The New, Newer Project: Part Tres...

[njsteve]

I got the scoring sheets from Steve Shauger:

Looks like we came "this close" to getting the ultimate award of "Time Capsule". You have to get a score higher than 95% in each of the categories to achieve that. As a result, the car was awarded Legend status as it passed the minimum 85% in each category.


We missed it by a few points in the engine compartment category for the following items as far as I can figure:

1) Reproduction battery: we got zero points out of 30 possible points.

2) We got zero out of a possible 15 points for the starter. The starter was the correct part number 1108436 for a Super Duty, but it original stamping date was February 1, 1971 - deemed two years too early for the car.

3) The alternator and power steering belts were not the originals. So we only got 7.5 out of 15 possible points.

4) In the "distributor, wires and plugs" section we got 16 out of a possible 20 points there. Not the assembly line spark plugs maybe? (the sheet doesn't specify what the deduction is for)

[427TJ]

Great story!

[njsteve]

You learn something new everyday. I crawled around the car and discovered that I had two of the three original belts on the car, and not just one.

So what I need is the 80 amp alternator belt if anyone can assist with finding the correct part number.

Here are the photos of the original AC belt and the original power steering belt.

478012 is the A/C belt with a WH and V2K code
483133 is the PS belt with a N9 and V2 code

and the aftermarket alternator belt just for length info (15515 -1193 12)

[njsteve]

I have been scratching my head over my starter which is an SD455 1108436 starter but has a 1B11 date on it (Feb 1971). It appears it has never been touched and no one in the ownership chain ever replaced it. I was told by the judges that it is too early to be a factory installed starter, which is why they gave me zero points for the starter. At the time of the show I had no idea the starter was that far beofre the car otherwise I would have researched the issue beforehand.

(It is interesting to note though, that all the 73 SD455 engines were cast in 1972 which was how the engineers got around the bosses trying to cancel the entire SD455 program once they found out about it - but they found out too late that all the engines had already been built and instead of scrapping the program, they decided to save money and just let the cars be built)


Well, I just had my buddy down the street (just 5 miles away) check his starter. He owns a survivor, original paint, Brewster Green SD455 Trans Am that he has owned for several decades and bought from the original owner. His car was built/shipped 20 days before mine 6/29/73 versus 7/19/73

and the result?

SAME PART NUMBER, SAME EXACT DATE CODE!

My starter:




His starter:




I am now reaching out to other SD455 owners about their starter dates. Stay tuned!

[69biscayne]

1971 V8 - 455 H.O. 1108436

Possible they used 71 455 HO starters?

[njsteve]

Yes, the 1108436 was the high torque application used in the 455HO and the SD455. It may very well be that they had a stockpile of them made in a certain batch and then just used them up as time went on.

[mockingbird812]

Great detective work on the starter build date!

[njsteve]

Thanks. It has really opened up quite a few eyes in the Performance Years SD455 subsection. The guys had no idea this anomolay existed and now they are discovering more and more of these starters on known survivor cars.

The interesting thing is that the SD455 engines were cast and assembled in late 1972 and sat in storage until being installed in June 1973. Looks like the starters they used were sitting around even longer than the engines, or that they at least made a whole bunch of the high torque 1108436 starters that week and just kept them for the upcoming SD455 project.

[njsteve]

Look what I just got! An early Christmas present from fellow member 69JL8 who collects old Delco stuff. My wife bought it for me for Christmas, (though she doesn't know it yet). It's an original Delco Freedom II display model (no internal plates).

While it is not year correct for the SD it would be for Gramma's '75. I have seen some of the factory stock appearing racers remove the bottoms and install a motorcycle-sized AGM battery inside and run them as a "decoy" battery.

[napa68]

sweeeeet!