1981 Camaro Z28

[MP81]

Waiting on my IR angle air drill to arrive (Monday), but I wanted to at least get everything I could get done up until the point where I need the drill. Got the bar mounted to the axle, and unbolted the fuel/brake line clips that I need to (per the instructions). I'm limited on the driver side U-bolt, due to the brake line bracket that is welded to the axle, so I will match it when I do the final tighten on the axle mounts after everything is done.

I went right into installing and forgot to take comparison shots off the car, whoops! But comparing the stock bar to the Hotchkis bar on the car does show the difference in attachment schemes. The ends of the stock bar mount to the axle at the leaf springs, with those long "mid links" going up to the roof of the axle hump. The Hotchkis bar mounts to the axle (near where those "mid links" were on the stock bar) and the end links mount to the "frame rails". A much more rigid setup and should be far more effective. The bar is also much larger at 7/8" vs the stock 0.594" (~15mm).




Just waiting on the end links to be installed:

[MP81]

Finished installing the rear sway bar. Drilling the holes was...an adventure - glad I bought that small right angle drill, but it almost wasn't small enough when I went to drill the 1/2" hole through the other side of the rails. Lot of work, but it is all done. I was going to put the wheels on and drop the car back down, but I felt I was done for the day (I was hungry ).





End links and reinforcement plates (which required all the drilling)

[DynoDave]

Looks like a nice system.

[MP81]

Yeah - it should be a lot stiffer than the stock setup:

rear-sway-bar-differential-cover.jpg

[GlennT]

There's something sexy about shiny new parts mated with parts that have a patina.

[MP81]

There's something sexy about shiny new parts mated with parts that have a patina.

I agree. Kind of fits the "theme" of the vehicle. Plus, it makes the new parts stand out that much more.

Also, I didn't have to POR-15 anything, so that saveed me boatloads of time.

[MP81]

Got the car back on the ground today. Still need to do a quick alignment up front, but while I'm (still) waiting on the cluster, I should be able to start tackling the weatherstripping replacement.




All them shiny new components:

[MP81]

Finally got my gauge cluster - Dakota Digital HDX Series.

[DynoDave]

Looks like good stuff.

[MP81]

It better be, I waited at least a month for the stupid thing.

This will be my project this weekend. Wife will be up at a wedding shower Sat-Sun, so I'll have plenty of time.

[MP81]

Started on the cluster install yesterday - immediately shearing the brand new coolant temp sensor off in the bushing. Ughh...But at least I determined it can be installed in the thermostat housing - a lot easier to remove the unused vacuum tower there (from the smog pump) than trying to deal with removing the block-side one. It also doesn't dump coolant out when I remove the old one. I guess I just won't tighten the next one down as much (I'll use a much smaller adjustable wrench, so less torque overall). I also removed the factory oil sender behind the intake manifold and determined that the hex on the new sender makes it too wide and it hits the intake before it even threads in. I decided to stop working and mow the lawn, since I was kind of put off by all that. Later that night, I went and pulled the cluster out of the car, so that was all done.

Today, I made a lot more headway. Got my brass fittings and was able to install the new and old oil pressure senders, so I can retain the oil-pressure-based 12V source for the choke. Next I started to plan out how I wanted to run the sender wires into the car, and the path that made the most sense was through the speedo cable grommet...that the upper cable, which took me a damn month to install...runs through. At this point, I'm not using the speedo cables anymore, so, time to go. It fought me coming out, too - go figure.

With the upper and lower cables out of the way, I ran my sender harnesses into the interior, and routed/installed them (except the coolant sender, since I can't install it - but it's routed, ready to connect) in the engine bay and under the car (speedo). I also noticed the wire that connects to the sensor on the passenger side of the block, right under the header (no idea what it is, to be honest - but I believe the air induction flap uses the "signal" from it) had basically become so brittle, one of the spade terminals broke right off when I moved it, after I noticed it was basically laying on the primary. So I cut the two ends off that and made a short extension that is much more flexible, put some loom on it, and now we're in business. I noticed the scoop flap wasn't working, so that is all probably why.

Started going over the pinout of the factory connector, based on what I printed out online and by looking at the back of the cluster (thank god for that massive printed circuit board - makes it easy to follow the paths). The colors have changed over the year, but the pin location all seems to be the same. I'm thinking I'm going to extend each wire as I go, label it, and then I have plenty of length to play with - nothing I hate more than dealing with about a foot less of wire than I'd like.

That's enough writing, here are some pics.

Oil pressure senders setup:



Upper and lower speedo cable out of the car, for the last time. I think I determined that, even when fully connected, the upper cable can come out enough up top, behind the speedo, that can cause it to separate from the lower cable. That's my guess, at least. Both cables are unbroken, so, it has to be something like that. Good riddance.


Speedo pulse generator fits in a lot nicer than the big speed correction box, and routing the harness was easy. It stayed out of the way of the header on its own, but I wanted to be sure, so I tied it to the crossmember.


Fixed harness on the passenger side. The loom makes it look a lot cleaner.


Cluster out, three sending unit wires hanging out of the opening (left of the steering column):


Got some comparison shots of the stock cluster and the new one. Having an actual oil pressure gauge instead of a stupid ****ing clock that doesn't work and a dummy light is going to be night and day. Oh, and a speedo that doesn't stop at 90.






Crazy to see how far technology has come - compare the massive flexible circuitry on the back of the stock cluster, to the 8-pin connection and super-clean back panel of the new one, despite a ton more functionality.

[JoeliusZ28]

thats going to be such a big improvement. well worth ditching the original parts.

[MP81]

Absolutely. I'm pretty excited. Hopefully the pinout of the cluster harness, and my confirmation of that, is all correct. I'll be extending the harness today. Think I'm going to mount the control box right on the stamped beam behind the cluster - should be accessible from underneath, as well.

[DynoDave]

Well shit...now how are you going to know what time it is? You kids....

[MP81]

Well shit...now how are you going to know what time it is? You kids....

Well, given that clock was right only two times a day, I'd say my fitbit is probably my best bet. .

I can also get a clock module for the cluster.