Tum-tee-tum



Labeling



This helps. Yes, you can be envious. Available everywhere.

 

...


This steering box will be tossed. Playing around with iit, it felt quite




The lower control arms will be reused. Belgium tech will not allow tubular lowers. (I doubt they’ll notice the tubular uppers with the flaps on them.). In addition to being heavier, the tubulars would also need to have the sway bar brackets swapped - too involved. The ball joints were like cow udders - silly floppy. They were clearly original to the car.




Lots of grime to clean off.




Next step will be to tap in the steering column shaft. It will be a lot easier with the engine out. Also need to replace the clutch rod boot and pivot. Now is a good time to do that.

 

As much as yesterday was a doozy, today was nightmarish.


Let’s start with something easy and satisfying. This came with the Borgeson kit. There is a spring inside it. To adsorb shocks ?



Grimy.



90 minutes later...

 

Removing the end bolt. Easy enough.



Trimming the rubber and drilling some of it out. The first one came out quite easily. The tick it’s to catch the inner metal from the bushing around cross shaft from the inside. Then catch the lip on the outside and walk it out. Credit to Lars for this tip.



Then. It was carnage.

 

Once the carnage was over it was easy enough to pound in the new polyurethane bushing... had to remove the urethane first tho. I was fine with that. That way I could apply more “super grease”. I have squeaky bushings. Tomorrow I’ll complete the other lower arm. A lick of paint and I can reassemble on Thursday. With luck, I’ll dump engine back in this weekend.

 

Looking good !

 

Did the other lower control arm this evening. That is pounded in the bushings - bolted up and ready to go. So we are nearly there... Thursday I have a day off. My plan is to:

- tap the steering shaft back and install the Borgeson; it should be fairly straightforward with an empty bay.
- do a reasonable job cleaning and painting black the chassis. I could spend days doing this. (I’ve been there before.) My objective now is a clean place to work; not a mirror finish.
- install the suspension control arms, linkage, front coils, shocks, sway bar, etc. That bit oughta be fun
- install clutch rod with new end
- install the master cylinder and booster
- install the new throttle cable

My only frustration now is the flywheel. The machine shop has had my flywheel for 6 - 7 weeks ? Since my plan was to drop in the engine this weekend with a buddy, I needed it back. How difficult can it be to resurface???? Well doofus machine shop said it was too big for their machine and he forgot to call me back to tell me. I called other machine shops none could guarantee getting the job done... if the could do it.

Soooo, I had to express order from Summit 2-4 delivery a news flywheel.

 

Another thing I might do while the engine is out is try to find a good location for the EFI fuel sump.

I plan to do an EFI conversion.

However, first I will run it with a carb to make sure it idles and that the timing is spot on. Once that is done, converting to EFI should be a cake walk. Yeah right. “should be”.

Then dye seats and replace door panels. And... ? Is that it for the moment ?

My concerns thereafter are the brakes, that they will suddenly spring a leak... I’m also a little worried about the engine. It was doing fine prior to take down but...

I am also worried that with the front rebuilt, the rear will be a bit squidgy. On the other hand, I need to drive this car a bit; I should keep something to do for next winter break. For now

 

A work around for tubular lowers would be to 'box' the factory lowers in strategic locations.

 

Yes - I had done that once on another of my rides and it did indeed make a noticeable difference, even in everyday driving.

 

Moving along. Today I will attempt to drop in the motor + trans.

In in the meantime the past days I partially reinstalled the suspension and Borgeson steering box.



With new tubular control arms, shafts and bushings... I don’t know how useful it is to keep these as they were.




Looks good to me !




Scary part over !!! The springs were shorter but they clearly took much more effort to compress. The old ones must have been shot !




Spring properly located. Tighter spaced coils at top.




Just this is annoying. The steering stop on the control arm is missing its mark on spindle by almost an inch. I learned in another thread that this may settle and go away once the car settles with the motor in it. I’m quite sure I didn’t screw anything up.

 

The partial installation of the Borgeson went very smooth. Certainly having the engine out made all the difference. I had the luxury of easily installing and removing the box + slowly tapping the shaft in to fit. Lots of space to swing a 5 lbs hammer insulated with soft wood.

I heard nightmares about columns not wanting to collapse. I lucked out. The shaft on mine appeared to have little corrosion. For a couple of days prior I sprayed with WD-40. Worked like a charm. Properly aligned and steering wheel properly centered. I think it’s about 2.7 rotations from lock to lock.


Tape to limit how far I was going to tap in. I proceeded in steps so I did this a few times. The splines have been carefully cleaned and greased.




I’m impressed. The the overall alignment seems good in all directions.




There is a very slight contact with one of the brake lines all I had to do was pry it slightly to get it out of the way.

 

This is the first time I reinstall a motor with a Muncie attached in a C3 corvette. We struggled for hours to get everything aligned and install but it all worked out.






One step closer. A big step.

 

Broken dipstick tube removed.



Trans mount torqued. Drive shaft reinstalled. Twisting driveshaft by hand, I’m feeling some sort of spot resistance. Clearly I’ll have to go through the rear... but after the summer season is over. It’s time to get it on the road again.

I have an appointment on Sept 2 to get the front end realigned.

I’m hoping this weekend I’ll get the motor running again.

We shall see !

 

Time for another update...

I think there is a good chance that the car will be moving under its own power this weekend, if not the next. All of the big chores are done except for one: installing the new radiator and black magic fan.

I learned that it is better to install the shifter with the linkage rods attached. Trying to slot them in and G-pin them fin the car is a miserable nightmare.

I also found that the little feeler gauge-like locating tool isn't terribly helpful. I almost got is stuck in there. It is much easier to have an assistant running through all the gear and carefully aligning under the car the shift levers. Until it is smooth as butter.

One small frustration... the second gear is shallow compared to the rest. Source: the lever on the the case on the transmission itself; it is not an issue with the shifter or linkage. I suspect this isn't normal, but for the moment it will have to do - nothing I can do about it.

One of the linkage rods was .5 an inch too long and needed to be trimmed. It took me a while to figure this one out.

Suspension is still missing the shocks and the sway bar, but all the castelated nuts have been torqued to spec and cotter pinned. That gave a me great feeling of progress.

The starter, grounds and solenoid wires have been reattached. Oil pressure line as well (I had to re-terminate... the fitting was stripped). Distributor stabbed in and properly clocked.

I pulled out the spark plugs (they were kind oily !) so I could test spinning over the motor.

I cranked the engine and... all the blood drained out of me: BANG, BANG, BANG !!!! Groan !!!! It sounded like a spun bearing... but too hollow. Searching around, I found that it was the edge of the new inspection cover slightly interfering with crank. That should be an easy fix.

Oil pressure was good, and came up immediately. And... for the first time in many years, this motor cranked with the clutch safety switch not bypassed and with the key. The PO could not figure out that the ignition switch travel was adjustable so he bypassed that as well (in an awful way) with a push button start. Once again there was a feeling of achievement that the motor was cranking with the key.

To be done:
- New Griffin radiator and new electric fan shroud.
- attach fuel pump, PS pump and alternator
- Sway bar
- Shocks
- brake calipers and bleed
- coolant, oil, trans oil
- dye seats and install
- install door panels...
- front end geometry

 

Great progress.
You will be back on the road soon!

 

So... many things happened this Saturday, Sunday and Labor Day.



The wires on the reverse switch were unmolested, but pretty much fell off. A good clean and soldered on new wires.

My old shocks were very much dead. Not Bilstiens, but what I could afford for the moment.

Sway bar with Prothane bushing installed

Massive. The radiator is a used Griffin. The lower hose required some massaging to get the hose to fit. I also had to cut into the fan shroud. This thing is massive. I had to remove the lower shield to fit it. The sway bar just about touches the shroud... I’ll eventually have to do something about that.

Closer still

 

I was a bit over ambitious today. My plan was to get everything back together except for the headlights and wipers so I could take it in around the corner to get the geometry done.

Well... good news and bad news.

The bad news is I had to cancel the appointment, It wasn’t ready yet.

The good news ? The corvette moved under its own power for the first time since October of 2019 !!! Grantedonly a few feet, but this is a milestone.

It fired right up immediately and ran very smoothly. The small exhaust tick is gone. I hate those pesky ticks.

I scooted a few feet forwards and backwards the new clutch made a huge difference. Whereas it used to be tough to feel and challenging to get moving... here it is easy to get the car moving. The clutch was the issue.

The big (unexpected) time consumer was bleeding the brakes. That took forever. There still is a problem there and that will be for a new post shortly.

Other things that ate time? Getting the radiator and fan to fit. Having to remove the Z-bar to install the header. Searching for the tool I had in my hand not five friggin seconds ago

 

Is I test ran the car, it was quite nice to see the fiber optics working brightly and hear the radio playing: As Good As New from ABBA.

No leaks that I could spot... but it was getting dark.

it was running so rich that my eyes were watering. No matter, soon it will be converted to EFI. The issue was a broken choke wire.

The Borgeson is not leaking that I could tell and it feels all right.

Friday it will drive a coupla miles to get the front end geometry done. If I’m feeling cocky I might take it on to the highway sans headlights and wiper door

 

if I do, I’ll be curious to see how the increased caster works out and most importantly... that odd vibration at 60 MPH. Will it be gone now ?