Hi everyone. I'm a Super Moderator over on www.VolvoForums.com and have used forums a lot, mostly to help others. Now I find myself in need of a lot of help.

One of my buddies has a 1978 Monte Carlo that was sitting in his carport next to his small barn for about a year. Well, critters (mainly rats) decided to set up house under the hood and now they have left some damage (not to mention the mess).

I have uploaded several video's with questions about what's suppose to be what under there. If anyone has some experience I'd appreciate any help getting this thing back together for him.

https://www.youtube.com/rspiwin

It would likely help most if you comment on the video but you can post info here if you'd like.

Thanks a lot. Trying to get this thing restored for him.

 

Took a stab at connecting things and replaced the wires and plugs. Fired it up and she is running.

The car would not move when put in any gear so I added about 1/2 quart of tranny fluid. It moves now but not that good so I'll add some more and check the level when I figure out how.

I changed the oil and shut it down for now. I'll start again Monday or Tuesday so any input would be appreciated.

 

wow that rodent went nuts in there. lots of videos. this is very hard to do like this.

video 2 i believe ur showing the wires that go to the heater blower motor. not so big of a deal if you dont need heat.

video 4 about the radiator overflow. that can be found at any junkyard all the gbody cars should swap over from 78-88(monte carlo,malibu,el camino,lemans,grand prix,cutlass,regal.)

video 5 on the plug wires. while youre at it you may as well get plugs, distributor cap, and rotor for the car. firing order is (18436572) rotor turns clockwise. (just noticed you did this. you may still want to change the cap and rotor)

12 i believe to be the charcoal canister that goes to the fuel tank. i havent had mine hooked up for 15yrs so im going to say its not necessary to drive the car.

14 is the pcv valve.

17 is the kickdown cable for the transmission. looks fine in the video

you are correct about the lines running near that wiper motor. theyre for the windshield washer.

the red wire near the firewall may go to the distributor if the car has a tachometer in it.

to check the tranny fluid warm the car and check the dipstick. itll be in the back of the engine bay near the firewall and the distributor(i would assume this is how you added the fluid but then again you said youd have to figure out how so idk). you should also look under the car because there should be a vacuum line that runs to the modulator on the transmission.

the easiest way to go about this whole thing would be to dump all of the emissions stuff, and get a non egr 4bbl intake and carb. these cars have a ton of emissions garbage that isnt really necessary.

i highly recommend you invest in a haynes or chiltons manual. i dont own either of those manuals myself, but im sure they would be helpful at this point. if you do a little hunting online you can probably find a free version or at the least a wiring diagram.

good luck with the car, and post some pics of the exterior. u may also want to check the frame horns at the rear of the car they are known for rotting out. also the floor pans, quarter panels, and doors. to my knowledge no one makes a full quarter panel for it, or metal doors. so if the quarters are shot and youre not great at fabrication you may have an issue.(this may have changed over the last 8 years or so since i bought mine. at the time they cost me a 1000 bucks for full length nos quarters, and i had to have them shipped from canada. i have yet to see another pair.) if the car is completely rotted out your best bet would be to part it out and look for another project. some of the parts on 78-80 are worth a fair amount if theyre in good shape, and would give you some money to work with.

 

Hey Monty Man, thanks a ton for the info. I didn't realize that you posted.

Took me a couple of days but I took the car out on the road yesterday. I left it dirty as I could, not sure why, I just do wierd stuff like that, even the windshield was dirty. I'm surprised I didn't get pulled over by the cops. I could see out but it was dirty all the way around.

Had to add tranny fluid again, but it didn't hesitate or slip while driving. The rear end seemed to loose traction pretty easy when starting out.

The car doesn't idle well. When I come to a stop it usually stalls. It doesn't have a tac but if I had to guess I would say it's idling at around 500 rpms. I'm not sure how long the car sat, the owner said a year but I don't believe he remembers correctly. At any rate I'm trying to drive all of the old gas out. I drove it about 80 miles yesterday. I guess I need to adjust the idle to keep it from stalling at every stop. When I started driving yesterday it wasn't that bad, stalling every 4th stop. At the end of the day it was stalling every time I went below 10 mph. I didn't want to mess with the idle until I ran the old gas out but I guess I have to.
HOW DO I ADJUST THE IDLE?

I plan to get a Haynes manual today. One of the local AutoZones claims they have one. They also said they have a universal coolant overfill resiviour. I may get that as well. I would really rather purchase from a company that supports the car so I'll check out the website you suggested.

Just about NOTHING rusts down here so I don't think I'll have any problems there. I'll look around for rust today. I'll also take and post some pictures. My friend is the original owner, purchased the car off the showroom floor.

Other than that, DRIVING THE CAR WAS INTERESTING. I thought people would turn their nose up at it but it was quite different. People were yelling at me, calling me Denzel Washington and Training Day (I had forgotten about that movie), asking me to look it over, even had some truely sexy chick ask to drive it. It was nuts. One guy even pulled his truck out in front of me. I guess I need to get me a 9mm and an open carry permit to complete the package.

Oh, do you have any idea what ac compressor will fit? If I can I'd like to get one from a salvage yard. Then again, that may be to much of a risk.

WE ARE PLANNING A FULL RESTORATION.

 

I'll look for a cap & rotor.

 

any of the compressors off of the a,g body cars will fit(78-88) i ditched mine 15yrs ago. on the idle i dont remember off the top of my head but i think you have a qjet on that car. and if thats the case i really dont know. the holleys have a screw that sits vertically on the drivers side of the carb. it doesnt take much to raise the idle. quarter of a turn should do it. you should check for vacuum leaks if you keep having this idle problem.