jolyrgr

I purchased my '87 Conquest from a former road racer. Â When I got the car, I noticed that the clutch pedal felt weak. Â No matter how far to the floor I pushed the pedal, I always managed to graze 3rdgear. Â My assumption was that the clutch master cyl. or slave was worn out. Â After re-kitting both, and several hours bleeding, the problem was no better. Â Finally, after consulting with a friend of mine (who just happens to own a tranny shop), the actual problem was indetified. Â The clutch pedal hole, used for the mast. cyl. mounting pin, had been elongated after years of racing. The solution of my friend was to weld the hole up and re-drill. Â Although this would have solved the problem, I really did not want to wait until I had access to a welder (even though we are only talking about the weekend here). Â My clutch pedal did not always return to the origional heighth. For some reason, as the pedal wore, the pincreated a catch. Recently I had noticed a popping noise when I first pushed in on the pedal. The noise ended up being the pin hitting the other side of the elongated hole. I will see if I can clarify my actions( unfortunately by brain works much faster than my fingers). After the clutch pedal assy. was disassembled from the car and the pedal removed, I drilled out the hole for the push rod pin to 31/6", trying to center the new hole in relation to the damage as much as possible. (Now if your pin hole is worn out larger than 1/2", you will need a different bushing than the one that I used.) Next, I prepared the new bushing for the pin (HELP part # 38377). The O.D. of the push rod pin is 13/32", and the I.D. of the bushing is .376"(slightly over 3/8"), so a little sanding of the bushing will be necessary. The Dremmel comes in very handy for this, but it can be done by hand with sandpaper or a fine file. Remove the material evenly around the I.D. and check for fit often. The pin should clear easily, but not have any 'slop' inside the bushing (don't be tempted to do this step after you insert the bushing into the pedal as the friction from your sanding can 'spin' the bushing in the new mounting hole). After I was satisified with the fit of the pin, I turned my attention to the mounting hole. The O.D. of the new bushing is .495(just under 1/2"), so once again a little sanding is needed. I chose to sand the bushing to ensure a tighter fit and make a mistake (like taking off too much material) much easier to correct. Now that the O.D. and I.D. are correct, I trimmed off the flange on the bushing and tapped it into place on the clutch pedal. The bushing should need a little coaxing to go in, but not so much as to distort the shape. Once in place, a little more sanding to match the bushing to the pedal thickness was necessary. The pedal was then ready for re-installation. A quick check of the pin clearance and reassemble the clutch pedal assy. to the car, using a tiny ammount of grease on the pin at install. Now I know it sounded like a lot of sanding was involved, but I assure you that it goes very quickly. I am only talking abuot 1/64" here or there. I only spent 2 hours total and that included figuring it out as I went along. This should be very simple and with the brass insert, no further damage should result to the pedal. P.S. If you don't own a Dremmel or equivilent,.....GET ONE! Â I love these things.

Did not mean to offend. Not all of the higher quality amps do this. Some of them assume if you go to the trouble and money to amplify your system, you already have an aftermarket head unit. They don't take into effect that some people like what they have and just want to enhance. Try your local Best Buy installers for help. They do a lot of upgrades similar to what you are attempting, and I am pretty sure that they have seen our factory radios in another model (after all, dodge was involved and they try to standardise everything). Once again, NOT knocking your equip.

Have you checked your amp for 'speaker level' inputs? Many of your better quality amplifiers will have that option. It is much simpler than the line level converter.

I had my MBQuart 6.5" in an 86 corvette and loved them. The key is not to over-drive them. I am now preparing to install them in the 'Quest. Nice warm sound.

Motion seconded. All in favor say aye.

Every car seems to go just a little bit faster with the right 'traveling music'. ;D

Well put ralphyboy. Â Just to add... take your own music to the stereo shop. Â Pick the music that best represents your listening style, and use that to give a good baseline (not bass line) for comparison. Also, if you are not very experienced in installs or fabrication, don't be afraid to bombard the sales staff with questions, or even consider having them install. Â The quality of install can make or break any system.

The subs are the W0 series(they take less airspace). Â I had them in a Corvette in a 1.2cf shared box and the sounded awesome The gauge trim had to be fabricated. No worries though, minimal tools and expertice are required. Â I used 12ga steel form the local Ace hardware, A mallet and a 5" vise (plus a little sandpaper and spot putty). Â I can't quite decide wheather to stagger the gauges as in the photos, or to just mount them evenly. Â If I stagger them, I will need to cut into the a/c vent on the passenger side center. Â I think that the looks would justify the hack job though. Â As for the facia, yes it is smooth (except for the marks from a slipped dremmel or knife) ABS. Â The picture shows the first attempt. This piece was used to find the right hole placement. Â I cut the openings freehand with my Dremmel. Â Although it was quicker, the openings come out much more straight and professional looking if you take your time and use a straight-edge and a box knife. I hope to have pics of the finished project soon (time permitting). If anyone is interested in the dimentions for the staggered gauge panel, I can scan the drawing and try to post it. ...and to ralphyboy...Any idea worth having, is worth stealing.

How about a free mods checklist. Maybe under the FAQ. I'm sure that I have missed a few.

Try branching off of the ashtray light. It won't dim with the switch,so the reostat shouldn't be affected, and there should be enough power.

I am finally geting around to installing my system. Alpine 7949 Head unit Alpine ERA-G320 listening position/EQ unit Infinity 5.25" co-ax MBQuart 6.5" co-ax 2 Eclipse 3640 amps 2 JL Audio 10" subs The install is slow going due to the fact that I am somewhat of a perfectionist. While fabricating the new facia, I decided to try an experiment that I had been contemplating. I have always thought that the placement of the air temp control panel could be changed to the stereo console to allow room for my gauges( similar to the 280z) Much to my suprise, the relocation took minimal effort. Even the wires (with a little coaxing ) reached without needing any extension. Here are some pics, tell me what you think.http://www.msnusers.com/Conquestcreations/...box.msnw?Page=1 O.K. the link should work now. (I can be such a bonehead) New Pics 1/20

What air pressure and cfm is your unit capible of? The key to quick removal is air flow.(I repair these type of machines for a living) Typically I run about 60-70psi with a small glass bead and have minimal trouble with even powdercoat. Another option could be steel media, preferably cut wire or 'grit'. This stuff is very aggressive, and you want to be careful not to remove too much of the underlying material. As to your reserve tank problem, have you consedered renting a portable compressor. RSC(if you have those) rents pull around units daily or weekly very resonably. Note: Try checking shot peening facilities for scrap shot or glass bead. If they are having the same trouble that I am having here, they may just give you all that you want. It seems that scrap yards don't want to deal with the scrap media and I end up almost begging for them to take it off of my hands. (scrap just means that the media is either out of tolerance to use on aircraft parts or is too contaminated)

Has anyone considered the headlight assmbly from a later model Storm? tThe size looks right , and the have the rectangular shape consistant with the cars. Maybe with a lexan Euro-style front cover?