zeke's Monza

[olds70supreme]

Zeke, great work and great looking car. This is one of the best posts on the site, and is helping motivate me to get going on my car after a long hiatus. Keep the updates coming.

[zeke]

Thanks olds70supreme! I know the world has switched to videos but I still prefer picture posts with text explanations. I use videos to show movement or listen to sounds
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LED Lamp Conversion on my Monza

Fun project, thought I'd share what I used to convert my Monza to LED lighting along with what I learnt. Amazon links are for the Canadian site but will give you an idea of what works.

LED Flashers: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B075G5XX5K x 2 Pick one that has the ground wire coming out of it

Rear:

1157 Red Tail light: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07RQCK9VK
194 Red Corner marker: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01J3KH8P2
1156 White Reverse light: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07GTL2Z2J (super bright) or regular: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07RNCD3L1
194 White license plate or dash lamps: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01J3KH1M2

Front:

1157 Amber front marker: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07RQCHBH5
194 Amber side marker: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01KUJRNG4

Other:

Glove box lamp: 1893 https://www.amazon.ca/Ruiandsion-Pinbal ... B091CNBB8G

Interior lamp: 44mm https://www.amazon.ca/LUYED-Extremely-B ... B07XYQMTK7 (super bright 620 lumens) or 320 lumens similar to stock https://www.amazon.ca/LUYED-Lumens-Supe ... B01932A8T8

Accent lighting: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08R37359D

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LED Headlight Conversion with glass H4 fixtures

Headlamp fixtures: https://www.amazon.ca/Parts-Go-Rectangu ... B07NGRJ7F7

Headlamps: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07FRG4NSH x 2

Simple wire change required for low beam plugs, swap two wires.

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The front LED markers are a bit trickier to do because of the way GM wired them for the fancy signal alternating effect between front and side markers. With the nature of the LED lights, the system will backfeed and cause the dash signal indicators to light up when markers are on.

My 79 Monza has light blue (left signal) & brown (marker) wires to the LH side marker. The blue & brown way the park uses signal as ground, and the signal uses park as ground. This is the "switchback" type, alternating signal lights. On with park, then they turn off with signal. If you use brown and black instead, they will just be on with park. If you use blue and black, they will be signals only. With LED's, you need to pick one or the other.

RH marker is dark blue. The wire change is easy to make in the lighting harness up top in the corners. There will be a junction for the blue wires where they split into two. Cut the blue wire that leads to the side marker and move it to ground, the small black wire present in the 3 wires that go to front marker lamp. Or conversely, you can cut the brown wire and hook it to ground if you want the side markers to be signal only. Maybe check regulations for your area.

I chose to make the side lamp a marker only as most cars are. I wont miss the signal lazy alternating effect, a small sacrifice for the increased safety provided by the doubled brightness and flasher speed.

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Notes:

> Most LED push in style bulbs like the 194 are polarity sensitive. If it doesn't light up, turn 180°

> Best design for light dissipation has LED chips around the sides and on top. The top bulbs with a lens will avoid the point source look.

> LED bulb needs to project the same colour light as whatever lens you are illuminating. So an amber LED for a turn signal and red LED for stop lamps. White light LEDS dont look right behind coloured lenses.

> Have to change to electronic flashers, LEDS don't draw enough current to operate the OE thermal flasher. Pick one that has the third ground wire coming out of the flasher. Two required

> The rear, wrap around style corner marker and license plate lamp cant be any longer than a regular glass 194.

> Front side markers need one wire moved in the lighting harness

> Cheap LED headlamps only change the brightness of the LEDS between hi and lo beams, not the beam aim, and most likely have no cut off line.

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In some of the pictures, the red lamps have an orange look to them. This is because cell phone cams see too far into the upper color spectrum. They are actually the proper red in person.

Thanks to Spencer Phillips at Spencer For Hire Automotive for the advice!

zeke October 2022

[zeke]

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[zeke]

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[zeke]

spare

[zeke]

DEMO VIDEO OF LEDS

[DarthVega]

Were you able to use some of the old wiring or did you get all new harnesses? Sweet lights too btw

[zeke]

Were you able to use some of the old wiring or did you get all new harnesses? Sweet lights too btw

Original factory wiring harness is in Red Monza

I've gotten behind on my blog here, lots of updates coming soon

[zeke]

We now have magnet representation! I achieved one of my long term goals last year by seeing Red Barchetta get selected by RockAuto!

[DarthVega]

We now have magnet representation! I achieved one of my long term goals last year by seeing Red Barchetta get selected by RockAuto!

That’s cool, I didn’t know they did that!

[zeke]

The Great H-Body Pinion Debate

So you want to change gears in your Monza but they are NLA, what to do? S10 gears are available but the pinion shaft is 60 thou larger than the H body part.

Somebody somewhere in time, in a bind, tried a hundred things and finally figured out that this particular smaller bearing fit, making it possible to use the S-10 pinion, and being the difficult car that it is, word spread quickly that it was a viable option in the circles thereafter... Not the best option, but it was a workaround. You'll need a pinion shim pack kit because the conversion bearing is ~60 thou thinner than the stock bearing.

GM redesigned the 7.5" rear end housing for 1982 and made the inboard pinion bearing larger. Why would I want to make it smaller? Horsepower isn't the major issue, the major issue is heat I am told.

After seeing the two bearings side by side, I decided that having the pinion shaft resized was a far better solution. The machinist used a boron carbon nitride bit to turn the pinion down in 10 thou cuts and it was less expensive than the conversion bearing. I think this is the best method because you end up with a stock bearing that can be purchased anywhere for cheap and is not undersized.

As for the concerns about removing the heat treating on the shaft where the bearing sits; Machinist said he's cut a few of them and the shaft is usually only hardened about a half inch from the pinion gear itself anyways and the gear teeth are what is important to be hardened.

My final pinion opinion!

[zeke]

Rear end gear change parts list

Allstar Performance ALL70113 7.5" 3.42 Thick Ring and Pinion Gear Set for GM https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B003BZZ9PM (for series 2 carrier)

Yukon (YY GM40015850) Yoke for GM 7.5"/7.625" Differential https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0078U8ZJ8

Yukon (SK CSGM7.5) Crush Sleeve Eliminator Kit for GM 7.5"/8.2" Differential https://www.amazon.ca/Yukon-SK-CSGM7-5- ... B0078UC1WU

Yukon (SK 21104) Pinion Depth Shim for GM Differential https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0078UBSWO

Yukon Gear & Axle Super Carrier Shims SK SS10 https://www.amazon.ca/Yukon-SK-SS10-Sup ... B0078U8CLE

Yukon (YSPXP-036) Cross Pin Shaft for GM 7.5"/7.625"/8" Differential https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00EHN7A7M

Dorman HELP! 81048 Differential Shaft Lock Bolt https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B000COCXN6

MOOG 372 Universal Joint https://www.amazon.ca/Moog-372-MOOG-Uni ... B009HQJGVW (conversion u-joint from H shaft to S10 yoke)

Dorman 81001 HELP! U-Joint Repair Kit https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B002YHL3BW x 2

Spicer Drivetrain Products Differential Pinion Nuts 30271 https://www.summitracing.com/parts/SDH-30271

ACDelco 10-5055 Gear Marking Compound - 1 oz https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B007Q10TES

Stock H-body bearings, races and seals from RockAuto

7/8-14 hex nut used for setup (local hardware store)

Machine shop for pinion re-sizing

2 liters 80W90 gear oil

CRC POSI-TRAC gear oil additive 742508 (CTC)

Loctite

[zeke]

Excellent post by some guy 20 years ago on ls1tech.com

"It is always in ones best interest to purchase a "supershim" kit when building up your parts list.

You dont really need a case spreader unless your dealing with D60, 70 and 80 series differentials.

The three things you need to pay attention to are...

"Backlash." Definition: The amount by which a tooth space exceeds the thickness of an engaging tooth. Think of it as... play between the mating teeth of gears or how tightly the ring and pinion gears mesh together.

How Measured... Measured as the free movement of the ring-gear with pinion held steady, in thousandths of an inch, using a dial indicator on the ring-gear. In other words, you’re measuring how much you can rotate the ring-gear before it engages the pinion teeth – this is the space between these teeth is known as “backlash.”

It is adjusted via... the carrier shims. Adding shims on the ring-gear side of the carrier moves the ring-gear closer to the pinion, causing the teeth to mesh more closely, decreasing the amount the ring-gear can rock without turning the pinion, and therefore decreasing the backlash. Adding shims on the non ring-gear side moves the ring-gear away from the pinion, increasing backlash.

Note that... carrier shims added to one side must be subtracted from the other, and vice versa, to maintain a consistent carrier pre-load.

Also note... Backlash changes about 0.0035” for every 0.010” the carrier is moved. The purpose of having backlash (i.e. the reason gears aren’t set-up tight, with no play) is to prevent the gears from jamming together. Lack of backlash may cause noise, overloading, overheating, or seizing and failure of the gears or bearings.

"Pinion-bearing preload." Its definition: Bearing preload is a measure of the rolling resistance in a bearing or “bearing stiffness”. As a cone is pressed against its cup, the point or line of contact between the roller and cup becomes larger, friction increases and preload is said to be higher. Correct bearing preload is a trade-off between bearing stiffness and the wear resulting from the preloading.

Think of it as... how tightly the pinion-bearing cones are pressed into their cups and consequently how stiff they are to rotate.

How it is measured... an inch-pound torque wrench is used on the pinion nut to measure the torque required to rotate the installed pinion.

It is adjusted via... outer pinion shims placed between the face of the outer pinion-bearing cone and the shoulder on the pinion shaft. Adding shims causes the pinion-bearings to be spaced away from their cups, reducing pre-load and vice-versa. Add shims to reduce pre-load and remove shims to increase preload.

Note... pinion preload is normally specified without the carrier or axle shafts installed, with the yoke installed and pinion nut torqued to spec but with no pinion oil seal installed. An installed carrier can add 2-4 in-lbs and a new oil seal adds approx. 3 in-lbs. Too little preload diminishes load-bearing capacity as the load-bearing surfaces between rollers and cup are decreased. Too much preload increases friction, resulting in excessive noise, heat, and rapid wear.

Next is "Carrier-bearing preload." Which is defined alot like pinion bearing pre-load. Its definition can be summed up like the pinion-bearing preload instructions above.

Think of it as... how tightly the carrier-bearing cones are pressed into their cups and consequently how stiff they are to rotate. Also controls how tightly the carrier is held in the housing.

How it is measured... its not really possible to measure directly.

It is adjusted via... adding or subtracting an equal amount of carrier-bearing shims to both sides of the carrier. Ideally, total carrier shim stack (sum of both sides) should be approx. 0.015” larger than the available space, and a case spreader should be used. However, a case spreader is not critical, and a good approximation of carrier-bearing preload can be made by ensuring the carrier can only be installed with a few good blows from a dead-blow hammer.
Note: If carrier preload is too little, carrier will move away from pinion under load (squirm or deflect), increasing backlash. This could lead to insufficient gear tooth contact, resulting in chipping/breaking of gear teeth."

[zeke]

Gear swap completed 2.73 > 3.42
A few pics

[zeke]

10 thou backlash, 15 - 20 inch pounds pinion bearing preload, good pattern