Hey folks, I'm having a little trouble. I just dropped a '69 pontiac 350 in by 68 firebird and the z-bar is coming up to short on the block-side pivot ball? Is there more than one type or length of z-bar? I'm stuck, thanks.
I thought so, but I can only find one ball stud offered from the part suppliers. I've tried year one, ames, classic, npd. They all only offer one size, which is a 2.5 inch ball stud. Still too short.
It's an original 350 3 speed car. Nothing it it when i bought it. The z-bar appears correct. It's 9 inches from one end to the other. Can I just cut the z-bar in the middle and add an inch? I'm still stumped.
A couple of years ago I redid my 68 Bird 4-speed. I bought the entire Z-bar "kit" from NPD and everything fit perfectly. You may have the wrong ball and or z-bar or both as I did in my bird before we redid everything...
Sounds like a z-bar being the wrong one. Was the z-bar with the car when bought? If you bought it used you could have fallen for the "yeah it will fit" statement that people say just to make a sell. Had it happen to me a couple times in the past.
I thought I had the same problem with my 67 when I converted to a Muncie from an auto. I bought the hole set-up from the trans to the pivot ball from a guy that had everything in a 67 Camaro. I finally figured out that the motor had to be setting in the frame as if the trans was hooked up and on the cross member. If the motor is sagging down in the rear the z-bar will appear to be too short.
