WhitsEnd Transformation

[WhitsEnd]

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LIGHTS FIXED!!!

I knew the wiring was likely correct, so I pulled the wheel off to take a look at the turn signal switch assembly. I found a couple things.

First, there was a screw missing adjacent to the bulb that illuminates the gear selection. This was keeping the light from making contact with ground. Threw a screw in there and now I can see what I'm shifting into at night.

Next, I noticed a wear ring on the grounding plate. If we take a ride in the way-back machine to when the steering column was being built (page 7 of this build), we are reminded that I had to remove material from the back side of the '70 steering wheel to allow it to seat properly on the '76 cloumn. Well, the result of that was allowing the turn signal canceling cam to make contact with the grounding plate. I removed about 1/8" off the canceling tab and all is good!

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I didn't sit and think about how that caused my specific problems electrically, but since all the lights work correctly, I really don't care.

[WhitsEnd]

Some late night reading revealed why I think this motor is so responsive. The Holley Sniper opens the secondary bores IN SYNC with the primaries, as opposed to most carburetors that open the secondaries progressively, usually starting when the primaries are already opened about 30% or so.

This means it really doesn't have secondaries, it has 4 primaries . Some people have complained of touchy throttles and difficult driving.

To remedy this, Holley has introduced a firmware change (included on my kit) and offers a progressive link to bring in the additional bores later and progressively. They also have an adjustable linkage to completely tune it the way you want. Apparently this has made a big difference in driveability and it's something I'm going to look into. I don't need my daughter accidentally chirping the tires or getting out of control.

I'm thinking I may even be able to modify the secondaries to not come in completely if I wanted to.

[6t6merc]

The "in-sync" opening of all four throttles is interesting. Did your reading reveal the theory behind this, or if Holley is offering a conventional progressive opening to correct a flaw in their theory? At first blush it seems obvious that distribution would be improved. I have wondered why Ford did not use something similar on the 8V setup, perhaps with the carbs mounted "back to front" to place four primaries at the centre of the intake, and maybe using spread-bore carbs. Surely the Ford engineers considered those arrangements and rejected them.

[Manny]

Just got caught back up to date on this build. Looking really good, and glad to know the motor is healthy and responsive. Never messed with this setup only the fi tech kits on a couple of broncos. Interesting to see the differences and the similarities to how the self tuning systems are. Looking great hope you have more success soon!

[WhitsEnd]

The final task for the EFI was to find a place to mount the LCD screen. This is used for uploading software, changing settings and viewing outputs.

I fabbed a bracket to attach the housing to and used one of the 02 sensor clamps that came with the kit to clamp it to the column. I welded my 02 sensor bung in place, so I didn't need the brackets. The extra cable is tucked into the column support and can be pulled out when the screen needs to be used as a hand held for inputs or uploading.

[WhitsEnd]

I finalized the A/C install last weekend. Prior to that, I had just installed the dash unit, the compressor and the condenser so I could get the front clip on to move forward with firing the motor.

Since the motor has been sorted out and runs fine, I went back to finish the rest of the hardware install so I can schedule an appointment to get the system charged before it gets too hot around here.

Most of it went without issue, but it certainly has an "aftermarket" fit and feel to it. There are several minor annoying things about the kit, but if it works well in the end, I'll get over it. Here are a couple:

The heater core tubes exit the unit about one inch out of line with the original holes in the firewall. Instead of using fittings or some other method to use the existing holes, the hoses are plumbed through the kick panel, into the wheel well and then into the engine compartment through the fender apron.
The fan switch replacement had to be modified because it interfered with the nut that holds the whole assembly in the dash.
The heater core was shipped with 2 lengths of hose already attached, instead of one long loop. For any situation other than stock, the two hoses provided are not appropriate. Even in a stock scenario, they both barely reach to the engine bay.
The instructions are poorly written.
There are 2 extra leads in the wire harness that do not get used. This is not stated anywhere in the instructions or on the harness because of their generic nature. The "wiring diagram" is childish, at best.
The center vents below the dash have a cover that does not extend to cover the whole face. The grey foam seal that mates to the bottom of the dash is completely exposed and looks kinda Fisher Price. My short term remedy is a piece of black textured duct tape. I may end up fabricating a complete face plate from sheet metal or fiberglass.
The kit uses the factory control unit, but the lower selector labels are completely irrelevant once the kit is installed. AT LEAST SOME LABELS TO STICK ON THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE. I'll probably end up 3D printing a new face-plate.

And my favorite: The instructions tell you when you need to save or discard items. One of the items to discard is the glove box liner. Unfortunately, my garbage was picked up between the time I put it in the garbage and when I realized I didn't want to throw it out. The kit comes with a VERY shallow plastic glove box replacement. This is because the instructions tell you to route the passenger side vent hose up and over the blower unit. Well, there is more than enough room to route that hose in front of the blower unit, behind the lower portion of the dash, like this:



That leaves all of the room above the blower that was originally there. So, I ordered another factory style glove box from Mac's, but it doesn't fit perfect.

[WhitsEnd]

All in all, not terrible. I just expected better because I never read any poor write-ups on Classic Auto Air.

All I need to do now is have the hoses crimped and then charge the system.

[WhitsEnd]

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Front end alignment is scheduled for Friday morning. I took the truck over and made them take a look at it to make sure they were comfortable aligning my 2007 Crown Victoria.

The guy doing the work is considering installing a CV front crossmember in a '57, so he is very intrigued. At the moment, it goes down the road straight as an arrow and handles fine, but I have a couple things banging and clanking that deter from the sensation. Both of the sheetmetal brackets housing the nuts for the lower fender bolts are damaged. At the moment, neither fender is attached at the bottom and I dont have the inner fenders attached to the flexible restraint either.

The ride isn't as good as I anticipated, but I think the front horns are moving around from the sway bar force. I had intended on boxing at the sway bar location and adding a beam there to tie the two sides together, but never did because I added the power steering bracket at that location. I may look into this by mounting a video camera on the frame to see what's going on under there.

Don't get me wrong, it rides 10X better than it did.

[Manny]

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Front end alignment is scheduled for Friday morning. I took the truck over and made them take a look at it to make sure they were comfortable aligning my 2007 Crown Victoria.

The guy doing the work is considering installing a CV front crossmember in a '57, so he is very intrigued. At the moment, it goes down the road straight as an arrow and handles fine, but I have a couple things banging and clanking that deter from the sensation. Both of the sheetmetal brackets housing the nuts for the lower fender bolts are damaged. At the moment, neither fender is attached at the bottom and I dont have the inner fenders attached to the flexible restraint either.

The ride isn't as good as I anticipated, but I think the front horns are moving around from the sway bar force. I had intended on boxing at the sway bar location and adding a beam there to tie the two sides together, but never did because I added the power steering bracket at that location. I may look into this by mounting a video camera on the frame to see what's going on under there.

Don't get me wrong, it rides 10X better than it did.

Awesome glad you got it out and going know that's gotta be exciting!!. Question is on the air would you recommend that unit or no??

[WhitsEnd]

Awesome glad you got it out and going know that's gotta be exciting!!. Question is on the air would you recommend that unit or no??

Manny, I'll reserve final judgement once the system is charged and functioning. I have to keep in mind that the whole system was only $1400. That doesn't get you much these days. The blower works great and moves a ton of air, the condenser and other items fit OK. I could have gone for a simple A/C only unit and kept the original heater core, but at least this integrates the A/C so the defrost can be dehumidified. My complaints are generally speaking to the fact that just a little more effort on their part could have made this a great system.

After I plug the clutch rod hole in the floor, if it cools the cab well, I'm content.

[WhitsEnd]

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GOOD NEWS FROM PERTRONIX!

My new CD ignition module has been shipped. The engineer that developed the unit (Brad) was keenly interested in what went wrong and personally called me. In the end, we determined that leaving it in program mode while trying to start it was not the problem. I had left the 12v factory source on the + side of the coil in addition to the coil leads from the Pertronix box. Completely my fault, as I interpreted their wiring diagram to be exclusively for the new wiring, and not to mean no other wires should be wired into the coil that may have previously existed.

So, a bunch of stuff got smoked and they sent me a new one. Kudos to Pertronix. They had every right to tell me I was at fault (because I was) and not warranty the box.

I'm looking forward to getting that wired in (correctly) and enjoy even crisper starts and the benefit of a start retard.

[WhitsEnd]

it turns out that I didn't have the latest firmware for the Holley Sniper, so I couldn't make the setting changes for progressive secondaries. I downloaded the latest firmware from Holley.com and then I was able to make the changes.

Once the new progressive link is installed in place of the fixed link, the handheld is used to view the throttle position of the primary when the secondary just starts to move. For me, this was 43%.

Using the handheld, the progressive throttle setting is selected and the 43% TPS setting is entered. The software does the rest.

This made a nice change in the driveability of the truck. I think I would still like a longer arm on the throttle body to reduce the pedal ratio and make it even softer on tip-in.

Anyway, it drives tame enough to let my daughter drive her truck for the first time. She was so excited. And I was so proud.

[DuckRyder]

[WhitsEnd]

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I thought I should let others know that the front end has dropped about an inch after getting it on the road and letting everything settle out. I think the new sticky tires on the garage floor were keeping the wheels from scrubbing at all, in addition to the normal stiffness of new springs.

That said, the front wheel arches are just below the top of the tires, where they were just above them previously. Of course, the rear hasn't changed. I'm thinking the rear has to drop a little.

This really doesn't show the dramatic stance because of the angle of the shot, but this is the truck currently:



The rear needs to come down about 3.5".

[WhitsEnd]

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After researching options and likely drop resulting from each, I've decided a full axle relocation to above the springs will be too much. That's good, because I really want to still use this truck as a truck and possibly even tow with it on occasion. A full axle flip requires notching the frame and I wouldn't be satisfied with any of the available "kits". Major fabrication would be involved.

This truck has the Flex-O-Matic rear spring hangers and levers and I'd like to keep them. I also want to keep the overload springs, but we'll see what's possible.

Researching options on the front hangers from what others have posted here, I think a rear spring front hanger "half flip" is in order. I don't like that name, but that's what folks are calling it. Anyway, flipping the front hangers (removing and rotating them 180 degrees), will raise the effective axle location by about half of whatever the eye of the spring moves. I think rotating the hangers about the lower set of bolts (half flip) will net 3 inches of axle movement. Looking at the spring pack, I may have to pull the lower stiffening spring to get another 5/8". I may set the truck down after the hanger flip and see if I really need to go any further. It would be nice to leave the whole suspension stock in the rear, if I can. Pictures to follow.

On edit:

Thinking about this some more, I've realized the front end actually rides very nice and all of my perceived poor riding characteristics are coming from the rear influencing the whole truck. The rear is a bit stiff and currently doesn't have a spare wheel mounted in it either. My wife has said she would like to see the box cut down so it's more manageable in parking lots, only making the situation worse (shorter wheelbase, lighter).

I think the lower stiffening spring will be coming out and I'll leave the upper overload springs in place (no height benefit from removing the uppers).

2nd Edit:

Looking at the spring pack design, I'm not sure removing the lower stiffening spring is a good idea. It looks like it is required to keep the primary long spring from being over-arched through the travel. The spring pack may have to stay as-is.

Since the pinion angle is likely to change with the front hanger movement, that will have to be addressed. Cutting off the spring perches and welding in new ones may offer an opportunity to squeeze out another 1/2" with some lower profile or specially designed perches. I'll take a look.