O.k...Interesting senario...

[StrayCat]

Pepe Boys is overpriced as hell. I haven't gone there in years...

Ok. Car runs like a new car. And no more annoying belt squeal. But that exaust leak comming out from around the busted EGR is annoying as hell. Now that the car runs smooth, it's even more obnoxious. I'm just afraid with the intake port where the EGR bolts up being all burned and cratered, I won't get a new EGR valve to seal correctly. I could go with an edlebrock intake, but I don't want to put this girl through that expense. This is Vampirate Maiden's coach btw. It's the same one she's had all the issues with for so long. Well, 98% of the issues are resolved as of today, and she's already bought a new carb, ( wether or not it was actually needed considering what was found I don't know). But I want to get her and her coach back reliably on the road without anymore multi hundred dollar type expenses. Hell, I only have 45 bucks and about 8 hours in it so far, I'd like to keep it in the double digit range.

[tonytheskin]

I guess just needed someone who new what they were doing to put their hands on it. Even if it was you.

[StrayCat]

Houston we have a problem. Not only is the center support bearing obliterated. but the brace that the coach company welded to the frame to mount the bearing is obliterated. It's got the cancer. Bad. You can see perfectly what parts of the car were done by the coach company based on the rust and it's severity. It's really not safe to drive. And it's going to be absolute hell to repair this. I was thinking I may be able to weld a peice of 1/4 flat stock to the underside of the frame section, but I don't know if there is enough good metal there to do that even. At first I thought the mount was just missing a nut, then I noticed the whole mount was crooked. l then stuck my finger into the half dollar sized hole in the frame just to find that the nut and washer were still there, but the frame has rotten so bad that it just pulled the whole thing through it. I'm getting pics of it in about 10 mins. If you're like me you had to see it to believe it.......

[musikill]

Your first mistake was in saying how good she was now running. Damn. Even when my coach is running "good" I don't talk about it out loud. It's like having a high maintenance, hot ass girlfriend. They find out you might be happy, or even close to it and they up the drama. Ya know? Just to keep you in check.

[StrayCat]

Well, here's the pics of the damage. It's nasty.....

There's also a huge gaping hole in the floor under the driver's side foot section.

[Boogeyman Con Carne]

Not knowing the contour of the floorboard, would a transmission crossmember from another car fit in this spot? Does this crossmember go all the way accross the coach from framerail to framerail?

[StrayCat]

Yeah it goes from one end to the other. From frame to frame. And it's welded in at both ends with some serious welds. It's going to take some serious math and design, not to mention materials to repair this. You could cut one off another coach, in theory, but you would have to cut really deep into the donor car to make sure you get enough metal on the ends to make a good solid weld. It's a pretty serious pivot point. Also, in theory, I could replace the 2 piece drive shaft with a 1 piece, but then there is that expense issue again, the car has ALOT of cancer, and may not be worth thowing hundreds of dollars at it anymore. It already has alot more money in it than what it's worth. We are discussing options with it now.

[Venom]

could you get a piece of c-channel and run it across, notching it for the shafts?
or even a piece of 1/4" plate and run it across and under the frame rails bent up on the ends to bolt/weld to the sides of the frame?
That way you could just chop out the bulk of the original and leave the old welds in.

something kinda like this (the[]'s representing the frame and the O being the bearing)

|[]_________O__________[]|

[StrayCat]

Oh, and a regular transmission crossmember will not work. not only are there difference in design issues, but there just wouldn't be room for it. I'm going to have to custom fabricate a new crossmember, and the steel riser plates, and replace the bearing in it's entirety. This is all custom fab stuff anyways. This is the coachbuilder stuff not the Buick stuff. The front section of driveshaft may even be slightly boogered, I don't know. When I saw this carnival of carnage I made the decision not to touch it untill a decision by the owner has been made.

[StrayCat]

could you get a piece of c-channel and run it across, notching it for the shafts?
or even a piece of 1/4" plate and run it across and under the frame rails bent up on the ends to bolt/weld to the sides of the frame?
That way you could just chop out the bulk of the original and leave the old welds in.

something kinda like this (the[]'s representing the frame and the O being the bearing)

|[]_________O__________[]|

LOL. good, you understand what I'm talking about. Yeah that is my thought. But I'm going to have to find some serious tensile strength steel to do it. Regular C channel won't work. It will either bow,flex,outright bend, or vibrate like a motherfucker.

Plus....in between the bearing and the crossmember are about 8-10 flat metal plates stacked one on top of the other to raise the bearing up enough to level the forward driveshaft section with the tailhousing of the transmission. This isn't a light job.

[Venom]

maybe replace the stacked plates with a piece of square stock or rectangle stock welded on its side.
depending on how much clearance you have, maybe weld some 1" square on top or bottom (both?) of the 1/4" to brace against flex.

LOL. good, you understand what I'm talking about. Yeah that is my thought. But I'm going to have to find some serious tensile strength steel to do it. Regular C channel won't work. It will either bow,flex,outright bend, or vibrate like a motherfucker.

Plus....in between the bearing and the crossmember are about 8-10 flat metal plates stacked one on top of the other to raise the bearing up enough to level the forward driveshaft section with the tailhousing of the transmission. This isn't a light job.

[StrayCat]

Yeah. It's going to take some intelligent design no doubt. And god knows how many trial and errors. It's possible. It's just a matter of wether or not it's practical considering the situation. We'll see.

[Venom]

Heh If ya couldn't tell, I like fabrication

[StrayCat]

Well, it's a hearse...lol. It's almost completely fabrication. It's really rusty. You can see it on the outside, but it like "wow" when you get under it. I really and truely wanted to get the powertrain done right where she could at the very least just drive it untill the body fell off, but as you can see, even that has become ......let's say an "adventure"...heh.

[StrayCat]

wow.231 views. This is a popular thread. I should keep working on nothing but basket cases.....I'll call it...." As the wrenches turn", or " the rust and the busted" or something.......