John Bzdel's

1988 Monte Carlo SS

LS1/T56 Change-over page

May 2001 Project Updates

05/01/01  Final T56 shifter hole trimming & inner boot fit-up

I tried fitting up the F-body T56 inner shifter boot over the shifter hole and it really didn't fit-up as well as I would have liked due to the interference created by trying to keep the passenger side front nutplate for the console shifter bracket so that I could properly locate the console.  The boot also has a ridge on it designed to fit inside of the hole edge which meant that the hole I cut need minor reshaping for ideal fitment.  The original round 4" hole that I started with is now completely gone!  The sides are all basically perpendicular now with one left rear corner slightly rounded behind the reverse solenoid.

• I cut the front part of the 200R4 console shifter bracket off of the floor shifter (hated to do it, but oh well!) so that I could correctly locate the front of the console without constructing another bracket.  This view shows the shifter bracket still attached to the shifter.
• Here is the cut off portion of the front console bracket test fitted to the passenger side nutplate held down with a bolt.  You can see that the driver side of the bracket sits over the actual hole.  To remedy this I bent this side of the bracket roughly 180 degrees backwards so that it can be used in front of the inner boot and re-attached to the metal floor.  I will use a reference measurement of 21" hole to hole from the rear console mounting bracket to permanently attach this bracket later.
• I finally had to cut out the passenger side nutplate to get the proper fitment of the F-body inner shifter boot.  Here is a top view of the final hole and a side view.  I also had to re-bend and contour the boot to match the shape of the floor surrounding the shifter hole.
• These pictures show the top view of the boot set in place and re-contoured and a side view.  All that is required now is the final hole drilling and attachment of the inner boot!

On to the clutch pedal for final fabrication, fit-up and installation next.

05/02/01  Finalize clutch pedal proto-type

I went right to work on finalizing the clutch pedal arm tonight once again using the bench-top clutch fixture as a reference tool.

• I had to trial fit a 3/4" outside diameter metal tube through the top of the pedal arm at the pivot point to get the correct distance from the brake pedal bracket assembly using the new arm that I had fabricated.  Once established I tack welded it and drilled up the inside of the tube to 0.630" to house the flanged brass bushings that the assembly would ride on.  These bushings require a minimum 0.628" clearance. 
• This picture compares my brass bushing with the factory plastic bushing and inner metal sleeve which rides inside of the clutch & brake arm OEM 7/8" diameter actuation tube.  The plastic creates too much side to side play and wears quickly.  The flanged brass bushes I have selected are graphite impregnated for lubrication as opposed to the white grease required for the OEM set-up with the plastic ends and inner metal sleeve.
• Here is a side by side comparison of my new clutch pedal bearing set-up at the pivot point on the left of the brake bracket compared to the OEM brake pedal on the right with its cheap plastic ends.   When bolted up to the brake bracket my clutch pedal assembly has about 0.10" side to side play in it compared to the brake pedal which has about 0.250" end play as measured at the pedal end of the arms (opposite the pivot end).
• This front view shows the new clutch arm with the new pedal face welded to it.  Here is a right side view for comparison with the brake pedal and a left view here.  Quite a different configuration than the OEM mechanical linkage set-up but a perfect match for the hydraulic clutch master cylinder actuating rod!

There will be a minor interference problem at the steering column attachment bracket when installed which I will analyze next and resolve for proper fitment and installation.

05/03/01  Test fit new pedal and trim steering column/dash bracket

I made a preliminary installation of the final clutch arm prototype in the car tonight to verify interference problems and also fabricated a steel proto-type clutch pedal travel stop bracket which uses the '99 F-body OEM rubber travel stop end.

• In last nights update I forgot to include a picture comparing the OEM clutch pedal to the newly designed "Bzdel" pedal.  Here is a view with the pedals hanging side by side for comparison.  This view is from the left side.
• In order to simulate clutch pedal clearance requirements in the car I made a quick shop aid by attaching a scrapped travel stop bracket and set it at the correct distance for the clutch pedal in its natural resting position (attached to the hydraulic actuating rod) in the test fixture and then installed the pedal arm with this attached into the car.  This shows the pedal at the correct depth  resting against the steering column/dash bracket where the interference exists.
• This view shows the bracket out of the car with a scribe mark outlining the pedal.  This is the same view after it was trimmed and radiused.
• The pedal arm now has about 1/2"+ clearance in the natural resting position.  I will verify if the actuating rod arm clears on the right side of the steering/dash bracket later when I install the clutch master cylinder.  To make this easier, I will do this after the motor comes out again.
• I fabricated the clutch pedal travel stop bracket out of 1/8"T x 1"W steel plate based on my original idea similar to the wood proto-type.  I bent the end of the plate at 90 degrees at one end to create ~1/2" travel-stop which will rest against the brake bracket housing at the firewall.   I had to drill two 3/32" holes on this end to snap in the OEM rubber stop into this new bracket.  This view shoes the bracket end with the holes and the rubber travel-stop used from the '99 F-body clutch pedal set-up for the same purpose.  This bracket will limit pedal travel to within 1/16" of full travel to prevent master cylinder actuating rod bottoming.
• Here is a view of the completed travel stop bracket (less paint) temporarily attached to the clutch arm with a 3/8" bolt to verify clutch pedal travel distance in the test fixture.

05/08/01  Neutral Safety Switch

Safety is more important than anything else so I wanted to incorporate a functional OEM style neutral safety switch feature for the manual transmission so that it will not be able to start while in gear without the clutch pedal fully depressed.  I utilized the clutch bench top test fixture one more time!

• I first had to figure out where to mount the neutral safety switch.  I decided on a location that was close to the existing pedal travel stop arm that I fabricated so that it would minimize the amount of bracketry required for mounting and actuation of the switch in addition to being able to take advantage of the clutch arm action.
• I fabricated a neutral safety switch bracket by cutting off an F-body switch bracket which was attached to a set of 3rd Generation F-Body clutch pedals and welding on a new 1"W x 1/8"T angled bracket that I fabricated with about a 100 degree bend in it to clear the fuse panel in the car.   This bracket mounts with to the lower left brake booster stud inside of the car.
• Next I had to fabricate a second bracket which will actually depress the neutral safety switch when the clutch pedal is engaged.  This view shows the new 2nd bracket tack welded to the pedal travel stop arm with the clutch arm in its normal resting position.
• In this picture the clutch pedal is fully depressed and you can see how the new 2nd bracket then depresses the neutral safety switch the exact distance as the OEM F-Body clutch pedal set-up.  Pretty slick!

I will need to verify final fitment of the neutral safety switch set-up in the car next to ensure adequate clearance around the fuse panel box then strip and paint all of the fabricated parts before final installation.

05/09/01  Test fit of Neutral Safety Switch

I attempted the installation of the neutral safety switch set-up in the car to verify clearance at the fuse box.  Not good!

• The bracket cleared fine, however, the very front lower portion of the actual switch when trying to mount it on the bracket would not clear by about 1/8".  The red arrow in this view shows the interference and the switch not fully seated because of this in the bracket.
• First I took the safety switch bracket and bent the bracket another ~10 degrees upward so that it would clear the fuse box by about 1/2" on the top.  This was the maximum I could go and still clear the pedal stop bracket while the clutch arm is in the resting position.
• I then ground out the tack weld on the new safety switch actuating bracket (attached to the pedal stop bracket) that actually depresses the neutral safety switch and shortened it and raised it by the same ~1/2" and re-oriented it slightly to compensate for this and now it works like a champ and has plenty of clearance at the fuse box.  This is now verified and complete!

My next project is getting the 8.5" rear end ready to put in and measure for the correct Driveshaft length before taking the engine and transmission out for the last time.

05/28/01  8.5" Rear end preparation

I wanted to get the 8.5" 3.73 posi-traction rear end freshened up a bit before installation since it had been sitting for quite some time and was very dirty and rusty.

• I had one of the worst mechanic's nightmares when I first tried to take the rear axles out of the housing to replace the axle seals (even though they still looked okay).  The retaining bolt which holds the axle shaft pin in the carrier was broken in half.....GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!  It still had about 1/2 of a thread holding the pin end of the bolt in place. 
• Not to panic I went to a local Home Depot and bought a 12" long 1/4" drill bit.  This drill bit actually flexed enough under pressure to where I could flex it slightly to maintain a perpendicular angle to the bolt in the carrier and drill through the remaining bolt threads all the way to the edge of the carrier axle shaft pin.
• When I finished drilling the threads out I turned the rear end up to stand it up on the right side axle (perpendicular to the ground).  After spraying the retaining bolt hole generously with WD-40 to cool the area that I had just drilled I took a hammer and proceeded to gently tap the carrier area where the remaining pin was still lodged through the axle shaft pin.  After about 60 seconds of tapping the remaining pin dropped out onto the ground!!!  Hallelujah!!!
• This pic compares the old bolt and pin versus the new bolt.
• If this wasn't enough when I went to take the backing plates off (after the axles were out) to clean them up, one of the two lower retaining bolts snapped off on each side.  Why GM used such miniscule 1/4" diameter bolts is beyond me.  I drilled out these bolts using a 5/16" drill and re-tapped the holes for a 3/8" diameter bolt (50% larger to prevent this problem again when bolts get rusty).  You can see the new axle seal installed along with the 1/4" versus the 3/8" bolts side by side and the new holes drilled and tapped directly below the axle seals (red arrows).
• I spent a total of 3 evenings degreasing, stripping and repainting the housing.  Once again I used POR-15 paint.
• Here is the stock 7.625" housing (still in place) with the newly painted 8.5" housing directly underneath it for a nice side by side comparison.

05/31/01  Final rear end/drive shaft prep

I temporarily test fitted up the 8.5" housing in the car and raised it to its normal resting position to verify driveline length.

• The stock Monte Carlo Driveshaft will need to be shortened a total of 5-1/4".  The stock driveline measures about 52.5" when measuring u-joint center to center.  The T56 only requires a shaft length with the 8.5" rear end of 47.25" (allowing for 1" end play).  Shortening the driveline will also save a little weight too!  Every bit counts!
• I completely removed the upper and lower rear end control arms to replace all of the rubber bushings and to box the lower control arms since I now have a MIG welder.  I installed stock bushings in the rear end housing upper ears and will likely use the 1LE Camaro stiffer rubber bushings in the other six locations for a decent controlled firm ride.
• I reviewed the process for boxing the lower control arms and determined that buying a "pre-cut" kit was a complete waste of money, even at $20 plus shipping.  The reason for this is that I went to a local hardware store and for $5 bought a 1-1/4"W x 1/8"T x 4'L steel plate which fit the bottoms of the lower control arms almost perfectly with very minor clearancing using a die grinder just inboard of the bushings (grinding off about 1/16" per side for about 3").   The finished unpainted arm in this picture looks rough because I went over the welds with the die grinder to smooth them up, however, once painted they will look awesome!

I stripped the control arms and will prepare them for paint next.  Progress will slow up a bit now since I will pull the engine and tranny out one last time so that I can degrease and strip the engine compartment metal areas and frame rails for painting.

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© 2001 by John Bzdel