[David Jones]

Originally Posted by Hammered

Did you happen to notice if there was a freeze plug behind the passenger side? Mine had one and I was glad that the grease method failed me on the drivers side. Otherwise, I'm sure I would've pushed the plug into the oil passage near the filter. Instead I used your method.

No, I didn't look up in it. I did spray a little WD40 in both sides and wipe them out but really didn't try to look. Since I've had to do most everything else more than once maybe I'll get to pull the offset pins BACK out and then I'll have a look see......

I was amazed at how the all thread (I used 5/16) pulled itself straight with the dowel (bent itself) and then lifted the dowel out. Those of you reading this in the future don't despair if you can't drill a hole straight into the dowel (if the engine is in the car, forget straight....it ain't happening) Drill as straight as you can and make sure you stay IN the dowel. Drill it as deep as you can, tap it and run your all thread snugly. Make sure you use a deep well socket so the dowel has room to move into the socket. Lubricate the thrust washers/nut. A 1/2" wrench then will make short work of it.

[69Customs]

"Quote:
Originally Posted by David Jones View Post
I'm told the 4sp cars have some sort of advantage in room, but find that hard to completely believe. I wonder if the difference is that one has a shifter "porch" and one doesn't? A side to side comparison between the T400 and the Tremec shows not that much difference. The Tremec is square and that'll be the problem."

The Dearborn and the tremec are both square on top. The Pontiac engineers solved this problem by putting it in on a 7 degree angle. Most older Pontiac bellhousings have those 4 mtg. holes. But they usually have plastic plugs in them.

[highrisk]

Originally Posted by MikeR64

I have been reading this with interest for a while now and ran across David's post above. I put one of the Kiesler TKO-500 5 speeds in my 64 GTO convertible (which is an original 4 speed car) about three years ago. I did no cutting on the trans tunnel at all. I used a ball-peen hammer to do some massaging where the top rear of the shifter tower is - maybe about 3/8". and then it was only to the rear and passenger side of the tower. Other than that, it fit in with plenty of clearance.
The only other mod I had to do was the trans crossmember. I bought a new stock one. On convertibles, the frame rails are boxed and there is a little shelf along each rail where the crossmember sits. The crossmember mounts using a rubber insulator cup affair and there is no room to move it back like is needed. I left off the rubber insulators and cups and drilled two new holes on each side, then bolted the crossmember directly to the shelf. It probably made the trans about 1/8" lower in the back, all else being the same.

I have been sending emails to the people at American Powertrain about how much has to be cut on the tunnel with their system. They informed me there is no cutting necessary. You do have to modify the tunnel in a couple of places with a block and hammer to give the required 1/4". They say they send instructions on where you need the clearence. That sounds a lot better than cutting up the floor.
Dale

[David Jones]

Alignment done. I am officially at .0045 and Keisler wants .005 or smaller. I've spun the dial indicator/crankshaft around 1000 times and actually took the bellhousing loose and then retightened it and came back with the same reading.....009, which is divided by 2.

I realized now that I made some mistakes and left myself open to being inaccurate with the dial indicator before I ordered the offset dowels and I guess ordering the .007 dowels was just blind luck. This dial indicator was prone to slight movements "out of the box" and I didn't catch it until just a few minutes ago. All the pivots etc seemed tight but I found that an additional washer was required in 2 spots to get those joints TRULY immovable.
I also discovered that I was thinking about the reading of the dial indicator 180 degrees backward. I found the "0" point of the scattershield and then spun the crank around and noted the reading. I don't have the number right here with me but it was like +26 or something at the highest reading. My feeble mind decided that that was the direction the scattersheild needed to go. NOOOOOOO. That reading is actually CLOSER to the centerline of the crank...not farther as my mind had decided. I initially installed the offset dowels to pull the scattersheild the direction I thought it needed to go and the number grew...which I blamed on the dial indicator being loose. (yes, it was also) After scratching my head over that for a while I simply slid under the GTO and stared at the situation for a while. That's when it hit me I was doing this 180 degrees backward. I took the scattersheild off, spun the dowels 180 degrees and locked them back down and retightened the scattersheild. I put the newly tight dial indicator back in place (getting pretty good at that) and spun the engine. Done. The smile nearly split my face.

Dumbass..........

[highrisk]

Now that you have all of that experience aligning your bell housing, how much do you charge to do house calls?
Dale

[David Jones]

Originally Posted by highrisk

Now that you have all of that experience aligning your bell housing, how much do you charge to do house calls?
Dale

I think the term I'd need here is priceless. Literally.........

[David Jones]

Clutch rod and bumper are installed. I may go back and Loctite the adjustment nuts on the rod for a little extra piece of mind. I still think I need a lite spring on the clutch pedal to help hold it up. The instructions noted that the brake light switch may need "adjustment" and from what I'm seeing "re-engineering" may be a better term. That'll probably be next on the hit parade.

A quick glance at the trans adapter for the jack leads me to think that the car is going to need to be a bit higher in the air. Test fitting the trans into the tunnel is coming up pretty soon.

[TheMonkey]

Is the heim already tightened to clutch pedal? It looks like its crooked? Also what is the spacer for on other side of bolt?

There are plent of heim threads in the adjustable hex rod? Looks like a lot of threads outside of it. It is a long heim thread?

Youre doing a nice job, im Just observing and asking.

Looks good. You will love that trans when done. Don't forget to stake pilot Bearing in crank.

[Scarebird]

Originally Posted by TheMonkey

Is the heim already tightened to clutch pedal? It looks like its crooked? Also what is the spacer for on other side of bolt?...

Mr. Monkey is being polite. Is that really what Keisler supplied? It looks like a complete Charlie Fox. Does that "extension" strike the brake light switch bracket?

[David Jones]

That is what Keilser supplies. It's really a nice piece. Adjustable to fit and I think when you're dealing with so many possibilities there is no other way. The spacer makes it workable in a number of different situations on that end and the threaded body with threaded ends fixes the length. To my eye it actuates the master cylinder in a nice straight line. The bolt/spacer will not contact the brake light switch holder but it appears that it will strike the switch itself when it is installed. As I noted above they say that some adjustment or modification of the bracket may be required. I think I can substitute a shorter bolt and solve any issues with interference, IF adjusting the bracket in some fashion doesn't take care of any problems. I also think I can possibly just put the bolt in the other direction. It looked tight but might go. I haven't been back to the car since I took the picture.

I didn't know about staking the pilot bearing. Just take a punch and move a little bit of metal?

[TheMonkey]

To stake bearing can use a big center punch and big hammer several times around bearing on end of crank. Dont be shy. Also put some green loctite around outside of bearing race. Green is a retaining compound instead of thread lock.

[geeteeohguy]

All due respect, there's no need to stake a pilot bearing. The correct one for the car will be a snug fit. You'll be cursing yourself next time you do a clutch when you're trying to remove the old one from the buggered up crank flange.

[Stuckinda60s]

Originally Posted by geeteeohguy

All due respect, there's no need to stake a pilot bearing. The correct one for the car will be a snug fit. You'll be cursing yourself next time you do a clutch when you're trying to remove the old one from the buggered up crank flange.

X2

[TheMonkey]

i suppose do whatever you are comfortable with.

my bearing required a socket to tap in with a hammer. i did not stake it like it should have been. i kind of staked it, but i didn't want to stake it too much.

i pulled TKO after 600 miles to fix broken flywheel teeth. bearing fell out into bellhousing when pulled the trans. it was weird because i didn't think i had any problems with clutch in. there is a shoulder on the mainshaft on trans that kept it from coming all the way out when i was running it.

after it was reinstalled and staked tight, the clutch in at idle was the same and fine, but i noticed an improvement with shifting under load.

so many things with this hobby are uncertain, but for me i'll stake it in from now on. my runout tolerance was well within requirements.

[69Customs]

I hate to burst your bubble but I believe its .005 TIR which means "Total indicator reading"
That means you can't divide by 2. I could be wrong but you may want to double check. .009 seems quite a bit off to me.

[GOAT WHORE]

No bubble bursted, David is right. Total needle movment has to be under .010 and you divide that by 2.

[Hammered]

I believe TIR is more accurately referred to as Total Indicated Runout although I've often seen Total Indicated Reading used interchangeably. To get Concentricity, which is what we're after, you divide TIR by 2. There are a bunch of good youtube videos on how to dial in a bellhousing if you want to check further.

[David Jones]

The bearing was a very tight fit. I gently drove it in with a socket.

[David Jones]

The video's I've seen led me to believe that you look for the difference across the diameter of the bellhousing opening, using the crankshaft as the "scribe". After that runout is found (in my case just a cat hair under .009") you divide that by 2 to get the number, since the crank is the center point. I didn't look for terms or labels, I looked at method. I think I ended up looking at it a bit backward, finding zero and then getting my reading in the + direction (effectively CLOSER to the crank center.) but the result is the same and is accurate.

I think.....

[Captainofiron]

David, if you end up putting a spring on the clutch pedal to hold it up, make sure to put some sort of vibration damper on it. Other wise at certain RPMs it will vibrate like crazy and be very annoying

Speaking from experience of course, hahaha

I put a piece of shrink tube around the spring, worked ok