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New PS pump in place. I removed the alternator and the alternator bracket (top left) which made the install much easier. First I installed the new painted bracket to the block. I then tried to install the pump, but now way could I get it in place! So I read the service manual. No help there. The said the pump could be installed with the bracket in place. In the end I had to put the bracket on the pump and then attache the bracket to the block. A bit of a pain, but with any luck I won’t have to do it again.

Now on to the re-assembly of the control valve body. All nice and shiny with it’s second coat in gloss black.

I’ll flat sand the two flanges that come together in assembly. I have a sheet of steel on my bench which is really handy with I need a dead flat surface.

All nicely sanded including the shim and plate that fit between the control body sections.

There is a first time for everything. So I was test assembling the control valve and was removing an O ring when it flipped out of my hand and fell down between me and the work bench. I must have spent a half hour scouring the area around the bench and even further thinking it could have rolled some distance. I even looked at both sides of my shoes with my feet in them. In the end I gave up as it was end-of-day and decided to look tomorrow. A final thought and I removed my shoes and son-of-a-gun wasn’t it nestled down under my arch!

New-to-me Corvette aluminum wheels on the car. Buffing turned out well.

The old wheels look quite presentable. I’ll keep them for awhile until I sure I’m happy with the aluminum jobbies. Nice 8″ X 15″ GM rally units. I’m sure someone will want them.

All the internals from the PS control valve in order. Soon time to re-install with a new kit.

In for a penny… I decided to remove the steering links from both sides to give them a clean up and paint so all the steering will look nice. Usual problems – one cotter pin had to be drilled out and one nut had to be split.

What a difference a little primer and paint make. This is the first coat of black and it’s semi-gloss. I’ll do a final coat in gloss. Then it’s time to start the reassembly. The new hoses have arrived and I’m waiting for the new hydraulic cylinder.

Major grunge cleaned off and ready of disassembly. All looks good so far.

I used this same setup when I overhauled my Studebaker Bendix pistons. It is the nicest way to get the old seals out. You pick the fitting that retracts the piston and rod, apply pressure and the seal and retaining washer pops out 🙂

Oh boy! This is a show stopper for the PS piston. A rust groove about half way around the rod, 1/8″ wide and a few mil deep. Bad news, but on the good side it explains why the system was emptying the pump reservoir.

Fortunately the pistons are readily available and so I have put in an order for a new one from Corvette Depot in Windsor, ON.

Now for one step ahead – the pulley kit also nicely pushes the pulley back onto the shaft. No way should a press be used as it will likely damage the internals.

Next: clean up and paint -steps forward.

Back up on the Quick Jack hoist – getting lots of use!. I found that on the high setting I can just get the hood open which is great.

Time to overhaul the power steering pump, control valve and piston.

Removal was a bit of a bear. 44 years later and everything is tight. One cotter pin didn’t want to come out so I had to split the castle nut. Fortunately I was able to get at the nut with the small splitter. Four ball joints needed to be opened. One being on the control valve that wouldn’t take the ball joint splitter, but I was able to squeeze in a pitman arm puller and it just came off. Otherwise I would have had to fight with the pitman arm to remove it from the steering box which I really didn’t want to do.

Two afternoons later and it’s all on the bench. The hoses were all toast as most fittings where seized on to the pipes. So they couldn’t be saved.

Nothing beats having the right too for the job. I tied pulling the PS pump pulley off with a small three legged puller (attached onto the pulley center and not the outside of the pulley as they just tend to bend), but that didn’t work at all even with heat from a fax max. Happily my car nut chum happened to have the correct kit. With it I was able to get it off without damage to the pulley or the pump – I can get a $36 core charge refund fjor the old pump if it’s in good shape for rebuilding.

Pulley sand blasted, sanded and ready for paint. I tape the inside to keep the paint off the surface where the belt rides. I have had problems with belts slipping (squealing) when I painted the inside of the groove. I’ll paint with Tremclad rust primer and cheapie-do Princess Auto gloss black – this is a try out of their paint.

Next I will break down the ps components.

These are the new Power Pack heads I have in my ‘stuff’. They have 1.72 intake and 1.50 exhaust ports. This is quite a bit smaller than the later heads with 1.94 and 1.50 sizes. However, the smaller power pack head runners increase the velocity of the fuel at low speeds giving improved low end response and fuel mileage. The problem is putting them on a 350 limits the effective revs to about 3500. Not a big problem for me. Still I don’t like to limit the engine, especially when using passing gear.

A problem with the older heads is they don’t have bolt holes in the front to mount the alternator bracket or the AC bracket – as above. There are alternator brackets available which fasten to the water pump and the AC has 4 mounting spots and might well be fine with three or maybe the head could be bored to handle that mounting bolt as it is quite high and should miss the water jacket.

I’m in no rush to make a decision. A lot will depend on the condition of the ’88 truck motor that I’m hoping to get later this year.

In the meantime I continue to get parts ready. The PS pump is getting a nice coat of shiny black paint.

I’ve buffed the aluminum wheels and now I need to address the corrosion in the slots. First step was to sand them down with fine paper.

Matching the original colour in the slots was a challenge. What I found that works was using a rag and a bit of aluminum paint I could put a real fine coat on the aluminum and that matched the original pretty well.

The slot in the middle has the rag applied aluminum paint and the slot to the left is the original.

All shined up and ready to go the the tire shop. I’ll transfer my Firestone tires from the GM rally wheels and then put those up for sale.

This is one of three 8″ buffing wheels I got off Amazon. The pictures I saw seemed to imply that they could be used with an angle grinder – 11000 rpm.

Hard to tell, but the whee looks really nice after a buffing with the course wheel and brown compound then the medium wheel and green compound. When I went to do the final buffing with the soft wheel and red compound…disaster.

The wheel disintegrated before I even got to apply the red compound. Reading the fine print I realized that the wheels were meant only from buffers with a speed of around 3000 rpm. The two other wheels must be made well to have stood the almost triple speed I was using – yikes!

I picked up a used Craftsman two speed buffer and that worked well on low speed with the blue (course) and yellow (medium) wheels. I ended up using course compound and the course wheel to take away all the corrosion and the yellow wheel with green medium to fine compound to bring them to a shine. I’m not trying to get a super shine or to the point they are concours. I’m happy with excellent drivers and good for local car shows. The two pictured were the worst of the set and they look just nice. Now I need to find $100 to get them mounted and balanced!

Primer coat on.

I have retaped the center so that the black paint to come will just clear the primer. That way the primer won’t be peeking out under the black.

I started to wipe down the pump with parts solvent and a thin layer of cover paint began to disintegrate. The paint underneath on the reservoir seems good enough.

The pump body itself turned out to be raw casting under the cover paint. I’ll give the whole pump a good coating.

Two have OK dark centers – correct for ’79.

And two have the paint blistering. I’m using a mild household paint remover to get the old paint off. It’s a bit of a chore. Seems the automotive paint is tough stuff. I think I should have used heat to remove the paint, but my heat gun just went south.

The nuts cleaned up nicely. Five are a little worse for wear and I’ll replace them on my next parts order.

Finally got my reman power steering pump. Looks good, but the paint is likely minimal so I’ll sand it down and give it another coat of semi-gloss black.

I had hopes that the two low cylinders in the engine had stuck rings and would loosen up. I could then fix the timing chain and PS pump and drive the car while I got other stuff done. Unfortunately the two low cylinders remained at 70 and 80 lbs. Also most of the plugs show a degree of oil fouling. So really the engine is toast. I’ll fix the PS pump leakages and continue to drive the car until I can change or refresh the engine.

I have a lead on a 383 stroker (just a 350 with a 400 crank and special pistons). If that doesn’t work out I also have a lead on an ’88 truck engine that can maybe provide a re-buildable block. I haven’t checked out the cost of boring the block or the cost for refreshing the heads. The cost of a mild cam, lifters, bearings and pistons is about $600. I prefer to work on an engine and when ready, swap out the existing engine. The only delay might be the time to get the heads re-done.

I have found a set of aluminum rims, nuts and centre hub caps that are not in too bad condition. I decided to get these ($800) instead of buying new centres and rings for the existing steel wheels. If I can sell the exiting wheels for $100 or a bit more then I’m not going to be out a lot and I’ll have lighter aluminum wheels. They will lower the car’s un-sprung wheel weight and so improve the ride especially over bumpy areas.

This is the worst one. It will need serious buffing and new paint on the center section.

I’ll pick up buffing wheels and compound from Amazon – local parts shops don’t carry the stuff.

A lot of the crud comes off with cleaner wax. I’ll do the back sections and everywhere else I won’t be buffing. It’s raw aluminum so it needs a wax coating to protect against corrosion.

All ready for the finishing up of the safety check – I hope – this coming Wednesday.

Picked up the Edelbrock manifold. Seems OK. I’ll tackle that after the timing chain work and the rebuild of the PS system.

Stopped in at Moloand’s Corvettes and found a few parts. I need a tach face, but they are as a friend says – unobtainium! So I had to pay for a complete used tach. With it I also got a complete printed circuit board for parts backup.

Also got this set of sport mirrors with driver remote. Apparently they will be a bit tricky to install. We’ll find out once the Chevy is off the road.

Can’t imaging how this piece of the door got lost. It will replace a rough piece of metal now covering the access hole in the driver’s door.

A key part I needed for the PS repairs. A PS pump bracket. Mine has a broken off lower mounting tab.

Components for delay & mist wiper functions. I’ll install this with other dash work later in the winter.

Some ugly driver’s door armrest. Nevertheless it is solid. I’ll clean off the crud with TSP pre-paint cleaner (good for removing mould too) Then prep it and paint with vinyl paint. I’ve been using desert sand colour as it is what I can get locally and it goes well with the doeskin interior.

Last little goodie I found was a good used driver’s door handle escutcheon. A good cleaning and a coat or two of desert sand spray and it’ll be ready to go.

Lookin’ forward to my winter work 😉