My Cam Research for the Experts Eye

I ordered a set of calipers- they are essentially listed for a 77 monte carlo. I think I've stumbled onto another issue that contributed to the leak.

The calipers I'm using now have a 3/8 inlet thread - the new (rebuilt) calipers have a 7/16 inlet thread. But the hoses I showed are bored for a 7/16 banjo bolt, including the ones on the car now. That's why the pictures showed the off center markings on the crush washers.

What a saga of mismatching.....

Anyway one of my calipers does have a seep from the piston seal, plus I want to get rid of 3/8 size inlets. Installing the new calipers and using the correct 7/16 banjo bolts I think will allow proper sealing. I did check caliper mount dimensions to be sure they fit onto the brackets. The existing hoses can stay on the car.

It's not rocket science but sometimes it seems that way to me.....
 
its not much help, but the fact is that most of us have seen or done similar things and tried to use parts that were not correctly matched that should have worked, in most cases this can be marginally improved by buying all components from a single vendor and brand, but that's not always an option.(especially on older cars like olds, pontiac ,plymouth
studibaker, where the brands no longer in business or if the cars over 10 years old) and parts are harder to get.
aftermarket parts, especially lower cost imported parts, are well known to be less reliable in some cases
 
That's very true.
What was also somewhat confusing is that the Speedway front disc kit I used (bought back in 1999) shows one type of caliper on the general description and another on the parts breakdown list.
General description: GM 69-72 calipers for mid and full size models
Parts Breakdown: GM 69-77 calipers for midsize models.
Now, obviously there's some overlap in there but some of the calipers have the 3/8-24 banjo inlets and some have the 7/16-20 inlets. When I installed new hoses I got the hoses for 7/16 inlets even though the calipers were 3/8 inlets. Just a live and learn experience.

Steering Wheel .......

I installed the steering wheel today, but first had to align the steering column and install the turn signal mechanism.
The turn mechanism is kind of neat in that it combines mechanical and electrical components, works quite well.
That ring around the column pivots L and R and is pinned on the underside to the turn signal slider switch.
The steering wheel has a couple of tabs in the backside that use those plastic arms and bumpers to return the switch to center.
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The steering wheel was a bit fiddly in that I had to loosen the column, not only to ensure alignment, but to also pull it out to the proper length, so to speak. Not far enough and there's too much gap between the column sections - too far and the sections bind.

It all seems to work fine. I needed to get the steering wheel on before touching the front wheels since I had already aligned the front wheels to a centered position with slight toe-in. I installed the steering wheel also centered, but there may be tweaks needed after the car goes down the road.

My still-wrapped-from-storage steering wheel - it's the original. Kind of large but the styling is classic.
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You can see the sections of the column that I mentioned.
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Brake Calipers .......

The rebuilt calipers showed up, it's a general rebuilder brand that of course uses GM cores. Delco rebuilds are getting harder to find and if you do, they're priced as if they were made of gold.
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The very first thing I did was to ensure fit and bolted them into place to verify.
What I didn't like - I've seen this before - was that the surface at the banjo crush washer has been shot peened to death. Threads are ok.
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Here's what it should look like.
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It's not the end of the world - my solution for this has been to apply a thin smear of Permatex #2 at the caliper surface before installing the washer. This has worked well before, so that's what I'll be doing here.

"Old" caliper on the left, new (rebuilt) caliper on the left. I tagged the banjo fitting bolt size for reference.
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Piston size is the same for both, the only difference is the banjo bolt size.
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After a thorough cleaning and masking, each caliper got a coat of Rustoleum self etching primer.
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Followed by a finish coat of Duplicolor black caliper paint.
I wanted the background dark to highlight the gray/polished finish of the Cragar wheels.
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I'll get them installed and bled with the expectation that I'm done chasing leaks.
This is one of those THIS BETTER WORK repairs, I'm tired of running down this rabbit trail.

Edit.....
I thought about those shot peened washer surfaces and decided to give myself better sealing odds.
I took a .5 in flat dremel stone attached to the dremel arbor and carefully hand-lapped those surfaces, making sure the stone was flat against the surface. I used a successive finer grit until I thought the surfaces improved. Not perfect but better.

I'll still use a thin bit of permatex but I'm much happier with this result vs the picture above.
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Calipers and hoses are now all installed.
Just to be 100% sure that the Permatex has set, I'll refill the MC tomorrow with more Dot 5 and see what happens .....

Edit ....
So far so good. I had also come back, tapped the bolts with a hammer and tightened them slightly.
I know this may be tedious, my intent was to give info to anyone out there faced with the same aggravation.
 
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Rear Accent Lighting .....

I had posted earlier about the front grille bar accent lighting I had done - LED's that face into the radiator area when the parking lights are on.
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I liked that effect, but then the back of the car looked a bit weak to me.
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So I decided to add some accent lighting in the back too, sort of balancing things out.
I made a couple of brackets for the same type LED's as the front.
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Very convenient mounting on the side of the rear crossmember.
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They mount facing downwards but are hidden from direct view.
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Also connected to the parking light circuit, gives the same sort of glow as the front.
I think also that some extra lighting in the back never hurts.
Sorry for highlighting all the junk under the car, I think sitting back on the pavement it will look much better.
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Brake Caliper Leak Solved.....

After weeks of fiddling with those front caliper banjo leaks I think I figured out root cause. Finally.....

With the new calipers and 7/16 banjo bolts, after a few days there was yet another drip. Rather than burn down the car, I decided to replace the front brake hoses. Except that the replacements were identical.

However, before I installed the new hoses (meaning everything on the front brakes was now replaced), I took a close look at the hose caliper ends. I had observed that prior leakage was always from the bottom washer, between hose and caliper.

Here's what I found....

This is the top part of the hose fitting, meaning that the crush washer fits between the fitting and the bolt head.
The diameter of the grooves is .723 in, and the washer easily fits into the grooved diameter. Colored area highlights non grooved ares which is ever so slightly higher than the grooved area.
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Now, here's the bottom of the fitting, goes up against the caliper. The grooved area diameter here is .660 in, a big difference from the top side. Again the orange area are non grooved, slightly higher than the grooved area.
This was the problem.
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The crush washer edges sat on the non machined areas, evidently this didn't allow the washer to fully seat into the grooves. Wasn't a huge leak but a drip is still a leak.

I carefully filed down the colored areas without damaging the grooves. Since I had the new hoses, I installed them with the modification to the bottom side of the fitting.

This was almost a week ago, brakes have been bled, good pedal. Zero drip or any evidence of fluid at the fittings.
I'm calling this DONE.
 
thank you for posting the photos and updated info, its sure to help others over time!
 
I had posted earlier about the front grille bar accent lighting I had done - LED's that face into the radiator area when the parking lights are on.
I think you should make the front lights red also like the back. A little more subtle. In any case it's a very nice addition to your car. I saw a 55 Chevy at a cruise event that happens at night. his headlights blinked with the turn signals.

This was almost a week ago, brakes have been bled, good pedal. Zero drip or any evidence of fluid at the fittings.
I'm calling this DONE.
I bet that feels good !!! Just don't hurt yourself patting yourself on the back. ;)
 
Thanks gents.

Rick, here in TX red or blue on the front are frowned upon by law enforcement. I like the amber anyway!

Speaking of headlights, my good friend owns Vintage Car LED's. Super nice quality, he supplies to many major build shops. I'll be putting a set on the car.
 
Rick, here in TX red or blue on the front are frowned upon by law enforcement. I like the amber anyway!
I assumed the front was white, but when I went back and looked I could see where it was amber.
I hadn't thought about that, but it does make sense.
 
Shocks......

I chose KYB gas-charged shocks, for this car they should be a good balance if control and firmness. I do plan on installing front/rear swaybars too.

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Front, all good.
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Rear, not so good.
One side is fine.
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Back when I set up the rear axle brake lines, I "thought" that my placement of the tee where the flex hose attaches would clear exhaust and shocks.

Unfortunately, the hose is smack in the space where the shock needs to be.
Not the end of the world, I've got a workaround but it's aggravating to mess up. But as you've seen for me, it's not the first nor the last time lol.

I'll get pics of the problem and the solution, but it will be in a couple weeks. We're going on a short trip in the RV - I think the break will be good.

I also got the front wheels cleaned and polished, ready for paint like I did on the rear wheels.

You guys take care and I'll pop back later.
 
Wheels......

Same process as the rear wheels - clean, polish, paint centers.
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All four wheels back on, they look really good. Close-up you can see they are not brand new, but I'm happy with them.
Maybe later on I'll think about another set, but they will need to look "right" on the car.
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Rear Brake Hose Interference ....

As mentioned earlier, I managed to locate the rear brake hose tee pointing right at the shock, no way the brake hose would fit.
When I refurbished the rear axle, I thought that I had located the tee correctly, just one of those mistakes.
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What I decided to do was to use what I had on hand ($0) vs getting 3AN adapters and an AN hose with a 90 at one end ($50).
I can always change it later, but it works now.

What I did first was to rotate the tee 90 degrees so it would point straight up.
Made a bracket to hold the tee, bracket got welded to the tab already on the axle.
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The axle brake lines simply reattached to the tee since it was only rotated up 90 degrees up, same location.
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I also made another bracket for the end of the relocated brake hose.
That one got welded to the frame.
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Note - these are pretty crappy looking welds, they are solid, but the locations made access for my MIG tip very difficult.
I started to use my grinder to smooth them out a bit, but way too many sparks for my comfort level. I'll go back with a rotary burr or something that runs slower and less or minimal sparking. Too close to the gas tank back there.
My excuses ;)

Anyway, the bracket for the tee got welded to the axle bracket and the bracket for the hose end got welded to the frame.
This put the hose parallel to the frame and cleared the shock.
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I also added a small section of hard line from the end of the relocated brake hose to the original rear brake line.
As you can see the brake hose clears the shock. It also has enough curve in it to allow flex for axle vertical movement.
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Just need to bleed the rear brakes, then on to claybar/polish the paint and chrome.
That gets the car done for that long-coming first drive.
 
Woopie !!!

Right on schedule. :cool:
Lol I see what you did there ! :rofl:
So true hahaha

I was thinking that most of the car build shows got a lot of people in trouble. Made it look so easy. We know that it takes time, tools, and a basic skillset to build a car right.
Plus mistakes!
 
Traction Bars ......

I've always used t-bars on the car - not the slapper bars but more proper traction links, patterned after Cal-Trac bars.

Many years ago I had made a few sets of these bars, not for general sale. Cost was for materials to a few of my tri-five friends. They worked great.
I still had some of the components so it was basically using the "new old stock" I already had, including all hardware.

Here's the new t-bar link components next to the original t-bar links that were on the car for many years.
The old link rods were 1 in longer than the new rods, but that's not an issue.
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I had also made (sent out to steel fab shop) the spring perch/shock brackets and front links.
The spring perch brackets are 3/8 plate, much stronger than the thinner stamped steel brackets the classic car suppliers sell. They also have brackets welded in for the traction bar rear link.
The front links are 1/4 plate, all able to withstand the compression loads when the car is launched.
That other bracket is the hand brake tensioner, located under the car - I had designed it to accommodate stock 57 hand brake cables with a Ford 9 in axle, which is what I have in the car.
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Here's new painted links and brackets on the right next to the original DIY-made links and brackets.
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Traction bars installed....

Front link attachment - that upper right bolt has a spacer that sits over the spring. Adjustment (turning) of the links yields more or less preload on the spring. Top left is the spring eye bolt, goes through poly bushings. Bottom bolt attaches a heim joint end of the traction link.
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Rear link attachment - you can see the spring perch/shock mount bracket with the lower brackets for the rear heim joint attachment.
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U-bolts are also larger diameter than the stock 57 u-bolts. The entire spring perch bracket/attachment is quite strong, I have no worries.
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Traction bar in place. The ends of the link are opposite RH and LH threads, like a tie rod. Turning the link one way lengthens the span and causes more preload on the top of the spring. Turning the link the other way shortens the span and moves the preload up (away) from the spring.
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Brakes are bled, traction links are installed, now I'm REALLY ready to drop the car for final clean and polish.
 
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please inform us as to how well the car and its improved suspension modifications works,
I remember the huge difference traction bars on my 1969 camaro made,
and the difference the new air shocks on my 1965 tempest made
 
please inform us as to how well the car and its improved suspension modifications works,
I remember the huge difference traction bars on my 1969 camaro made,
and the difference the new air shocks on my 1965 tempest made
I will! They really help stop spring wrap which tends to pull the tires loose.
 
Minor item, installed the cover over the shifter. Still a long ways from interior work but cleaned the shifter up a bit.
I also went back and readjusted the cable linkage at the transmission.
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Little nicer looking than the bare shifter.....
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Also, on the following day I wrapped this section of exhaust. Just a little heat reduction by the gas tank.
I also installed the tube and end loop for the axle vent. Thats it behind the exhaust, the metal loop at the top is secured with a rubber line clamp that allows the tube to swivel slightly with axle movement.
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