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Has anyone successfully used a "big cap" HEI distributor in a small block 68 Camaro without modifying the firewall?  If so, what brand and model did you use?  Did a 14 inch air cleaner fit without modifications?  The car I am rebuilding came with a small cap HEI distributor and one of those big honkin' yellow Accel coils mounted on the firewall.  I'm looking for something more subtle and would prefer not to have the coil visible at all.  TIA.

Followup - I did a search online for C'upper case O'68A instead of C'zero'68A and got a hit for a service manual on eBay for this exact model.  I bought it and found that the trailer connector is also a factory-installed Motorola radio connector!  Starting from the male end, the first two conductors are for the front speaker which has a compatible two conductor version of the "trailer" connector.  The other two conductors in the radio connector are for rear speakers which must be controlled by a rear speaker controller KM15S or KM19S.  I don't have one of these controllers but am assuming that it plugs into those conductors and then has outputs for rear speakers.

The wire with the woven jacket on the other side of the radio is the power lead.  The lack of a ground connection makes me think that the case is the ground.

While I realize you don't have the service manual in front of you like I do, I'm open to other interpretations from more experienced people.  Thanks for your inputs above.

I'm rewiring a 68 Camaro RS with an American Autowire Update harness.  The car had a Motorola C068A AM radio that wasn't hooked up when I bought it and I'm struggling to figure out what the wires coming out of the radio are for.  The radio has writing on the side and a sticker on the bottom which makes me think that it came from a junkyard or something though I did find this model identified online as being original for the 68 Camaro.  The connector for the wires looks like a connector for a trailer's brake lights but is molded to the wires so it doesn't appear that someone kluged it on there.  There is also another wire on the other side that has a woven jacket on it and a spade connector.  I'm guessing that this is a chassis ground but am open to other ideas.  Can anyone help me out here?  Thank you!

Maybe I'm figuring out the answer to my own question.  I looked at the new rubber insulator pads that I have and see that one of each pair does not have a hole for this pin to go through it like I thought.  So, can someone please confirm that this pin is not part of the bracket like I assumed, but is welded onto the spring itself?  Thank you

I took the monoleaf rearend out of my 68 RS and found what looks like a bead of metal around the locating pin on the leaf spring brackets on the axle tubes.  It is light grey in the picture and is on the bottom of the leaf spring keeping me from getting it out of the bracket.  It is fairly uniform around about 90% of the pin, but the last 10% it thins out to nothing on both springs.  On the left spring there are two drops of what looks like weld spatter (one is shown at 11 o'clock) on the spring.  I made a couple of passes over it with a file to make the bright area at 11 o'clock on the bead.  Neither the assembly manual or chassis repair manual say anything about putting something around the pin after the spring is in place.  Can anyone tell me what this is so I can figure out how to get the (broken) springs out of the brackets?  Thanks

Never mind!!  I've searched the Internet for this numerous times and never found what I was looking for.  As soon as I posted here, I searched again and found that, yes, the holes are big enough.

I'm beginning the process of removing the rear suspension from my wife's 68 RS to clean it up and replace the 50 year old rubber parts.  As expected, the bolts in the leaf spring cups just spin so I'm going to have to either drill them out or grind off the heads.  I've never seen what is under the cup as far as the size of the holes where the j-clips are inserted.  Is the hole big enough to remove the old J-clips and remains of the bolts, especially if I grind off the bolt heads?

I'm open to any other suggestions as well.  Thanks!

I neglected to put in the bumper when I was rebuilding the front suspension on my wife's 68.  The front subframe was out of the car on jackstands when I realized my mistake.  I thought that maybe when I got the car back together the weight would compress the spring and there would be enough space to put it in, but it doesn't sound like it based on your original question.  Since I didn't want to wait anyway, I used my spring compressor to take the pressure off the upper control arm, lubed it up and popped it right in.

SUCCESS!!!! 



And you can see why I needed to do this. 



Check out this beauty that someone put in to patch the #3 body mount.  There is another one just like it on the other side.  I'm debating whether to do anything with those or just leave them.  There is definitely more metal in there now than there ever was.

I'm all about expanding people's vocabulary, so now that we have "doghouse" down, let's move on to "left three quarters doghouse" and "right three quarters doghouse"...       

FYI.. 'doghouse' is an older term for the complete front sheet metal assembly (fenders, hood, grill, etc - as an assembly)..   
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"an older term"...Youch!!  But I guess I resemble that remark.     

Thanks to all for the input.

I'm working to make a '68 RS driveable for my wife and as I dug deeper into the car, I found that the #2 body mount points in the subframe are mostly rotted out under the bushings.  The engine, trans  and radiator are out and I disconnected the steering at the rag joint so the steering box and power steering pump stays with the subframe.  I have not removed the doghouse from the car.  The plan is to put 2x4's between the rockers and subframe and use my lift to raise the body off the subframe.  The question that I have is how much do I need to support the doghouse when it is off the subframe?  I'd hate to kink the tops of the fenders, but on the other hand, I'd also rather not spend a lot of time building a support structure that isn't really necessary.

Thanks

Time, to work on my cars.

Thank you Lynn but I think I have one on the way. I'll let you know either way how it works out.

I just bought the car in December and, because of work, have spent exactly one afternoon working on it.  A friend and I pulled the brake drums and found that the right side brakes looked good, but the left drums both were a bear to get off and the top third of one shoe in each looked like it had been wet.  There was rust on the drum and the material on the shoe had broken down.  My buddy found the control arm problem.  I just went out and looked at the other control arms and they all seem pretty solid.  There is a lot of dirt sitting down in the valley in that part of the control arm so maybe that was the culprit.  All in all, I think it's a pretty solid car for its age, but I'm just getting back into cars after a 25 year layoff so what do I know?  :-)  The odometer only shows 12k+ miles, but who knows if that is original or not.  The car allegedly sat in a garage for the last eight years so I need to replace all the belts and hoses and go through the braking system before I let my wife take it out.  I'd like to get it done this summer, but at the rate of one afternoon every six months, it's going to be a while.