   I've got some new fuel line connectors coming this week for me to decide.

  The other thing that will likely require the tank to come back out is that I need to mark the cutout area for the trunk access panel to make it easier to service the fuel pump and sending unit.   The cutoff wheel that I will use to remove the trunk floor metal for the access panel location makes a lot of ****SPARKS**** and I don't want to blow myself up. Even with laying water soaked towels over and around the tops of the pump and sending unit, its too risky.  One of the pictures will show the vicinity of where this access will go in the trunk. This is a middle, forward-ish location.

Rick

 

Excellent job.  Before spending big bucks on braided lines, make sure it's for use with current fuel.  Old style rubber is destroyed by the new fuels.  Justa something to consider checking. 

Hello

  I was out of town all this past week and nothing got done to the Cat, of course.  The local machine shop got the Pitman arm removed from the 1995-98 Jeep Grand Cherokee steering gear box that I'm going to use on the Catalina and I picked it up today. I tried heat, penetrating oil and a large Pitman arm puller tool and nothing worked to remove the arm.  This Jeep steering box was purchased by Jeep from General Motors from their Saginaw Division and looks almost identical to the Catalina box.  The JGC box is widely available in the junk yards for $30-35.00 if you pull it yourself but make sure that you pick from a Jeep that was not hit in a major accident.  I've done this steering box swap on my El Camino and I will never go back to that old 14 to one steering ratio. 

The only minor differences are that I will need metric power steering hose fittings and I will need a Dorman 31011 rag joint to interface with the input shaft spline count to the Catalina steering column.  The Pitman arm output shaft spline count on the JGC box is identical to the original Catalina box and the Catalina original Pitman arm fits perfectly.   The original 1970 gear box has a light as a feather steering feel and that awful steering ratio.  The modern JGC steering box uses the 12.7 to 1 gear ratio which gives the driver a much better road feel.  I would run out of fingers and toes counting up how many steering wheel turns it would take to get from full left to full right with the original steering box.   

  There is nothing wrong with my junk yard JGC steering box and I'm confident that it would be no problem as is on the Catalina.  Nevertheless, I have boxed it up for shipment on Monday to an acquaintance out in California that rebuilds steering boxes.  It'll get all new seals and torsion bar adjustments to make it feel brand new.  Yes, I could have bought a rebuilt parts counter 1995-98 JGC power steering gear box but there are risks associated with that.  You don't know if it was from a Jeep Sport or a Liberty which can leave you without the good steering ratio and the Pitman arm sweep angle could be different.    This junk yard box will come back like brand new.

Rick

 

Doing a great job there, Rick. My eyes are always drawn to those magnificent taillights and how the bumper curves around them- really stylish. Obviously, in an era where designers were allowed some artistic room they took full advantage...plus a little powder washed down with some exotic spirits. These days, all the Mum & Dad SUVs from around the world look like they all came from the same production line.

Hello Peter,

  Yes, those taillights are the best angle for this year of Catalina, but the front is growing on me, and I wouldn't kick any of her out of bed for eating crackers.

  I have decided to stick with the heavy-duty high pressure rubber Parker Hannifin fuel lines, and I got the main line strung in from front to rear along the same path that GM did it.   Did it earlier this morning - much cooler. This fuel line is not yet clamped to the body or frame rail because I'm going to run the new copper-nickel brake line along the same path and use the same new clamps for fuel and brakes. I have a sack of all new clamps waiting for me to push an all-new brake line from front to back.  

 In my squirming around on the shop floor this morning on my back looking at the fuel tank, I made the determination that I cannot cut up the trunk floor to install the fuel pump and sending unit access panel.  Measure many, cut once.  In this case, it will be cut none.  There is a large piece of trunk floor structural steel in the way of where I need to cut to use the access panel.  The use of this access panel is purely for future convenience and it's not important enough for me to cut up this car's structure for it.

  I brought my coil of new copper-nickel brake line, my sack of new flare fittings and my new Vevor brake line flaring tool into the house this morning.  I will use it later today to practice making good tubing flares.  I intend to make these new brake lines one at a time to best make exact copies as I continue to take the Catalina apart.   I also need to order new brake flex lines this week and I hope to find these in braided steel.  For the brass brake fluid distribution and proportioning blocks, I am going to reuse them after a good cleaning.

Question.  Do you know if Pontiac put rear differential gear oil filler ports and threaded plugs into the differential?  I found the vent port but in my squirming around this morning, I can't find a filler port. I have not removed the differential cover and drained the fluid because I want to find the filler port first.  I will look around in the Catalina shop manual etc. to try and answer this question but my fear is that this diff was set up for a lifetime fill of 80-90 hypoid gear oil by GM.  My same year 1970 El Camino has a filler port on top and let's hope I can eventually find the same on this Catalina.   Fortunately, this differential shows no signs of major or minor leakage, but it would sure be nice to put in some all new gear oil.

Rick

U are quite the design artist/creator.

Hello,

  Found it - the fill plug for the differential.  A look at the shop manual narrowed down the search for me and when its cooler on one of these mornings, I can drain the diff and check on the gear teeth.

Rick

 

Hello,

  Sorry, no pictures this time and I have not drained the differential but it is on my list.  I have made a few practice double flare ends with my copper-nickel brake line material using the Vevor flaring tool.  That is so easy!!  Earlier today, I rolled out a continuous length of tubing from front to back and slid some of that spiral wire protection onto the tubing to see how much tubing this will take.  I still need to remove the old front to back length of brake line tubing and take out the brass brake line distribution block that is tightly squeezed between the steering box and the inner fender. I also ordered all three of the flex brake lines today in braided steel.

  This is one of the reasons that I have not been in a hurry to place the motor and transmission into the engine compartment. I need the space to do this brake line work and to get the old steering box out to make room for my rebuilt Jeep Grand Cherokee (JGC) steering box which should have arrived at the rebuilder today.

I got up early this morning to work on the Cat when it was cooler.   I got the Corvette C5 Wix part number 33737 combined fuel pump pressure regulator / filter mounted and grounded beneath the trunk floor.  I have slowly been tightening the tank support straps to raise the tank into position.  The straps need tension to get them to lay flat and I'm doing this a little at a time - I also added lock nuts to the two fuel tank strap bolts.

  And lastly, I ran the engine again today for maybe an hour and got struck by two fuel injector faults on the driver's side - cylinder #3 and #5.  This is confirmed by a very low header pipe temperatures on each of those cylinders with my infrared temperature gun.   This is a little frustrating for me but I'd much, much rather exorcise these kinds of engine demons now with the motor sitting on the floor than with it down in the engine compartment.  I have quite a few extra cleaned and flow tested fuel injectors to replace these two.   This repair work is easier with the motor sitting on the floor and this problem for me could be self inflicted.  These are all used fuel injectors and I have been running high concentrations of fuel injector cleaner in the fuel.  This may have dislodged debris inside these injectors but I'd still rather find these problems now rather than later.  New AC Delco fuel injectors are expensive for this motor at almost $92.00 USD each.

My El Camino needed front brake work this week which has pulled me off working on the Cat a little.

Rick

 

Hello,

   It has been a busy few weeks and it has been very hot to work in the shop - so I get up early in the morning and work a little.  The fuel injector problem mentioned immediately above resolved itself with me swapping in a different Powertrain Control Module - the engine ran perfectly.  And then I thought to myself, OK, let's put the troublesome PCM back in and see what happens.   And that PCM is also allowing the engine to run perfectly.  This engine is still sitting on the shop floor and occasionally running while I do things down inside the engine compartment.  I've got plenty of time to continue letting these problems occur so that they can be easily solved sitting here on the shop floor.

  I got a call from Ames Performance - the original Pontiac engine harness that they ordered for me almost four and half months ago from M&H Electric out in California is in production and should arrive here around 1 September.  Hopefully, this will help solve my problem of no electrical power past the firewall into the passenger compartment.

  The differential housing and its cover have both been scraped clean of old gasket material and the cover has been painted. I found the differential fill port up top and got it loosened.  There were no metal chunks in the diff when I got the cover off and no broken or chipped teeth on the ring or pinion gears - but the fluid was black and considerably low.  I was hoping to find the differential gear ratio stamped into the edge of the ring gear so that I could input that number into the PCM operating system (plus the tire height for best transmission shifting logic) but its not on the edge.   I've got the diff's gear ratio broadcast "RPO" code on the build sheet but I don't have the into English decoder ring for a lot of things on that sheet.

  I'm waiting on a diff cover gasket to arrive here in a few days from Ames to put the cover back on and refill it with 80-90 hypoid gear oil.  I can't seem to find that gasket around here locally.

  I'm trying to remove the top half of the back seat but can't figure it out.  The floor bolts are removed but the top edge of the seat will not come loose.  I need to find the spot where the electrical floor flat ribbon cable runs to the rear of the car so that I can lay in the new ten gauge fuel pump wiring.  I did manage to finally get a glimpse of the convertible top hydraulic system and wiring - no leaks and the wiring looks good.

  I got the brass brake distribution block removed from the car and have started cleaning it up. I also removed the original steel right front wheel brake line from the car for use as a template to make my first new copper-nickel brake line for the Cat.  The Vevor brake line flaring tool makes this very easy.

  And finally, my wheel cylinders, two front and two rear brake wheel cylinders and flex lines, front brake shoes, inner and outer wheel bearings and oil seals arrived from Ames last week.  I still need to find a master cylinder, brake booster and rear shoes plus the rear flex hose.

  And its now 6 AM here.  Out to the shop I go.

Rick

  

 

You have sure racked up the hours in a short time.  Good progress and thankz for sharing your build.

Hello,

   I've been gone to Colorado visiting my eight month old grandson this week and my wife and I returned today.  Additional parts have been delivered from Ames in the meantime.  Finally, I have a differential cover gasket that fits  - the cover goes on and gear oil goes in tomorrow morning, early.

  My brake master cylinder also arrived in the same box and did not come with a booster to MC push rod.   The original booster push rod is way too short by about 1.5 inches and fortunately, I had a new, about four inch push rod in my junk box.  But this equation could all change when I locally purchase the brake booster that Ames did not stock for a Catalina.  I'm taking this new four inch push rod with me tomorrow when I try to acquire a booster.  The original master cylinder required the shallow push rod.  This new MC requires the deep push rod. Hopefully, I won't need to either make a custom push rod or buy an adjustable push rod kit.

  I also heard from my Jeep Grand Cherokee (JGC) steering gear box rebuilder yesterday and it got shipped today.  Complete rebuild for $220.00 and that includes return shipping.   This gets me the modern 12.4 to one steering ratio, the modern, heavier 30 pound torsion bar steering "feel" force, the same sweep angle at the Pitman arm and uses the original Catalina Pitman arm.  Whatever it felt like in 1970, it'll have a much more modern and confident road feel now.  My El Camino originally had the light as a feather road feel that I didn't like and it got a JGC gear box - I'm very happy with it. I will buy the required Dorman 31011 new rag joint tomorrow that adapts the 1970 steering shaft splines to the metric JGC gear box input splines.

  My new transmission tunnel professionally rolled and produced piece of sheet metal got created and shipped this week - $120.00 includes shipping.   Pictures when it arrives.  I have been unable to hand bend a suitably good looking and accurate sheet metal tunnel cover for my snipped tunnel area - I don't own a sheet metal roll bender. A previous eBay metal vendor that I have used took my measurements for arc, width, length and varying front to back radius / height and created a perfect piece of 18 gauge cold rolled steel for my snipped out tunnel hole. Fred is an absolutely fabulous metal worker.

Rick

 

Hello,

  It has been a busy week thus far on the Cat with mostly good news but not all.   My rebuilt Jeep Grand Cherokee steering gear box got here earlier this week and I also bought its new rag joint.  The rebuilt box looks brand new and I feared having trouble loosening the frame rail bolts to the old box but that was not a problem.  When I'm ready, the new box should be relatively easy but the steering column will need to be loosened a little to give me some slack.

  My differential gasket arrived from Ames and it has been filled with fresh gear oil - no leaks. My rear brake line rubber flex hose should be here tomorrow from NAPA and I was able to get rear brake shoes from O'Reilly Auto Parts.  I have made a few of the new copper-nickel brake lines and the line end flaring process is easy. The brake master cylinder is temporarily mounted but it required the long push rod between it and the booster.  Fortunately, I had the longer rod in my junk box from similar work on my El Camino. I may have to get this booster rebuilt because nobody anywhere stocks a replacement 70 Catalina brake booster.

  My piece of rolled steel for the hole in the tunnel arrived earlier this week.  Out of the box, it looked exactly like a long loaf of sliced sandwich bread - long and tall with little slope or taper.  I thought, this is not good.  Then I started flattening it out and electric shear trimming it a little here and there and yea, it can be made to work. Fred didn't have an English Wheel and neither do I but this piece could best use some wheel work.  As we all know, there are two predominant tunnel slopes at, down and moving away from the firewall towards the rear along a B-body Catalina tunnel.  This piece of 18 gauge metal does not have these two individual bends to conform to the required slope of the tunnel and as much as I regret it, this will require relief cuts to best lower the metal closer to the original floor slope. These relief cuts will require new welded in 18 ga metal to fill in the blank areas.  With an English Wheel, these cuts would not be required as the wheel would simply make the entire piece of metal yield in two different directions.  I need the piece to overall be lower and not create a too high metallic "tent" just below the dashboard AM radio.  Final placement will depend on putting the engine and transmission assembly back in.  

  I have also extended the fuel pump positive wire discretely up through the trunk floor, past the back seat sheet metal, under the seat and into the passenger compartment. Yet, it still must go farther and I bought the ten gauge red wire today for this additional extension. I want a fat positive wire to limit voltage drop to the fuel pump.  The pump inside the tank will have a short, ten gauge ground wire attached to the body sheet metal near the fuel tank. The sending unit positive wire got attached to the original Catalina wiring and will also get a short negative wire to the body.   

And now the bad news.  The engine compartment wiring harness that I have waited four months to receive is missing seven wires.  I have sent a picture to Ames with an explanation and see what happens.  This harness was built by M&H Electric and is missing the wires for headlights, turn signals and the horn.  The new connector block in the picture is missing half of its mass compared to an original GM fuse block half and has no ability for me to add the missing wire connections.

Rick

 

I love reading your progress - well written and hugely informative although a lot of it is beyond me, especially concerning engine electronics. Anyway, like Andy you're doing a careful and thorough job and I for one, am impressed.

Hello,

  This was a day off for me and I got up early this morning and finished my fuel pump and sending unit wiring at the tank.  The fat red pump wire also got extended further up front to the engine that is still sitting on the shop floor. The ground side of those connections through the body sheet metal has also been tested with a very low resistance and the pump works well.  I still need to connect the red pump wire to the fuel pump relay assembly in the engine harness for PCM computer control but that is easy.

  Then I went shopping for who will eventually paint this Catalina and I landed back at the same old school shop that painted my El Camino five years ago.  For the price I'm going to get and the speed that this paint job will receive, all other unrelated Catalina work will stop. At some point during this coming November, they will accept my Catalina for about three weeks to do any final small body work jobs and will tape up the car. Even the door jams get paint.   At this point, I am reasonably certain that it will remain the stock metallic green color.

  My responsibility here to get it ready is to completely strip the car down of everything.  All trim and bumpers, lighting, door panels etc. will need to be removed.  Then get it sanded or blasted down to bare metal and then put a coat of catalyzed primer sealant on it to prevent rust - I will spray this first coat of sealer primer here at home.  Then they paint the car and I put it back together afterwards. Hopefully, I can keep the front glass in.  All of this keeps the costs low.

  All for about $3700.00 USD at this shop but it'll cost me some money for paint stripper paste, sand paper or to get it media blasted..  If you have not shopped for a paint job lately, that is a very, very good price.  It won't be an award winning, car show perfect, museum paint job but it'll be plenty good enough and done with quality materials for the base and clear coat.  If it was a perfect paint job, I would never want to drive the Catalina. 

  This is all very good news.

Rick

 

Hello,

Removing the back bumper on a 70 Catalina is a Major, MAJor . . . MAJOR chore of a job.  And I'm still not done.  I've looked at the 1970 Catalina Factory Assembly Manual and it is only a little help.  Removing the valance panel below the bumper helped for access to some of the bolts but not for all of them.  

  Did Pontiac really require the back bumper to be removed to change a lamp in the tail light assembly?  There are three screws that hold the tail light in but it still won't come out.  

  I need the bumper off to get the car ready for painting and I hope the front bumper isn't this hard.

Rick

Hello,

  I got tired of working on the back bumper and switched to trying to fix the vehicle's electrical system problems.  I discovered that nothing much electrical turned on with the Cat way back at the beginning of this discussion shortly after bringing it home in late February.

  You may also remember that my replacement engine harness from Ames / M&H Electric recently arrived here after a four month wait.  This wiring has no front lighting harness and I thought this basically rendered the harness useless for my purposes but might be good as a diagnostic tool.    As it turns out, I was correct.  

  I plugged it in at the firewall, applied some 13.8 VDC juice and everything from there back turned on.  Wonderful!! There's nothing wrong with the back half of the car wiring and I even get 12 volts at the purple starter wire when I turn the key to "Start".

  But then I started looking at the construction of the square connector wiring block at the firewall.  My original block had greasy dirt and dried dielectric grease on the plastic that obscured the fact that the wiring front and back of the car halves of the harness can be separated.   So, I popped the halves of the old connector apart, put the original front of car wiring harness half with the new M&H Electric back half and installed them both to the firewall body half and applied 13.8 volts DC again.  And things happened that had never happened before.  Mercifully, no smoke.  Yes, three non equal halves here equal a whole.

  I have headlights, tail lights, brake lights and a heater blower fan. The radio doesn't work because somebody cut off its connector but this will soon be fixed.  No turn signals or flashers but that could be a bad flasher. Overall, this is great progress.  I don't have much fuel in the tank and that needle doesn't move but I can now do some electrical experimentation with grounding on that gauge.

  I now suspect that the fusible link in the old harness was blown and I wish I had figured that out four months ago.   I have taken all of that harness apart, unwrapped it and separated out its wires - and cut out the probably bad fusible link. I have also short stubbed off all of the wires that are related to all aspects of the old TH400 transmission - spark advance, kickdown, etc. - these will not be needed with my modern LS 4L60E transmission.  This old harness can probably be reused but now that I've got the all new M&H harness working, I'm not sure what I will do with the old harness. 

 All in all, I can now start searching for suitable wires that will keep the powertrain control module (PCM) memory alive all the time and another wire that will boot the PCM up at ignition key on and that keeps it booted up even while cranking - booted up and alive during cranking is the tough part.   If this vehicle was equipped with the GM High Energy Ignition module - this was not available until 1975 - I would use that wire to boot up and operate the PCM at all times with the key on.  Its the removal of the ignition key on PCM boot power (not the full time PCM memory keep alive power) that is the normal method of stopping a modern GM LS engine-equipped vehicle. I used an American Auto Wire "Classic Update" wiring harness in my El Camino and it had more direct support for PCM-equipped vehicles. 

I have learned a lot today.

Rick

  

  

5 hours ago, B52bombardier1 said:

Hello,

  I got tired of working on the back bumper and switched to trying to fix the vehicle's electrical system problems.  I discovered that nothing much electrical turned on with the Cat way back at the beginning of this discussion shortly after bringing it home in late February.

  You may also remember that my replacement engine harness from Ames / M&H Electric recently arrived here after a four month wait.  This wiring has no front lighting harness and I thought this basically rendered the harness useless for my purposes but might be good as a diagnostic tool.    As it turns out, I was correct.  

  I plugged it in at the firewall, applied some 13.8 VDC juice and everything from there back turned on.  Wonderful!! There's nothing wrong with the back half of the car wiring and I even get 12 volts at the purple starter wire when I turn the key to "Start".

  But then I started looking at the construction of the square connector wiring block at the firewall.  My original block had greasy dirt and dried dielectric grease on the plastic that obscured the fact that the wiring front and back of the car halves of the harness can be separated.   So, I popped the halves of the old connector apart, put the original front of car wiring harness half with the new M&H Electric back half and installed them both to the firewall body half and applied 13.8 volts DC again.  And things happened that had never happened before.  Mercifully, no smoke.  Yes, three non equal halves here equal a whole.

  I have headlights, tail lights, brake lights and a heater blower fan. The radio doesn't work because somebody cut off its connector but this will soon be fixed.  No turn signals or flashers but that could be a bad flasher. Overall, this is great progress.  I don't have much fuel in the tank and that needle doesn't move but I can now do some electrical experimentation with grounding on that gauge.

  I now suspect that the fusible link in the old harness was blown and I wish I had figured that out four months ago.   I have taken all of that harness apart, unwrapped it and separated out its wires - and cut out the probably bad fusible link. I have also short stubbed off all of the wires that are related to all aspects of the old TH400 transmission - spark advance, kickdown, etc. - these will not be needed with my modern LS 4L60E transmission.  This old harness can probably be reused but now that I've got the all new M&H harness working, I'm not sure what I will do with the old harness. 

 All in all, I can now start searching for suitable wires that will keep the powertrain control module (PCM) memory alive all the time and another wire that will boot the PCM up at ignition key on and that keeps it booted up even while cranking - booted up and alive during cranking is the tough part.   If this vehicle was equipped with the GM High Energy Ignition module - this was not available until 1975 - I would use that wire to boot up and operate the PCM at all times with the key on.  Its the removal of the ignition key on PCM boot power (not the full time PCM memory keep alive power) that is the normal method of stopping a modern GM LS engine-equipped vehicle. I used an American Auto Wire "Classic Update" wiring harness in my El Camino and it had more direct support for PCM-equipped vehicles. 

I have learned a lot today.

Rick

  

  

Sounds like you are having fun, you are doing something similar to what i did with my engine harness, i dissected mine and installed a bunch of relays for head lights, ignition and starter so that the main power don't have to go through the bulk head connector and the ignition switch, but you also have to deal with the fuel injection.

Do you have a good schematic of the stock car? i found that very helpful on mine.

Sounds like you are making good progress, good job.

Hello Andy,

  I have a good, full color, plastic laminated, 11 x17 wiring diagram that seems to have most of the wire colors correctly done.  I also have the green, two volume Pontiac Service Manual (I think that's the name) that helped me decode the matrix of wires at the firewall connector.  Those two books - together, thick as a ream of paper - cover all electrical things very well.  They are also extremely detailed in their knowledge of all things related to disk brakes.

  Do they mention even one syllable about drum brakes?  No. I'm resorting to other GM books about drum brakes, You Tube videos and will take a lot of pictures of the items on each backing plate before taking anything apart. 

Rick

Hello,

  Lots of things have been happening.   Lots of work with the vehicle wiring and I'm now completely back to using the Cat's original wiring harness.  Good turn signals all around (needed a front lamp and a new flasher relay) but no hazard flashers - maybe a bad switch in the steering column. No dashboard lamps and the gas gauge doesn't work (no power on the brown wire) but the sending unit tested good before it got installed in the tank.  Good headlights all four, tail lights and brake lights but no reverse back up lamps.  The high beam headlights needed an all new foot switch to replace the original that was absolutely rust jammed tight and wouldn't yield even to light hammer blows still attached to the floor and hard hammer hits sitting on a concrete floor.  The new AC Delco switch made it all good. 

Still no power to the convertible top motor, not even at the location of the glass fuse but I get bizarre very low plus / minus voltage readings at the fuse when I actuate the the top up / down switch.  Somebody had replaced the original AGC 40 amp glass fuse with a similar length of aluminum rod stock.  I thought that was just an odd looking fuse before I pulled it out. So there's no telling what's up with this top wiring but the pump works to actuate the top when I apply power to the pump motor further back in the car. 

  All of the engine side of the original wiring now works well including the purple starter wire which I extended.  All wires have been labeled for function and multimeter tested.  I thought I would have a problem finding a minimum five amp (really, only need two amps to operate the PCM),12 volt circuit that stays hot while the ignition key is at "Start" to boot up and operate the LS engine PCM - this is NOT going to be a problem.  I have several to choose from and will likely pick a wire that was related to the now removed TH400 transmission - the kickdown circuit or the Transmission Controlled Spark advance circuit.

Strangely, laying on my back staring up into the dashboard area, I noticed that the AM radio has no speaker - nothin' but daylight through the speaker grill. I just lost all urgency at getting the radio running again.     

I think I'm gonna' have to get serious about removing the dash cover but no Pontiac or GM 1970 Factory Body, Assembly or Service Manuals cover this procedure.

I'm still trying to get the rear bumper off but quite a lot of the body trim pieces are removed.  I need to start looking at how to remove the front bumper.

  Most of today so far has been me snipping tin and test fitting my transmission tunnel patch.  Fortunately, thus far, I have no bloody skin lacerations from the jagged edges of sheet metal but the day is still young. I also have not set myself on fire from the cutoff wheel sparks.  As you can see, I will need to add some triangular sheet metal patches to cover the open wedges area where I had to make relief cuts to get it to lay flatter.  If I had an English Wheel and if I knew how to use it, these cuts would have been unnecessary because the Wheel could stretch the metal in the direction I need it to move - but this would have been a large stretch.  This patch needs to scoot a little more to the driver's side and upwards closer to the firewall - the driver's side rearward, left side edges also need some trimming.  Overall, I need to weight it down to get it to lay flatter as I study it for trimming and eventually putting in a few screws. I have a foot long piece of railroad rail that I occasionally use as an anvil that should do nicely as the weight.   

I will also crawl under the Cat with the patch weighed down and see how it looks from that viewpoint.

Rick

Hello Again,

  Here's a few more pictures after some trimming of the patch and with it weighted down.  The pix underneath are with me sitting low in the engine compartment aiming the camera to the rear of the vehicle.  These pictures lead me to see that I can cut away a little more metal in the floor along the right side / driver's side of the floor pan to clean up the bottom side appearance of the eventually repaired floor pan.

  I need to paint the sheet metal with rust converting primer and tack it down with maybe four self tapping screws. Then consider putting the motor and transmission back in for one final test fitting for transmission to floor clearance - I think I've got plenty now. I also need to create and weld in the supplemental triangular or maybe rectangular patch pieces to cover up and strengthen the opened up areas in the patch that happened where I put in the relief cuts.

   Then the patch will get a lot more self tapping screws to pull the edges together in the passenger compartment and underneath. Automotive construction adhesive will supplement the screws for strength at the edges to be followed with seam sealer, if necessary.  And lastly, some fresh sprayed on rubber undercoating for noise abatement. I still have some of the aluminized adhesive rubber that I will apply when its all said and done.

Rick

Hello,

   Still getting up early in the morning before work to do a little work but Hurricane Francine has made things a little damp around here this week.

  I have tack welded two small pieces of steel to maintain that upward slope angle on the floor tunnel panel at the forward end.  This prevents that end of the panel from flopping around too much.   Its firm but if I needed it to move a little, it would not be tough to cut those welds.  At this point, I'm very close to the shape this panel needs to be but it won't be fixed into place without one more test fit of the engine and transmission.

 I was able to cut and bend the two copper colored, rectangular pieces in the pictures below this morning.  These will eventually be welded in to cover up the open areas that were created by my relief cuts but as with the small braces noted above, this will wait until a final test fit of the engine and trans combo.

The copper color is "weld thru" primer paint.

Rick