95naSTA's Bonneville Progression

[Killiger2009]

swank kitchen and bath

[95naSTA]

Thanks guys,

I also ordered a 0 mile F40 trans.

[markpetersonii]

Nice place and nice choice for a tranny. I can't say as I've heard much bad about it.

[[ChaosweaveR]]

Thanks guys,

I also ordered a 0 mile F40 trans.

This thread just got even more interesting...

You've done the impossible.

[becksmerc]

you sir are a master

[Twenty]

[95naSTA]

So.. I finally made some progress!

I finally finally finally got the 6-speed parts I ordered from GMPD. I was on travel when they came and UPS wouldn't hold the boxes till I came back.. So, they got shipped the boxes back to GMPD then I had to have them re-ship to me. It was free though.. I also came across an oil filter adapter for a lesabre that looks like it should clear the inner CV tulip. The intermediate shaft puts that tulip night next to the oil filter adapter.

I also found/bought a used intermediate shaft for the transmission (part that replaces where the 60-e's tail shaft would run) for $60 shipped. The cheapest I found new was 180+ shipping. I've got a few ideas on how I want to mount the shaft's bracket this to the block.. All involve welding obviously but I have some water jetting done.

The diagram for shaft:

Mounting the clutch pedal and possible firewall modifications are the one of the biggest grey areas with the swap. So, I pulled the dash today.. and took pics of almost every single bolt/screw for when it goes back in. Initially, it looked like it was going to be really rough getting the pedal to fit. A bunch of wiring was in the way and it was coming out of the firewall more or less where the upper portion of the clutch pedal needed to go. But, once I unbolted the plastic bulkhead that the wiring came through, and got rid of the other plastic holding it in place, things got a whole lot easier.

I can easily move the wiring out of the way, utilize the large hole the bulkhead plastic went through for the clutch master and line, and make a new firewall section that bolts up, seals everything up, mounts the master, and keeps the wiring out of the way.

No dash

Pedal propped in place (going to cut the brake pedal eventually)

Plastic bulkhead pass through

Hole exposed and wiring moved partially out of the way

Hard to tell but I can easily mount the pedal bracket to the firewall

Clutch master coming through the firewall with plenty of space for the lines to the hydraulic throw out bearing and the reservoir.

[AndrewVolpe]

u got a 6 speed? holy shit. any expectations on how fast this thing is supposed to be??

[95naSTA]

At this power level (sub 250whp) a decent manual trans should help it get down the 1/4 quicker. For high hp builds, auto is always better. That said, I want a 13.9 out of the car with no boost/no2, and this should help.. not to mention make it a lot more fun to drive.

Short answer, this car will never really be fast. But, that's fine by me.

The Cobalt jack shaft came in and it fits nicely in the trans:

[95naSTA]

The shifter got mounted today and the cables are through the firewall.

What needed to happen:

The driver’s side rear air duct needed to be cut to make room for the shifter’s front left mounting point.

The shifter’s front right mounting point got cut off along with a small portion of the right side of the assembly

The reverse lock mechanism had to go.

The front mounting point uses a bolt as a stud for the front mounting point. The bolt comes through the unibody from the exhaust tunnel and is secured by a nut.

The rear mounting points bolt to a bracket made from angle iron that’s bolted to the unibody rail.

I found a spot on the firewall that should work with the transmission’s shifter bracket and used a hole saw for the hole. The grommet that came with the shift cables fits in there nicely.

And I also put the shift selector in OD before I disconnected it. I’ll want the PCM to think it’s in drive all the time but I’ll need to wire up a shift interlock button to get the key out.

I plan on just using aluminum tape to seal up that rear air duct and I’ll make a shift bezel and boot once everything else is finished.

[Twenty]

I would just feel overwhelmingly lost looking at all that in front of me.

[[ChaosweaveR]]

STILL my favorite 3800 build on here. But Warshrike's comes a close second.

But soon it'll be even! Both a front and rear wheel drive L36 with six speed manuals!

[Young gun]

So when you gonna come up and help me do a f40 with a N body??

[95naSTA]

I would just feel overwhelmingly lost looking at all that in front of me.

Having the dash out looks crappier than it really is. It took maybe an hour and a half and that's with taking a picture of every single bolt/nut/screw, in order, for when it goes back in.

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STILL my favorite 3800 build on here. But Warshrike's comes a close second.

But soon it'll be even! Both a front and rear wheel drive L36 with six speed manuals!

Thanks!

So when you gonna come up and help me do a f40 with a N body??

There's already a full guide on that swap! It should be cake! lol.

I've been thinking about that group of wires I pushed aside to make room for the clutch pedal assembly. The trans selector switch and ABS module wires run through there IIRC. So, I'll probably be pulling those two items into the cabin to eliminate the wiring through the new firewall patch panel.

I also have a lead on a spare 3800 block locally so I can mock up the trans jack shaft to engine block bracket. I could kick myself for throwing out 3 blocks 6 months ago..

[Young gun]

There's already a full guide on that swap! It should be cake! lol.

I also have a lead on a spare 3800 block locally so I can mock up the trans jack shaft to engine block bracket. I could kick myself for throwing out 3 blocks 6 months ago..

That blows! Did you atleast scrap the block for some cash?

[95naSTA]

Smh.. I didn't. This was when I was still sort of living with my parents and it had to go asap. Ahh well, hindsight is always 20/20.

[95naSTA]

Work has me away from home quite a bit but I'm still making some progress.

Since the last post I:

-Picked up a spare block a few weeks ago for mocking the jack shaft bracket up

-Make a stopper for the clutch pedal as it's sprung up. Before the spring pulled the plastic master cylinder rod end into the pedal bracket. This stopper will make it easier to figure out how far away the MC needs to be placed in relation to the pedal.

-Started working on pulling the trans/CC/abs wires into the cabin through the hole I'm using for the clutch pedal

-Started making the plate that will replace the original wire pass through and mount the MC/clutch pedal assembly

Pulling the wires into the cabin requires separating the wires out of this gooped up bundle that comes through the firewall. This is a huge PITA. The pic below is what I had to deal with..

I powered through and freed all those wires from that gobbledegook. All 3 trans connectors and 1 cruise control connector are through the firewall and free up to the upper dash excluding 2 wires. Due to the amount of wires this involved un and repinning a lot of the wires at the connecter to untangle them and get them together. I started to pull the ABS module through and it wasn't going to work without a ton of un/repinning. So, I saved that for next time.

Bringing this guy in the cabin will be funnn.

I also started to make the plate that'll replace the wire pass through and mount the clutch pedal/MC. I'll have to make this a 2 part plate since there's no bulkhead connector at the firewall.

That extra area that's not cut off will be for clutch pedal mounting. This area will be trimmed but it's necessary so that I can bolt the assembly through this plate and through the firewall.

[95naSTA]

After a few days of messing around with it, I'm happy with the mounted location of the clutch pedal. It took a bit of trial and error to get it where I want it location and travel wise. The plate you'll see in the pics below is the prototype for all intensive purposes. It'll be revisited with new metal and only the holes necessary. A second plate will also close the top of the slot.

The second try..

By now I had already figured out I needed to grind out the pedal bracket in the MC rod end area to gain rebound travel of the pedal. The floor board was limiting downward travel with the pedal bracket sitting square against the firewall. With the extra rebound travel and spacing the bracket off the firewall, the overall travel was much better. The top of the pedal bracket was also interfering with the dash support and the pedal needed to be moved outboard.

Close, but not quite.

The third try involved me moving all three pedal bracket mounting holes upward. This gave me some more interference with the dash support in the same location as before. The fourth try was just moving the upper outer stud hole, which seemed to be too far inboard. Problem is, that put the hole in the slot for sliding the plate up around the wires. So, I riveted in a piece of metal to extend that area into that slot. Which ended up here:

Closer but the pedal was still clocked..

The last and final try included slotting the top inner hole on the clutch pedal bracket it's self and undoing one of the aforementioned rivets so the pedal could be clocked. The upper inner hole in the plate was at it's max left position before it ended up in the OEM void through the firewall. So, I slotted the bracket so I could keep the rigidity of bolting through both the new plate and firewall. I marked the two inner bolt holes so I knew where the outer hole should be in relation once bolted up.

There it is. All lined up.

And plate v1.x in all it's glory. This poor guy got abused.

Next step is mounting the master cylinder which will tell me where I can run the wires. Then a final version of the 2 part plate.

Oh and unpinning that ABS module connector might not happen. I cannot figure out how to unpin it without messing it up.

[Young gun]

Dat brake pedal

[95naSTA]

Plate V 2.0.

The master has full stroke and I tacked a stopper in place to limit pedal travel down.

The master isn't giving me much room for slipping the wiring by safely. So, I'm looking at enlarging the firewall hole up and outboard toward the hole for the hood latch. I'm also realizing that bringing the ABS module in the cabin will actually increase the number of wires going through the firewall. Most of the wires go the the abs block and some to the fuses.. So it looks like it's staying.

I started figuring out the wiring routing but I ran out of time for today.

[95naSTA]

Hurricane Sandy Progress. (having a garage FTW)

I cut a hole in the firewall and trimmed the top outboard part of the mounting plate so that they can make up an oval slot for wire routing.

Here's everything bolted up with the MC installed:

And here's a rubber grommet in place with the OEM hood latch grommet trimmed to fit it. In the case of the relocated wiring, a new, tighter, grommet will be used. This whole plate area will also have sealer once finalized.

Not shown in the pics is another bolt hole at the top of the plate. So, there will be 3 bolts surrounding the clutch pedal bracket that also go through the firewall. The only thing really left to do with this is fix some of the wiring, mess with the MC hole a little more, and weld the pedal stopper solid.

Other than that, next on the agenda is making the jack shaft to block mounting bracket.

[Ringo64]

OOOH I missed some progress!!

Nice good work! I know how it feels, I have both my cars in the garage now

[95naSTA]

Sandy gave me another day off so I got to work.

With no gas for the MIG or epoxy lined shrink tubing, I decided to start mocking up the jack shaft mount.

Most people flip the aluminum mount 90* or cut it. I decided to remove it, flip it, and make an adapter plate. The top two jack shaft mount bolt holes will be drilled/taped/helicoiled into the adapter and the bottom will have a nut and bolt. The four mounting points include 3 on the block and one on the S3 oil pan. A gusset or two may be added depending on the thickness of the metal.

The mock up:

And I finally got around to sealing up the HVAC duct which allowed me to bolt up the shifter for good.

[valid]

You are my hero.

[Twenty]

You are my hero.

I maintain this is the best example of one of these Bonnevilles.