3.31 gears with 283 engine and 700R4 transmission?

[gordr]

Other things intervened; did not get much time on this car today. But I did find a very nice pair of 11" finned drums, cleaned the rust off them with a stripping wheel, and got them mounted to the hubs. There was also a nice set of shoes with them. And they, too have the short lining on the rear.

[StudeRich]

Yes the Lockheed Style, '55 to '62 1/2 Ton Truck Brakes used on Avanti get the short shoe to the rear.
Two out of Two sets is a good clue.

[gordr]

Avanti is back on the road! Rear end is not making any noise as far as I can tell, driving on the gravel road. A little better acceleration; no surprise there. I will take it for a short road trip tomorrow, and listen for noises on pavement. The noise made by the left rear brake drum scuffing the backing plate is now gone. Brakes work fine. Still some squeal from the front discs.

[gordr]

Well, 20-odd mile road test completed. The axle howls, especially in the 40-50 MPH range, when pulling, not coasting. Pretty quiet at 60-65, but maybe my limited hearing accounts for that, LOL. Car is back on the hoist; going to proceed with the transmission swap now. I will drop the oil out of the axle, and see if it is adding metal to the oil. I suspect the noise is pinion bearing-related.

[gordr]

There did appear to be impalpably fine metal flakes in the oil from the differential. And I now have the TH350 transmission out, and setting on a barrel. Had to disconnect the LH exhaust pipe from the manifold to get clearance. Whoever installed this engine/tranny combo used some weird ram's horn manifolds that exit at a 45 degree down angle to the rear on each side; not the straight-down exit as used on McKinnons in Studebakers. Since I have a set of the right stuff, I think I will change that. Also change to a cable throttle setup, for a cleaner overall install.

Anyone here know if the Avanti shifter has enough throw to accommodate a 700R4 manual valve. This one already has a PRND2L quadrant in it, but "drive" never engaged until the lever reached "2". Would there be a shifter detent plate and display window ready-made for a 700R4 off some later Avanti II?

[gordr]

Small further progress: got the proper ram's horn manifolds off the parts McKinnon, and got them de-gunked and painted with high-heat paint that mimics fresh cast iron. Got the el-wrongo manifolds off the Avanti. They have bungs for an A.I.R. emissions pump, so maybe late 70's early '80's car? They might work well in the El Camino.

[gordr]

Further update, September 16: the new manifolds are on the engine. I removed the shifter from the body, and dummied it up to the 700R4 with a wood block and some angle. There is indeed enough throw on the shifter to move the lever on the transmission through its full range. I did remove the rubber bumper at the "low" and of the arc. And I wire wheeled and painted the frame shells for the shifter, and managed to get a small COB LED into the lamp holder for the indicator. I think the detent stop built into the bezel of the shifter, which really only governs Park and Reverse, will work OK for the 700R4 as it did for the TH350. And it looks like I will be able to mount a pair of Microswitches on bracket by the transmission manual lever to give me neutral safety and reverse lamp functions. One other little mod: cut the hard lines for the cooler short, screw them into the bungs on the transmission case, and anchor them to a metal bracket screwed to the flange on the front of the tranny housing, and let them project forward under the starter. Use compression fittings to couple back to the lines from the cooler itself. Avoids trying to start (and tighten!) flare nuts in an awkward place to reach.

[gordr]

Not much to report today. Spent some time trying to make a bracket from sheet duraluminum for the microswitches for neutral safety and reverse. Tough stuff to work with. Going to have to use thin body steel instead, as it will require a tight bend that I cannot make in the dural sheet.

[gordr]

OK. got the mounting plate made for the two Microswitches, and they both work. Put red/white striped wires on the neutral switch, and white/black on the reverse switch, as per the official wiring diagram.

[JoeHall]

Thanks for the pics, wish I'd been smart enough to come up with something like that when I installed the 700R in the wife's GT. She still doesn't have backup lights. If I ever get round to it, now I know how to do it. THANKS!

[gordr]

Yeah. I'm still in the dark as far as the wiring goes. The old neutral safety worked, at least in Park. Don't know if the backup lamps ever worked. But both switches were attached to a hand-made harness that runs along the frame rail, and goes up past the base of the steering column. The harness plug with the red/white wires in it, right by the shifter was not connected, and it looks like another pair of wires in that harness was clipped. So... I found the green wire in the new harness, if fed 12 volts, caused the left-side backup lamp to come on. Brown wire, I'm guessing goes to fuse panel or "Accessories" on the ignition switch. I guess the two black wires are neutral safety, but feeding 12 volts to them does nothing at all.

I just finished making a hybrid dipstick tube. TH350 dipstick tube was too large at the end that stabs into the transmission, and some 4L80E tubes I have had the right end, but were shaped wrong. Spliced the tip of one of those onto the TH350 dipstick tune, and relocated the stay brace. Tube should now poke up into the engine compartment in wide-open space outboard of the RH exhaust manifold.