From jhogan@fbody.com  Sat Mar  9 00:08:05 2002
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From: "James Hogan" 
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Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 23:47:15 -0500
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Subject: [ma] Made some progress / now have GV! :)
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My gear vendor showed up today while I was at work (did I mention I found
out my boss owns a wallet after 4 years? yeah gave me 20$s for lunch. I must
have stepped in dog crap or something this am, was a good day ;- ) funny
story though, I never had time to go get lunch this afternoon so I pocketed
the $20, heh.

Anywho, so when I got home my GV was here, I ran out, got some grease (white
lithium gease seems to be stressed, all I had was wheel bearing type grease)
SO I got that, came back home and on my front porch bolted the GV up. No
special tricks at all. Hardest part was locating my feeler gauge as they
have a tolerance of .005 to .035 space between the output shaft of the th400
to gv adapter to the outer edge of the th400 to gv adapter, they supply the
shims needed for this. Speedo gear install was just a matter of shoving the
speedo gear they provide into the hole and bolting it down. FWIW - If you
were getting a GV, you don't need to get a speedo gear/vss for the th400 -
see I could have saved 100$s if someone told me this - as you simply connect
the stock speedo wiring harness to the GV speedo plug (which is a stock gm
speedo gear, AC delco package at least) and then you splice the electronics
together.

SO the hardware connections are all done and bolted together (properly - I
did follow the directions ;-) )

As for the electronics - they don't appear to be too too difficult to wire
up. GV sends a NICE electronics diagram and great instructions, I'm very
impressed so long as all of the parts really match their diagram ;-)  I'm
hoping to mount the Th400/GV in the car this sunday if it's good weather. I
figure once it is mounted I can get the cooler lines setup, get the dipstick
in/mounted on the firewall, get the shifter cable setup, get all of the
electronics setup, measure for a DS (I might need some help with that so I
don't get a 500$ paper weight) then I'll probably have to bust out the
Saw-z-All and cut my BMR DS Loop off of the torque arm brace and reverse ie
(ie I need the DS loop back about as far as it was forward). I'm _HOPING_
but I can't be sure that the torque arm brace doesn't interfere with the GV,
if it does, I am now the proud owner of a welding machine and will attempt
to fab something up that works.

SO, I figure another couple of weeks and I should be able to at least start
the car and let it idle and shift gears and all and wait mostly on a DS
(however long it takes for one to get made/shipped) then it's back to the
insurance game and passing inspection/getting registration.

The only thing I think I might be disappointed with is that I had GV send me
a shifter handle with a push button switch for the GV. They asked what
shifter I had and I told them B&M hammer shifter. They said they would send
me a chrome shifter with the button. Well, I didn't get a B&M chrome handle,
instead I got a hurst handle with the right button BUT it seems more silver
than chrome which kind of bugs me, I _REALY_ _REALLY_ wanted the chrome
handle to satisfy the ricer in me. I might call them and ask about it MOSTLY
because it looks like the thread size on the hurst handle is smaller than
the threads on the handle, plus I _REALY_ _REALLY_ _REALY_ _REALLY_ do
want/like the chrome handle :/

Also, the instructions seems to stress DO NOT USE SYNTHETIC OIL. Now this
got me wondering, if I shouldn't be using sythetics in the GV for some
reason, should I be using synthetic oil in the 400? The guys are Trans-King
said it really made no difference so long as I used and stuck with one or
the other. I'm thinking dino oil is cheaper if I recall and I'll be having
to change trans-fluid every time I change motor oil so cheaper might be
better for my purse. the GV says to change oil every 5K miles so I figure
i'll make it either 3 or 6 call it close enough. They say I only need to
clean the filter in the GV and clean the sump every 15K miles. How often
should I be cleaning the filter in the 400? change the filter with each
fluid change or do that every third time also or what?

And finally, sorry no pictures, nothing really interesting so far to be
honest and the gv instructions are something you'd want to/have to look at
and follow anyhow to get it right - but really the only non obvious part is
adding the spacers and getting the output shaft coupler to line up right.

Just thought I'd share/bother/ask questions, laters.

- Jim Hogan
http://jim.fbody.com/ - 94 "Hockey Quad" Roller Skates Size 12 -
29.37@25.38, beats most rice! ;-)