I talked a friend into rebuilding his "82 SPecial Edition vette. Im starting at the back and working my way forward to get it running. After sitting for 6 years - what should I look for when I get to the engine - will I have to pull the oil pump and fill it to prime it? Do in need to pull the valve covers and use white grese on the rockers?
Any and all comments welcome - well, almost all...... I have already removed the tank and it is all rusted....

 

Sounds like a fun worthwhile adventure, definitely flush and drain all fluids, Oil, Coolant, Gas, and new Plugs! Good Luck!

 

get a priming tool for the oil pump and spin it with a drill until you get oil to the rockers and you'll be fine

 

you may need these guys when you get to the fronthttp://www.crossfire.homeip.net/index.php?act=idx

 

Well - it took 2 weeks of soaking in Evapo-Rust and scrubbing with a BBQ grill pad and digging it out with my fingers - but it is now clean and ready to go back in - ........... after several trys, I have found that it is easier to put the tank back in with the tire cover removed - just drilled out the rivots - I'll bolt it back on after I get it running. Now I just have to wait until the oil pump priming tool gets here and I'll be able to crank it over.

 

While I'm waiting on parts - I decieded to tackle the rear window - it was locked shut and would not realese. After reading posts here and on other sites I found the the pistons are usually pushing on the window hard enough to jam it in the holders. The bracket is designed to go side to side - I am going to modify it to move forwords and backwards to close up the gap. I pointed out where to take the window apart incase anyone else cant figure it out like I couldn't.

 

I'd put in a new fuel filter too.

 

You might also go to this web site as it pertains to the 82 Collector Edition and those who have worked on the 82 CE may have some info for you to help. http://www.82ceregistry.com/

 

Aaahh, the website that restricts who can view it. No thanks.

 

I was able to get right in - maybe the server was down when you tried Larry - Thanks for the link.

 

Ditto. No problems.

 

Had a chance over the weekend to pull the distributor - slide the pump primer in and run for 5 minutes, pumped some Marvel Oil in each cylinder, cranked it over without gas in the tank or plugs in. After putting the plugs back in and filling it with about 5 gal - I poured a little gas down the manifold and it started right up on the first try! Now - what I learned from this - 1) Mark your rotor, distributor and a place on the manifold that all line up. I was off by 1/4 of an inch and the wire from the battery would not budge to go in. 2) It takes a couple of times (5-6) of climbing up and looking down inside the distributor hole to make sure the oil pump is lined up correctly. 3) Unless everything is perfect - the distributor will not seed all the way. I was suprised that it didn't shoot any black or white smoke out the back end. Very clean and now it purrs - maybe I should put the mufflers back on.... maybe later - sounds too good now. Now --on to the shocks and exhaust system.

 

That sounds great. I sense your excitement. Keep us posted.

Jim

 

Factory intake manifolds and distributors have stake marks on them. Bring #1 to TDC on the compression stroke, install the distributor, and align the marks.

 

Had some time to wait for parts to get here so I headed out to the cave and tackle the brakes. After all - the last time I did a set of Chevy disc brakes, it wasn't that hard, after all, I still have my allen impack driver to loosen the disc's. Hmmmm - rivots, why does it have to be rivots....I highly recommend that if you have a spare old laptop laying around, you put it on the bench and leave it on the Corvette forums page. It saves a lot of time running up and down the stairs to research things in the forum. Well after 3 hours for the first one, 2 for the second I thought, the fronts should be cake. If by cake I meant a bigger pain in the ***, then yes....cake. I had to take the spindles off and drill out the rear part of the rivot to get them out of the spindle. I made sure I marked the hub and disc so they will go back together the same way they came off to avoid a bad case of .002 out of round. I knew comming into this project that a Corvette is a hobbie, not a car. But I tell you, I wouldn't do this for a VW. BTW - I have my next hobbie sitting in the drive way as soon as I finish this one - 1990 Polo green. Glutten for punishment I guess.

 

Well it's been a couple of months waiting on parts and time - but here we go again - a side note first - I do beleive that the next stage in human evolution will be a mechanic that grows a 3rd arm and their fingers will be twice as long and half as fat - for now will just have to pretend we are a Norigen Spider monkey to get all of the parts back on....... First up - putting the e-brake back in - by the way - why do you need a e-brake on a automatic??? Because the gov said so - there - question answered - I found a great write up on this site -
http://rowleycorvette.com/repairs.html
with a few minor tweeks it was 4 hours on the right side - 1 hour on the left.



Out with the old - well they fell out - in with the new. I didn't have a 3" cutting wheel as described in the other write up so I pulled the retaining washer off the old lever with needle nose and used the bolt and nut closest to the lever as an anvil to punch down around the stud to back the lower arm off - then tapped out the stud using the same bolt/nut.



To attach the new you have to take it apart and assemble within the unit - use the nut/bolt anvil method again.
I found it easier to use fishing line than floss and a BBQ long lighter to fit thru the shoe to melt the line off. Hint - make the springs as small and as tight as possible -


Finished product - the hardest part was attaching the upper and lower springs to the opposite shoe- I used neddle nose pliers instead of the hanger - but maybe that was the problem.

 

Well - today is the day - control arms come out - watched the Van Steel DVD about 10 times - and of course the arms come out easier if the body is off - but here it goes - Driver side first - a lot of room to work - just have to remove the altenator. In order to get the pressed in bolts out - I was able to insert my micro ajustment tool - (aka. crowbar) and tap on it with a hammer to release the bolt.


Everything else came out according to the DVD - just do it in the correct order.
Driver side - 3 hrs
Passenger side - 2.5 hrs. You only have to get the air conditioner pump out of the way to make it easier to get to the bolts. By the way - the arms will come out going up instead of trying to get them out the small window in the wheel well. Takes a little twisting and that third arm mentioned in the earlier thread would come in handy here.



All in all - I would say that the hardest part of the entire job was getting the top nuts off the shocks. I had to get some vise grips clamped on the top then turn the nut 1/3 turn at a time, very time consuming and hard on the back. Now off to the machine shop to get the new Poly bearing pressed in.

 

Well - do you remember last week when I was proud that I didnt have to touch the radiator shroud or fan when taking out the control arms? Well the jokes on me - I was taking the drain plug out of the bottom of the radiator to put in some new fluid when the bottom of the radiator tore open. I did expect it to happen - I have never seen a 30 year old anything with water in it to survive.


So - everything came out and a new alum rad with twin electric fans is going back in. On the Control Arms - after being bounced around to a dozen different shops that said we don't but so-and-so does, I finally found one to do them. Should have them back by next week.



Something else caught me eye while I was in there digging around, a connection had a burn mark on the outside of the caseing so I pulled it apart and it disintergrated. The connection goes to the starter and hopefully I can find another plug to cross wire into it. Any suggestions? I was looking at trailer hitch connections - seems to be the only thing thick enough to handle the wires.

 

Radio Shack has some locking connectors from 2 to 12 pins - http://www.radioshack.com/family/ind...goryId=2032286

 

when i found my connector like that i also was going to replace with a nice new weatherpack connector .but why unless you are going with the factory look i would cut off the connector [this was for the factory assembly]and solder the wires together.there is no need for the connector .this was told to me by others on this forum.its what i did.