Hillbilly fix came to roost...

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j par

Well-hung Member
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Well a stupid modification bit me today..
One of those funky repairs I did when I first got the car..
The Duster came with an automatic that I immediately pulled out with never even knowing if it worked or not. In when a full 4 speed conversion. of course all this was back before I had a garage and I was doing it in my uncle's driveway. Definitely before I join the Forum and have any kind of knowledge of such thing. Anyways getting to the point here finally the stud on the frame for the z bar I had just welded some piece of metal that I found to some big washer that I found at my uncle's house and so it's been for all these years.
Today I just couldn't get the clutch to disengage enough to get it into first or not grind reverse... I thought maybe the extreme heat was expanding things or something but that just didn't make all that much sense. as I was down there trying to make a little more judgment which I have got it completely adjusted all the way out, I finally seen it.. I have welded over the sheet metal that was welded to the frame. sheet metal finally peeled away from the frame and took my little pieces with it..
I'll take the z-bar out and make a proper repair tomorrow...
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Good for you! A lot of people wouldda fixed it and never said anything. Thanks for having the courage to share this. It may keep somebody from making the same mistake. Lord knows if it weren't for mistakes, I wouldn't know a damn thing.
 
We all did some ghetto **** when we were young......glad I lived through them all.
 
We all did some ghetto **** when we were young......glad I lived through them all.
Well I wish I could blame it on youth LOL..
it was when I first got to duster and was determined to put a 4-speed in it and do the conversion. I actually had to pay my uncle to let me use his driveway and some of his tools. He was virtually no help and kept talking about Chevys...
It was one of those things that I just sheer willed to happen... I never really felt comfortable with that half-baked bracket I put in there and it finally bit me... luckily it wasn't a hard bite and left me anywhere but it definitely left me scratching my head after that last drive...
Thank goodness the successes have outweighed my failures so far but I do have them and I try to own up to them...
 
Kind of think after a couple years gee whiz it's holding pretty well...
I guess all good things have to come to an end...
 
The factory put a reenforcing plate there to support the weak sheetmetal. It is roughly triangle shaped and is available new.
 
The factory put a reenforcing plate there to support the weak sheetmetal. It is roughly triangle shaped and is available new.
I'm aware. Likely though I will just reinforce what I have with what I have...
The nice part is this formally slant six automatic it still has the line up holes for where it's supposed to be...
 
I backed that area with a custom shaped to fit 1/4" plate, not welded. Maybe I oughta inspect it, It`s only been about 18 years, but I don`t detect any funky going on`s LOL
If I remember I added a small anti rotational bolt utilizing a hole already there.
 
Well what I did this morning was took all the z-bar apart and got that all out of the way and took the stud out. I put the stud back on the transmission so I could look through the hole and see that they're lined up. I'm more or less just clamped it back into place as it was pushed out. I went ahead and put some drill holes through the plate into the frame and just kind of re-welded it on there and took my time as opposed to when I first did it and I was at my uncle's and I was in a rush out in the driveway....
the adjustment screw or nut I should say on the final link to the fork is Frozen. I can see where I added an extra nut to get the adjustment that I needed the last time which I probably didn't notice the reason I needed that extra adjustment was because the stud on the frame was getting loose. So I go put it back on in the clutch is too tight. I took the bolt out and just added a couple of washers and made it what I felt was just right..
Now the best part a test drive!..:thumbsup:..:thumbsup:
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Oh yeah and $89 Harbor Freight welder to the rescue for the uncountable amounts of time...
 
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