The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Non-Traditionally Powered Corvairs
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hrm2k
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Post by hrm2k »

It has been almost a month since I did an update. Planning seems to take far more time than I thought or at least planned for. We have just tacked together the front cross member. Our plans call for welding in cross member brackets that came on the car. We have constructed the new cross member out of 2.250 ID thick wall square tube. It will be bolted into the bracket with a 9/16th bolt.
That might be a little industrial for some but it has become a major component. The motor mounts are fabbed and fitted but not yet tacked when this photo was taken.
The gold arms that can be seen in the picture below the cross member are on a jig placed between the trailing arm bolts. We will be fabbing up some brackets for the bottom of the cross member to hold one end of the arm. The other end of the arm will attach to the trailing arm itself. This will be a brace as well as the toe in / toe out adjuster.....at least that is the plan..........
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I also ordered some headers that were built for a V8 S-10 conversion. The passenger's side header fits like a dream and requires very little
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The same cannot be said for the driver's side. That one is going to require a little work

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More to follow on the rear cross member later this week
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azdave
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Post by azdave »

hrm2k wrote: More to follow on the rear cross member later this week
Try to avoid the temptation to use the aluminum tranny case for the rear support. I changed that failed design on mine and bolted to the block instead. Works great for me especially since I'm using the Toro single center motor mount up front.
Attachments
This is how it looked from the previous owner. Overly complicated and weak.<br /><br /><br /><br />.
This is how it looked from the previous owner. Overly complicated and weak.



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before.jpg (106.56 KiB) Viewed 7531 times
This is my redesign.<br /><br /><br /><br />.
This is my redesign.



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after.jpg (82.3 KiB) Viewed 7531 times
Dave W. from Gilbert, AZ

66 Corsa 140/4 Yenko Stinger Tribute
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hrm2k
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Post by hrm2k »

Thanks for information Dave. I was planning on using the 2 top bolts from the tranny case and 2 bolts further down that go into the block. The 2 top bolts are just the tranny to the BOP plate...........nothing more. Are we thinking this thing through completely?

BTW, we have about 10 pictues of your car on the wall for reference :tu:
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azdave
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Post by azdave »

hrm2k wrote:Thanks for information Dave. I was planning on using the 2 top bolts from the tranny case and 2 bolts further down that go into the block. The 2 top bolts are just the tranny to the BOP plate...........nothing more. Are we thinking this thing through completely?
I think so...just trying to help you avoid things that were wrong with mine when I brought it home.

I used the top four bolts that attach the tranny to the block (no adapter plate used in my install of course). I made a wood template first and then had a final part waterjet cut. I used slightly longer bolts to make up for the thickness increase when attaching the plate. I used slotted holes in the top of the hanger plate so I could adjust the alignment before it was all welded up permanantly. My thread shows quite a few pics of the rear mount fabrication. I probably still have the dxf drawing for the flat plate.

BTW, I can't tell from the pics but do you have the engine located slightly to the passenger side so that the left axle is not too short?

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1423&start=16
Dave W. from Gilbert, AZ

66 Corsa 140/4 Yenko Stinger Tribute
66 Corsa 140 Coupe w/factory A/C
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65 Monza 4DR EJ20T/5
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hrm2k
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Post by hrm2k »

We have the engine positioned in the car so both axles will be the same length. Flange to flange is 10 5/16 inches. I would like to center the engine but then the axles are really weird lengths.
I am using a 2 inch ( .120 wall) tube that has been turned down at about a 30 degree angle......why ? because it was left over from our 51 fleetline project . It was the back shock mounts that we changed. I am going to plate the frame rails with 11 gauge (.120 thick plate ) and add brackets to the frame rails as part of the mount. As in the front mounts, I am using a piece of 3/4 inch neoprene ( 75 durometer ) in between the tube and the mounting bracket.
I am using a piece of 3/8 ID thick wall tubing ( 3/16 wall ) as part of the cross member. It will be sunk into the tube and actually lay on the bottom wall of the tube. There will be 2 outrigger style mounts running from the lower bolts up to the tube.
The plan is to have all the fabrication done by the end of this week. If we make it, the transaxle heads to a local shop for a complete going over.......maybe a shift kit......... When it returns, the real motor gets bolted to it and in it goes. I'm getting excited :checkeredflag:
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hrm2k
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Post by hrm2k »

IT has been a while since the last update. The transaxle is out for the rebuild. Our rear crossmember has been completed as shown in this picture. The new coil overs can be seen in the background.
We ended up using a straight across bar ( like Dave's :wave: ). It just made more sense

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The mockup for the radiator mount is shown in this picture. You can also see the tacked together crossmember

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As we have continued on this project, I wondered about the actual strength of the stock frame rails. We decided to plate the frame rails along with the top of the rails ( which will hold our coil overs ). We used 1/8 " plate to add some strength to these areas as shown in this picture.

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We have just finished the tacking together of the new suspension arms. The entire trailing arm package moves with no binding or problems. I will try to post some of those in the next few days.

Our plan is to have the built motor and rebuilt transaxle bolted into the car by the 4th of July...... :fingerscrossed:
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azdave
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Post by azdave »

Looks like excellent progress. You make me want to go work on my Vairs again but I still need to get my garage in shape from the house move.
Dave W. from Gilbert, AZ

66 Corsa 140/4 Yenko Stinger Tribute
66 Corsa 140 Coupe w/factory A/C
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hrm2k
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Post by hrm2k »

I promised a quicker update so here it is. We have been agonizing over how to handle the trailing arms and newly required adjustment rods which did not exist. While we were in the throws of heavy debate, my buddy Frank Jenkins who is the driving force making me work on this thing, saw my old strut rods from a Corvair Motorsports Kit that were on the car before I started this adventure. I thought he had found a lot of money by the way he was yelling. Turns out in his mind, the strut rods would serve the purpose of adjustment rod on the trailing arm.
We found the points that are the same level as the trailing arms. It turns out the strut rods were almost perfect in length to the trailing arms. Some basic geometry and we knew we had come up with something pretty good. We made all of our plots, fabbed up some brackets and here you are:

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here is a closer look at how they are mounted. We still need to finalize the welding along with gussets on all the attach points. The bars are at the same angle as the trailing arms. We found that we had about 14 inches of non-binding travel with this setup. That is more than enough as we are planning to have a total of 5 inches of travel with the coil overs.

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Last but not least, a small block chevy needs to have a notched oil pan for the cross over axle. None exist so we made our own using some tubing that we has in the shop.

Image



Next update : The motor build
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hrm2k
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

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Well, the engine got put off for another week so I went to work on some of the other pieces.
First was cleaning up the cross member and doing some final welding and dressing
Image
Image
This will be the final time out of the car for the cross member. You can also see the placement of the control arm brackets for the trailing arms. They have yet to be gusseted and final welded but that should change in the next couple of hours.

One of the guys on the board asked me a couple of questions regarding how the control arm attached to the trailing arms. We used a 1/2 bolt; removed the head and ground a 45 degree angle. after figuring out the correct lenght, we tacked the bolt to the trailing arm as you can see in this picture.

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We will gusset this bolt from 3 sides when we do the final welding. Also visible is the tacked in place coil over mounts on top of the arm. These will also be gusseted and final welded.

While I we were getting ready to tack the coil over mounts to the arm, I snapped this picture which shows where the coil over will live when we are done

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The top of the coil over is done with a stud which sticks through the are above the wheel.....not exact but you get the idea

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I looked a long time to find out how others have done their axles in these kind of conversions but had little luck. So my buddy Frank Jenkins and I decided to do our own engineering. I bought 2 axles for a 73 Eldorado. we knew they had to be shortened. After talking about the axles for a week or so, we decided to use Th350 output yokes. We found a machinist who is goig to turn down the axle shaft as well as shorten them. Then he is going to spline the axle shaft to be exactly like a turbo 350 output. We will give it about a 3 thousands oversize so the yokes are a heavy press fit. Here is what the axle and the yokes look like

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Since we got rid of a few pieces of rod holding the trailing arms in place, it was only natural to take a look at how the louvered trunk lid is going to look on the car............kind of liking this look :checkeredflag:
Image

more news to follow this next week:
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cad-kid
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Post by cad-kid »

Thanks for the update!
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Post by PHX65CorsaHT »

Lookin good nice work. Always liked the louvered hoods on earlies and wondered how it'd look on a late model. Looks good as I thought it would. Look even better when you paint. I realize its way back burner but have you picked a color yet? The yellow actually looks good imo. Not too many yellow vairs around.
Cave Creek AZ---75 Datsun PU, 82 Toyota Supra, 70 Nova,
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hrm2k
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

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Believe it or not, I am leaning towards a 1953 Ford Color, seafoam green. The top will be gloss black along with the windshield posts and sail panels at the back. The headlight panel will be flat back including the aluminum trim. The tail light panel will also be flat black. I plan on dumping the weld prostars in favor of 10 inch rally wheels in the back and 6 inch in the front. They will be painted seafoam green anf have small center caps.............kind of like this

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between the louvers and the grill at the base of the rear window, you can see most of the back of the engine and transaxle.
BTW.........that chevy orange is the motor and accessory color. The rest of the frame rails and cross members will be black
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hrm2k
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Post by hrm2k »

Things have started to move rather fast. A couple of afternoons and we now have an engine

Image

While adjusting the valves, we got stuck on something in the engine. The crank was hitting something. We just about crapped in our drawers. After some investigation, it turns out a piece of the windage tray which was cut for the axle tunnel was being hit by one throw on the crank. We dropped the oil pan and made quick work moving it out of the way. Nothing hits anymore...... here is what the axle tunnel ended up looking like

Image


Looks like the entire engine transaxle will be hung in the car late next week........I'm driving it before September 1st
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Corvair.crazy
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Post by Corvair.crazy »

You are making great progress, nice work.
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Vaircooled
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Post by Vaircooled »

Very nice work indeed.
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hrm2k
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Re: The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

Post by hrm2k »

thanks for the kind words guys, I appreciate it
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