Stuff

Sat was two hours spent mucking around getting the Chev up on stands. Pain of a job with the engine pipes getting in the way of everything to do with the trans. All good now and spent the time getting a setup which has good access. I turned the front wheels to help the passenger side engine pipe clear the steering link, then brought the chain block over and used fabric slings under the engine pipes to lift them up, it has worked really well and we now have a clear floor under the Chev. I have sat the end of the trans on one of my old ratchet stands with bricks/wood blocks under it to trim the height, so now it is an easy task to trim the gearbox level with the trolley jack as-required.

Sat night I bolted the ancillary drive bracket onto the engine. Looks good. The problem I had feared re. the power steering input was realised... it fouled the bracket/pulley.

Attached is a photo...

You can see the brass-coloured tube that is simply pushed into the pump housing, sealed with an o-ring and retained with the keeper plate you can see.

It needs to be clocked 90 degrees (and you'll notice a second keeper plate retaining bolt hole in the housing) but if you do, the tube hits the pulley. This isn't a problem, I simply bent the tube outwards using 2 x 3/8" extensions. But the second bolt hole is not tapped + mocking it up in the bracket, the keeper plate fouls the bracket in the clocked position.

So the next trick (and where I am up to) is to twist the tube in the keeper plate to maintain the keeper plate position, but have the tube pointing outwards at 90 deg.

J

Friday Fiddling

Joe (the champion) had the day off on Fri so headed north to do some Impalage. As we were unable to open the boot lock, the rear seats came out to give access to the boot interior. Joe removed the lock from the inside, so it is back to old HR days of opening the boot with a screwdriver.



A set of keys were on the floor of the garage when I got home... from the boot I guess?

A side discovery in removing the seats was a whole bunch of (what looks like) cotton waste stuffed under the seat base and back. Previous owners attempt at sound deadening perhaps? Anyhows, it looks like mice/rats had taken up residence at some stage in the Impala's past as there were nut shells and seeds all through the cotton waste. Not nice.



The interior is beautiful! Really good condition floor metal.



The axle stands were pushed into action and the Impala now sits off the floor with the LS wheels off.



There is evidence of the LF wheel brake cylinder leaking, so that we'll replace both front brake wheel cylinders. The front brake assemblies will come off and be cleaned in brake cleaner.

An inspection of the front suspension shows the ball joints to be pretty good, with a smidge of play in one of the LF ball joints.

The sway bushes are shot, so they will be replaced (both D-bushes and ends).



The worst wear was in the steering draglink. That will need to be replaced.