Project Slowly Underway: Berrien 295

[MadMike]

Hey Dirk, I use them zippys too ,,
here's how I roll,,Autocraft,, my spares

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[vanapplebomb]

High end man.

[vanapplebomb]

This pic shows the spring steel wire that pushes on the ends of the Pushrod tubes to keep them in place.

Engine is 100% together. Just got to wire up the chokes and cut off solenoids to the + side of the ignition coil. Jims buggy parts order of parts from Erco for my transmission came in and he is working on finishing it up. Can't wait to light her up.

[MadMike]

'"slowly underway" aint the word, 4 YEARS being ADHD I couldn't do it

[vanapplebomb]

I'm back and it's been too long. I hope everyone had a happy and safe Christmas enjoying friends and family!

I just pulled some stuff out of storage to work on over the holidays. I should be able to give a short update in a few days. :-8

[vanapplebomb]

It has been a long time since I tinkered with the project. Things have been in storage and I have been to busy to do much with it.

I got some time this holiday weekend to pull some stuff out of storage. I figured I would work on the front end again and get it to the point where I can paint and install it. I got a few pictures off before the camera died. I will have more pictures this comming weekend. :wink:

[vanapplebomb]

A couple of the threads on the spindles have been buggered and keep the pinch clamp nuts for the brake drums from going on smoothly. Threads are left hand and right hand M18x1.5. If anyone has dies to clean up these threads, that would be awesome. If not, I'll have to just run to my local industrial supply and buy a pair.

[vw1s]

You might be able to get away with using a thread file...will probably be less expensive, and a thread file can be used on multiple pitches.

[vanapplebomb]

Pat, that's a pretty good idea. I'll pick up a metric file and see if I can clean up the couple buggered up threads. Hopefully that will do the trick.

[MadMike]

It's called a Thread chaser, 4 sided file with all the pitches

[vanapplebomb]

Just picked up a thread chasing file at my local industrial supply house. Has eight different metric thread pitches from .75 - 3.0, that should cover pretty much everything, haha. I'll give it a go this weekend and see if I can't get those brake drum pinch clamps to thread on nice.

[vanapplebomb]

Thread file worked wonders, thanks for the suggestion. Much less $$ than a pair of dies, just a little elbow grease. Clamps thread on nicely now. Off to get the drums turned. Hopefully there I enough meat left on them for one more turn before bumping up against the 231.5mm max diameter. Speaking of drums, I studded the rear drums. Was a bit of a struggle for my 1/2hp drill press, but it did the job. If anyone needs them I have a 9/16 bit for sway-a-way studs and 37/64 for bugpack/empi studs. Feel free to pm me if you want to borrow them. Had to grind an edge of the flange off to clear the inner perimeter of the drum casting. No big deal.

[vanapplebomb]

Took apart the front suspension to make it easier to weld on the link Pin spindle carrier gussets I made. Getting a bit better at welding. Still have a long way to go before I say it's pretty, but it is functional, and that's all that counts for now.






I also slightly extended the lower shock mounts by cutting off the stock studs and welded on M12x1.75p rod couplers. Cheap, but it works.

[vanapplebomb]

I finished up all the fab work I wanted to do on the front beam. I added some slip hooks to the font lower beam clamps and capped off the trailing ams with some flange bolt heads to seal them up. Now that the fab work is finished it is time for a good bath, reassembly, and a shot of paint

[vanapplebomb]

Got some fresh original style rubber seals for the beam from Appletree Auto.





I reinstalled the arms and torqued the set screws and jam nuts to 32 Ft*Lbs with some copper anti-seize. I measured the offset on each side, and shimmed the linknpins acordingly. Hand tight on a 14mm wrench snugs up the link pins to the spindle carrier, then torqued the pinch clamp nuts to 32 Ft*Lbs with anti-seize. I stripped the left over factory paint on the beam and decreased it. Time to mask off the seals and bump stops and shoot it with paint when I get a nice day.