Hi everyone; I'm new to the forum and have a couple of questions about my 1975 Corvette Stingray; It has 35K Original miles and is all original. The driver’s side rear caliper is froze up and I barely got the car home. I was thinking of the following for the car:

Replace all the Calipers, Pads and Rotors. Is it best to have brand new SS Sleeve Calipers or are remanufactured just as good? Both madvet and Eckler has kits available. Any other brake suggestions?

The battery is bad, so I plan in replacing it. I assume nothing to special about it except a side mount. Again any suggestions will be appreciated.

I also wanted to redo the exhaust system as the old mufflers look….well old. I was thinking about headers, replacing the catalytic converter to off road and getting some SS Polished mufflers. Is this a good idea? The car is original and I will be keeping the all the stock parts…..but will this change make the car way too loud? I have a Mustang Cobra with a cat back system that is just right, but not much experience with the 350 exhaust sounds and how well they adapt to modifications. Again, any thoughts on where to purchase a system, madvet has one but opinions would be appreciated.

Lastly, will an old carburetor need a rebuild or a new unit? The car seems to bog down which could just be the plugs but I would like everyone’s opinion.

Sorry for the long first post, just very accustomed to Mustangs and would love some of your opinions! Thanks Tom

 

Congratz. on the vette, & welcome, the mods sound good, hope you
get the bog fixed, i have the same problem.

 

Hello

Rebuilt calipers will work just fine, so long as the casting is good (not cracked) and it has been stainless steel sleeved. O-ring pistons are also a good idea.
Edit: While I don't have personal experience, I've only heard good things about VBP, a supporting vendor, link on the left side.

Depending on where you live and inspections in your area, you might be able to go true duals. As for mufflers, there's about a bazillion threads on that, just search around.

I assume you have the old quadrajet? For a stock motor, I've been told that the q-jet is more than adequate. You should talk to lars because he is the guy everyone goes to for carb rebuilds/tunes.

 

Excellent! Welcome to the forum!

35K is very low miles. Mine had 40K on it when I bought it 4 years ago. Hopefully they took as good care of yours as mine.

A couple of questions:

1. How do you know the caliper is "froze up"? What exact symptoms did you have?

2. If you want to keep the original parts, then buy the rebuild kit. However, you will need a good bench vice and torque wrench because the two halves of the caliper get like 120 ftlb of torque. I simply ordered some rebuilt units from my local Schucks/Kragen/Checker. You might also want to replace the rubber hoses which go from the solid brake line to the calipers...Eckler's has those too.

I have not heard of Madvet...do you have a link to a web site for them? You might want to shop some of the companies which advertise on this site...the whole left side of this page has them listed.

Take a good look at the battery cable. Since the battery is located behind the driver, the cables are Looooong. The ends have to be in top condition, and so does the alternator...if the battery is bad, then pull your alternator out and take it to a local Schucks/Kragen/Checker or Autozone and they can test it for you.

For exahaust I recommend the 1969 OEM off-road side-pipes option...chrome if you can afford it. Eckler's has the complete OEM package that fits the original exhaust manifolds, but of course you can adapt them to headers.

It does sound like your vette needs a tune-up. I recommend new plugs (bosch platinum are what I use) and rebuild the carb...also check the distributor vacuum advance diaphram...sounds like it may be leaking vacuum and not working.

You may want to get a new brake master cylinder while you are at it...and don't forget it's going into a Vette...which means you need to paint it before installing it.

Oh...and the most important thing...we need pictures of your vette!

 

madvet is madvet.com, which is actually Mid America Motorworks, with whom I am sure you are familiar.

 

Oh! Mid America I know.

Uhm...why do we have two threads on this?

 

I saw that there are two threads, not sure why myself? I could have done it, I know enough about computers to be very dangerous!

About the brake symptoms: When the car is cold it free wheels with no problems after about a mile you feel a drag on the car, after about 5 miles the drivers rear wheel starts to smoke. I pulled the wheel and the rotor is soooo hot it will burn your skin. Any other thoughts will be greatly appreciated!
TOM

 

I would replace the battery with either a redtop optima, or if it's going to sit a lot, a yellow top.