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I’m still waiting on the bushing puller and installer. It should have been here last week.
In the meantime I have been going on test drives. The work I did on the suspension made a dramatic difference.
However, while I was poking around the car I noticed some play that I hadn’t noticed before I did all the work. Apparently I missed one part of the suspension: the differential stub axle play. It also functions as the upper control arms. It’s a bit late to check tonight but after reading some other threads, I found that the end play should be:
Before I noticed the play and researched this, it seemed to me I way over that tolerance.
I’ll use some feeler gauges tomorrow and get a ball park idea.
Geez when I get through with this car, it had better fly.
EDIT
Further reading suggests that if your struts are adjusted all the way in to reach camber specs, that’s another sign of stub axle issues.
Last edited by DorianC3; Mar 27, 2020 at 04:54 PM.
The T-filler was missing and always gave me the feeling this interior wasn’t complete. Not too difficult a job. My hand just fits to remove the rear bolt. To get this in, the console needs to be slid in from the back and then the rear is lowered in.
Time to rebuild the washer pump.
Testing before final assembly...That was easy.
The brass tubing however was half a nightmare. It’s fairly close. The bends have to be tweaked a bit to fit relaxed. Bending tubing by hand is always scary. The plastic clips work nicely. I guess I’ll have to paint the wiper arms now; they look unfinished.
Something seems to be plugging the left brass tube, but for now, I can live with it. I know this is a few tweaks short of fully operational.
I wonder when it was last that these brass tubes were there and washing. The headlight washers are all plumbed in. Is still need to check the secondary solenoid - for another day. Not sure when.
Last edited by DorianC3; Apr 14, 2020 at 05:38 AM.
The parking break was easy enough to adjust, if time consuming. I think it needs to be a little tighter still, but I will let it settle in a bit. Fully pulled, it does its job.
Always check! Since I had the wheels off I figured I’d check the trailing arm pivot bolts. Sure enough, they were neither torqued nor pinned Good job, alignment shop.
Last edited by DorianC3; Apr 13, 2020 at 02:31 PM.
I had replaced the rear spring with a composite spring and it sat too high. I tried using 10-inch bolts, but found that although the ride height was correct, the end bolts were too close to the pavement.
I had suspected for a little while that there might be an issue with my driveline.
From what I read, the trans should be angled down 2 degrees. Ideally the pinion should be angled up two degrees. However, I also understand that, from factory, C3 corvette pinion angles were at about 0.
I will have to recheck my measurements tomorrow, but I think my trans is spot on pointing down at 2 degrees. The pinion also seems to be pointing down and close to 4 degrees... I will have to recheck it.
So the pinion needs to be raised 4 to 6 degrees.
As I understand it (after reading tons of articles) to raise the pinion, you need to trim the snubber/doughnut bushing and or shim the rear crossmember.
Correct ?
I suspect trimming the snubber will not be enough. I will have to shim the crossmember. Hopefully that won't be as aggravating as it sounds...
I have never been happy with the motor in my Corvette. It seems to be a super budget rebuild. It leaks oil. It has bits and bobs of bubba in it and I don’t trust it. I think is is also a possible source of vibration that I’m feeling.
I lucked out
I scored a 350 SBC from a 2000 van. It was scrapped because it was burning too much oil. Supposedly it needed a ring job. Forensics will tell.
But first let’s get it out of the rain. It rained yesterday and is supposed to rain again this PM. So, I made a break for it
I wasn’t kidding when I said it was being scrapped.
Cherry picking time.
Ever see a V8 in a Clio ?
Enough padding. In-laws will never know
If it works it ain’t stupid.
I barely beat a torrential downpour. It got dark too. I didn’t have time to closely inspect but it looks promising. I turned the crank over a few times and emptied half a van of WD-40. The last thing I want is rust damage.
No detectable ridge #happy
It’s too dark to further inspect.
Tomorrow I’ll drop the pan. For the moment lifters are cleaned and in oil and everything else was eithe oiled or hit with WD-40
If the cylinders are in good shape, I’ll do a quick hone and new rings.
A mild performance cam. Mild work on heads... and I’ll call it good.
The goal is to match the now-missing L46’s performance. That is, slightly North of 350 HP and 380 TQ. Definitely want reasonable idle with enough vacuum to run headlights, wiper door and power brakes.
The discovery was that the fuel in the Edelbrock fuel sump is boiling and leading to difficult hot starts and maybe even poor performance overall.
That will have to go. It’s just too hot under our hoods for this system.
I never did like the alternator bracket. The alignment was pretty bad. It’s seemed to be twisting over.
I guess this explains why the bracket was not aligning properly.
Mmm. I prefer not having a bracket on my header bolts.
Half install done.
Nice kit. Simple. Effective. I think my belt could be a little smaller.
I replaced the restrictor in the power steering pump. This got rid of the over boost and gave a much better road feel. Definitely sportier and inspires confidence. #reommended.
Last edited by DorianC3; May 21, 2020 at 12:11 PM.
I haven’t posted in this thread for a while, but I have been somewhat busy on three projects:
- Tracking down a driveline vibration
- Doing a T5 conversion
- Restoring the L46 power
It turns out that the first two projects were one and the same. The vibration was most likely coming from my Muncie that had a tailshaft housing out of the round. Once I replaced it with the T5 the problem disappeared.
