SSI's onto a '76S finish

[Jim Sims]

Last weekend while installing the heater hoses adjacent to the heater valves I noticed the guide tubes for the heater control wires were fractured near the end fittings and that the rubber caps on the ends were hard and brittle. I had some spare rubber caps but not the tubes; I ordered new guide tubes last Tuesday from Pelican and they arrived yesterday. Installed same; cleaned the wires and lightly lubricated the interior of the guide tubes with silicone lubricant spray. Also replaced the rubberized fabric strap that holds the guide tube and parking brake cable away from the throttle linkage. Here's an image of the driver's side heater valve with the new hardware:





Next the SSI's were installed, the exhaust studs were "buttered" with anti-seize compound. The SSI's weigh 14.5 lbs each and it is difficult to position them, keep the three gaskets in place and engage all six studs. A length of plastic wire tie was looped once around one stud for each gasket to hold the gasket up. One loop produces enough retaining force but allows the wire to be pulled out later. The SSI's, one side at a time, were lifted up and pushed over the studs. They fit quite well and no forcing was required. A couple of nuts were installed hand tight to hold up the SSI. After checking to ensure all three gaskets were properly in place the plastic wire ties were pulled free.



Once both SSI's were over studs and retained by a couple of nuts; the hoses to the heater valves were slipped over the nozzles on the front of the SSI's. Then all the nuts were installed hand tight. The barrel nuts did not retain adequate hex key bit engagement (the stud was pushing the hex key bit out of the nut) when tightened down with the 15 ft-lbs of torque. To produce more engagement a washer was slipped under each of the barrel nuts. Then all the nuts were tightened using a 8mm hex key or 1/4" drive 12mm flex socket or the special 12mm box wrench provided with the SSI's. It was possible to use a torque wrench on the five barrel bolts (15 ft-lbs) but the other seven nuts required hand torquing due to the limited access requiring either the 1/4" drive 12mm flex socket or box wrench. The thicker flanges of this particular model of SSI did not work well with the supplied special box wrench. To make the wrench fit better it was heated up with a MAPP gas torch and reshaped. Finally washers and nuts were tightend over the center retaining tabs of the SSI's. Installed SSI's:



The joints to the muffler were made next; there was sufficient flexibility in the muffler mount that it could be pulled away from the SSI' flanges as required. The clean but somewhat rough surfaces of the muffler flanges were coated with sodium silicate exhaust sealing compound. Next the gaskets were slipped in place and the bolts installed from the back pointing forward. This required some moderate force for flange hole alignment but was easily done by just pulling on the SSI side of the joint. Since I intended to tighten by turning the bolt heads (better wrench access) I put the washers under the bolt heads. The bolt threads were coated with anti-seize compound and the nuts installed and tightened. Then the rear heater hoses were pulled down over the rear SSI nozzles. If the hose appears short or difficult to bend pull it straight downward to stretch it and open the convolutions. The heater hose clamps were installed (all four places) and the job was finished.



Net weight removed from rear of car is 10.5 lbs. Cheers, Jim

[azasadny]

Jim,
Great work! I've got to get that done on my car! You make it seem so easy... wait until I try it, I can think of 50 things that may go wrong... Thanks for the pictures and installation "tips"!!

[Raymond]

what are those bolts going into the cylinder? are those for twin plugging?

by the way, nice job with the twist ties. that's the stuff that separates us from the monkeys. just don't ask my girlfriend...

[Jim Sims]

Those bolts are 10 x1 plugs installed to close the air injector holes; the air injection system was removed as part of this project. See earlier installments. Cheers, Jim

[Raymond]

oh, that makes sense. when i had my SSI's off last summer, i sprayed the muffler with VHT hi-temp flat black. made a nice difference.

cheers to you!