Graham’s Corvette Blog

The test drive went OK except that the brake light comes on when the brakes are applied. Seems that the front and back parts of the dual system are out of balance. So time to bleed all the calipers.

With the tires off I decided to check all the run out numbers: LF .001, LR .007, RF .004, RR .005. So it looks like I’ll replace the left rear when I do the parking brake overhaul. Should be OK for now. The left front rotor above is not wearing evenly. the bottom 30% closest to the hub isn’t showing contact with the brake pads. I notice I still have a bit of right pull on hard braking. This may be the culprit. I’ll bleed out the brakes and see if that helps. Otherwise it will mean new pads.

Still a bit of slack in the steering so I snugged up the adjusting screw just a bit more and we’ll see how that does.

One of the balance weights on the left front wheel got rubbed off by the caliper. It was stacked on top of the weight beside it. I put it back on beside the weight thinking that is better than leaving it off. I’ll know if there is a problem if the steering wheel vibrates.

I took the opportunity to check the run out on the rotor. It also is an original rotor – rivets still in place. It had virtually no run out – maybe .001

Next job was to snug up the steering box to remove about 1″ slack at the edge of the steering wheel. The manual has a whole lot on how to do the job. I believe the steering wheel is at top dead centre so I just tightened the screw just to the point of snug removing all the screws loose feeling. That removed the 1′ play. I’ll need a test drive to be sure.

Now onto the door. The regulator spring was lifting off at its centre point and the window mounting bar was rubbing on it as it went past. So I removed the spring and using hammers squeezed the centre mounting gap together just a little bit. Enough so that I had to use a hammer to tap the spring into the slot. That seemed to do the trick. I could have welded a washer on top of the centre mount, but I don’t think that is necessary.

Next: time for some summer driving 🙂

And on my Bud’s Studie project

In for a penny…. He didn’t really want to get into a lot of body work, but he couldn’t live with bad headlight eyebrows. Patching with putty wasn’t suitable so he fashioned some sheet metal an replaced the top and undersides of the eyebrows. He bought some matching paint to do the fenders.

Rotor off with the rivets sticking out. The new rotor doesn’t have openings for the rivets.

Ideally the rivets should be removed, but with the parking brake mechanism in place this isn’t easy. Also I didn’t want to hammer too hard on the axle shaft flange for fear of bending it. The rivets are stuck tight to the flange so I ground off the ends and peened each with a centre punch to help keep them in place. When I redo the parking brakes I’ll find a tool to press the rivets out, but for now they are staying in.

With the new rotor held in place I checked out the runout. The dial gauge is a must have even for the shade tree mechanic. U tubes I have watched say .007 is OK. The manual says no more than .005. This rotor came in at .005 so all’s good and I shouldn’t get vibrations from it on braking.

The last step was to adjust the parking brake. I did as per the book – tighten until the rotor won’t turn then back off 6-8 notches. A bit of a pain working so low -should have used the Quick Jack! To get the drag right I pulled the parking brake up until one wheel locked. In this case the left rear wheel locked so I tightened up the right a couple of notches and then they both locked up at the same point on the brake handle.

More still to come…

Time to replace the right rear disk. The others are passable for now. Best deal was from Rock Auto. $92 to my door. Best local price was $98 plus tax.

Just gonna use a floor jack for this simple job. In the end I should have put it up on the quick jack!

An original rotor. The five rivets are still in place.

Unlike other cars this rotor is not connected by a flex hose. So the brake line and caliper needed to be removed. The brake fluid wanted to drip out of the line so I used a plug to keep from draining all the fluid out of the master cylinder. I should have put a plug in the caliper as well. It wanted to shoot fluid out when I pushed apart the shoes to get it on the rotor.

I centre punched the rivets as best I could and drilled in about a 1/4″ with a 1/4″ drill. The rivets seem to be mild steel so the drilling was fairly easy with a sharp bit.

I then went at the holes with a 3/8″ bit and the rivet heads came off on the drill for the most part.

Some gentle tapping with a maul and the rotor slipped off.

All original as dusty with a patina of rust. The rear shoe has a bit broken off the top end and the rivets are just holding it on. Should be OK until I redo all the parking brake system. I’ll spray it down with brake clean and then blow it out with air. A little spray of white grease will keep it good for now.

More soon…

New tire on and a good second test run. The brakes were pulling to the left, but after some trial braking it cleared up. Then it was out with my wife to the KFC for supper. Good thing the brakes were working OK as I had to slam them on to stop from hitting a deer that leap onto the road in front of us – whew!

There is a bit too much play in the steering so that needs to be adjusted and the drivers window isn’t working correctly yet so I’ll look into that. I noticed a bit of ‘creaking’ when turning in a parking lot. I suspect that the universals are wearing out. After 45 years and maybe 144, 000kms the grease in the original universals is likely dried out. None of the universals have grease fittings so I expect they are original units,

The tire shop checked out the damaged tire and found it was cut through at a point on the i bottom bead – go figure! The tire is toast and happily the road hazard warranty will cover the cost of a new tire. It should be in next Monday so hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can get another test drive in.

This is on the left rear where I’m having tire issues. Not so nice. I’m checking out a new disk. So far the best price is from Rock Auto. I’ll check with CarQuest on Monday and see if they can do any better than the $92 all in at Rock Auto. the other three disks are holding out fine.

On the test drive the engine idle RPM was too slow and it was stalling. So I upped idle by a 1/4 turn and we’ll see how that does. I also opened up the idle mixture screws 1/8 turn in case it was too lean for a hot idle. Easy to adjust both on this side.

I like the Q jet albeit more complex than a Carter AFB or Edelbrock successor. Only other gripe is that the fast idle setting screw is almost totally hidden behind the linkages on the right side. Also the idle mixture screw on this side is a bit difficult to get to. All of these little bugaboos will mean nothing after the carb is running properly – no need to look at it again for a long, long time:-)

First time out to clear the cobwebs from the Chevy and I run over something on the road and my nice new right rear tire went flat! Hopefully no damage to the rim. I have road hazard warranty for another month so I hope it covers the cost of a new tire if the sidewall is slashed.

Fortunately I had a good spare on hand. I called CAA and they came along and changed the tire. Easier for them as they have a garage jack which is much better than the small scissor jack that is with the car. Still I could do the job if I had to, with the tools I keep in the car.

Got the ’66 on the road yesterday 🙂 Headed for a gas station as I was low on fuel. 1/3 tank cost me $40 so I can expect to pay about $100 for a fill up if I don’t get too close to empty!

All went well including the AC. It is a lot quieter now that I have new window run felts in the front doors. I think I’ll stay with the front bumper. Looking forward to doing the rear doors and hood next winter. In the meantime I’m supposed to hear from the upholstery shop about getting the bucket seats and rear seat redone,

The ’79 is still waiting for it’s turn to have a startup run. I’ll get it out soon and then I’ll be able to fine tune the carb and check that my power steering work is OK.

Ready for painting.

Hard to see the paint jobs, but I painted the driver’s door with the original Richelieu Blue metallic. Turned out OK with a couple of coats of paint and a couple of clear coat. I used acrylic enamel for both the paint and the clear. The passenger door is done in satin black as I also painted the new fenders and rockers.

The car is now ready to get on the road as soon as the salt is washed away:-)

Meanwhile my buddy Don is working on his ’57 Studebaker project car. Nice job of patching the inside of the fender.

Less patching needed on the passenger side fender.

There are always hitches in these projects. This is the heavy duty 3 spd auto with overdrive that is attached to the 350 LS Don is planning on putting in the Stude. You can’t see it but at least three of the mounting ears are cracked! It is a one piece case so to repair will mean finding another trans and swapping out the internals. Not an easy job to find a donor and do the swap. Happily Don has a 700R4 three speed OD trans from a Firebird that he recently bought, stripped and junked. This might be better as the 700R4 is smaller than the HD trans now on the engine and it will be easier to fit in the Stude.

Next: waiting on a donor 350 for the ’79 Chevy

Bondo brand Spot putty applied over the sanded tiger hair fibreglass patches.

First coat of spot putty sanded off and more added to fill spots missed. I decided to do a bit more on the passenger door just to see how smooth I could get it. I sanded the tiger hair with 80 grit paper. I’m sanding the putty with 320 grit. Hopefully that will be good enough for a smooth paint finish.

Original front bumper back on the car. I think I like it better. More classic looking than street rod.

Next: spring is here and I need to finish the Studie and get it on the road for it’s spring shake down run 🙂