[FC] Rampy

[Rad Davis]

Today is your lucky day!  I have just completed installing a Source clutch 
cable on my '65 Greenbrier.  I'm afraid I can't help you with the accel cable.

The good news:  The thing looks incredibly over-designed for the 
application, is weatherproof, corrosion proof, self-lubricating, and 
generally does the trick.  Since I got less than 30,000 miles out of my 
last two re-used cables, I'm looking forward to not messing with it for a 
while.

The bad news:  It's not an exact fit.  It's close, but it's not a stock 
replacement.  You're going to spend some time under your FC staring at 
things and saying "Hmmm."

You need to make a bracket for the front attachment of the cable 
housing.  I made mine out of a piece of 1" angle iron cut off of the 
cross-bars of a bed frame.  Hardware store angle iron would work fine. 
There needs to be a large slot on one face and two holes on the other 
face.  The large slot accepts the cable, and the two holes are for a) the 
existing mounting bolt on the diagonal brace, and b) a second 
bolt-nut-washer combination that goes through the indexing hole underneath 
it.   Power tools are your friend here.  My angle grinder with cutoff 
wheel, bench grinder, dremel tool, and drill all got a workout.  I didn't 
modify the existing cable mounts on the van at either end at all.  This 
allows me to go back to a stock cable if I ever get the van into a 
condition that I would care about it having a stock cable.

Note that my Source cable was a bit long, so I needed the housing mounting 
flange of the angle iron to be to the rear of the bolt holes.  I found this 
a little counterintuitive, but it's actually better for the bend angle on 
the cable as the pedal is actuated, so all's well.

Your rear casing mount is probably different than mine - the '61-63 use a 
tab below the transmission mounting crossmember, later models use a hole 
through the trans crossmember.  If you have the special hole for some 
reason you can drill out a couple of fender washers and call it done as 
long as the pull rod lines up OK.  If you're going to use the angle 
bracket, you might just want to make a new one that fits the cable.  In my 
case, I used a fender washer with a slot cut into the hole to make a 
bushing that allowed me to use the stock bracket that mounts in front of 
the hole in the x-member.  You'll want to get the front fully mounted and 
attached before working on the rear bracket - the final cable casing 
position will be determined by your front bracket arrangement and your need 
to have more or less cable present at the back than you get by just lining 
things up.  I may end up going to a thicker shim in the rear to get me 
closer to the middle of the adjustment range.  We'll see.

I used plastic wire-ties to hold the cable casing to the intermediate 
attach points on the chassis.  I thought about making brackets similar to 
the stock ones, but didn't want the weatherproof elastomer on the casing 
damaged by a metal fitting.  Besides, wire ties are quick and easy to undo.

Clutch adjustment will be a little harder.  I used to just disconnect the 
spring from the tab at the cable-to-rod clevis pin and then turn the 
adjuster until I had the right amount of slack.  The U-shaped end fitting 
on the cable just turned on the crimp at the end of the cable core.  No 
more.  The new crimps are big and square, and don't allow the fitting to 
turn without turning the cable as well.  Oh well, that's how I used to do 
it before I discovered the easy way.  I have considered grinding the 
corners off the crimp, but have resisted the urge so far.



At 09:04 PM 3/24/2006 +0000, wern3 at juno.com wrote:
>guys
>I have ordered a couple new cables (accel and clutch) for the '61 from The 
>Source. Has anyone got a tip or two for installing on an early'61 4 speed?
>Thanks
>Tim
>'65 Monza
>'61 Ramp
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__________________________________________________________________________
Rad Davis:                                        rad.davis at comcast.net
Corvairs--65, 66 Corsa coupes, '65 'brier Deluxe   http://www.corvair.org/
Keeper of the Forward Control Corvair Primer: 
http://www.mindspring.com/~corvair/fc1.html
"We did Nebraska in seven minutes today. I think that's probably the best 
way to do Nebraska."                            --Brian Shul, _Sled Driver_