I've been putting in 4 to 7 hours a day working on the Nova. It may not look like I do much every day, but I'm always busy working on or tinkering with something. Little nitpicky things that bother me take a fair amount of time to change to my satisfaction.
When I had mocked up the engine and started it up last fall, I had noticed that the alternator wasn't charging, so I pulled it off and looked it over, couldn't see a problem. So I took it to the shop I use for starter and alternator repair to have him look at it. He set it up on the test stand and confirmed it was not putting out anything, so he put it on the bench and pulled it apart. It is a 10SI Delco single wire unit I had bought from Powermaster way back when, and when he got it apart, he said he'd seen these single wire conversions before, and most of the time they don;t work well or not at all, like this one. So he changed the internal regulator and a diode trio and put it back together. Now, on the test stand it was putting out 14.5 volts and over 80 amps! He only charged me $38 total, and I was on my way. I put it back on the engine and thought it was good to go. Until I noticed today that he had clocked the rear cover 90° off, and the output stud was hitting the fuel line.
So I pulled it back off the engine took it apart and rotated the rear cover to the correct position and reinstalled it.
I have an Adco sway bar to install, so I unpacked it and spent 15 minutes freeing the sway bar from the bubble wrap that it was packed in, that had fused to the bar over the last 10 or so years. Read the instructions and looked pretty straightforward to install. Where the bar is bolted to the axle tube, they use a flat plate and a squared off C shaped piece that seats on the axle. I thought that was pretty hokey, so I bent a couple of pieces of 1/4" X 1 1/2" bar stock to seat properly against the axle tube, and welded them into the supplied piece. I bead blasted the pieces, painted them and once dry, assembled it to the axle. The directions clearly show the bar and the pivot mounted directly under the axle, but in that position the end link brackets that are supposed to bolt to the frame member in the wheel well are not even close to the frame. To get them positioned so the arms on the bar are level, as I'm sure they should be, the axle mounts are pulled forward at a 45° angle. I don't think that will work, because when the car body rolls one way or the other, that is going to want to twist the mount up or down due to the considerable force it takes to twist the sway bar, instad of exerting force directly under the axle tube. I sent a message to Adco to see what they think. This is supposed to be the correct sway bar for a Nova, but I don't think it's a good way to install it.
The motor mounts were new urethane ones, but after being on the engine for 10 years, the gold colored cadmium plating had really gone to hell, and they looked like crap. I debated what to do with them, and ended up bead blasting them, priming and painting them, twice. The first time, the primer didn't look too bad, but the paint developed huge fish eyes and looked terrible. I blasted that off and tried again, this time trying to blast as much of the cad plating off as possible. This time they looked better but still had a couple of fish eyes, but in places where it wouldn't show.
I hoisted the engine up, removed the support stands, bolted the mounts in place and torqued them down. Now it was finally the time to lower the subframe down from it's storage hanging from the winch in the rafters and get it ready to set the engine and trans in it. Once it was down on the floor, I couldn't believe all the dust on it. I spent quite a while getting it all wiped and blown off, but it looks pretty good again.
Now, I decided was a good time to install some of the fuel and brake lines that fasten to the subframe. I dug out the lines and figured out which ones go where. The lines are fastened to the subframe with special clips and 5/16" bolts. I had a bag of the old ones I had blasted and painted and some new ones, but unfortunately I had used all the fuel line clips and only had enough brake line clips to secure the brake line that crosses under the engine from the master cylinder to the right front brake line and another special one that clamps the crossover line and the line going from the master cylinder to the left front brake to a frame bracket. I ordered a supply of both sizes of clips, and hopefully they will be here next week.
I got the engine and trans positioned over the subframe and eased it down into place, it still fit! I installed the motor mount to frame bolts and the transmission to crossmember bolts and tightened them up. It ain't going anywhere now!
While taking a little Diet Coke break, I was setting looking at the wiring harness I had made for the transmission. It has a speed sensor, neutral switch and backup light switch that hook up to the electrical system and cruise control. I had kind of slapped it together one day and it looked like it. Not good. My OCD was itching to rip it off and make a better one, so that's what I did. Instead of using the six conductor cable, I used six differently colored left over wires from the body harness installation, installed a new Deutch connector for the neutral switch connector and spliced the other wires onto the speed sensor and backup light switch leads. Then I ran it inside a piece of braided loom conduit and taped up the joints. I hooked it up to the transmission and reinstalled all the loom clamps and now it looks 200% better. One thing I forgot, however, were the wires from the button on the shift lever that run to the LineLoc solenoid and 12 volt power. I think I can get two more wires inside the loom with no problem, so that's a task for tomorrow.
One of the next things is to move the engine and trans under the car in the installed position and mark the location of the shifter hole. Jeez, I hate cutting holes in new body panels, but it has to be done.
