1973 Vega Kammback V8 conversion.

In reply to NOHOME :

"You have to slide the shaft out, to push the axles in, to remove the C-clip, to remove the axles. The hope is that the spider gears stay in place during the process."

Once we opened up the rear end and looked around, we saw that the little shaft had a bolt in it. Un-did the bolt and carefully took out the shaft, set to one side on the plastic tarp We didn't know anything at all about what we were doing and thought that the spider gears would remain as they were. We tried to take out the little C-clips and everything went to Hell in front of us. Luckily the pan caught most of what fell out. Wth everything removed, and sort of accounted for, we got the axles out pretty easily, sprayed down the inside of the pumpkin, looked around for little metal chips or wear and such, but all was well. I guess that when the drivetrain swap was done, the PO chose parts wisely. It was really a neat surprise when we started putting things back together, got the spiders aligned, the shaft slid right in, a bit of lock-tight on the bolt, just a nice treat that a couple of chimps were able to get this done without any prior knowledge or practice. The hardest part of the conversion was getting the S10 axles in place, took some time and coaxing, but sure was satisfying when they slid home and we saw the grove for the C-clip appear !

In reply to mblommel :

"Cool car! Sorry to see the Panasports go."

Yeah, don't you just LOVE that style of wheel ! They're destined for my Mini. The  Mini went from ten inch steel wheels to twelve inch Mini-Lites and will soon get the thirteen inch Panasports. 

SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) said:

NOHOME said:

Can you maybe back up a second and explain where you found the shaft that the spider gears are meant to ride on? That is a substantial chunk of steel to be AWOL.

You have to slide the shaft out, to push the axles in, to remove the C-clip, to remove the axles. The hope is that the spider gears stay in place during the process.

OK, I guess that makes sense. Not sure why it is bad that the spyder falls out?

Yeah, that I know. But if you open the cover and

 the spider gear fell out of the rear end and into the catch pan on floor.

then the shaft had to be missing. No?

If the spyders fell out after they took the shaft out, then that no big thing, they just slip-slide right back in with a bit of berkeleyery. Woulda pulled them out to replace the thrust washers underneath anyways right?

Pete

Yup, the spiders fell out once the shaft was pulled, totally unexpected. First time doing anything like this, sort of thought that things stayed in place until they were removed, never thought that they might just fall out of the thing. Imagine our surprise ? ! ? ! 

The front end looked to be a lot more work, but was at least more familiar than what we did in the rear. The car rode REALLY hard, as thought the shocks had been replaced with straight steel bars. No movement at all really. We thought that things might normalize with the heavier V8 installed so we piled a few guys onto the fenders to check, still very little movement over all. The problem turned out to be that the PO had installed Monza V8 springs along with shallow pocket lower a-arms. Too stiff, too long, too high. Had to source a set of stock springs. 

Here's a photo of the stock set-up minus the ball joint, upper a-arm, and spindle, where we started, along with a photo of some of what we replaced the stock set-up with.

A quick comparison of the stock spring and the taller, heavier Monza V8 springs. No wonder the car rode like a coal kart . . . 

A little progress, removed years of crud, new spring(s) installed, lower a-arm cleaned, and everything hit with gloss black.

While we were under there it made good sense to pop in a new ball joint and replace/refurbish the anti-sway bar and all of the connections/bushings/etc. 

We used a set of tapered inserts and a mix of different year Vega ball joints in order to fit the S10 spindles. We also used off-center upper a-arm bushings. The change in spindles along with the bushings increased the negative camber just a tiny bit, since the car was meant for hard driving on the street along with some auto crossing later on, the resulting slight increase was welcome.

The replacement S10 spindles bolted in like they were meant to be there, nice and slick, no problems at all.

A metric caliper seemed like the best and easiest choice for such a light weight car, but we had a run-around in getting the correct soft brake lines. All of the FLAPS computers spit out lines that were either way to long or too short and none had the smaller banjo fitting that the metric calipers needed. We found the right lines at Speedway, went right on and worked perfectly. The new metric calipers, S10 rotors, and lines installed and done. The front was more involved as mentioned, but more straight forward as well. No spider gears jumping out at us !

Looks awesome

Front and rear five lug S10 conversion done. The stance might need correcting, but it'll wait until the V8 engine is installed. So far, so good, rides nice, smooth and straight, braking bias is perfect and stops great.

In reply to bgkast (Forum Supporter) :

"Looks awesome"

Thanks, getting there, Not at all disappointed in the car so far. We dived right in without a clue and it kinda worked out great. Surprising . . .  !

Next up, pulling the original Vega Dura-Built engine and T50 five speed. LOADS of room in the engine bay, so pretty easy. We later found out that the steering shaft was bent, a full inch off true. A good friend, Todd, straightened it out in his press, ended up just perfect !

My dad had a V8 Vega before I existed. Following.

What a nice looking car! I'm really enjoying this. What engine and transmission are going in?

I loved the look of the panasports, but it looks really good on the cragars.  My buddy had a v8 swapped vega he drag raced when we were in college. He eventually back halved it, so he could use a 4 bar rear suspension and larger slicks.

Nice looking car. Now if you remove, what I venture are spacers in the rear it might actually look outstanding. Fun as all get out with a small block chevy motor. Some good high school drag racing with friends in one of those.