f6john

I’ll be curious to know how the clutch works out for you. Seems that usually the flywheel gets replaced along with the clutch and pressure plate. I have no opinions about it just wondering about possibly doing the same thing.

Vox Machina

Sorry for the lack of updates. Had a sudden, massive move 2/3rds of the way across the country dropped in my lap at the beginning of December, so it was a mad dash to finish the Vette and also pack my entire house and family and move 2300 miles.

But she is finished! (Well, sort of).




Definitely still needs a lot of work before she's 100%, but she's complete (and passed inspection!). It'll be a little bit before I can work on her again, had to leave her in WA with the move, my plan is to pick her up and drive her to Indiana come May/June.


Feel free to PM me with any questions! I didn't do anything with the rear tub, but I know that it's bonded in the same way as the front wheelhouses, which I read a fair bit about before tackling this project.

So I did replace the flywheel, I had to since I made the switch to an LS7 clutch and the flywheels are different. Swap wasn't bad, hardest part was loosening the bellhousing enough to get the PP in.

1SharpGent

What an incredible transformation / undertaking. Kudos to you! I think I speak for us all when I say I can't wait to see her back in your possession getting the finishing touches worthy of a car called Project Phoenix.

Vox Machina

The project has resumed! And oh boy, is there work to still be done.

The car managed to make the 2,300 mile trip from Seattle to Indiana, though only barely.

The first leg of my trip was a blast. Took on mountain passes like they weren't even there, and went around the twisty bits on the other side like it was glued to the road. Absolutely blown away by how well it handled.

Some things I noticed though, once I got past Idaho and ran into construction in Montana:

Between 50-60 mph, no matter what gear I'm in, there is a rhythmic hum that reverberates throughout the entire car. Like it's on, then off, then on, etc. It almost feels like I'm driving on a rumble strip that's spaced out. As speed increases it doesn't seem to change in frequency, but does change in pitch a little. Over 60 I can't really feel it anymore, but at 70+ there is a vibration in the steering wheel. The small amount of research I've done points to wheel bearings? But I'm not sure.

The steering is terrible. I'm not sure if it's due to the tires I'm running (275/40/17 NT05's up front) or if there's something else going on, but the car was all over the place on uneven roads. I had the car aligned just before I left but there were some scary spots on I-90. On top of that, there's what feels like input lag in the steering. I'd turn the wheel to go around the corner and the car would hesitate before turning in, and then in some instances it would lurch in the direction I was turning forcing me to reduce input or steer in the opposite direction to stay on the road. When I had the suspension apart the bushings all looked okay, but something is definitely up.

The suspension is also terrible lol. I should have looked at the ride height more closely when I had it in the air. I had raised the rear, but the front bolts were seized in the spring and I didn't have time to fight them loose. Of course they were at the lowest setting, so I basically made the whole trip on the front bump stops. The rear I also suspect loosened itself and dropped to the lowest setting, as the rear also felt like it's on the bump stops. I wouldn't be surprised if the shocks were blown out considering the accident the car was in.

The brakes are nice and solid. There is a pull to the right under hard braking so I'll need to inspect the calipers and pins, and the pads are noisy as well. Overall relatively minor.

Another minor one. There is a significant amount of wind noise coming from the rear of the targa top on the drivers side. Definitely need to figure out how to adjust it to cinch it down a bit.

Now the big one, the torque tube. Around the time I was nearing South Dakota, I started feeling "slop" in the drivetrain. A noticeable thump when transitioning from on/off throttle. As time went on this progressed to a rattle at random RPMs and load. I did everything I could to baby it, and fortunately I stopped having huge hills and mountains to climb as the problem worsened. I spent most of my time just drafting behind a semi-truck, and couldn't really hear any major noises except for random moments when I'd have to slow down.

Overall though, considering the condition the car was in when I purchased it, I'm pleased. There's obviously more problems to fix (ones I would have rathered taken care of before I did this trip, but life had other plans) but they all are fixable problems.

It'll be a couple of weeks before I can get it back in the air, have a couple of small projects on the daily and the wife's car before I can start playing with the toy, but once I do expect to see more posts rolling in!

1998LS1

I have a few insights into your issues. First is alignment. EVERYTHING is adjustable on these cars. As a former automotive tech I can tell you who does the alignment makes a BIG difference. If all they did was set the toe and send it on its way, then its most likely all out of whack. That will cause a lot of peculiar behavior with steering especially on rough roads or at speed. What happens is the different moving suspension components start fighting each other through the range of travel and kind of pop/jerk/jump instead of moving smoothly in 1 fluid motion. Another thought is if its been in a wreck the frame might be tweaked. Thats not actually as scary as it sounds and any good body shop can put it on a rack and chech/fix it for a minimal charge (I have personal experience with this).

Your shocks are probably blown. I have my car set very low and it still has a very nice ride.

For brakes, be sure to check your brake hoses and replace the fluid if you haven't already. Its very common for a vehicle to pull in the opposite direction of the bad brake hose. They deteriorate internally and don't allow the fluid to flow properly.

Good luck and enjoy the journey! These cars are a blast to drive and almost as much fun to mod and restore!

Tusc

Excellent advise above about shocks, alignment and the brake diagnosis being opposite of the side which is working and therefore pulling you in it's direction.

Sounds like more projects to go. The one which would concern me, after a proper alignment done by a shop recommended perhaps by some local Corvette track guys, would be the steering response. If you rule out alignment and still have delays or issues that would be an interesting problem to diagnose and resolve.

Vox Machina

It is entirely possible the alignment was bad, or that the shocks being blown and me riding on WA's rough roads pushed the alignment out of whack. I'll be investing in one of alignment kits that utilize blocks versus the rounded eccentrics. Unfortunately I can't say where the alignment numbers were at when I picked it up, as conveniently the dealerships printer was "broken" when I arrived to get it.

I'll definitely do a thorough investigation of the brakes. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary when I had it in the air, but didn't consider the hoses breaking down internally. I was planning on switching to stainless lines anyway, so that's at least in the works.

I'm hoping it's something that's a symptom of the problems the car currently has. I could see a bad alignment and worn out suspension causing all sorts of weird issues. However, if those don't solve it, at least I do enjoy a challenge lol.

Thanks for the responses guys, I'll have her in the air here in a week or so and start posting more updates!

Vox Machina

Whelp, I got her in the air and got the torque tube out, just to find this...




They look brand new. Hell the input shaft looks pretty much brand new too. There is a small amount of noise from the bearings, but I'm not sure if it's normal noise or a sign of wear. I'll post a video later of them spinning by hand.

But unless I'm missing something, I have no idea where my rattle is coming from. I'm getting the classic "thunk" when transition from on/off throttle, which is why I thought it was the TT. Now... well I'm open to suggestions lol.

TheOldSchool

Amazing at the amount of time, money and effort that has gone into this. Well done.

Vox Machina

So, I feel a bit dumb right now.

When the car got into the accident, the exhaust took a hit right at the passenger catalytic converter.



I was aware of this, and aside from a check engine light pertaining to the downstream O2 sensor on that side, I didn't think there were any issues with it.

Until I had the rattle that I initially thought was the torque tube. After disassembling it and finding the near-perfect couplers, I began looking around to see what could have been rattling. And then I noticed this


What's that? Four fresh, round, witness marks on the cat perfectly aligned with the tunnel plate bolts?



It's not a total waste though. While not completely shot, the bearings on the driveshaft are definitely at the end of their life, so I've ordered replacements that should be showing up tomorrow, then it's just either finding a press or a shop that can swap them out. But I'm a little irritated with myself for not checking something as obvious as this. It's weird that the noise didn't show up until I'd driven about 1,000 miles across the country. Given how hard the cat appears to be hitting the bolts, maybe I had a motor mount fail?

Need to figure out what to do about this though. I had not budgeted for an exhaust upgrade yet. Even Speed Engineering is almost 1k when you add in the X-pipe and misc parts, and I'm not keen on trusting ebay quality anything yet. Maybe I can just take it to an exhaust shop and have them cut the cats out and weld some pipe in place of them, it'll still have the pup cats to (hopefully) tone the smell down a bit.

moncal90

Yikes! Unfortunately, CATS are not cheap to replace. Would you be throwing codes if you had them cut out and just swapped for straight pipe? Btw, lots of good work so far on her!

Tusc

Are there holes in the cat though? No replacement needed if they're intact. Just some banging on some pipes to realign them lower, or change the hanger heights to allow same. Worth trying first anyway.

Vox Machina

So it's already throwing a code for the passenger cat. Was going to separate the X pipe from the OE pipes and throw a camera up it to see if the cat material is clogged. Car felt like it was struggling to maintain 80 mph when I was driving across the country, and I'm wondering if something happened to the cat.

There aren't any holes. I might just do some strategic clearancing or try adding some shims to the hangars until I can get some longtubes.