My not so Little 69 Project.

[NorCam]

I use a Macs engine pivot (tilter) that bolts to the carb studs to lift engines. The thing really is slicker than snot for dropping engines down and positioning the mounts to drop right on. Adding the trans increases the load on those 4 studs and although this rig works awesome, I'm still a bit concerned about having it pull the carb studs and dropping an engine.

With the car being assembled and painted, the risk of it dropping it while going in over the front of the car has the potential to be catastrophic. Hence the reason I added the chain yesterday (as a safety). Adding the transmission weight onto those studs increases the chances of something failing so I have been putting the transmission in separately on the last 3 motors just to be safe. It's not hard to lift the transmission in and then add the rear mount after the fact.

[novadude]

Originally Posted by NorCam

I use a Macs engine pivot (tilter) that bolts to the carb studs to lift engines. The thing really is slicker than snot for dropping engines down and positioning the mounts to drop right on. Adding the trans increases the load on those 4 studs and although this rig works awesome, I'm still a bit concerned about having it pull the carb studs and dropping an engine.

Car looks great!

I also use that Macs Pivot Plate and love it!

One thing about how bolts and studs work...

Preload on the fastener = (torque)/(K*nominal diameter), where K is thread coefficient.

0.2 is a good K value for steel-on-steel. The higher the thread coefficient, the more thread friction we have. Let's say steel on aluminum is 0.3 (a wild conservative guess).

Let's say we have no gasket between that pivot plate and the manifold, so it is a rigid connection (the best way to use this plate). Let's also assume that we tighten the bolts holding the pivot plate to 15 ft-lbs (180 in-lbs). Let's calculate the preload in ONE of those studs / bolts:

(180)/(0.3*0.3125) = 1920 lbs.

That means that just ONE of those bolts has a theoretical preload of 1920 lbs. Four bolts would have a total clamp load of 7680 lbs. Until you exceed that clamp load, the fastener and threads do not actually see any additional load. If it doesn't pull threads when tightening the fastener, it's not going to load the threads more until you exceed 7680 lbs. Of course this assumes straight tension, and a completely rigid plate. Still, there is a ton of room for error here.

I used my Macs pivot plate to install an iron head BBC and TH400 in a Friends '70 Cutlass. No problems at all. As long as you tighten the bolts first, your chance of pulling threads is zero. 7680 lbs of clamp load also generates a lot of frictional force to keep the plate from sliding around and generating any side shear loading on the bolts.

Just throwing this out there for other guys nervous about carb plates.

[NorCam]

So with the engine now resting in place, we have since connected the clutch, installed the transmission and aligned the 3138 shifter with linkages. Today we cleaned up the original console, made the required carpet cuts and got the lower base installed with the wiring and oil pressure line in place. The console top was set in place near the end of the day and further cuts were made for the seat belts and seat tracks. I'll be finishing up the console, carpet and seat belts over the weekend with the rest of the interior to follow early next week. A mere 21 days left before the cars birthday and original shipping date of May 9th. Crack goes the whip.


Rebuilt Muncie M21 Trans with 3138 Shifter and Linkages


Mounted up but can't find the right bolts for the linkages. They're around here somewhere...gotta find them! (temporary bolts are in place for now)


Buttoning up the rear cross member and the transmission mount. Linkages are working great!


Using many restored original fasteners for this drive line, courtesy of Rich (Enoch)


One of my employees (Keith) helping me out as he cuts the carpet holes.


Original console and gauges cleaned up and installed.


Looking good for a 50 year old piece, and so is that un-restored shift handle.


The Z/28 is starting to look like a car again. Won't be long now. Tic Toc

[napa68]

Looking good Graeme!

[outlawperformance]

That's going to be a sweet car!

[69z28302]

Love the Rally Green. I'm a fan of the less common colors

👍🏻

[mockingbird812]

Dang Graeme - she is looking FINE!!!!

[SS427]

Car looks fantastic! Great job by all!

[RPOLS3]

Looks great!

[Damien]

As expected, very nice Graeme!