Author Topic: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC  (Read 111912 times)

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Offline robfrey

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #75 on: February 05, 2012, 08:36:02 AM »
We've been using a electronically boosted master cylinder from a 87 Buick GN. It works really great but we do not have the bias adjust that you have.
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Offline Peter Jack

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #76 on: February 05, 2012, 09:58:55 AM »
This is just a really fun build. :-D :-D :-D
Keep up the GOOD work. :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

Pete

Offline Crosley

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #77 on: February 05, 2012, 11:27:40 AM »
The Rossler t-400 looks like a trans brake unit.  I was not aware a trans brake was used in landspeed racin.

 :-D
Tony in AZ...

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Offline stobl

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #78 on: March 05, 2012, 03:17:27 PM »
Random update time
(JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2012)

Finally got around to installing the bell housing and mounting it on the car.  One less thing to trip over.


Because i need a primer pump to build pressure in the fuel rails before the belt drive pump kicks in, i welded a bung onto the fuel filter head (sorry, forgot to get a finished one.  I'll snap it later).  Basically i hit the primer pump to get me the 40psi for the injectors until the engine fires and normal pressure can be maintained with the belt drive


View of the cramped "work space"   I really need to replace the bench- it's definitely going to collapse on me one of these days.  I really need to clean it up too.  lol.




Well, I FINALLY got around to finishing the firewall (for the most part).  only took a year. haha.


The explanation- the aluminum panel holds the air filter which is crammed in the space created with the above picture. 


In the above picture, you see the air intake holes by the windshield?  This is a view down it.  Low drag air inlet at high pressure zone.


A view inside:


I did the same thing with the driver side:




I had to cut this little piece out as it was folding over on itself.  I was just using my knee, a beater bag, and a hammer.  I just patched it up afterwards.


Since I wont be needing a speedometer drive anymore, I made a blockoff plate using the original (going to pick up a GPS unit one of these days)


Cut everything off, tap the hole, then lather a bolt with thread locker and sealer and torque it in there.  Simple and free




Then I hauled in the rear end to get some new brackets welded on, and to give it a once-over


These are the original lower control arms for the diff.  They have to go


Then....i proceeded to measure and chop off all the brackets (LCA, Shock, Spring)


Whatever welding rod GM used in the 70's is hard as heck. it took forever and a half to grind all of those down


All done


Then I took the measurements from the stock LCA mounts and transferred them back on for the new LCA mounts




Tacked on


Then proceeded to weld an inch, wait a half hour, weld another inch, etc.  Took a whole weekend


Because I couldn't weld on the shock mounts yet (havent come in), i took the diff cover off to have a look.   For anyone who doesnt know, cadillac in the late 60's-70's had their own specific diff.  It's some sort of cross breed between a 10/12/and 14 bolt.  For now, I'm just going to give it a once over to check it out, then throw it back in.  I just need something to get me moving until i can get back to the rear suspension.  I'm mad because i definitely can't use a spool from anything else for the time being.


what amazes me, is it's only 26 spline axles.  I can't even get a mini-spool for it, unless the 26 spline 10 bolt one will fit.  I need to call someone up and see if they'll measure


Then i completely yanked it apart, taking measurements of everything single thing i could to hopefully find parts that interchange


After that, i welded the tabs on for the rear sway bar (in case i need/want one later), and also finished the welding on the LCA brackets since the brake backing plates were in the way of the outside braces


Finally I caved, and after 2 months of getting no where with the lower control arms, I broke down and bought a press and tubing notcher.  I should have done that months ago



First test notch, it fits the ball joint cup perfectly


With that being said, I was able to crank out the lower control arms this past saturday with no problems at all


My limited welding ability with the tig


I also made a cross bar that connected where the shock will mount


I'm kicking myself for not getting a notcher sooner.  No way could I have done this with a grinder (all i was using before)


The finished arms.  The only "oops" that came out of it, was that welding the cross bar in pulled the bushings in just a bit, so its a tight fit on the body now.  but it fits.  Just takes some finesse with a hammer.




And installed on the car (I had to make new inner sleeves since the tubing that came with the poly bushings was for 9/16" bolts, and i'm using 5/8".  So I took some 3/4" CM tube and drilled it out to fit (didn't need much)


Now I can finally work on getting the coilovers mounted


After this, since I needed a change of pace, I pulled out the ring gear and pinion, since i also want to change the pinion flange to a normal u-joint pinion (12bolt will fit with slight modification)





As of now (3/5/2012) im waiting on a 3-3/8" holesaw to come in, so i can open up the shock mounts to fit the housing (3-3/8"od tubing), then I will weld those on.  Johnny joints should be in this week for the LCA, so I will mount the diff in the car, measure it up, and crank out a set of arms for the bottom.   After that, hopefully I can get a new pinion in, which will allow me to finally measure and order a driveshaft.  Unfortunately I have a feeling i'm going to need a 2 piece, and the initial eyeball measurements puts it near 80" in length.  We'll see.

The other major task is the front coilover mounts because it interferes with upper control arm mount.   I have a set of adjustable mounts, but we'll see if i even need those.  I'll have to get creative to figure it out.
-Blake S

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #79 on: March 05, 2012, 03:31:00 PM »
HFS. We love this guy!

Nice one Blake, watching with interest here...

You're right about the 70's GM axles...try getting those axles tubes out of a diff housing, them's real real hard...

 :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
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Offline saltwheels262

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #80 on: March 05, 2012, 05:47:21 PM »
from what I can see, those are pretty nice tig welds.

wouldn't a ford 9 inch work better?


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Offline stobl

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #81 on: March 05, 2012, 06:45:10 PM »
wouldn't a ford 9 inch work better?

I actually have a 9" laying in the yard from a late 70's pickup that I was going to use, however since the pinion is offset, by the time i cut one housing end off and center it, it would be too narrow for my frame rails (IIRC, around 56", and the housing is 65").

Anyway, this is just a temporary setup.  I'm not a fan of the stock 4 link setup (both geometry and mounting), so when the time comes after everything else is in order and the piggy bank refills, I'll completely redo the rear 4 link suspension and dish out for a nice built 9".  So far all I have in the rear is the cost of the brackets.  Depending how the bearings look, i might just clean them up and throw it back together.   Cliffnotes of my reasoning: it's cheap and requires less effort to get it to work  :)
-Blake S

Offline stobl

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #82 on: June 07, 2012, 08:07:25 AM »
Well I figure its about time I update again since I got a little motivation from last weekends ECTA meet and seeing Sean run his Cadillac.

MARCH 2012

Front LCA’s version 2.


Slowly getting better at tig welding.  I'm still spotty with aluminum though.  I have my good days and bad.


Oh, one thing I forgot. LCA tubing is 1.5”, the BJ cup is 1” tall and at an angle. so I squished the very end in the press to get it down to size and then notched it to fit.  Worked perfect.


Attention back to the rear end. I wanted to toss the stock flange.


Since crush sleeves aren’t available, I took a measurement of the one I took out and had a friend machine a solid sleeve out of some tubing, then I used shims from Ratech that were close enough to get proper preload.


I picked up a 12 bolt pinion yoke that fit “close enough.” The problem is it wasn’t long enough, so I cut a piece of tubing (leftover rear LCA) and tacked it on. I think it was maybe 3/16” thick, just enough to allow me to bolt it on.


Got the Johnny joints in for the LCA’s. The stock lower control arms are about 3” closer(Spread-wise) on the frame than they are on the rear end (1.5” out each side). The bracket on the frame rails is angled out from the factory, so these will allow that slight mismatch at the rear end. IIRC it was something like 62" on the frame vs 65" on the rear end.


Built the LCA’s, threw some paint on them (note their positioning in these pictures is arbitrary.  The johnny joints are because the mounting brackets on the frame are actually 3" smaller than the brackets on the rear end (this was stock positioning).  IIRC, frame is 62", rear end is 65" on center.  Also note sway bar brackets on that last picture.





-Blake S

Offline stobl

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #83 on: June 07, 2012, 08:16:27 AM »
MARCH 2012 (2)


Warning, this next part jumps around a bit.  I'm just posting the pictures as I jump around and worked on different things.

Coilover mounts for the rear – some cheap jegster brackets that I modified, and I enlarged the 3” size to 3-3/8” to fit my rear end. I just simply doubled up two hole saws and used the 3” as a guide.


I found a deal on fleabay for some slightly used superspeedway spindles


I also finally started working on the front suspension that I've been putting off


This is how I maintained the upper control arm position:
Cut away as much of the stock spring pocket as I could, while leaving the UCA mount holes (6” on center). Make a simple strap with the same hole spread, and tack weld a piece of angle to the frame to maintain position. Note this is an aluminum piece. I had a brain fart before I realized this wouldn’t work, and I make another strap out of steel. So then
put steel strap between angle iron and bolt holes, tack strap to angle, then unbolt all, make sure it didn’t move, then cut out rest of spring pocket. You have a simple position-maintainer.


Then I took some leftover heavy wall 2x3” box tube from the LCA jig and cut it to size, drilled some bolt holes for the 6” spread, tacked/welded it in place. I need to pull the engine to properly brace it. For now its basically just tacked


Remove the angle and strap, and you have a properly position upper control arm mount


I also had to cut out some of the frame in the area to fit the coilover.  Before I finish it up i'll probably box it in with some 1/8" sheet.


Back to rear coilover mounts. I took some more crappy jegster brackets and modified them to work. I doubled them up and made an adjustable unit so I can adjust ride height


Then to weld it on the rear end, I cut a bunch of spacers out of ½” tubing, bolted it all together to maintain position, then welded it on


By sheer luck I caught a hell of a deal on some super speedway spindles that are near identical matches for my OEM ones. Just has greater spindle drop which actually is what I wanted, but they were cheap and will work great


While going through my stash of parts, I noticed the throttle body seemed to drag a bit. It seems one of the backfires from the engine startup in October bent the throttle shaft


Now onto the rear upper coilover mounts


Cut off stock spring mounts


Heavy wall 2”x2” box tube welded in, upper coilover brackets made, welded on

-Blake S

Offline stobl

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #84 on: June 07, 2012, 08:23:31 AM »
APRIL 2012 (1)



Turns out stock control arm angles don’t like monoballs when everything is moved for a lower rideheight. Grr. That will need to be fixed. This is at the ends of travel that aren't quite extreme enough.


But at least I got to play around with visualizing the ground clearance. This is with 3” on a 28” tire


6” clearance (to lowest point on frame (at trans crossmember)


I figure while I’m working on the front end I might as well do the brakes too. More nascar junk For a GT wilwood rotor.


Tirerack was having a closeout on Conti extremes in 18. Good enough reason to get tires for the front.  IIRC they're rated to 186 or so.


“Street wheels” until I figure out what sort of wheels I’m going to get. I just needed something cheap for now. These did the job. Don't worry, they'll get painted black.


-Blake S

Offline stobl

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #85 on: June 07, 2012, 08:31:03 AM »
APRIL 2012 (2)

Since the floor is all screwy, I made a simple plate to mount the pedals to


Calipers showed up after a delay. Along with 13” GT rotors (This is mainly for when i give ORR a try)


Needed to make some sort of crossmember for the rear sway bar (Sorry for blurry picture)


Driveshaft showed up. 70-7/8” between the yokes. 5” aluminum due to length. Critical speed is 6400rpm, so there's my max rpm until I can put in a gear vendors unit and get the length down.  I'll get a picture of it unboxed at some point.


Due to the wheels seemingly only being designed for ½” studs, I had to modify a socket (angle grinder while it was chucked in a drill press) to get it to fit the extremely small clearance. A thinwall socket was slightly too large. Now that I know what works, I’ll get a couple more turned on the lathe.


Ordered the Intercooler cores. 2x 1000hp Garrett A/W units
 

Built a steering column for now. Also I mounted the seat (seat now back to being driver's for now)


Now to make the calipers fit. 3.5” Superlite bracket to a 5.25” (set to an offset for an unknown rotor).


Cut a piece of 1/8” aluminum as a bracket to work from and scribe a bunch of reference lines for the caliper, and drill holes for the spindle


With the brake pads in, I moved/shimmed the caliper around until it looked right on the edge of the rotor. Using the reference lines and a piece of welding rod, I was able to measure how far offset the new caliper bolt holes need to be (IIRC ½”)


Then take some 1.5”x1/2” cold rolled stock, transfer dimensions to that and drill


I had to slightly clearance the spindle’s brackets for the caliper to fit


Success! It just looks like it needs to be shimmed maybe .032” or so, so that it’s centered on the rotor
-Blake S

Offline Freud

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #86 on: June 07, 2012, 11:51:08 AM »
Great documentation.

I know how much work that is and you had to build it before you could foto it.

That's a lotta dedication.

THANKS,

FREUD
Since '63

Offline fast_TA

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #87 on: June 07, 2012, 03:42:42 PM »
I read the whole post at one time.  I am very interested to see how this car does on the salt.  I love long cars, while all of my other friends were building Novas and Chevelles  I was cruising in an old Impala.  Just because they are long and heavy that does not mean they cant be fast.  Keep up the good work.

Offline Plmkrze

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #88 on: June 07, 2012, 09:18:57 PM »
This is the shit! :cheers: :cheers:
Keep up the good work!
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Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #89 on: June 07, 2012, 09:37:04 PM »
Man posessed ! :cheers:
Few understand what I'm trying to do but they vastly outnumber those who understand why...................

http://thespiritofsunshine.blogspot.com/

Current Australian E/GL record holder at 215.041mph

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN SLOW BUSINESS.