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

 

Hi Tom
Welcome to the world of Vette’s
To your questions.

I suggest new SS calipers all the way around. Make sure the master cylinder is ok and now is a good time to decide if you want to stick with the stock type of brake fluid or go with silicone (dot 5).
Eckers or ZIP are good vendors and I am sure others are ok also.
I use ZIP for most of my stuff.

Exhaust
So long as your state will allow you to “get away” with removing your cat you can do what you want. I removed the 2-1-2 system for Dynomax headers and true duals to Borla mufflers and I love it. I have no X or H pipe and as such my 76 sounds like a Harly motorcycle. Which is what I was looking for.
Again you will not be compliant with the inspection laws if your state has car inspections.

As for the carb. I guess it is a stock Q-Jet carb and if so yes it will need to be rebuild and cleaned up.
If you can do this yourself then you will find a ton of great info in this forum from LARS. He is the expert.
If you cant do the carb rebuild yourself then you either have to find someone who can or look for a new or rebuild carb to buy.

Hope this helps

 

Thanks Pete; would you do SS Sleeve Calipers with Cast Iron Casings or SS Everything. I found a couple kits and wow, the SS all the way is pretty steep!

I want to keep the original cab so I may get a hold of LARS as it would be my first re-build and I'm sure I will have questions!

 

Yes, see:
http://www.corvettefaq.com/c3/ganeyexhaust.htm

SS sleeved are all that's needed.

 

Few things.
Brakes- are you going to do the work or have a sho do it? If you are then do a little reading on the subject,ie runout checks, bleeding,etc
Bottom line is rebuild ss lined calipers are all you need. You can use lip seal ones if your runout is under .003" or go to the O ring if you have more and don't want to fis it the right way. Replacing the rotors is not recommended unless you have a groove in them, they are badly warped, or undersize. New rotors have to be checked for runout too.
Exhaust- as said if you can get away with removing that lousy stock system do it. You could use a 74 2.5" system if you don't want to get into fabricating pipes.

Good luck

Gary

PS- you're better off doing as much work as you can yourself.

 

Yes, I plan on doing the work myself. I've heard bleading this system is a pain the in the ***! Any information you can recommend? I've done a couple of brake systems but not as old as this car!

Thanks!

 

I was told the cat requirement for 75 and later vehicles is a Federal requirement. You can be stopped anywhere and fined. Anyone know differently?

 

Get one of the pressure bleeders at Summit Racing and it should be a piece of cake.

 

Not sure, I know in Michigan I ran a 99 Cobra with full off road exhaust for about 20K Miles with no trouble from the law. I have to open this Vet up, it is choking to death! Should I just take it to a Muffler shop or is there some where online to get a system?

 

Well, after some research I think I'm replacing all (4) Calipers with SS Sleeve, new pads and braided SS Lines from - www.vbandp.com

I was going to replace the Rotors but the cost shocked me, so they will have to wait!

Also going with the recommended Summit Racing Pressure Bleeder - Will jsut the standard GM Kit work? Part #: MVP-0105

How about the following Straight Mid Pipe http://www.madvet.com/shop?frame=1.36.1267

to DynoMAx Turbo Mufflers http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/pe...d=37&year=1975

Would this bolt up with not to many modifications?

Thanks for all the help! Tom

 

You might want to just change the brake hose on the wheel that is locking up for now and then evaluate the entire system. These brake hoses are known to collapse on the inside. The exaust your thinking about replacing will help it breath alot better.

 

Would you recommend just using the rubber again; I've heard the SS Lines will fail a lot sooner.

Thanks

 

Yes they are effective and inexpensive.

 

The above posted was correct replace all the rubber hoses during hte caliper chnage and don;t forget there are copper washers on the front caliper hose that need to be replaced as well.
I didn't look at the bleeder you saw at Summit but you should get a Motive bleeder, they sell them direct if you do a search. They should be about $60. I use calipers from Muskegon Brakes. Been using them for the past 20 years without any major problems.

 

Yep the bleeder is a Motive. Thanks guys I do appreciate it! I sure I will have more questions after get into it!

 

I don't think the SS hoses will fail before the rubber ones. They are supposed to be teflon lined and teflon is used for wierd stuff like chlorine. Another words the teflon lining is just about as inert as you can get. It might be fragile if you crush it with a vice grips but this is outside the intended use.

 

In NC, the cat WAS required during the inspection.

 

These were my exact symptoms. After the 5 miles can you let it sit for a bit and it will free up? If so then I'm kinda doubting that your problem is brake related. Have you taken a look at the pads? If they are glazed then it might be brakes, but if you don't see any signs of lots of wear in a short time like brake dust, then my diagnosis would be rear bearings. Instead of replacing calipers even if they don't need it, I would recommend rebuilding your rear control arms with some new spindles and bearings...it won't be too expensive and it will need to be done sometime soon anywhere. It looks like the bearings need to be inspected and re-lubed before 50K...probably more like 35K.

 

On a "new-to-you" C2 or C3, one of the first thing you ought to do is check the rear bearings. You can do a quick check by raising the car and trying to wiggle the tire from the 6 and 12 position. If there is any perceptable movement, you need to go deeper. Not a bad idea to just tear down the trailing arms and check/lube/and or replace the bearings and TA bushings unless you know the PO has recently done it.

 

This was another thought I had. The PO has done nothing to the car. I fact I still have the original tires from 1975 in my possession! I have some experience with rear ends but not a Corvette. How hard is it to tear down the trailing arms? Just simple hand tools sufficient?

Thanks for your help, maybe this will save me a couple of bucks! Tom