First test drive with chambered mufflers- it's very loud idling and it's really loud under acceleration. 2500 rpm constsnt speed and its pretty mellow. I'm pleasantly surprised. I thought it was going to sound like a race car.
Today's plan is to put the side exhaust covers back on. These things are a royal pain in the ass. These covers are not really mounted well. They are mounted low and a little too far rearward. It's the way I got it. Now because of the larger exhaust, it's more of an issue. Especially the right side. Here's what my morning looks like- Trying to figure out how to do this. The cover has to be mounted a little further outboard at the front. So I slotted the front mount a little. The left one is a spare I have for comparison. If this works, I'll do the same modification to the left side While everything is apart....again, I did a small fiberglass repair to the insulator
First issue with the Corvette. I was waiting what sort of gremlins would show up when I started driving it. Started hearing a clunk when taking off from a light. Turns out it was a worn differential snubber bushing. The bushing was probably bad 30 years ago. And if your wondering where it goes, it goes under the front of the carrier to stabilize it. There's a bracket that bolts to the underside of the center section to the crossmember just ahead of it. The bushing goes in between. $32 later and its a night and day difference with the new one. Put the interior back together tonight too. So unless something else breaks, the car is pretty much done. It's a car again!
This week's project was to replace the worn out rear outer spring bushings. The old ones were wasted! The ammembly manual says to screw the castle nut on till the hole lines up with the castle nut....odd. I guess the tension of the spring self torques the nut lol. They weren't terrible to do.
And the odometer broke this week....the little black plastic gear in the speedo head stripped. Another project for this weekend. I guess it'll give me a chance to polish the lenses and replace all the 50 year old bulbs. I think I'm going to do a thread about speedometers. How to take the needle off and replace the odometer gears. That actually make repro gears. There's also a calibration procedure for them.
The fiber optics in the one (1969) that I worked on were in the console, not the dash... Looks like maybe 68-71 ?
Here's another fun fact about corvettes... So the car needed a left front marker light because the lens was melted from the prior owners car cover catching fire. So 73 to 79 is the same light. The left front and right rear is the same housing, just a red lens vs amber. 73 and early 74 use a metal housing. So I'm trying to find a replacement metal housing lens. Every single used one on eBay is missing the lens. Every nos one and 99% of the used ones are plastic. Odd....i do some research and come to find out that the glue they used to bond the lens to the metal housing wasn't good and all the 1973 and early 74 lenses fell out. They changed the housings to plastic in mid 74. And that why all thr nos ones are plastic. Reminds me of @Duane article about nos parts! The agony!! Lol Finally found a guy on Ebay that had one without the corvette part markup. You'd be surprised how much they want for a stupid marker light. I'm not spending 90 bucks on a light. I'm not JL Gotrocks! I go to put it on and the thread cutting nuts are too naturally small. Buick parts to the rescue! The nuts that hold the 70-72 Buick markers are the same! Went into the parts dept and got a pair. Funny, they were off the GSX to boot! So the corvette marker fiasco is concluded!
And the Corvette has become a very reliable car. Have almost 1k miles on it at this point. It's earned my trust. I wouldn't think twice about driving it anywhere. I remember I was second guessing my decision to buy it as I was in uncharted territory. At one point I said, wtf did I do? Lol. Looking back I'm glad I bought it. She was a diamond in the rough for sure
I thought the rear plate needed a vintage dealer frame. I think it puts the finishing touch on the car!
The speedometer/ odometer issue is finally getting addressed. Just to recap, I bought the car with 43,213 on it. When it got to 43,999...instead of going to 44,000, the one odometer wheel stuck and it rolled to 54k! As soon as that happened the odometer stopped working altogether and the speedo needle started bouncing. I surmised that the black plastic odometer gear stripped. Related to this was a pesky water leak from under the dash. Yesterday I decided to address both issues. I took the cluster out which I would describe as "difficult". I can't even get in and out of the car good, much less get under the dash! She put up a fight and the column needed to essentially be completely disconnected. It's kinda floating in there at the moment. One benefit was this was the final piece of the mouse poop puzzle. The last component of the interior that hasn't been removed. And when it came out, there was the brown evidence! Cluster came apart, lenses were cleaned and polished. Instrument housing was scrubbed with dawn power wash. I installed my calibrated speedo and set the miles to 43,879. I want to see it roll over to 44k since I didn't get to see it the first time. Even painted the BRAKE letters on the warning light There was definitely evidence of water getting into the speedo head from the leak. The was a water line inside the speedo cup! No bueno. While it was conpletely apart, I hosed the car down and sure enough, I spotted the leak! Just above the speedo, where the birdcage meets the firewall, I see a drop of water. It's right where there is a factory rivet. And on the exact opposite side of where I'm pointing is this You can barely see a pop rivet there. ËLooks like the seam sealer or whatever they used dried up. I'm going to dig it out a little. Maybe run a wire brush over it and seal it up.
You can see how I calibrated the new speedometer for the Corvette in this thread http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?th...assembly-and-calibration.391280/#post-3459108
Addressed the leak yesterday as I knew it would be raining this weekend. I used a small wire wheel on my Dremel to dig out the dried up seam sealer. I couldn't find any seam sealer in the shop. It was such a a tiny area that I couldn't justify buying a whole tube of it. So I used some roofing tar. It's almost identical to the thick undercoating you'd find in the rear wheel wheels of an A body I used a small brush to apply it. Afterwards, I brushed some mineral spirits over it to kind of smooth the texture down a bit. Just went out there this morning and the area it was leaking from is dry as a bone! If the rain ever lets up this weekend, I'll slam the dash back in Still have a couple small items on the punch list- Want to do another gear oil change in the diff. On these cars, you can't remove the cover. Gear oil has to be sucked out and you can never get 100% of it out. So one more fluid change should take care of it. The left rear tire has an annoying bead seal leak. It's leaking right by the "R" in radial t/a. After that, it's just a matter of washing it and changing the oil periodically!
Finally had an opportunity to put the cluster back in. I took the column completely out for reinstallation. A little more work but freed up Alot of wiggle room Since there was a water leak behind the dash for years, the sockets for the instrument lights were corroded. Spent a ton of time wire wheeling the little metal clips/ tangs on each socket. Every time I put the cluster in, a light would not work. Take the cluster out, get that light working and another would go out. It was like whack a mole. I was chasing bad grounds. Must of had the cluster and column in and out no joke, 5 times. My neighbors must think I'm not wrapped too tight. I was literally screaming at the car STOP FIGHTING ME!! Evidently, 5 times was the charm and I managed to get everyone to show up to the party. On the bright side, I can now whip out a C3 steering column in 10 minutes flat. While I was knee deep in it, I lubed up the tach cable so it's not bouncy anymore. Everything went back together good afterwards. You'd never be able to tell I was back there! Another issue I took care of was a pesky power steering leak. The Corvette uses a power steering assist cylinder like an old mustang. Seal was shot and it kept leaving a puddle on the ground. Got a hold of a rebuild kit and through it in. The old rubber seal was like concrete when I removed it. Once reinstalled, there's an adjustment to make on the cylinder. You want the cylinder to be in a neutral position- not moving in or out by itself. There's a adjustment but on the control valve to accomplish this. It was a little off. Took it for a test drive and she's dry as a bone
