Lucy, Lucy, Lucy

[Last Indian]

10 hours ago, JUSTA6 said:

Hey buddy. Last I heard you were flooding?? Then you were painting your front end so I assumed the water is gone.  How's everything there? Heats been killer here.   Far as I know Frosty got this stuff from NPD.  Usually really good for parts and fairly close to us here in Mich.  Will see Frosty next week at the Widetracker meeting and talk about this more. Besides, he will need help manually putting his top up. hehehe  He's attending a parade on the 4th with the club, so I know the top will be down. 

Most of the folks that get flooded around here live in the valleys by the rivers. I’ve never been flooded, knock wood, even when we got 9” of rain in 10 hours before, so alls good!

Heat has been killer here as well. The Indian is at a stand still, half torn apart. Work asked me to come back for a while for some further development work on one of my patents. They want to augment that into an additional patent so no time to finish it yet.

I doubt that it’s the thread issue. Most likely either the threads are screwed up, which can be fixed. Or fitting wasn’t screwed in tight enough, or something might be cracked. If he hasn’t taken it apeart yet, I would put plastic in the area to protect things and run the rams to see where it’s leaking at to try and make a determination.

[Frosty]

Put the top up and down manually is not a problem right now, as you can see from the 4th of July thread.

I have the Motor City POCI show this coming weekend, so with any luck I will try to find my tap and die set (or find one/buy one) and try fixing this thing again the following weekend - before the club's annual picnic on the 22nd.

Working on it at night is out of the question given my work schedule and visiting my father after work nearly every day.

[TWO LANE BLACK TOP]

Here is some info on hydraulic fittings....Thought It might be of some help....

[Frosty]

Thanks for the tips Two Lane. I appreciate the info from Last Indian as well.

Hopefully the 21st will be decent weather and I can get back to it. I have a car show and club meeting on Saturday, and the kid's 19th birthday on Sunday. 

[Frosty]

I haven't posted in my Lucy thread in quite some time. I just purchased a rebuilt GM tilt floor shift column to replace the gacked up original column I somehow managed to pull of last fall. Weather has turned cold again, so I won't be installing it right away. I ordered it from Firebird Central. I understand that A-body and F-body columns are the same. I will validate that soon enough.

I will have to transfer my lock tumbler/key and turn signal/cruise control lever over to the new column. I had to purchase a Pontiac correct tilt lever for $12. No big. All wiring and electronics are suppose to be new. Heck I even got a Firebird Central 2022 calendar too.

 

[JUSTA6]

Looking for engine bearings the other day and somehow came across GM tilt steering columns for Justa bit over $400.00  (stock GM)  Might have been Jegs or Summit.  Was surprized at the price from what you quoted from IDIDIT.  Seems like you were over $1000.00   Jegs was showing a chrome tilt column for less than $300.   Sorry I don't recall the numbers and too lazy to search for the post.  

[Frosty]

IDIDIT quoted me $1100 for an A-body tilt floor shift column and it required an additional $300 install kit. Flaming River was about the same money, so no deal going with an all new column. Too bad, I would've like to have bought a Michigan made column from IDIDIT.

I did a lot of Google searches on rebuilt OEM GM columns after that and this was the cheapest I could find from what I considered a reputable seller. Actually Eckler's was cheaper but they were out of stock so Firebird Central was the next cheapest.

A lot of the cheaper columns are for hot rods or other cars. GM A-body and F-body seems to be a tad more expensive (probably because of demand?).

Edited March 24, 2022 by Frosty

[Fitzy]

Wow Frosty. It has taken me some time to read through all your dramas with Lucy. It sounds like she's been sitting around and just when you've tasked her with something, all hell broke loose and everything decided to go to lunch. You didn't really think you were just going to jump in, chuck the girlie in the back and tool around looking cool, did you?

I'm sure I speak for all of us here - we'd love to see some pics of the event once you're up & running. I've never had a convertible and I reckon it's all the associated plumbing & electrics that scare me. Mind you - nothing screams cool like being able to drop the roof. Good luck mate!

[Frosty]

I will admit the last 3 years with Lucy has been one of frustration. Crumby working weather since it rained almost every warm weather weekend, no garage to work in, part delays due to COVID, etc. It's been a pain.....

I think I'm close. If I can get the steering column in and everything under the dash cleaned up, tidy and put back together I'm good. The seats suffered some sort of discoloration while in the storage unit. So I will eventually need to get new seat covers but I will worry about that later. Right now I want to get it running and driving reliably after the whole heater core debacle.

Oh did I mention I have a power steering leak too? I just threw in some power steering Stop Leak. So I'm hope that will clear things up soon. Of course it helps if I start and run the damn thing too.

Edited March 25, 2022 by Frosty

[stratman]

[Frosty]

stratman - long time no speak! You wear your mullet well dude! How's Raven doing?

[stratman]

5 hours ago, Frosty said:

stratman - long time no speak! You wear your mullet well dude! How's Raven doing?

I can only dream of having enough hair for a mullet! 

Raven is ok except for the right side window that got shot out.

[JUSTA6]

12 hours ago, stratman said:

I can only dream of having enough hair for a mullet! 

Raven is ok except for the right side window that got shot out.

That's not something ya hear everyday.  What happened?

[Last Indian]

2 hours ago, JUSTA6 said:

That's not something ya hear everyday.  What happened?

Nor hope too!

[stratman]

13 hours ago, JUSTA6 said:

That's not something ya hear everyday.  What happened?

Well... 

I keep my TA (Raven) covered in my brother-in-law's barn. He keeps a .22 rifle in the barn (so he doesn't have to go back to the house) to shoot unwanted varmints that prey on the chickens. For safety, he keeps the ammo in a separate location than the rifle, in case a grandkid comes across it, it is always unloaded. Anyway... a couple of fat squirrels (he loves to cook up squirrel) were in a tree by the barn, He loaded up the rifle and had the safety on. He doesn't know exactly how it happened, but as he took the safety off, in the same motion, his finger must have slipped to the trigger at the same time, and it fired. He was bringing the gun around when it went off, and at that moment it was obviously pointed at Raven's passenger side window. You know in movies, when the good guys and the bad guys get into shoot outs in cars and the bullets make holes in the windows?... um, no. That window shattered into 20 million pieces all over the interior! I used a roll of quarters vacuuming out all that glass at the car wash, and I am still finding pieces.

My brother-in-law felt REALLY bad. I told him please don't worry about it, you let me take up space in your barn with Raven that you could use for farm stuff and you don't charge me a cent! I am so thankful it didn't go off pointed at your foot or, heaven forbid, someone else... the window can be replaced.

[JUSTA6]

Glad to hear your alright and it wasn't a freeway shooting or something.

[Frosty]

Raven's dead?  Nevermore? Kinda looks like the hood decal too! Perhaps that's why the decal is called the Phoenix! LOL! 

I'm with Justa. I'm glad you and the car is alright - save the broken glass.

Edited March 28, 2022 by Frosty

[stratman]

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

Raven's dead?  Nevermore? Kinda looks like the hood decal too! Perhaps that's why the decal is called the Phoenix! LOL! 

I'm with Justa. I'm glad you and the car is alright - save the broken glass.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

I will get it fixed eventually, but for now I will only get her out on warm sunny days.

[Frosty]

This past weekend was perfect wrenching weather. I got some time on Lucy. It took both days to get the steering column out. Getting to the transmission shift linkage cotter pin was a huge pain in the arse. Also disconnecting the steering shaft required jacking the car up and loosing the bolt from under the car with ever 3/8" extension I had at the garage. I am still not sure who the genius was who thought the foot plate at the firewall should include a grommet with a vacuum line and the speedometer cable going through it was a good idea.

Also, I will tell you know that the A-body and F-body columns are not identical!

I got to looking at the pin layouts between the new and old ignition switches between the columns. They are not the same, so I moved the old switch to the new column.

The shafts to engage the transmission linkage is different. The A-body is Z-shaped, the F-body is straight. Also the F-body has this metal footplate welded on that I am going to remove. I've started to drill out the spot welds.

I also moved the neutral safety switch from the old column to the new column along with the hazard flasher button. 

At this point I need to rent a special tool to remove the face plates on both columns to get to the turn signal lever. I need to move the original cruise control/turn signal lever and move it to the new column. That is a $20 rental at Autozone.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Frosty

[Fitzy]

I am so glad you're doing that and not me - sounds like a never ending nightmare. Good luck!

[64 kiwi boni]

Nothing is easy aye Frosty!!... your doing a good job and at the end of it all 

you know you can turn your car safely around corners 

AND isn't it fun being able to work in your new "shop" "FROSTY'S GARAGE MAX FUN" 

i can see lots of stuff that needs to be put on the wall and clear that work space !! 

[Frosty]

It's fun aright Kiwi. I'm not complaining about having a dry cozy place to work. I am enjoying working in the garage. I still have a few more signs to hang up as well.

I JUSTA wish it would warm up some more, like this past weekend Today it is suppose to snow (lake effect off Lake Huron) and then later this week I will have to mow my lawn! That JUSTA ain't right!  Snow and mow? 

[Fitzy]

That's a snow job.

[Frosty]

It's no mow snow job Fitzy, technically speaking.....

I spent yesterday wasting almost 4 hours getting two fricking retaining clips off two different steering columns. I started by buying a $20 steering column lock plate removal tool. Getting the lock plate off the new tilt column - no problem. It took nearly an hour to get the retaining clip off.

Remember those mucked up threads on the old column? Guess what threads into those threads? Yup the steering column lock plate removal tool. There are only 2 good threads left at the beginning, so the tool kept flying off into me under too much pressure. That was fun! Getting the retaining clip off the old column - what a royal pain in the ass. However I prevailed after well over 2 hours working on it. I finally got it off!

Beer time....or at least in my dreams!

I was able loosen and slid out the turn signal cancel cam assembly so I can remove the turn signal/cruise control lever and wiring. Right now I am swearing trying to get the ignition cylinder lock assembly out. Turns out I have the same problem this guy has in the video.....and similar cussing problem too. Therefore I need to punch a similar hole on my column in order to get to the cylinder lock retainer spring. In fact, the service manual talks about this casting flash....so why is it there????? Poor casting quality? Probably.

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by Frosty

[Frosty]

Here are the gacked threads on the old column before I remove the plate. Yeah JUSTA - this is an epic fail on my part!

Here is the new column, protected by painters tape to prevent me from scratching the paint any further (yes I did scratch it already - dang it!). See how nice and pretty those threads are?

Retainng plate and clip is FINALLY off the old column! What a struggle! Cruise control turn signal is still in place. I still have to slide off the black collar and the spring behind it.

I tried to remove and slid out the turn signal and it's wiring. No dice. I have dig further.

I removed the collar, pressure spring, removed the 3 screws hold the cancel turn signal cam assembly and slid the whole thing as forward as possible in order to get the turn signal out and get access to the release spring for the cylinder lock assembly.