I don't know what made me do it but I just purchased a 1979 El Camino 350 2BBl as a "gift" to my 17 year old son. He's been in love with them ever since he started playing with Hot Wheels and he is thrilled.

It's not a total "project" car but the interior is quite rough. That plastic used for the arm rests and dash pads just doesn't do well in our high UV levels, I guess. However, the engine is in good shape but I have concerns about the automatic transmission as the fuel economy (high order paradox) seems erratic (e.g. I put in 11 gallons of 93 after topping off the A/T fluid and hossed around a dozen miles or so and parked it still reading over full. JLT drives it to school and back, still right at full. Goes to work, a friends house and youth group and school again and has only 5/8 of a tank left. Must have been uphill both ways? Remember "gas theft" from the early 70's?). Any hints on what to check first?

The body is in good shape with only a couple of rust spots and minor dents on the rear quarters. HVAC works great aside from hard temperature slider. The PRNDLL indicator doesn't move.

All in all, I'm not in too bad of shape! I'll post photos as soon as I get a replacement digital camera (JLT toasted the last one when his "brand new but free" 1989 Honda Civic burnt to a crisp with everything but his music collection in it. It could be a coincidence, couldn't it?).

So far, the site is great both for information and entertainment (Let's yank that puppy out of the snow!) and I am glad to be a part.

Here are a couple things you can check (I have a 78 w/350 and 4bbl...), take the instrument panle face off, then there is a gauge pod inside that the gauges mount too. There is a plug with all the connectors behind it in the lower right hand corner, if it is not plugged in all the way those readings will show (I had this problem). It may be that you have bad grounding as well so check your connections and fuse block. With the 350 you should get about anywhere from 13 to 20 miles to a gallon depending on the carb. Now if it is all stock, you should be able to run just 89 instead of 93 it should run just fine. The "PRNDLL" indicater is spring load attatched to a a piece of monofiliment and then attatches to a clip. the clip attatches to the outer housing of the shifting lever under the dash. If it is not connected... (someones been under the dash) they don't come off by themselves unless it has worn a groove in the indicator bracket. The HVAC switch is usually kinda hard to move in the first place. You would have to take the unit out and clean it up as well as all the moveing parts. :cool:

You pegged my Saturday list, SHADOWHAWK. But, I do have a higher priority that I negelected to mention. There is about 3 1/2 to 4 inches of play in the steering (I must be exagerating as an American) and I don't have the lingo to say it properly, but the main control arm on the PS unit has a good deal of play in it (it a ball and socket joint much like a tie rod end). I'm going to take it (tem) off bright and early and fetch a replacement from the local Advanced Auto (my wife swears that they have it) and then tackle the annoyances on the driver end.

That PRNDLL thingy doesn't worty me as mush as mileage issue but I'll check it out to the best of my abilities. What do you use to clean up those slider controls? I have T-9 and WD-40 as well as general workshop solvents (I did wood work before we purchased this baby).

Thanks for the input and support.

It's common for analog type gas gauges to "hover" between full and 3/4's and then drop like a rock when it gets lower than half.

While it certainly could be a grounding or connection problem, I personally think it's the geometry of the sending unit setup inside the tank and the shape of the tank itself. The only cars that I can remember that don't behave this way are those later [digital] models that have a computer crunching the sending unit inputs and displaying the result electronically.

So, the best way to determine fuel mileage is to count the miles between fillups (assumes your odometer is close) and divide by gallons used. Keep a record of this for several weeks to a month to get a more accurate average. If it's in the 15-20 range with a 2bbl, consider yourself lucky.

There is another possibility that comes to mind.....You could also have bought the car with the wrong gauge and/or sending unit installed. Get an ohmmeter and a repair manual to see if they're each up to spec for your application.

On the PRNDLL indicator, what happens usually is this. The monofiament is coated with a lacquer or protective coating to make it slide easilly. Over time that coating begins to dry rot and crack off. This being the case, it basically becomes a "SAW" and all the bends that it is routed through are made of platic and part of th mechanism. With the constant shifting over the years it will cut a groove in the plastic thus makeing it catch and not function properly. Remedy: You have to clean the whole mechanism, it is plastic so no solvents. Use armor all and a clean rag. If it has worn a groove, you can fix it with some JB Weld (it is very strong and moldable after it sits for awhile) quit litterly you will repair the damage on the plastic. If the monofilament coating is cracking, try and scrape off all the remaining coating (no solvents), a small piece of wood or popsicle stick will work fine for the scrapeing. When it is all or most of it is off, use some Testors model glue. Rub some between (this is the only way to do it... yuck!) fingers and run it down the monofilament. No hang it on a nail or something holding it down with some tension and weight until it dries. Don't use too much, just enough to coat it. Clean the spring up with WD-40 or B12 Chem tool. :cool:

I can feel this thing calling my name and saying "fix me" even when I am at work. I need therapy!

This mileage thing is complicated by the MESS left by the previous owner's "mechanic".

From where I sit, the story goes like this:

Previous Owner:
Let's drop in a rebuilt 350 into this puppy and see what happens!

Mechanic:
Sure, no problem. That'll be (some astronomical number) bucks.

Previous Owner:
Uh, I see. Can we save some cash so I can ignore the interior?

Mechanic:
Sure, no problem. I'll put in a rebuilt 350 and use the old 267 carb and forget to put on the bell/fly wheel cover. Oh, and I can hook up the choke so it opens when you start the Elky at no charge. That way I'll run like crap on cold mornings. I can also hook the vacuum motor on the air cleaner those broken sensor/valves on the manifold real cheap.

Previous Owner:
The "run like crap" part bothers me. What can you do for say, 5 bucks?

Mechanic:
I can bend the choke actuator arm so that the hot air vacuum motor never touches it. That way I'll always start up great on those cold SC mornings.

Previous Owner:
Sound's like a plan. Any down side?

Mechanic:
Well, the mileage may suffer a bit since the choke will always be on but I can't really think of anything.

Previous Owner:
Let's do it, then!

So, as you can see, I am going to be busy. I haven't done work on cars since my early twenties but it's still in the blood. I haven't touched an automobile carburetor in 30 years but I used to rebuild my older brother's Impala deuces (that's sibling trust)!

I am going to do the "under dash" work during the week and save the real fun for weekends when I can afford to relieve the stress by doing some 12oz curls. :lol:

Just a little word of advice, be sure to have a couple extra 12 oz curls for those under the dash nights as well...

I've had my dash in/out/in/out/on table for a month/in/out.... to many times now.

When you get under there to fix one thing (ie, just going into the pod to reseat the connectors on the gas guage) get it all back together, gas guage is great, wow that was easy,... wait,,, why the hell is the oil guage doing that now...., Guess I'll check on that tomorrow... then its that not all the lights work, or that, or that,... by the 3rd or 4th time you'll be a pro at getting it in and out.

BE VERY CAREFULL with the connector that plugs into the printed circuit board on the back of the guage pod. There is very little cable play back there, and it is "pressed" into copper fingers on the circuit board. The more you disconnect and connect that thing, the easier it is for those little fingers to fall apart.

I'd recommend looking at the threads in the last couple of days for the nordskod digital dash someone is selling for 250. If I was to do it again, I would have just replaced all the guage stuff.

My guage pod work ended up something like this.

original guage pod had a couple broken needles and oil pressure didn't work, and a few lights not working, speedo squeaked and was erratic, fuel guage not working.

pulled it apart cleaned up connectors, (broke plastic tab on connector, ie my carefull warning above) about $20 for new bulbs, and contact cleaner) reconnected, but not as firmly as it needed to be. got fue back temperature staying steady, no oil pressure, speedo still squeaks found numerous broken mounting tabs inside and spiders and such.


bought replacement pod at surplus yard $50, ( no circuit board though) got me the guages with all needles again. determined it wasn't the oild pressure guage that was bad but a missing sending unit for it... speedo now doesn't squeak, but mileage isn't accurate (wasn't when I got it anyway but still), mounting fingers starting to come lose on circuit board, but still working.

driving it losened connector and repressing in connector broke some fingers. $20 for decent shape circuit board (so I thought) reopened swapped circuit board, in process, two lines were broken while undoing the lamps and guage connnetors.

Said screw this circuit board, I'll hardwire my own connections, bought about $50 of wiring spools, connnectors, molex connectors, about 50 hours of time soldering, inserting connectors, mapping color codes to right pins, blah blah....

Got everything working solid but the lighting, spent another $20 or so on dash lighting I could wire in.... another 4 or 5 hours...

In the end spent way to much time, way to much money trying to upgrade GM's pod design. I wasn't willing to kick down the 600 bucks or so the digital guages were going for, but for 250 for used, if i had the 250 now, I would certainly do it.

That guage pod is a piece of <insert explitive> here..

Having had my 81 since may now, and fighting all the various electrical issues, thinking, ok, its just one more little problem.... I highly regret not just getting a painless or other aftermarket wirng kit and redoing the whole thing.

After seeing all the splics made before me, the splices and replacemnts after me throughout various sections of the harness, I will be getting another harness.

Just my 250 bucks worht of advice :)

Man, I hurt just reading that, GoGOPWR! I am normally quite cautious but now that ole Elky maybe out to get me! I am too old for that kind of battle.

If I open up the patient and find a whole lot of "nasty" I might just spring for a new pod. I'll rob my son's college fund :lol: and put him back in the F-250 diesel!!! The only part about the Nordskog Digital Dash that scares me is that it's accurate up to 200MPH. Don't tell my son that.

I did see that they have both a 5 and 6 guage model. What kind of modifications have to be done to install one of these?

If you do a search for nordskog you should see a recent post about it, and within that thread is a link to the process of doing it from one of our members.

BE VERY CAREFULL with the connector that plugs into the printed circuit board on the back of the guage pod. There is very little cable play back there, and it is "pressed" into copper fingers on the circuit board. The more you disconnect and connect that thing, the easier it is for those little fingers to fall apart................Said screw this circuit board, I'll hardwire my own connections, bought about $50 of wiring spools, connnectors, molex connectors, about 50 hours of time soldering, inserting connectors, mapping color codes to right pins, blah blah.... Got everything working solid but the lighting, spent another $20 or so on dash lighting I could wire in.... another 4 or 5 hours... In the end spent way to much time, way to much money trying to upgrade GM's pod design. I wasn't willing to kick down the 600 bucks or so the digital guages were going for, but for 250 for used, if i had the 250 now, I would certainly do it.

I just rebuilt the dash on my 69 C-10 which I believe had similar printed circuit style dashboard to yours. I had a similar experience and agree with GoGoPWR completely. The dash and gauge wiring is probably a great time saver at the assembly plant, but almost impossible to work afterward.

If yours isn't a real simple and obvious fix, rather than play with all the marginal connections I'd opt to hardwire in a full set of new gauges/lights etc and toss that printed circuit nightmare from the onset.

Just my two cents.