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Great to see that '77 original engine bay. Most things under the hood that aren't necessary to making the car move were out of mine. No AIR (anti-smog device), A/C, air cleaner stuff and other things.
Wish I had your interior, even the seats are so much better than the tattered seats I have.
Condition of that steering wheel, carpet (besides the door panel carpet) and dash pad look too good to be original so would be amazing to me if not replaced already. Your '77 looks half the age of mine anyway, inside and out.
Hey, while I'm thinking about it... sure would appreciate if I could ask you a question I've had since replacing the alternator.
Do you have a second but unconnected red wire coming out of the wiring harness next to where the alternator wires are?
Thinking it must be original wiring harness yet no idea if it was there for a possible accessory item or maybe not original to the car, in which case it might not exist on yours.
Oh yeah, BTW, your BRIGHTS switch might have the connecting rod out of place like mine. I think I did that to myself when trying to wiggle it around to see if it was part of the tilt/tele column. I know I had a click sound and headlights changed when I pulled or pushed the signal lever, then suddenly I realized it wasn't doing anything.
I managed to find how the metal rod along the column, underside and left of it, went to the switch way back under the dash. I was only able to get it to touch and push it enough to change to normal dim lights. It had been on "bright" for weeks until then but I never drove the car at night anyway.
I think I might still be able to get that rod end to lodge into the right place on the switch but it was a struggle to get under there with the seat in. Takes some limber moves to get yourself upside down with a good view (mirrors??).
Last edited by LongRoadHome; Sep 1, 2016 at 02:35 AM.
Great to see that '77 original engine bay. Most things under the hood that aren't necessary to making the car move were out of mine. No AIR (anti-smog device), A/C, air cleaner stuff and other things.
Wish I had your interior, even the seats are so much better than the tattered seats I have.
Condition of that steering wheel, carpet (besides the door panel carpet) and dash pad look too good to be original so would be amazing to me if not replaced already. Your '77 looks half the age of mine anyway, inside and out.
Hey, while I'm thinking about it... sure would appreciate if I could ask you a question I've had since replacing the alternator.
Do you have a second but unconnected red wire coming out of the wiring harness next to where the alternator wires are?
Thinking it must be original wiring harness yet no idea if it was there for a possible accessory item or maybe not original to the car, in which case it might not exist on yours.
Oh yeah, BTW, your BRIGHTS switch might have the connecting rod out of place like mine. I think I did that to myself when trying to wiggle it around to see if it was part of the tilt/tele column. I know I had a click sound and headlights changed when I pulled or pushed the signal lever, then suddenly I realized it wasn't doing anything.
I managed to find how the metal rod along the column, underside and left of it, went to the switch way back under the dash. I was only able to get it to touch and push it enough to change to normal dim lights. It had been on "bright" for weeks until then but I never drove the car at night anyway.
I think I might still be able to get that rod end to lodge into the right place on the switch but it was a struggle to get under there with the seat in. Takes some limber moves to get yourself upside down with a good view (mirrors??).
I was surprised at the dash pad and steering wheel condition. The only thing I've found on the dash is a small crack joining a few of the speaker grill holes. No idea if it was replaced or if the PO was religious with keeping the car covered. He did give me a cover with the car.
I will check the alt wiring this weekend and let you know what I find, but I don't recall seeing the extra wire when I messed with the alt to change the belt last weekend.
I hope the headlight issue is something simple with the rod, also one of the low beams is out, could be the bulb or could be the broken wire I discovered near the headlight, just have not had a lot of time to look at these things yet. A couple of days of this long weekend will go towards the car though.
Congrats on the 77! Looks like a good start to a project, and you are very smart to put new tires on it right away.
Thanks!
I've been in that habit for a few years now with my project cars, even if I can't afford the best tires if I see any cracking or just know the tires are old they go. That's was reinforced this year when a beater truck with crappy tires had a blow out next to me on the freeway and pelted me with rubber and I barely dodged him as he spun out.
My smarts weren't with me when I didn't notice some problem on the car during inspection, but I'll detail that in another post
Thanks for taking the effort to make a picture and tell me no extra wire found at your alternator wires! Although now I'm really left wondering. At least I know I already have a place to power something else under the hood... what that might be... well I sure don't know. And could be risky not knowing what fuse, if any, it would go through.
That vacuum can looks about like mine, no worse or better. Still don't know what it's supposed to be for!
You must be right. I've ignored all that stuff. Didn't put 2+2 together because it's not up there at the firewall with the cable and hadn't even looked to see where that cable at the throttle (disconnected) went to.
Yeah I haven't even tried the see if my cruise control works yet.
After a couple of days doing a tune up its running wayyyy better and I haven't even played with the timing yet. I'll let the smog guy do that part and then if all goes well come home and advance the timing to where it runs best.
Bet it feels good to have the new tires on there. Mine were old with tread separating from sidewalls.
Looks like you need to spruce up the steel wheels. Had to go back to see other pictures to know if you already had trim rings and rally caps.
I painted my wheels black without a proper rust removal, only temporary and the rust is already showing through. Only doing things when time and money is good, my car's appearance is very rough inside and out. Your car looks much better than it already.
And it's just nice knowing you can trust the tires you have on he car, especially since the spare looks original and I don't trust that.
The rims are very rough, and they were loaded with spiders which made for some jumping around at the tire store. I do have the trim rings and caps, it was a hassle to get the rings on so I decided at first to wait until I fix up the rims, but the look without the rings has grown on me. I like that deep lip look, so maybe fix up the rims and only use the center cap.
Yesterday I decided it was running well enough with all the ignition work to attempt a smog, even though I suspected they might want the exhaust system fixed.
Shop #1: I went to my usual place, but I always go there on Saturdays, since it was Tuesday there was some older guy I've never seen before. I walk up and he starts off by asking if I'm here to smog that derelict, so whatever funny guy I say yes. He says they don't do carbureted cars any longer because the gas here messes them up and they won't repair it to make it pass. I let him know it has a full tune up and the carb seems fine and he says he bets me it won't pass, but I have to pay either way and then starts talking to someone else. I just cut him off to say that attitude will cost him customers and walked off as he started to give some more wisdom.
Shop #2 Guy is nice and says he's sorry but they only test fuel injected cars but we chat about the vette for a minute.
Shop #3 I go to another shop I have done business with before and the guy is much cooler and gives a visual and says it looks all good except yes the exhaust needs work. I go get that taken care of real quick, new y pipe and mufflers, basically cat back and come back to the smog shop a few hours later. I opt for the pre inspection and it passes everything easily, so then the official inspection is done which also passes. The guy never had to touch the carb or the timing once which was nice, I haven't worked on a sbc since the 90s but I remembered the relevant parts. I'll attach the measured emissions for my fellow data geeks.
Yesterday after watching a bunch of YouTube vids on quadrajet carbs I went back to cleaning the carb as much as I can without actually pulling it off. I also inspected and replaced vac lines and between the two almost all hesitation is gone. Once I can time it and put in a curve kit it should be fun for a base motor. I need a new crank pulley and maybe a balancer first but I'll detail that in its own post so it gets more eyeballs.
I still have the squeaky sound but t that's also another thread, I don't have time to dig in to it today but maybe I can get a vid of it later.
