1970 SS El Camino – Almost Done

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	I have skipped a couple of steps, and now that we are almost done I will go back and add them in.

Trailered the car over to get an alignment. I did not want to drive it as it has all new tie rods, Global West arms, etc in the front. I did a tape measure alignment and put the old shims back in the same positions so it could be moved. Global West wants you to set the spec to Caster drivers side 5 ½ degrees positive, Caster passenger side 5 degrees positive, Camber ½ degree negative both sides, toe 1/32 per side with up to a total of 3/32. I had negative .6 degrees of Camber on the left, negative .8 degrees of Camber on the right; I had 5.4 degrees of Caster on the left, 4.9 degrees of Caster on the right. The toe was -.13 inches on the left and -.34 on the right. It was all put right on specs
	Ok, Trailered the car home. Should be ready for the road, right, WRONG. We took it for a short test drive. There was a vibration at 45 miles per hour, and the starter sounded like it was not shimmed correctly. I scratched my head for a while. In the process of trying to shim the starter, I discovered that the flex plate appeared to be in backwards. The flex plate was installed on the engine when it arrived and I never really looked at it. To tell the truth even if I had I probably would not have been smart enough to notice it appeared to be in backwards. I posted a topic on Team Chevelle. http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134476 I had my confirmation back within minutes.
	The confirmation came in at about 11:00 PM Wednesday night. I knew that I would not be able to sleep thinking about this, and I had set myself a goal of taking the car to the FLCCC car show in Caledonia on the 25^th.By 3:00 AM Thursday Morning there were two bolts left in the bell housing and two bolts left in the transmission mount holding the transmission in the car. Time for bed.
	The old flex plate was out and on the ground by 10:30 AM. The old plate was bent. In case you do not know, I didn’t, a flex plate has a small defend that is meant to be turned away from the engine. When it is turned towards the engine it does not provide a flat surface to sit against the crankshaft. When the bolts holding the flex plate to the engine were tighten, the flex plate was bent.
	Well to make a long story as short as possible (at lest for me) The new flex plate was installed and the engine running by 9:00 PM that night.