Old guy44

So where do I find a Hanson mdpe nut? It looks like ABS plastic and PVC glue wont work!

Looks like your machine is made for old goats like us that can't chew gum and walk. My machine is so old they don't make it anymore. Got it out of the garage of a guy moving out of state that did not want to move it.  Temp only works with the pedal, it has three heat settings. 5A, 35A, and 70A minimum but you can't get by without the pedal, but I bought it really cheap!

I did make a combination coolant pressure and overflow tank for the L83 engine that is in the Indian out of 4 in sq aluminum tubing with an .080 wall. Some of the welds look really good but it took me as long to seal up all the pinhole leaks as it did to make the tank.

When I get past all the current projects and actually have some time for myself I think I will go to a welding school near me and take an aluminum class. Maybe when I get the hip replacement because I can sit at a welding table, don't need to stand.

oh and I am not using my pedal !! Same  as you ! Too much to work at once !!!

How are you getting by without it? You must have a more sophisticated unit than my old dinosaur. Mine, the pedal starts the arc. Thats cheating!!

Temp looks good welds are getting straighter flowing even across the joint I'm impressed. 

I have been welding torch stick and mig for years but tig threw me for a curve. giving me a temperature pedal means I need to think about three things now and my brain hasn't managed to do that consistently yet.

You are a better man than I  

Well she is going to school in central Oregon where it does snow but definately not to the point of blizzard. The bronco has a true 4WD with M@S tires so she should never find herself in trouble. I did chuck the automatic locking hubs which never did work reliably so she will need to manually lock the hubs but you can't have everything.

Wrongway, you are right, but you get me started on German engineering and my blood boils. I will do my best to sleep it off.

Actually the Bronco is turning out to be a really nice car. As stated it has been parked in the desert for years. However it only has 68 and change on the clock, so it is a 68,000 mile used car. the interior almost looks as good as the day it left the showroom. It is an Eddie Bauer so it has the nice interior. The body had a couple of dings in it that were fixed with glazing putty and she chose a nice light mint green for the color. I have it drivable and have been putting miles on it to make sure that there are no demons lurking in the closet and the cruise control still works!

When was the last time you saw a 34 year old absolutely untampered engine compartment?

And yes she is truly grateful and quivering with excitement because she will be getting it when she comes home for Christmas vacation.

Basically one of the worst years of my life. It started with the 02 toyota that my youngest daughter used to own. I could not get the damn thging to pass smog. Another of the reasons not to live in the peoples republic of California. I spent the better part of a month learning that particular system. Toyota used it from 02 to 05 and it is a little wierd. In the meantime my granddaughter was away at college and her VW new beetle was sitting in front of the house, so my daughter asked her sister if she could use it while I was figuring out the Toyota. While driving it, it rotted out a plastic coolant fitting and ran out of coolant. Yes you read that right IT ROTTED OUT A PLASTIC COOLANT FITTING JUST AS IF IT WERE A CHEAP PIECE OF SHEET METAL. I may be as German as they come but I absolutely hate German cars. Well she is a sweet kid but sometimes she doesn't have the brains god give a screwdrtiver, she drove it until it burned a dime sized hole in the second piston from the right, don't know if that is #2 or #4. I finally found a low mileage used 5 cylinder and spent the next month putting it in. 

Took it out for a spin and the trans was acting wonky and was now leaking like a stuck pig from the front pump seal. I pulled the trans figuring that I could get a book and figure it out, I did my first automatic when I was about 13 and did it professionally for over 25 years so I figured how bad can it be? well lets go back to I hate German cars. The 09G is a variant of a front wheel drive trans that Toyota sends all over the world because it works and lasts. Well the Krauts got ahold of it and turned it into a giant POS. I have since learned that there are professional trans builders that build them for 8 hours a day that will not touch an 09G with a gun to their head. I started communicating with the guys on a new beetle website and commented that I was not sure that I wanted my granddaughter 1000 mi away from home depending on that German piece of junk for transportation. Here is the kicker! They all agreed in unison. Their comments were to get rid of it and get her a Toyota or Honda something reliable!

I explained the situatoion to my granddaughter and asked her what she wanted instead. To my amazement her response was a Bronco. Not  new one or one of the originals, I ain't in that kind of financial position but one of the ones in between. I found an 89 Bronco II with 68,000 miles on the clock. The guy that owned it drove it until it blew (literally) the transmission and then parked it in the desert. I figured that If i put a trans in it she would have a 68,000 mile car. I was partially right. I am 5 months into this thing have completely replaced the fuel system, the only original part is the tank. I have gone completely through the brake system, only original parts are the rear brake drums and the brake booster. Found a guy that was doing an 87 and had a rebuilt trans on his garage floor. For reasons I can't explain he had partially disassembeled it and it sat gathreing dust for years. I bought it, took it the rest of rthe way apart to clean out all the dust and grime confirmed that all the friction parets were new and put it in. Got it running and the "new" trans sort of works. 4th gear is a sometimes yes and sometimes no and when it does decide to shift imto 4th on an upgrade it will toggle back and forth from 3rd to 4th unless you manually lock it into 3rd gear. Fortunately I still have the unmolested original valve body which I can put a transgo shift kit in and ptobably fix that. I am attempting to reassemble the rest of it that I had to take apart in order to replace the headliner and paint it. I have parts shoved into every corner of my garage and spend three hours looking for partt and three minutet putting tomething on. You will notice that minutet it mitpelled. My key between a and d now print a t. welcome to my life. Need to quit now becaute of a malfunctioning keyboard. 

With you had not atked??

Forget the ice just drink up. Happy Birthday! and have a swig for me as I am forbidden to indulge

And it has a cup holder, or is that for a beer bottle?

What do your wife and daughter have against lawn art? It doesn't have to be an iron horse or an iron deer, what is wrong with an iron Indian?

LT installation. Alternator is still on the top. I had to add a PS pump because there is no application with an LT that does not also have electric steering. The only place for a steering pump was to eliminate the vacuum pump and install a PS pump in place of it. There was really no way to put the AC compressor on the top because it uses a 3/4 belt with a separate pulley just for the AC. Hood clearance is an issue, I had to dent the intake tube to clear the hood and the oil pan only has about a half inch clearance from the crossmember. 

I spent a lot of time working on getting the motor set up to go in and everything is where it is because there was no other place for it to fit. With all my years of steel fabrication it was easier for me to make the car fit the motor than the other way around. All the surgery to the crossmember is not an issue. While those crossmembers are noted for sagging I took a piece of 3/16 X 3 strap and welded it on the bottom of the crossmember right at the front edge to buttress it but with the mounts now at the top edge of the crossmember there is no engine load on the crossmember so the strap was probably overkill.

I believe that you stated you were using an LS out of a passenger car. The LS and LT are slightly different motors, I do not know if that difference applies to size or? I do know that depending on application the water pump moves from side to side. My engine came out of a truck so the pump is on the left side. I can't say how much room would open up with a right hand mounted water pump or what you could stuff in the hole. 

I suspect that there are a lot more choices for accessory locations available for the LS because they used it in a lot of different vehicles. All I can say is that everything needs to fit under the hood and this was my determining factor.

If you are replacing a slim jim (roto hydramatic) you most likely will need to do surgery on the hump with either. as far as the trans choice, in my opinion the drive ability with the six speed will be far nicer. I have the 4L in my truck and the gear spread in the 6L is so much nicer for drive ability. 

I purchased a small mig welder from Harbor freight that will run .025 and .030 wire that makes welding sheet metal much easier. I have a Lincoln DC 250 power source that will stick and mig but it is a pain to roll around and with a 15 foot cable and gun it is a little sketchy running thinner than .035 wire. Over the years I have probably run 300 pounds of .035 wire through it doing wrought iron fencing and railings and occasionally heaver stuff up to 1/4 inch But sheet metal work was tough, had to short arc all around the weld. When I got the smaller machine I was shocked at how much less heat  the .025 and .030 make doing sheet metal, you can run short beads and it goes much faster. I welded up the trans hump in about 2 hrs, slopped some body seam sealer top and bottom, done.

I am running regular gas with a Comp cam getting 17-18 MPG in town and can still scare the hell out of the occasional mustang with the LT

Looking at the engine bay in the Indian you would think that almost anything would fit. NOT SO! It was the hardest install I ever did. Of course all the other installs I had at my disposal my fathers auto repair and machine shop at my disposal. It took a lot of cutting and welding on both the body and frame to get it in. The trans hump was raised about 2-3 inches, more in the rear than in the front. the speedo was fixed by using a box made for the purpose. Don't remember where I got it, If I dig through my paperwork I can probably find it but it is a common item with all the ls installations being done.

If you want to see the install there is a thread in the how to section on L83 and 6L80 in a 1963 Catalina. Pretty detailed but there is more.

If you are asking because you want to duplicate it talk to me first so I can tell you how to stay out of trouble. also recommendations on wiring, camshaft, steering pump and a few other issues. It was a difficult install but worth every minute. Low gear on the trans is so low it works great with the 2.63? axle ratio and in 6th with the converter locked it is cruising at 80 MPH around 1750 RPM. Hands down the nicest driving  build I ever did

Kiwi,

Back to the Pontiac weather-stripping. FINALLY figured it out. Started at the left a pillar and adjusted the vent window to the pillar, had to move the bottom of the door in a bit to get the top of the window out slightly. adjusted the window to the vent window frame. Had do move the top of the frame back to get a tighter fit at the front of the window. adjusted the quarter window to the door window and put the top up. Found that the quarter window needed to fit the top and the window so spent the next hour walking that tightrope. Also figured out how to properly adjust the top. Put the top up and latched it then moved the top switch back and forth until the motor was spinning freely, no pressure in the cylinders up or down. When I loosened the pivot screws the pivot casting moved to the neutral position all by itself. To get the top rail off of the top of the door window I loosened up the pivot screws again and pushed up as hard as I could on the top rail before tightening and got enough clearance at the top of the door window. Repeated everything on the right and by gosh it was mostly OK. 

I suspect you are correct on using the right supplier because when I got everything fitting correctly I had to shim the weather-stripping at the top of the A pillar and build up the front of the first top weather-strip with black silicone paste because everything was just a little short. It is all together, no gaps anywhere, and I have cut the wind noise by about 80% at speed. 

Only problem is that the window felts that go on the body at the base of the windows, the kit they sent me is for a hardtop not a convertible. The door felts fit and work fine but the rear are completely wrong. It had to get in the one last shot! up side is that they screw in and I believe I can put them in without removing the window.