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Well, spent a little money on the car this past week, decided to fix my speedo so it worked again, crawled under the car and started the journey of removing the tail shaft off the trans mission, the old driven gear was shaven smooth basicly, so I ordered a new driven gear, hot it here and it wouldn't fit into my housing. Turns out that my tailshaft was off an electronic speedo so I had to buy a new metal driven gear housing. That all cost about $75 for the speedo fix. But whole tearing into this I noticed that my torque arm Mount was missing. And when I say missing, I mean it. There was litterally almost nothing left of that mount. So I ordered a new poly Mount from work $25. Then decided it was time to replace the factory u joints aswell. So another $20 lol. Was an expensive and joyous weekend, besides running out of propane for the salamander in like 10 degree weather lol. And shoving that torque arm through that new poly Mount was a royal pain aswell.
Well, spent a little money on the car this past week, decided to fix my speedo so it worked again, crawled under the car and started the journey of removing the tail shaft off the trans mission, the old driven gear was shaven smooth basicly, so I ordered a new driven gear, hot it here and it wouldn't fit into my housing. Turns out that my tailshaft was off an electronic speedo so I had to buy a new metal driven gear housing. That all cost about $75 for the speedo fix. But whole tearing into this I noticed that my torque arm Mount was missing. And when I say missing, I mean it. There was litterally almost nothing left of that mount. So I ordered a new poly Mount from work $25. Then decided it was time to replace the factory u joints aswell. So another $20 lol. Was an expensive and joyous weekend, besides running out of propane for the salamander in like 10 degree weather lol. And shoving that torque arm through that new poly Mount was a royal pain aswell.
I'll give you a little hint when it comes to working with the torque arm, mount, and the tail of the trans:
Pull out the rear springs. Put the rear of the body on jack stands either under the LCAs (if you have the stock arms, put the stands under the body bushings) or just ahead of them and let the rear axle drop. Then remove the rear springs. The rear springs may come out easily just by pushing up on one of the lower coils or they may not, depending on how weak they have become over the years. You won't have as much trouble fighting the torque arm back into the mount with the springs out.
The mount was just trying to shove it through lol, but I do always end up fighting the back of the torque arm going onto the diff, seems like the angle is always off when I go to reinstall it, so I end up using the jack to try and reposition it. Thanks for the advise though, I'll try that next time I need yo remove the arm. Hopefully that will be when I install my new rear end, or a locker with new rear springs.
you should have been able to remove the top bolt and open the torque arm mount, position the torque arm and close the mount around it and replace the bolt
Well spent more money tonight lol. Took my girl out black Friday shopping today and decided to stop at best buy to just mess around and see what they had on sale, well somehow I ended up in the car audio meaaibg with speakers, found some nice kicker 6.5s I liked for the dash, and started eyeing some subs. Well long story short, my girlfriend bought me two Kenwood kfc-w12ps subs that were on sale and I bought myself the kicker speakers for my birthday. Now Iv gotta find some speaker holders for the dash since my car never had them so iv always had my speakers resting on the dash under the dash pad, iv gotta get more amp wire, a fuseiblw link, a new amp, and my step dad is going to build my box for me after i find the right material.
if they're a real deep speaker, they're probably not gonna fit, pretty much anything bigger then 4x6s are a waste and not fit-able, trust me i tried with some 6" a while back in my firebird. it was no go. and i didn't wanna cut god knows what in my dash to make it fit
Well got my kickers installed the in the dash, got my jbls installed in the sails and i had my dad make me a sub box for the rear to house my two Kenwood. Figured while I was at the back I'd finish up my fuel pump access panel, got a few wires re ran. Got my hatch and motor realigned and tight again. Anywaysm after Christmas she's getting new shoes. Cooper cobras 235/60r15s. Then when tax time gets here I'm getting a lock right locker with headers. I'm leaving the motor alone.
Well got my tires. I went with cooper starfires 340s. But I got a new motor yestrday. Trying to decide what to do with it at the moment. Im going to be starting body work soon.
Well guys I got a new motor. Was given to me from a customer at work who is always coming in. He got it for free with a bunch of other motor stuff and was told thst the motor was just worn out and needed rebuilt. Well I tore into it only to find KT has fresh pistons, fresh gaskets all the way through, new roller timing chain and gears, newer looking cam and lifters and a really good looking motor. Not sure what happen but I think it blew a head gasket because the intake valves are white and my DSD said that's a sign of coolent.
what makes you think the pistons, cam and lifters are new? Every cam ive ever taken out "looks" new, they run in oil, same with lifters... cant really tell if they are worn without using a micrometer
Well figured I'd update a little more. Been trying to retune the motor, been running a bit rich since it was winter time, now iv got to lean it out. I bought a new fender to replace the driver side I messed up in my accident, about to purchase a new spare tire well to replace mine since its rusted and maaco Just slapped it full of bon do which is now cracking. And I'm about to get two new center caps for my rims that I need. Now all I need are a bumper cover for the front end or at least try to save the one iv got, and respray. Has anyone looked at performance red? How close is it to victory red?
Iv never quit working on it lol. Here in the past month iv bought a new center console lid, agrant gt stwering wheel. Two different guage clusters. A 115 mph cluster then a 145 mph 83 z28 cluster. But just the other day I bought stuff to make my car a z28. Front and rear bumber covers off an 89 camaro, all the ground effects, new iroc hood, hatch, z28 grid tail lights, hatch motors, exhaust, arm rests etc lol
grid tail lights are just 85 up iirc more iroc then z28 lol my Z has the same tails as your car now haha. but awesome. glad your making changes and improvements
Need some advice guys. I'm not sure on if I should add the ground effects on my car :/ I want to because I love the look, it looks meaner in my opinion, but at the same time I don't want to because my car is original, you never see non gfx cars around here or really period. What do you guys think? What ever I decide though I'm doing all the body work do it, primering it and shipping it back to the maaco who originally painted my car because their paint work was amazing, just their body work sucked lol. Also not sure on installing my new hatch and spoiler to change my original 86 hatch with the firebird wing :/. Help!!
Personally, being that your car is one of the rare ones, I'd leave the GFX off.
That being said, it's still your car and you're the one who will have to deal with the results down the road (unless you sell at some point).
As for the Bird hatch/spoiler, there really isn't much special about it. Keep in mind your 86 hatch is a somewhat rare hatch with the brake light on the OUTSIDE of the hatch glass. 87+ had a different brake light setup (not too sure about those cars that didn't have a spoiler but I do know that the brake light was put in the spoiler in 87). The Bird spoiler doesn't fit the Camaro tail. It's over an inch extended over the quarters on each side.
Personally, if I didn't have to deal with filling the holes back in on my Bird hatch, I'd go with the 88 SAP spoiler. Well, actually, I've been flopping back and forth about it... It's the same thing I already have but the brake light is IN it instead of UNDER it... And it's an inch too narrow, as I've seen in pics.
Personally I love the ground effects on 3rd gens. Definitely look meaner and sportier imo, but if you want to look more unique than the other 3rd gens you see, maybe keep them off. Your car definitely looks great without them.
Well I ended up deciding to put the gfx on. I made the choice after I slipped the z28 nose into my car. Currently have my car sanded down and my dad is drilling the holes for the gfx and going to fab me up some brackets for the rocker panels to hold the long skirts. Between that and adding straight pipe to my car she is just sitting dormant right now.
Well Shes at the paint shop as we speak. They shot her in primer today. Was suppose to get her back tomorrow but they are taking their time. Which I'm fine with.
Well Shes at the paint shop as we speak. They shot her in primer today. Was suppose to get her back tomorrow but they are taking their time. Which I'm fine with.
Update again. I ended up blowing my radiator apart one day going to work, and ended up seeing that my water pump was cracked. So she got a few upgrades. I bought a new radiator, new heavy duty wateepump, re routed my heater hoses around to give may motor a cleaner look, bought a b&m shift kit and trans cooler, got a daaco 2800 stall converter, I should be going after a 3.73 posi rear end this next week after I start my new job. And I'm saving up for an lt4 hot can and some headman shorty headers. Should be a fun little street rod what do you guys think? Also looking at a b&m mega shifter and a gear drive.
Ouch. It's been awhile since I've updated this thread. IV still got the car, going on almost 7 years now I believe. It's got the ground effects now, new master craft tires on all 4 corners. I ended up doing the comp cam swap along with an accel distributor, stainless steel valves, upgraded ls7 springs, and accel hei distributor and a few other odds and ends IV forgotten about in the 2 years. Um last year I went back to daily driving it again after I lost my 07 impala over a family disbute on my honeymoon. She fought great from March 8th till September 13th everyday till the heater core blew on my way home from outta town one night. Since that day I parked her in the garage and that's where she sat. I just finished removing the old heater core today only to find my auto zone replacement doesn't fit so I bypassed the heater core for now and Parked her a outside in the rain for a while. I need to renew the plates, do a tune up and some wiring clean up and I shoul
d be driving her again
This picture is from tonight after I backed her outside
Glad you still have it, I got rid of all mine. Good choice on adding the ground effects, too.
I can say I never thought I would have it this long, I figured I would have wrapped it around a pole shortly after putting my small block in it but here it is lol. Over the last yearblife really picked up, I got married, bought our first house together and are both working full time plus she's going to school sobthr projects are slowing down. Besides the camaro I went and bought a 99 ram that IV also been dragging back from the dead
Well I'm still driving it around with the spool in it. It's not happy turning but it's expected. Right now I'm looking to find a gear shop to get the camaro re-geared and a locker installed and to also get the axles rebuilt in my Dodge with lockers. We will see how that goes.
Last edited by evilemokid94; Nov 1, 2016 at 10:27 PM.
Well I'm still driving it around with the spool in it. It's not happy turning but it's expected. Right now I'm looking to find a gear shop to get the camaro re-geared and a locker installed and to also get the axles rebuilt in my Dodge with lockers. We will see how that goes.
what do you guys think? Also looking at a b&m mega shifter and a gear drive. 
