The Bulldog.

[Piece-it pete]

King of Fail!

But at least minor. Tried the exhaust again. I put a new ring on the manifold/downpipe connection, it was real tight. I proceeded to crossthread one of the bolts so I had to pull it apart to get it right. Put it back together, start connecting the other end, lying on my back my eyes focus on - the ring. It must've fallen off when I pulled the ^$#% thing apart to fix the threads. Reinstalled but it's actually louder than it was.

It needs a new cat (I can kinda see through the current one but also see some broken stuff) so I'll pick up a cat and take it in and say: make it quiet. Unnatural I know but I don't see how I can screw that up lol.

Fail 2. New felpro permadry valve cover gasket. They are really nice. No issues with the cover, but broke a vac nipple on the egr solenoid. Sidenote: for the solenoid Autozone quoted $133 in person, OReillys quoted $59 online, Advance quoted $16.99 on the phone.

Fail 3 & 4. Ran most of the new stereo wiring. 3 feet short on speaker wire. Forgot amp trigger wire.

Plus side I see where the 4 x 10 woofers go behind the seat. There's a little cubbyhole on both sides covered by carpet. The 4 x 6 plates I'm putting in the dash are midrange at best, 75/80 hz low end. I'll watch at the junkyards and maybe end up with a little bass.

And at least the clutch is nice and smooth.

Pete

[Piece-it pete]

Got the back seat speaker trim bits.

Took it on the freeway for the first time since the clutch job and darn it! Driveshaft vibration over 50 mph. Apparently it didn't ken to being beat on with a BFH. Pulled a shaft out of the JY, it'll go in shortly.

Pete

[purplebomb302]

When I did mine I just got a vibration letting off the gas after 40. The joints were so bad before I didn't care about the vibration since it was fixed.

[Piece-it pete]

Woohoo! Slightly beatup JL A4300 amp. Kenwood 4 x 10s for the back, Infinity kappa for the front. Spicer life nongreasable ujoints, JY driveshaft, new motor mounts. Exhaust being fixed Saturday.

Life being good

Pete

[Piece-it pete]

Exhaust fixed but man it's a noisy thing overall. New ujoints on Saturday, hopefully the stereo will be in by then. I've already got the rear speaks in and most of the wiring. I'm hoping to use the rears as 40/50-100 hz higher range subs and send 100+ to the fronts. I'll play with it and post.

Pete

[packman]

I foresee a "Screw This, I'm Getting a SBC" thread in the not-so-distant future.


Packman

[purplebomb302]

Wether it was the iron duke, first gen 2.2 or second gen 2.2, those things were noisy no matter how well put together the exhaust is.

[Piece-it pete]

Clattery, tapping, gear noise, rattley, 'Buzzy the Happy Truck'

Engine swap, only if I end up really fixing it up and it becomes a toy. Otherwise as a commuter I really want the 2.5.

Radio partial fail. List:

Kenwood Excelon something or the other headunit
JL Audio a4300 amp
Infinity Kappa 4x6 plates front
Kenwood KFC-415C 4x10s rear
10 gauge power and ground
12 ga speaker wire

I tacked it all in so it is operating, what I found:

The Kenwood 4 x 10s don't really do it. I really didn't expect them to do that much. I've got them running around 120hz and down. Their stated low end is 40 hz but I think it's really more like 55-60 in the teenie space they have in the back. My only 'easy' possible upgrade is to go Memphis Audio's 15-PRX4102 but they are $120 vs the Kenwoods $50 and I doubt I'd pick up that much.

BUT they're still a little better than not having them at all and I may hear an improvement as they break in. The 4 x 6 Kappa plates in the dash sound really nice but don't have anything below 100 hz for sure.

So a slight improvement in mid and upper bass and all I had to do was buy rear speakers, buy the factory speaker cover/mounts at the junkyard, install them, buy a 4 channel amp (had a two channel on the shelf), and run extra wiring Barely to barely plus worth it. But it's done.

The dash speakers, can't even mount them mirror imaged on the dash. The driver's side has to be mounted woofer outwards (gauge pod in the way) and pass side has to be mounted tweeter out (iirc it was the defrost duct in the way? Glovebox?)

The slot for the headunit is quite shallow, so with the better quality RCA cables I bought, the actual plugs are too long and so the radio will not slide all the way in and seat, by an inch say. I've got the 90 degree adapters on order already. Next time (??) I'd get the cables with one end already 90.

So the dash is ripped apart with the radio half out, there's wires running over the floor, the amp is flopping around behind the seat in a mess of wires, half the trim is off & the seatbelt is disconnected on the pass side, and I'm pretty happy Still way better than what was in there.

Pete

[Piece-it pete]

Got the back seat speaker trim bits.

Took it on the freeway for the first time since the clutch job and darn it! Driveshaft vibration over 50 mph. Apparently it didn't ken to being beat on with a BFH. Pulled a shaft out of the JY, it'll go in shortly.

Pete

'Shortly' means 3 or 4 weeks

Changed the ujoints, just have to swap the shaft into the truck. Spicer 5-795X were correct. Man are they little things of beauty, and the caps seal so tight when you press them in they give resistance almost like you've screwed the needle bearings up and are smashing them if you know what I mean

Pete

[Piece-it pete]

Passed her *LAST* echeck! Goodbye craptacular EGR.

Another issue though of course. Swapped the driveshaft and have the exact same vibration. Starts in the high 50s, I don't dare take it up past 60 mph.

To recap, it did not do this before I changed the clutch kit / ujoints.

Any ideas?

Pete

[sly]

put the rear axle on jack stands... block off the front tires... run it and see if you can replicate the vibration. If not, it's a wheel/tire.

[Piece-it pete]

The vibration appears to be in front of the clutch, so I either a) damaged the crank busting the pilot out (unlikely) b) didn't install/tighten the flywheel bolts properly on reinstall or c) busted a (probably weak already known problem) motor mount. I'll be doing the front suspension 'soon' so I'll wait and change the mounts then (you have to pull the LCA anyway) and take it from there.

Got the stereo installed and not just sitting in the hole in the dash Even with the 90 degree rca plugs it was still hitting the duct in the back. I removed a small heat sink from the back of the head unit (I'm only using it as a preamp) and forced it in. Looks WAY better.

Pete