Bear with me, guys. I'm still in the early learning stages, but I'm trying my best to grasp it all. I probably shouldn't have bought the car that I did, but hey, that's how you learn, right?

I have a manual on the way, but I suspect it won't be extremely helpful since the car seems to be a little Frankenstein-ish. It was originally a 5.0 V8, and they swapped it to the 87 Chevy 305. It's got an Edelbrock 4 barrel and a shift kit. It also has a cam, but I don't know anything about it other than it's "small". If there's more info that you need, let me know and I'll try my best to figure it out.

Anyway, I'm having a couple of issues:

1. The car bucks like hell when it's shifting in the lower gears, but it doesn't happen if you shift manually. Also, when shifting automatically, it sounds like the motor is straining before it finally shifts. My tach doesn't work, so I can't tell you the RPMs. Someone suggested that there may be a leak in the vacuum lines. Are there any other possible causes to consider?

2. When turning hard left, I hear a popping/grinding kind of noise in the front left tire area. It doesn't do this if you turn the wheel while it's parked. From looking online, it leads me to think it could be the tie rod or bushings, but that's just an uneducated assumption. Any other possible causes?

Thanks for the help guys. Try not to flame my total and utter ignorance...

 

Does it idle smooth or fluxuate-- idle high then low?

Can you post a pic of the carb & linkage with the cables attached to the carb?

 

shift kit is making it buck

 

that grinding noise is because the front wheel bearings either need to be repacked/replaced. they are cheap to do

 

The idle is very smooth. It doesn't fluctuate at all except on the initial start. I'll upload pics of the carb in a few minutes.

I played with driving it a little more. When I really put my foot in it, the bucking isn't quite as bad, but it really sucks driving in the low gears. We've got a lot of 30 and 40 mph speed zones around here and it sounds like the motor is just dying to gear up. I hate manual shifting, but it looks like I just might have to get accustomed to it...

Sweet! Cheap is good. Thanks. Now I just have to get them replaced by someone who will let me watch.

 

The bucking and tranny problem might be your TV cable is out of adjustmend which is BAD. The tech articles will tell you how to fix it.

Yes, it sounds like a wheel bearing - very easy to do. It could also be some worn suspension parts. Look under the car and follow the steering shaft to all the parts that move when the wheel moves. Look for loose bolts, bad bushing, excessive wear.

 

Carb linkage:



I took a quick look at the bushings before I left for work earlier today, but to be honest I wasn't exactly sure what everything should look like installed. There's a small gap between the bushings and tie rods, but it's looks the same on both sides. I'll look more closely tomorrow.

TV cable. I'll look into that... off to research some more.

 

Watched a youtube vid about the TV cable. It said that the cable attaches to the tranny and the throttle body, but my engine isn't fuel injected. Should it be connected to the throttle on the carb instead?

 

It will hook up to the carb linkage. The trans shifting does sound like a TV cable adjustment problem first.
As for the steering items. Have some one turn the wheel while you are looking at them under the car and see what moves and what doesn't. If one part moves but the next in line waits then there is looseness at that point. Whereever the looseness is could be indicating a bad part.

 

The TV cable is not taut at WOT. I'm going to get some lead sinkers from my dad and try to adjust. Thanks so much to all that have replied. I would have never known to check this.

 

Bowtieoverdrive has a section dedicated to TV cables.

tvmadeez.com

Some guys use their system & say it's the best.
Give it a look, great info there

 

I've been watching more youtube vids, and browsing forums, and now I'm more confused.

Some people have shown a temporary fix by taking up the slack by using spacers on the end of the wire where it connects to the carb.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/carb...-too-long.html

Others show an adjustment that is made via the clip that's nearer to the firewall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQlCkb_eIpA

I looked at the tech articles, but it didn't help. It's not the same setup as mine.

If it were solely up to me I would just buy a new cable, brackets, and a pressure gauge from bowtie, then pay an expensive labor charge to have someone else install it... but a lot of people (my husband included) are saying that this one can be adjusted properly.

I don't want my tranny screwed up, but on the flip side, my husband will get pissed off if I spend $100+ to reinstall a new TV cable when he thinks it's unnecessary. I'm in a lose/lose situation, I think...

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Update: We clamped 2 pieces of split shot onto the cable to get it taut at WOT. Test drove with about a 60% improvement in shifting.

 

In addition to the clamping you've done, you may want to adjust it. So here's my blah blah blah on the matter:

You have a TV cable. It's attached to your carb properly. Geometry may not be perfect but it's probably close.

You should go through the madeez site link above thoroughly.

For adjusting: You may read or hear reference to cranking the carb to full throttle to "adjust/set" the TV cable. In theory, it might partially work part of the time. But I haven't had a TV cable that allowed for this method in years.

Locate the adjustment release button on the large plastic end of the cable housing. The plastic end clips into the carb. linkage bracket at the rear driver's side corner of the carb and it has the D-shaped, usually goldish anodized steel coloured button. Push in the button (might be tough) and keeping note of the position of things, grab the 2nd black plastic piece from the front of the car and push it a tiny bit forward and a tiny bit back. Do what you need to do in order to remember where it is. such as a marker.

Drive the car. If the shifts seem low / the trans. takes a long time to shift, the slider needs to go towards the rear of the car. If the engine is winding out and seems ready to shift but the engine is not, the slider may need moved forward. Moving it 1 or 2 clicks at a time and driving the car again is a valid way to know if improvements are happening.

If the geometry is off, you could have a "not enough" pressure at low throttle situation and a too much pressure at high throttle situation. Or the opposite.

The TV adjustment is critical to a transmission having proper pressure on shifts and not slipping and burning the clutches and bands. But it's really not hard to adjust and if you don't over-do it, you won't hurt it.