Golden Goddess heart surgery

[Encswsm]

If your car has been out of the system for more then 10 years, you have to bring it to a theft inspector, once they run the numbers, you take it to the dmv, then you get a rejection of title, and some paperwork, then you get a bonded title, and 3 years later you get a blue title. It’s a real pain in the a$$, but it’s the only good way I’ve found.

they dont even give a title here in Alabama for cars older than 30 years.

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

Next step, electronic ignition and carb dialing in.

A while back I had a Mallory unilite in it and it crapped out, so I tried building an hei setup. It didn’t work, and I think it’s because I messed up on wiring. However screw all that, I’m going with factory ignition. The module is from Mancini racing, I have one on my Lil red express truck, it works great so I bought another for this one. And my distributor is from Rick Ehrenberg, it feels like a pretty solid well built unit.

The car runs pretty good, but there’s a lot of strong compelling arguments for vacuum advance, and I definitely see the need for it, hopefully it works lol. The biggest question is have we settled the port vs manifold vacuum?

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

And we already have a problem. The wiring harness won’t push onto the module

 

[5.7 hemi]

Seems like everything you do on this car, fights you all the way through.

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

Yes, someone did something wrong with to this cars soul and it has a grudge. I’ve given it a new, good life. I’ve given it a beautiful name. I thank her when I get home after driving it .


The shape of the connector is wrong. I can get the box to work on lil red, so a little sanding I think I got it

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

The wiring is very crude right now, but it’s temporary until I know it works

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

I was close. It would kinda try to run, so I advanced the distributor a bunch, and it tried harder, so I moved all the wires over one to really advance it, I kept advancing and advancing. Then nothing happened.

I have the ignition wire to the ballast resistor kinda shoved in, I think it came loose. I bought a package of double fork terminals at Oreillys the other day to use, and they apparently ran away. So tomorrow I’ll buy another package and we’ll see if we can get it to run.

As usual, till next time!

 

[MarPar]

I was close. It would kinda try to run, so I advanced the distributor a bunch, and it tried harder, so I moved all the wires over one to really advance it, I kept advancing and advancing. Then nothing happened.

I have the ignition wire to the ballast resistor kinda shoved in, I think it came loose. I bought a package of double fork terminals at Oreillys the other day to use, and they apparently ran away. So tomorrow I’ll buy another package and we’ll see if we can get it to run.

As usual, till next time!

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

View attachment 1628424

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

You know how long I looked for these damn things last night, and when I got home for lunch I dang near stepped on them getting out of the car

 

[5.7 hemi]

Been there, done that!

 

[MarPar]

You know how long I looked for these damn things last night, and when I got home for lunch I dang near stepped on them getting out of the car

View attachment 1628435

It only gets worse as you get older, young gun.

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

Added one of these, and kept advancing the distributor until I had ignition. Now the “fun” begins

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

Oooh she’s a happy girl now. At idle it jumps around 13-13.8 afr. Very wide open borderline illegal throttle I don’t think she’s getting lean. Cruising shes around 12

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

I will now cross ignition/carb tuning off the list. The edelbrock avs2 is an amazing carburetor, I haven’t touched any of the jets, or rods, or springs, I just have made adjustments to the idle air screws, and idle, and she’ll shift at 5k rpm and pull all the way to 100 without any thought, it’s just how far do you want it take it! And when you want to not brake the and be a good member of society she’ll drive around at 20-30 like a responsible adult.

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

Drove the car to church today. Ignition/carb wise I think it’s good. Around town it’s cruising at a 13:1 afr, doesn’t ping or anything. Driving “highway” speeds it kinda jumps in the high 11s-low 12s, and it’ll hold whatever speed you want like it has cruise control, and even with my .71 or .73 od gear (I can’t remember) it will still pull until you decide to let off, without any pinging or hesitation.

The biggest issues it has:

1. Yes I know, no gas gauge, I’m working on it!

2. The people that did the alignment were drool buckets and probably zeroed or just went to factory garbage specs, partially my fault didn’t know better. It pulls to the left slightly, it kinda wonders a bit. I have qa1 tubular control arms to install and I now know of a good shop, got a plan there.

3rd problem, and this is the big problem, 55-85 it vibrates so bad. I know the issue, but I’m clueless how to fix. Back end is raised 2”, so pretty sure our pinion angle is way off. What do I measure, and what do I correct oh great wise ones?

Other than that, it’s such a great car to drive!

 

[Black_Sheep]

There's a thread in the driveline forum. Pinion angle isn't as complicated as some people make it out to be.

Remove driveshaft
Using an angle finder, measure vertically on the end of the tailshaft. For simplicity, let's say it's 0 degrees or straight up and down.
Using an angle finder, measure vertically on the diff yoke. For simplicity, let's say it's 0 degrees or straight up and down.

If both angles match, the centerlines of the trans output shaft and diff pinion are parallel on the horizontal plane. You don't want that because under power the pinion tries to "climb the ring gear" and changes the pinion angle. Opinions will vary as to what the correct pinion angle is. I'm no expert but I can tell you that 4 degrees nose down works for the GTX using 3800# SS springs and an adjustable pinion snubber set a couple inches from the floor. I run my '58 Apache at 2 degrees nose down.

While the driveshaft is out it wouldn't hurt to have a driveline shop check the driveshaft balance, runout and phasing. Any one of those things will create an issue at the road speed you mentioned.

Post up your measurements...

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

Thanks @Black_Sheep , I was also talking to hawkrod, with both of y’alls help should be able to get this figured out

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

I forgot to mention the drive shaft is new. Car came with one but it was obviously bent

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

@HawkRod @Black_Sheep , and anyone else that knows better

Ok, my cheap amazon angle finder came in, probably not the best one to use but here’s the numbers. If I’m not mistaken engine is is down 1.45, and my rear is up 6.4 degrees. I also found at one point I put shims under the rear, and doing research they’re 2 degrees, I must have misread something 7 years ago and thought it needed to go up,
Idk