Teh Official "Dude Where's My Forum?" Thread, Brought to you by the minds of Box, and her fiancée, Lorelei Options

[Box]

Having another suicidal thoughts day for no apparent reason, was fine and then out of nowhere my brain is burning and foggy and I just want to end it all. Part of the reason is probably the whole car situation, it just pisses me off so much and is so depressing. I wasn't even thinking about it at the moment though. Bleh...

[Box]

And I'm better again. Totally not bipolar...

[Bitter]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=smf.detector

This is a cool app. Put it by something consuming DC current! Use it on the car to help find parasitic draw.

[richee3]

^^ That sounds awesome. I use my a/c voltage detector all the time at home, so it’s awesome that we can do it from our phones for DC.

[Box]

I'll have to try that out later, though knowing me it won't work since I always throw off any kind of electromagnetic fields.

My family doesn't seem to like my idea of blowing my left leg off from the knee down and getting a prosthetic in order to drive again. FINE, DENY ME HAPPINESS.

Anyway, going to help with putting in a new component speaker set in the Miata this weekend. The only 5x7 or 6x8 component set that wasn't a small fortune was from Kicker, so somewhat dubious as to how that'll work out though they were rated well. Waiting on 5XRacing to send out a timing wheel so a full timing job can be done, and advance timing by a few degrees to get more use out of the 93 octane and pick up some power.

[Bitter]

The Infinty Reference set in that size isn't that expensive, and sounds much better in my opinion.

[Box]

It was about twice as much for the Infinity, he got the Kicker set and like 1.5 sq ft of NVX dampener included for $99 shipped from Sonic Electronix as they had it on sale. Which went ahead and put the set in earlier, and well it's no Polk Audio but it's better than the PowerBass? I think that was in it. Which one review had stated they didn't like it until the mid-drivers had broken in, so I guess we'll see. It does seem fine as far as clarity and quality goes, just lacking in bass. Which my brother being my brother we're going to test fit a 10" subwoofer in the trunk to remedy that...

[Bitter]

Ugh paying nearly retail that's why. 6x8 set of Reference on ebay (last years model) is like $100-130 depending who you buy from and they sound WAY better than Kicker bottom of the barrel stuff he bought, even more so when amplified properly! The several years old Kappa 5x7 in my Mazda door panels punch SUPER hard all the way down to 40hz where I have them high passed at. They'll reach a little lower but they roll off under 40hz anyway so to keep them sounding clean I cut them there, and anyway that's why I have the 6x9 array in the back. The cones on the Kappas I have are a woven fiber material (aramid I think) impregnated with resin, rigid and light weight, they have very low distortion even when pushed hard. I will concede the mylar dome tweeters can be a little bright and harsh, the newer models (even last years now) have cloth domes and sound better, but it's not worth the upgrade for me right now. Especially since they don't make coax Kappas anymore and I can't find an OEM looking place to put the tweeters where they'd be pointed at me correctly. I'd have to fabricate speaker mounts in the door panels to put the tweets below the panel surface at an angle out of a small horn shape and I don't even know where I'd but the things to do that kind of work and really don't want to go putting big holes in my door panels.

[Box]

Which looking around myself can't even see a 5x7/6x8 component Infinity set, there is a JBL one which being they're both Harmon Kardon now I guess close enough and it's like $240. It was just something to replace the worn out crap that was in there. With the car running, it was in the garage so couldn't last night, and the speakers getting good power they sound better and there's more bass presence. Should get better as they break in. At any rate this was for the Miata he drives the least, so he didn't feel like spending 2-3 times as much on door speakers than what he did. Which they actually sound better than I expected something from Kicker to sound, so I guess there's that. At 70 mph with the top down it probably doesn't matter too much what's in it anyway so long as it's decent and not distorted crap. If it had been me I'd have done 8" Pioneer mid-drivers(speaker cutout is 8" for the Bose and it's just a 5x7 adapter for non Bose) along with some Pioneer tweeters through a crossover of sorts. Then could go all out and do a mini amp on everything, and should get plenty of bass from the 8" Pioneers.

[Bitter]

My bad, they discontinued the component set I guess? Odd. I have a set of 6x9 Reference here, wonder if they'd with some some adapter rings? Now I kind of want to upgrade to the cloth tweet Kappas seeing as they're under $100 for the pair shipped.

[Box]

I guess so since the only Infinity ellipse speaker component set I can find is the 6x9. The factory was 5x7 and the 6x8 were a snug fit and required bending some tabs on the speaker out of the way, I guess 6x9 maybe could fit with the help of a Dremel and some adapter rings of some sort. Which he has a full Infinity Reference set in the Genesis, 6.5" component set in the doors and I think 6.5" coaxial in the quarters. This was just a matter of the best for the least amount of money and effort given this is his third car that gets driven the least, and is lower down on the priority list since the Audi also needs some speakers and it has two component sets between all four doors and then some speakers in the hat rack as well.

[Box]

In other news I need an expert on GM engines and transmissions to confirm my suspicions, if so I think I might have figured out a way to do the hydraulic throw-out bearing. Would still cost $600-700 or so though... I was thinking, hey the LT-1 is just a gen II SBC after all and many places have the LT-1 and L98 using the same crankshaft. So in theory I should be able to use the clutch and flywheel from a L98 or LB9 and that'd give me my push clutch I need to use with the hydraulic throw-out bearing. Which it's hard to tell looking at inventory stock pictures, but the LT-1 and later one piece rear main seal gen I SBC flywheels look near identical except for the friction surface looks wider on the gen I. So if the the flywheel would bolt on that means the clutch matched to the flywheel would definitely bolt on, so then would just have to figure out the hydraulic throw-out bearing.

From what I can find the LT-1 T-56 input shaft is about 6" and the LS1 one is about 7" so I doubt the much cheaper o.e. hydraulic throw-out bearing would work, versus the $300-400 aftermarket ones that you shim and adjust to the needed height. Though from what I can find the SBC T-5 and T-10 input shaft is like 6.5" and the Muncie M20/21/22 input shaft is like 6.625", so that'd raise concern for the aftermarket options as well since they're meant for them. So doing that if possible it should have the pedal weight of a LS car, if not lighter actually since would use the LB9 10.5" clutch. Plus as an added benefit there are cheap lightweight nodular iron flywheels, so would reduce rotational mass somewhat. Which all that just sounds too easy and too good to be true, so it probably is.

[Box]

Well, found where someone used a LT-1 T-56 on a SBC 400 as is and then used a Quarter Master hydraulic throw-out bearing which he mentioned having to shim. Of course the thread just died and never went beyond that or if it even worked. Anything else I can come across about using a T-56 on a gen I SBC is either using the LT-1 pull clutch when using the LT-1 T-56, or using a LS1 T-56 and then using the aftermarket bearing and a transmission adapter/spacer. Such a headache. Another thing I noticed in looking is there's nowhere to put the bearing stud on the LT-1 T-56 that keeps the hydraulic throw-out bearing from spinning, all the older transmissions including the T-5 have this kind of circular plate around the input shaft with 4 bolts that hold it in and you replace one of those bolts with a stud. So I guess the one I found doing the LT-1 T-56 on the 400 welded a stud into the casing of the T-56, which I suppose that'd work.

[Bitter]

Guy I work with has an 87 RX7 with a 5.3 and a T-5, I'll ask him what he's using.

[Box]

Alright thanks. Using it on a LS it'd be interesting as to if a GM T-5 or Ford T-5 were used though, since either way you'd need adapter plates or custom bell housing since neither bell housing bolts up as is or neither is the input shaft length right for the LS. At any rate I know most any kit for putting a Ford T-5 on actually uses the factory cable clutch, though I guess there wouldn't be anything stopping a hydraulic throw-out conversion aside from figuring it out.

[Bitter]

I think the GM T5 is a bolt up to the LS?

https://ls1tech.com/forums/manual-transmiss...277-5-3-t5.html some info on T5 clutches buried in there, they mention some stuff about hydraulic and T5.

[Box]

The SBC bell housing won't clear the LS flywheel, which someone said something about using a BBC bell housing to clear the flywheel. Though interestingly the same said the T-5 with the BBC bell housing the input shaft length of the GM T-5 was right. Looking around I had found hydraulic throw-out bearings designed for use with the T-5 specifically. Which there used to be a company called Weir that made a hydraulic throw-out bearing for the LT-1 T-56 and it used the clutch fork bolt as means of locating, of course it seems the company is long gone since searching around no products under their name come up. Normally you'd have no reason to go to the hydraulic throw-out bearing using the LT-1 T-56 on a LT-1 on any gen I SBC, so I guess that's why there's absolutely no information out there outside of what little I've come across.

[Bitter]

Just kidding. But your knee be like

[Box]

Sorry, didn't mean to come off that way if I did. It's just I've been searching until I'm blue in the face and there's apparently never been one person do what I'm wanting to do, so it'd just be experimentation to see if it'd work and I really don't have $400-600 to throw away if it doesn't work out.

If it weren't for the uncontrolled spasming I'd just deal with it, but it goes more numb from the weight of the pedal and I lose control of my leg and can't operate the clutch anymore.

[Bitter]

You didn't come off that way, I just wanted to use that perfect gif from that wonderful movie.