Can cars hate?

[RONS98TA]

If you knew my wife... then you would realize that she would rather have a muscle car than diamonds any day of the year. Technically, the Trans Am was an anniversary present to her back in 2008. I am just lucky that she likes me modding and racing it all the time.

Dude i am so jealous!! My girl doesn't give a crap, or understand what modding is! She just knows if you put gas in it....is goes further. I love her to death, but I wish she would understand why I would spend money to make my car louder. LOL

[pajeff02]

After unloading the Trans Am, I had some time to take a look at the Corvette. Looking under the car, I found this:





I had wiped everything down good before setting the car back down late last week. Looking around with a flashlight it now appears that the o-ring seal on the body of the power steering pump may be the culprit. I cleaned everything up again and will look at it tomorrow night to see if I can confirm that this is the source of the leak. Ugh.

[SMWS6TA]

And I thought I had power steering problems...

[pajeff02]

I ended up buying a rebuild kit today. I really think that it is simply the o-ring around the pump body that is leaking so hopefully it'll be an easy fix. The 'Zone no longer sells complete pumps and I didn't feel like shopping around so we'll try the kit.

[pajeff02]

After looking the pump over, I opted to replace it even though I already purchased a seal kit. The case is dented and I just want to make sure this things stops leaking. There are 2 styles of pumps that are interchangeable. The first style has the small neck and it is angled towards the front of the car. The second style is more of a one piece reservoir that is larger and does not have a separate neck. Even though I ordered the angle style neck, I received the other style pump and wasn't 100% sure that it would work. The pump sits directly below the alternator on the driver side and after installing it I was just able to remove the pump cap... just.

With everything buttoned back up, I was able to drive the car on Friday and had it inspected. On Saturday, there was another small puddle under the car. This time, it is the steering shaft seal leaking. Once the fluid level drops a bit, this leak should go away by itself so I am going to simply let it leak at this point. I still have a touch of a coolant weep on the temp sender too. This car really does hate me...


The list is short, but here are the rest of the gremlins:

1. The high beams will flick and simply go out after being on for a while. I have replaced both the switch and dimmer. There is no relay or circuit breaker in the light harness, so I am really not sure how they can go out and back on again. They will come back on after I switch down to low beams for a bit. Not a clue.

2. The driver door interior light switch is no longer functioning.

3. The headlights go up and then down every time the car is started. They are vacuum operated and all components have been replaced. Again, not a clue on why they do this.

4. The driver side power window must have a bad connection as sometimes it will work and sometimes it won't.

5. I still have to play with the carb a bit. For some reason, even with the choke closed it will not come up on the high idle cam even when the accelerator is pumped to start the car. It generally starts and stays running, but I do not get the proper warm up idle rpm on cold starts.

[Zapper2003]

Jeff, on the high beams going on and off, it almost sounds like a wire overheating.

[pajeff02]

It's definitely something I have to resolve. Next time you are down maybe we can take a look at it. Might help to have a fresh set of eyes look things over to see if I am missing something.

[blackcar]

Jeff, on the high beams going on and off, it almost sounds like a wire overheating.

I agree

Check to see what your voltage is at the headlights.

[pajeff02]

Corvette is back up in the air tonight. I gave the tie rods another half turn each which should about center the steering wheel. I noticed that the temp sender was weeping... again. I removed it last week, cleaned the threads and reinstalled it with thread tape in lieu of pipe joint compound. I drained the coolant and popped out the sender thinking that something has to be wrong with the piece I fabricated. I took it out into the driveway and hit it with a flashlight looking for holes or cracks and found nothing. I then put some air pressure to it and sprayed soap on it. Bingo! I have a pinhole leak in a weld that must be the source of the coolant drip. I'll grind it out and run a bead across it with the welder this weekend.

[Zapper2003]

What in the world are you talkin' about Jeff? I thought you just had some brass fittings on that sender that adapted it to the block?

[pajeff02]

This is what it looks like. I had to machine out the inside of the female fitting to make room for the sender. I then welded around the perimeter of the threaded nipple in order to keep it strong -- that is where I managed to create a pinhole.

[pajeff02]

Version two of the above is now installed in the car. I tried grinding and welding a bead over the area of the porosity, but it just wouldn't take. I dumped out my box of pipe fittings and came up with something that screws together with no welding required. The first version was in the interest of keeping the adapter small and away from the headers as much as possible. The second version is a bit longer so the clearance to the header is a bit tighter, but I think it will be ok. Just so the gauge works, with no more green drips on the floor, and I'll be happy.

[pajeff02]

Here is the new temp sender adapter installed in the car. The fitting just barely bottomed out against the header flange so I am hoping that it is tight enough. If it weeps, I'll remove it and bevel the fitting to gain more clearance. I have lots of material there so no worries on breaking through or anything.





It took longer than anticipated, but the headlight system is now completely re-wired with relays installed on both the low and high beam. The stock setup runs the power through the headlight and dimmer switch and I was having issues with the lights going out, even though no fuses were being blown. I had installed halogen lights during the restoration and assume they draw a bit more juice than what the car was wired for at the factory.

I disconnected everything from the back of the headlights and pulled the wiring back through the top. Seemed a lot easier than working on it from underneath, even with the grilles removed for additional space.





I ran a fused heavy gauge wire to the relays from a factory terminal post on the inside of the driver side fender. I elected to use the single wire to power both the low and high beams, which means if the fuse pops I will loose all my headlights. Down the road, I may go back and add a second power feed so that each beam is individually wired. That way if there ever is a problem I should still have something to light the way. The relays were mounted to the driver side headlight support and a ground was attached to the frame.





I cut the wires off at the headlight connectors leaving a short section of wire to solder the new wire runs to. The existing wires were folded back on themselves and shrink tubed as they are still energized through the dimmer switch. On the sriver side, the wires from the dimmer switch were connected to the relays and energize the coils. This is very low draw so it shouldn't have any problems overheating anything.





With everything connected, I installed a 20 amp fuse, connected the battery and hit the switch. The headlights work just fine and hopefully the relays, heavier power supply and heavier wire runs will alleviate my issues. If you didn't take notice, yes -- those headlights are incorrect for a C3. They should be round rather than rectangular, however, back in the '80s it was a popular upgrade to install modern (for then) style headlights. The prior owner did a piss poor job unfortunately and it took me some time to make everything look acceptable during the restoration. I would prefer the round style headlights, however, I was on a budget and really didn't want to drop the money on new, or even used, buckets and hardware. We do not drive the car much at night and so far no one has really taken notice of the incorrect headlights.

[5.0THIS]

I haven't read any of the posts but damn, look at those ghastly incorrect headlamps. It just jumped right out at me.

[pajeff02]

Thanks for noticing.

[KahanaReef]

Dawn hasn't gone deer hunting in that car, right?

[pajeff02]

Not yet. She may drive it to work tomorrow so we can meet up at a cruise in.

[pajeff02]

Very pleased to report that the Corvette survived yesterday -- probably ran around 150-160 miles total by the time we arrived home last night.

[GTP231]

How many targets er deer did she see?

[pajeff02]

None. It was actually kind of weird not seeing any.