Fixing up a '71 Grand Safari

Hey Killer, it's not actually any door switches or window switches that I was referring to. It's the one switch on the rear of the car for the tailgate/rear window. Someone somewhere on the interwebs, it may have been on this site or another, said they had one. I may have to go back and try to find who it was.



Thanks Dr. B.


Brandon

 

LOL ya gumba! I told ya I had em! like I said I should have 2 door/window switches and 1 window only switch(I said door only on my last post my bad) these are for the BACK door/window

 

Ohhh Ok, I see. I thought there was confusion and you thought I was looking for door switches, so I didn't want to have to send an excavation team in if you didn't come back from the jar-o-quietus. I see now you were referring to some of the cars that didn't have power tailgates. Goootcha.

I've been reading all weekend on how to attach a TV cable to a Rochester Quadrajet. So far.... this is not an easy thing to do... or if it turns out to be easy, it's not easy to dig through all the (mis)information and find the right way to do it.

Brandon

 

I don't think April should be on the fone, texting, OR watching TV going down the road in the Clam with baby in back?? :confused:

 

Yeah, haven't you heard? 700r4s came with a TV cable attachment so you can put rabbit ears on top of your car. Don't worry about texting, April and I don't text, and we don't have "smart phones." It's nice that we are both in agreement, our phones call people and that's all we want them to do. Hehe.



Brandon

 

agree 100% on the phone's a phone thing! I hate texting!

I will look at my q-jet and see if I can figure something out for ya

 

Did not look at my Q-jet yet but guess what I DID find!

 

That's OK. I spent a lot of time today studying quadrajets online and taking measurements on mine. I think I may have a solution brewing in my head. I won't know until I get some parts here to try. I also spent a while working on the rear moldings. I had two very stuck screws to get out so I could install the metal piece that David sent me. It was very difficult because my switch has gotten worse and worse. Any time I want to raise the window I have to take the key up front and roll it up and then the tailgate won't go up until you work the key back and forth and there is literally .5 millimeters of freeplay where it will go up so it's been difficult to test some ideas. It was blistering hot in the sun, before the rain hit, but this concept is very difficult. I'll explain later when I do a summation in a blog entry, but basically I have to find a way to get the water that drains off the window to channel into the drain holes in the tailgate, but that poses a problems for reasons I can't describe without pictures.

If you're alluding to the fact that you found a rear window/tailgate switch I'll kiss you on the avatar... seriously though if you did send me a PM so we can work out a deal.

I called the transmission place today and they said they were waiting for a speedometer conversion gear to come in, which should be in tomorrow and the receptionist (the guys wife) said that I should be able to pick it up tomorrow.

 

Right on. Now you'll have a shinny new trans to hook to your shinny new moter.

 

Have you been to this site for info Brandon?

http://www.monstertrans.com/store/

 

Window switch oh hell no I found Jimmy Hoffa!<kidding

actually I found 2 and they seem to work flawlessly and spring returns to center as it should. They weren't even the ones I was thinking of LOL!

 

I might have a line on some tailgate chrome

 

Well, if Brandon doesn't need it, I would like to be next in line. My tailgate molding has some slight dents in it.
David

 

Once again, for some strange reason, the forum didn't alert me that there was an update on the thread.

I don't need any tailgate trim so David can have at it. I need the very rear "C" shaped part on the driver's side and the long, bottom quarter piece. And one piece up front. They're hen's teeth.

Picked up the Transmission today. I also ordered a cheap digital caliper (micrometer). The setup for the TV cable, when custom made, must be exact to allow for proper operation of the trans, so I've got some work ahead of me.

Brandon

 

Hey Killer, I got the switch in the mail today (didn't have time to check it yesterday). I'll test it tomorrow.

We've been moving our house around to make room for Rose. What used to be our Den will now be the office. I've run new cable line under the house only to find that the internet won't work with the new line. The end result of this is that I haven't been able to use my computer and I've only been able to get online with April's laptop. I have finally gotten the mess of wires hooked up and ran a temporary internet cable from the other room so I could upload some photos and catchup on the blog. My VGA monitor cable extension hasn't come in yet so I had to sit my monitor on the mantle and type on the floor. It took me about two hours to upload, write, proofread and post this one entry and I'll tell you, my knees are KILLING ME.

It has been quite a while since I have been able to post any updates on my progress. Most of the things I have been working on aren't things you can take pictures of because the majority of it has been sitting at the computer and making telephone calls trying to weed out fact from fiction concerning the installation of a 700R4 into a vehicle it wasn't meant for. I believe in my last post we had just removed the transmission in the midst of a downpour. A few days after I went to the local Pull-A-Part in search of a yoke to fit the 700R4 transmission that would replace the TH400 we pulled out. After some research I found that the yoke from a 4L60E transmission is the same as the yoke from a 700R4. This made it much easier to find one in the junkyard. Jacob went with me to the yard, but when we got there we found that you must be 16 years old to get inside. He had to wait in the lobby area and as he sat there they coincidentally re-hung a sign, literally right above the chair he was sitting in, that had been down for a while. The sign informed patrons to not leave children unattended. Even the workers there had a laugh about that one. I was going to pick up a few more things while I was there but since Jacob was waiting while I searched the whole yard for a suitable yoke I tried to hurry as much as possible. Also, there was a huge thunderstorm moving in. Since the junkyard is on a hill I was able to see the rain moving in from the nearby mountains.

Many of the yokes have been pulled from the transmissions and laid on the ground or in the back of trucks, which causes their bare steel to rust immediately. I found one that was still inside the transmission, which also meant the driveshaft was still attached. The donor vehicle was this 1988 GMC pick-up. There was also a full size van that I considered, but it was a heavy duty and I thought it possibly may have had the 4L80E transmission rather than the 4L60E, which I believed might have had a different yoke and I wasn't willing to take the risk.

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It was very fortunate I had just encountered the GM style, nylon U-Joints with the removal of The Clam's driveshaft because I had just learned with them that heat is necessary for their removal. Had I not learned this I would have beaten on the joint in the yard until I was blue in the face. I also would have gotten wet. Since I had no source of heat at the junkyard and had learned heat was necessary, I had to buy the yoke and driveshaft together since I was not able to separate them. It ended up not costing too much extra because they only charged me for the driveshaft, not noticing the yoke was attached on the end, despite the fact I told them that I only wanted the yoke and that the driveshaft was bent and junk anyway. They said I would have to buy both, yet quickly forgot and when I got home saw I was only charged for the driveshaft. I took it to the scrapyard after I removed it from the yoke and got a handsome $2.00 for it. As Jacob and I wrapped the driveshaft in paper towels to keep from getting the inside of dad's Suburban greasey the storm hit and we literally made it inside the Suburban right as the bottom let loose. Once home, I heated the nylon until it popped out of the U-Joint like a snake.

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This is the upper, passenger side corner, where the tailgate raises up against the body. There is a screw on the right that gave me much grief to remove. Also, if you look directly below the visible screw on the left you will see a rusty area. This rusty area is the second screw which gave me a lot of trouble to remove. I had to do this in the direct sunlight and it was very, very hot this day, making this a near miserable task. This, and the comparable corner on the other side of the car, are where I will have to come up with a way to seal against water that is entering the car.

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I am a member of a group of station wagon enthusiasts on the internet that have a forum. One of its members sent me this metal piece that screws into the location you see here. I was very thankful because this piece is nearly impossible to find. Mine had rusted beyond use and pieces can actually still be seen stuck behind the screws in the picture above. I will sandblast this piece, repaint it and use it to attach a sealer that will lock out the water in this area.

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This is the same area with the tailgate closed. You can see the weatherstrip seals against the bottom of the metal piece, but more will be required above it. Also, though not visible in the picture, the big problem is that there are drain holes in this area in the tailgate and the window rubber and the tailgate rubber must be modified and attached in such a way that they will drain the water into the holes. They currently just allow the water to pool up at the base of the window. My window/tailgate switch broke yet again and finally got so bad I had to stop work in this area.

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After a lot of searching I finally found a reputable shop in Kentucky, coincidentally in the same town that we used to have the dealership. Dad went with me when I delivered it. A little over a week later, Jacob went with me to pick it up.

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Fortunately there was plenty of help to load it into the transmission case I'd brought on the trailer.

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There used to be a dedicated railway that went between our cities and one other. I have done a bit of searching to find information on the history of this railway and parts of it are still able to be found along the way. Jacob and I stopped to see what's left of the old depot, which is now being used as a storage building for a lumber supply store. As we were leaving an older gentleman inquired about what we were looking at and he ended up taking us through the building and telling us a lot of stories. One, for example, was how the liquor shipped in by train used to be stored in what can be seen as the left, front of the building in the picture. When the drunks in the town found out about this they used to drill holes into the floor and through the barrels, draining out all of the liquor. The railway was eventually decommissioned due to the extensive use of wooden trusses, which caused the cost of the upkeep of the railway to be more than the profit it could make.

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With no transmission, The Clam had been moved over to the side of the driveway. I hauled dad's four wheeler over to my house to pull The Clam back up to the garage, with April (and Rose) at the helm, for the transmission install.

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