your certainly not having much luck with parts that should be a simple purchase .

As for the spring time delay , I ordered a new spring from VB&P website and they took my money then said there's a 5 week delay in getting the spring shipped then its about a week to here on top of that , didn't worry me as I didn't need it asap but if I had I'd be pi**ed for sure .

Have you got an engine yet ?

 

What I have available, currently, is a 350 built for the drag strip. It's a high compression, alcohol fueled, with nitros setup. Best guess is 700 HP. But it's never been run yet. Also, it's 2000 miles away from me. Plus, I've set the car up for a Big Block. And a bb is want I really want for it, so I've passed on the 350. Will look for a bb when I get closer to needing it. I really want that big rumble, and quick power for this car. If for some reason the bb doesn't work out, I may reconsider the 350, but I'd have to tune it down, and lower the compression to run on pump gas, which would drop the hp to I'm guessing around 400 without the nos, which I think I can get out of a bb with a minor build. So to answer your question, Nope I don't have a engine yet, just big dreams!!

Also,,, Venting works I guess, the spring shipped this morning!!

 

glad to hear the spring is on its way to you , your ready to put it on so at least it wont hold your progress much .

They make some nice BB crate motors , but over there I suppose BBC are a dime a dozen from salvage yards and Craigslist

 

Yes, Quite a few are around locally, few 427's, but if you look you can find them, and 454's are plentiful due to the large number of trucks that came stock with them. My biggest concern will be trying to find one with heads that will work with a mild cam. I can afford a new cam, but them heads are crazy expensive. I hope to get lucky. It also helps that I have a lot of old timers for friends. When I bought the car, I already had a motor lined up for it, but that one didn't work out.

 

You probably need to start looking now as your getting close to a rolling chassis If your going manual and get a mark IV block then look at welding the Z bracket on before body goes back on.

I will be watching and enjoying your work , looks good so far

 

My new mono spring finally showed up last night, and then I realized I hadn't cleaned and rust proofed the bracket that mounts it to the diff, so I'm doing that today, and should get it in paint by the day after tomro. Also spent some time researching the heat shield for the spring. The new one came with a small rectangular alum. shield, but the factory one seems way better to me. It's much larger in surface area, and I already know it won't interfere with anything else since it's factory. Unless anyone can give me a reason to go with the new smaller shield, I'm planning on using the old factory one. Any thoughts on this out there? I never could find a discussion about this online.
Oh, and btw, while I haven't called, or anything, my trailing arms that were supposed to be ready before last weekend, are still an unknown at this point. I don't want to rush him, cause he's including the park brake install, and dialing in the runoff on the rotors for a really good price. But I'd love to have them by the weekend so I could tie all this together.
One more thing, the new TRW mono spring came with all the needed bushings, and hardware. Just one more reason that the bushing kits might not be for everyone. I'm gonna have alot of bushings that don't fit this car at all left over, and alot of new bushings that do fit, but were supplied with other parts left over.
Everyone wants to feel like they are getting a good deal. I did my due diligence, and researched the best I could before even starting this project. What my research led me to believe, was that any and all corvette parts were readily available, at least aftermarket, and that I could have this car built, and road ready as soon as my wallet could afford it. I now know, I should have spent another year thoroughly reading every post out there. If you are going to try to build a Corvette on a budget, you REALLY need to build the whole car on paper first. Every step of the way note how long each process really takes, and don't forget to include shipping costs. Double the time you allowed for reassembly of simple stuff you took apart months ago. Trust me, you will not remember where every little clip goes. When you think you've taken enough pics to cover everything, take a lot more. Get a pic of every angle, of everything you take apart. I bagged and labeled every part, and still have a hard time figuring out what goes where.

 

I just finished a 500 word report on a new Mono Fiberglass spring replacement how too,. and again, for like the third time, the website tells me I'm not allow to post, then erases all the text I've done. Is there a way to fix this????

 

Heavy Sigh,,,,,,, of course the web site lets me post that.

 

So anyway, the new mono spring is installed, still waiting for the control arms to be finished anyway. Next up is the U Joints in the half shafts. I'm done for today, but the story of the mono spring has to be told, so maybe I'll try again tomor am

 

Maybe there is a limit on the number of words allowed per post? Try
breaking it up into say approx. 250 words and post over 2 posts.

 

Abbreviated version of Mono spring install.
This is easy with the frame off, and nothing else in the way. I installed the two front of car bolts thru the bottom bracket and alum. heat shield, just barely

getting the threads to catch. This leaves just enough room to slide the new spring into position, insure that the dowel rod thru the center mates up with the holes in the bottom of differential, and the new hole drilled in alum heat shield.
This is the new 1/2" I.D. hole drilled thru original heat shield. You will know where to drill it because it will already be dimbled from being smashed up tight against the original spring thru bolt, The new mono spring has a dowel rod in the same place, just a little longer. If you use the new heat shield that comes with the mono spring, then this hole is pre drilled.

 

I also had to straighten out the U bend in the back of the original heat shield.


This curled U bend was straightened out.




After you insure the dowel is seated correctly, I then started the two back bolts. Hand tightened until the spring was snug. Then had to loosen it all back up because I forgot to align the two holes where the original heat shield bolts to the lower diff bracket. If you use the new shield, these will not be used. So after the second try, and all bolts are started, and hand tight, I started the torque sequence. Although there was nothing in the directions about pre loading full car wieght before final torgue, I've read several horrer storys about the ears breaking off the diff due to torqueing the spring with no weight on it. So I only went as far as flatening out the lock washers, about 10 lbs. I will finish the rest of the torgue along with all the other suspension parts after car is finished.

 

Oh, the pain and missery I put myself thru. U joints are easy right, sure their a pita, but the install of new ones is pretty simple. Oh, wait, it's a Corvette U joint. Silly me, I forgot that part for a little while. The first one I installed actually went pretty good, until I tried to install the second end clip. Won't fit. It appeared that the new u joint was just a tad too long to allow the retainer clip to fit into it's slot. I wasn't too concerned to discover this, because when I broke the car down, one of the u joints was missing a clip, and the end cap had worked it's way partially out of the carrier. I just figured the stress had deformed the groove that the clip is supposed to seat in, and set that one aside to work on later. So then I start on the second one.



Everything looked straight and tru, so I put the squeeze on it, thinking happy thoughts. Didn't work out so well tho.
Because of the crooked angle, the end cap gouged into the carrier creating a big burr that had to be removed, and cleaned up. Just trying to remove the u joint so I could fix the gouge problem resulted in this.













My vise won't open up enough to start the joints, so I used a C clamp. As you can see in the pic, it's not pressing in straight.



I thought my c clamp was flexing, so I stopped using it, and went with the vise.



While pressing out the joint, the end cap was stuck so hard that I actually drove the spindle thru the end cap.

 

I don't know what's changed with the forum, but at least I didn't lose a half hour of typing to get it posted this time. Sorry the pics don't match the sequence.

 

After deburring the gouge in the flange, I tried again to install the new joint, being extremely careful to keep it straight. I got it in, but the same problem showed up. I could not get the second retainer clip in.
This is when I went back to the forum to search for help. LO AND BEHOLD, This has been an issue for lot's of us. Turns out, the flange has quite a lot of flex in it, which exasperates any misalignment in the end caps tremendously. Which caused the gouging effect. This flex also seems to be what is making it appear that the new u joints a slightly too long to fit.
The fix is to either bolt the flanges up to the control arms, or fabricate a heavy metal plate to bolt them to. This will effectively force the flanges into the correct position which should allow the u joints to fit properly. Since I don't have my control arms back yet, maybe tomro I'll try to drill out some plate steel and go that route. As anyone who has a news channel knows, It's been a long, rough day here in Las Vegas, and I'm done.
Please everyone, remember that life is a precious thing that we were given, but not guaranteed. Hugg your kids, and tell em you love em!

 

This morining before work, I decided that I would try lag bolts into a 4x6 instead of fabricating a piece of metal to take the deflection out of the half shaft flanges. I wasted a couple hours with the lag bolts and then various c clamps trying to straighten them out.
What ended up working really well, is exactly what other members on the forum said they did, with only slight modifications.
I took a piece of the steel plate I used for the gussets on the frame, and laid out the bolt hole pattern, then drilled the holes at 5/16". I used some old 1/4" machine bolts I had for the bolts. I placed a 1/8" welding rod in the center of the flange, between the flange face, and the plate steel. The plate steel is only about 5/32" thick, and I figured it would probably flex a little, so the welding rod spacer was to accommodate any give in the plate. I slowly snugged two sides of the flange, not taking it all the way against the plate, then began torquing on the other side. It took alot more force than I thought it would, but I was only using a 1/4" drive ratchet, and a screwdriver on the machine bolts. Once the flange was in what appeared to be the tru and straight position, I put the c clamp back on to get the extra little squeeze I was needing to fit the clips in. It took just a little bit more bending, but then, Ahaa. There was definitely a sweet spot where the u joint began moving like melted butter. This is the position it wants to live in for sure. I gave the c clamp just a little squeeze more, and removed it. Sure enough, the clip easily snapped into place. So this was a 3 hour process, with half of it being wasted trying stuff that didn't work, and all the time I had already wasted trying on my own to install these things. And I've only installed Half of two u joints. I still have to fit the half shafts onto them.
Just goes to show, just because you've installed something before and it went well, Always do a little research before you start, and pay attention to what problems other's have ran into. I figure I wasted about 4 hours, which is two days build time for me currently.

 

Flange bolted to the plate steel



Found the sweet spot where the u joint is loving it.



I gave it just a little more huggin before trying the clips

 

Success!! the clips popped right into place.

 

One last note on this, the 1/4" machine bolts I used worked just fine, but as I removed the second flange from the jig, I had a little trouble with the threads. The threads had stretched, and the bolts were bent a little. So while it worked, you might want to use something a little more substantial.

 

Now, all you big torque motor guys out there are going to notice the port for a zirk fitting, and tell me I should be using non greasable u joints with a 454. While I can see the logic for this, I could not find it practicable. Plus, I did look for spirco, hd non greasable joints, and they don't seem to be around anymore. I can barely fit these joints in with removable caps, and I get them dirty as hell while doing it. So I definitely need to be able to flush them out with new grease after install. How else could this be done???