[andrewb70]

Originally Posted by Colin Frolick

probably only when he gets airborne

Probably! But I try to keep all 4 tires on the ground at all times.

Andrew

[andrewb70]

I finally made it home to Bowling Green on Monday night. What a trip. I drove a combined total of about 3600 miles and got just under 20 mpg combined city and highway. I am sure that on some tanks I was getting 23-24 on the highway and in the city it was probably 16-17. Keep in mind that I wasn't driving with economy in mind. I was going 80-85 mph on the highway most of the time.

Today I gave the car some much needed TLC. It got a thorough cleaning, followed by some minor swirl mark removal, and a wax. I also went through some of the pictures that I took.

Here is a shot of the shaker from inside the car. This picture was taken in Iowa on the way to my stop in Lincoln, Nebraska.



As I was pulling into Lincoln Nebraska, I could see some very interesting weather brewing to the west. Here are a couple of shots that were taken just as the sun was setting in the west. The clouds were truly spectacular and fortunately nothing came of it except a thunder storm.





I might have mentioned it before, but the next morning I installed the 550 lb/in springs that I got from Speedway Motors. I also cleaned approximately 1.2 million bugs off the front of the car and washed it down.



The following morning I headed west to Wyoming. This shot was taken in western Nebraska. I just thought it looked neat.



On the morning of Saturday, June 21st, my friend Rory and I headed to Estes Park, Colorado for our 20th high school reunion. Rory has been a great friend since I was 15 and he is one of very few people who I will let drive my car. I think he misses having a running hot rod.



The drive from Laramie, WY to Estes Park, CO is very nice. We took 287 down to Ft. Collins and then on to Love Land. From Love Land we picked up highway 34 which winds through the mountains, along the Big Thompson river, up to Estes Park. This section of the canyon is called the "narrows."



During the summer months the road to Estes Park is filled with tourists and most of them barely go the posted 45 mph speed limit. Having lived in this area when I got my driver's license it is easy to see how I would be attracted to the pro-touring build style. There aren't too many straight roads in Estes Park and we always used to haul ass up and down both this canyon and the canyon that follows highway 36 from Estes Park down to Boulder. Good times!

Andrew

[blown 68]

great pics bro, keep the updates comin'!!!!!!


davey

[andrewb70]

Originally Posted by blown 68

great pics bro, keep the updates comin'!!!!!!

davey

Thanks for the kind words Davey.

Some of you have asked how the shaker assembly is held to the engine. Here is how:



The tabs on the bottom of the base are shaped just like the tabs on LS7 coil covers. The grommets are available separately at your local Chevrolet dealership for under $3. At first I was a little concerned that the brackets would wear through the rubber from the vibration, but after 3600 miles everything looks good.

Andrew

[andrewb70]

Yesterday I spent some time cleaning up the welds on the air intake tube and on the base. I gave it two coats of rattle can primer, follow by two coats of satin black. Turned out pretty good. I could have spent more time smoothing the welds but I am happy with the way it turned out.







Andrew

[Mr_GTO]

Andy, looks awesome!

I know the road from Boulder to Estes Park very well....I used to go up that way with my ex when I lived out there in 1998-1999.

Would the welder who did yours be willing to make another?

[andrewb70]

Originally Posted by Mr_GTO

.....
Would the welder who did yours be willing to make another?

Thank you! I am sure that the shop that made mine will be more than happy to make one for you.

http://www.schwartzperformance.com/

Andrew

[andrewb70]

One of the things that I really want to do before RTTH (Run through the Hills) in September is to give the wheels a makeover. I have 3 piece Kinesis wheels that can be taken apart. The great thing about being able to take the wheels apart is that it makes it very easy to clean them or give them a new look. Here is the wheel taken off the car:



The outer lips were once polished but have since dulled. Not very pretty at all. The centers look OK but I want a slightly different look. There are 40 bolt around the circumference of the wheel. Once the bolts are taken out, the center separates from the inner and outer rim.





The wheels get very dirty on the inside from driving. Don't ask me how this happens, but there were actually dead bugs stuck to the inside rim. Here is a dirty rim:



Here is a rim after some time with Purple Power and a red scotch brite pad:



I am going to clean up all of the inside rims and paint them silver. The pain will make clean up much easier. The outer rims will get re-polished for a nice, bright finish. The centers are going to get hard anodized and Teflon coated for extra durability.

I also measured the front wheels for the C6 ZO6 brakes that I have coming from Kore3. It's close, but it will clear.



Andrew

[andrewb70]

New tires should be here first part of next week. I decided to go with the Falken Azenis RT-615 tires. The tires will be slightly shorter both in the back and in the front. In the back I will be running 295/40-18 and in the front I will have 255/40-18s. So the rear tires are a hair over 27 inches tall and the fronts are right at 26 inches tall.

The Nittos were good tires and had plenty of tread but it was time for a change. They were pretty old. The date code on the tires was from 2002.

Andrew

[andrewb70]

The rear Falkens showed up today.



I am also getting a good handle on the vibration that I have been having above 75 mph. I have narrowed it all down to insufficient engagement between the output shaft and the slip yoke. The lack of engagement is allowing enough up and down movement of the yoke to cause a vibration. I got a new Strange Engineering slip yoke and tomorrow I am having a new driveshaft made that will slide the slip yoke further inside the transmission. There are some pictures and more discussion on the subject here:

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232582

Andrew

[Colin Frolick]

Andrew i'm curious on your transmission / yoke issues... i have the same 6 speed

i remember when i installed it i had to shorten the yoke, a stock length one won't go in allthe way cause it hits the speedo gear as you've shown. the directions from richmond say how much to cut off. i remember doing this with a sawzall!

anyway, do you know if the yoke you have has been shortened? maybe you don't need a whole new driveshaft to get a "longer" yoke?

i'd never thought of this as a source of vibrations, and i'm glad you're sharing all you're finding. my car vibrated ~80mph... but there were alot of other 'deficiencies' for sure.

[Colin Frolick]

and nice looking tires! i didn't know there was a 295/40-18. I knew there was a 295/35, c5 z06 rear size.

i'm thinking what size tires to put on my car. i'm even thinking i could use c5 or c6 wheels, since the front and rear suspensions will be redone they could accomodate the offset, and there's alot of choices for vettes. i like your wheels man.

[andrewb70]

Originally Posted by Colin Frolick

and nice looking tires! i didn't know there was a 295/40-18. I knew there was a 295/35, c5 z06 rear size.

i'm thinking what size tires to put on my car. i'm even thinking i could use c5 or c6 wheels, since the front and rear suspensions will be redone they could accomodate the offset, and there's alot of choices for vettes. i like your wheels man.

I recently discovered the Falken 295/40s. They are perfect for muscle cars. Nice and wide and still tall enough with a generous sidewall. I can't wait to see how they will look and drive. My Nittos were nice but had a treadwear of 300! These are only 200 and are said to be very sticky.

Here is what the driveshaft looked like when installed into the transmission:



By the looks of it most people would say that it looks OK. I thought so too. Here is what it looked like "inside."



The seal sits at the edge of the shiny part of the yoke. The bushing is about 13/16" from the seal. My yoke was cut down some in order for it not to hit the speedometer gear. The gear is located exactly 3.5" from the end of the output shaft. My yoke as cut too much I think:



This is what it looked like with the driveshaft installed and the tailshaft housing removed. You can see there is plenty of room before the yoke hits the speedometer gear. I also wanted to see just how much the slip yoke actually moves with suspension travel. That is what the zip tie is for. I placed it firmly against the edge of the yoke and moved the car through about 7-8" of suspension travel. 3-4" up and 3-4" down. That is as far as the yoke moved. A whopping 1/8"!!!

So my new driveshaft will position my slip yoke much closer to the seal and it will give me barely enough room to install the driveshaft. I also installed 2 tailshaft bushings.

Andrew

[Colin Frolick]

"I recently discovered the Falken 295/40s. They are perfect for muscle cars. Nice and wide and still tall enough with a generous sidewall. I can't wait to see how they will look and drive. My Nittos were nice but had a treadwear of 300! These are only 200 and are said to be very sticky."

i just put some bf goodrich t/a "kd" tires in on my other car, they have a treadwear of 200. i swear it took them ~1000 miles to stop feeling greasy and squirmy... maybe this means they'll last a long time?? they are sticky. and pricey! i've heard those treadwear ratings can be unreliable.

[andrewb70]

Originally Posted by Colin Frolick

"I recently discovered the Falken 295/40s. They are perfect for muscle cars. Nice and wide and still tall enough with a generous sidewall. I can't wait to see how they will look and drive. My Nittos were nice but had a treadwear of 300! These are only 200 and are said to be very sticky."

i just put some bf goodrich t/a "kd" tires in on my other car, they have a treadwear of 200. i swear it took them ~1000 miles to stop feeling greasy and squirmy... maybe this means they'll last a long time?? they are sticky. and pricey! i've heard those treadwear ratings can be unreliable.

I have a friend that runs these Falkens on his RX7. Then again a 4000 pound car is going to be harder on tires than a 3000 pound car. Time will tell. Price wise these weren't too bad. All 4 were $812 shipped to my door.

Andrew

[andrewb70]

This morning I took my slip yoke to Precision Driveline in Glasgow, KY. This is a one man operation and Terry was kind enough to let me snap some pictures while he made a new driveshaft.

The first thing that Terry did was slide my old driveshaft into a big lathe and cut off the old weld yokes. This was not nearly as dramatic as I thought it might be.



I made some very careful measurements last night and the slip yoke needed to be trimmed just a little bit. Interestingly enough, the Strange yoke didn't have splines cut in it for the first 3/4" or so. According to my measurements that whole section without the splines needed to be trimmed off. Terry had a CNC Bridgeport that he used to mill the yoke.



After the yoke was trimmed a new Neapco solid u-joint was mated to the weld yoke.



Terry then measured and cut the tube, assembling it on his fixture, making sure that the ends of the shaft are indexed correctly.



Once he was happy with the alignment and the straightness of the tube is was time to MIG weld the yokes to the tube.



After the yokes were welded Terry allowed the shaft to cool down before balancing it. Here is the new finished shaft.



The careful measuring really paid off. I was able to slide the slip yoke inside the transmission and the rear u-joint BARELY slipped into the pinion yoke. This is about as long as the driveshaft can be without being TOO long.



After the driveshaft was installed there was no more noticeable lateral movement at the slip yoke. I don't know if this was my sole source of the driveline vibration, but I am 100% sure it was a contributing factor. I will know for sure once the car is back on the road in a couple of weeks.

Andrew

[Colin Frolick]

for a second I thought the spray bottle in pic #6 was a beer. heh.

keep the updates rollin' man.

[Z Code 400]

Andrew,

Very nice work...again....:-)

I picked up a set of the upper control arms from Mark at SC&C. I opted for the 'tall' upper ball joint to improve my roll center and caster/camber curves. They are fantastic to say the least and much, much better than the Global West or Detroit Speed parts.

It's not easy being a 'dinosaur' and staying with the 15" wheels, but I like the look....Robert

[andrewb70]

Originally Posted by Z Code 400

Andrew,

Very nice work...again....:-)

I picked up a set of the upper control arms from Mark at SC&C. I opted for the 'tall' upper ball joint to improve my roll center and caster/camber curves. They are fantastic to say the least and much, much better than the Global West or Detroit Speed parts.

It's not easy being a 'dinosaur' and staying with the 15" wheels, but I like the look....Robert

Thanks for the compliments. There is nothing wrong with running 15s, but the tire selection is just so limited.

Here are the Falkens compared to the Nitto 555s. The Nitto 295/45 is about an inch bigger in diameter than the 295/40 Falken. This will translate to about a 1/2" drop in ride height, which is no big deal.




The more interesting part is that the Falkens have just over an inch more actual tread width! The advertised section width on the Falkens are stated to be about .4" wider than the Nittos. I can't wait to see how these tires work.




Andrew

[andrewb70]

Today I got my ATS spindles:




ATS did an awesome job of packaging the spindles for safe shipping. I ordered mine with some new billet steel hubs from Vansteel. These use a tapered bearing design that is more durable and I also got the optional GM Racing wheel studs. These hubs are assemblies are being used on SCCA World Challenge cars with great success.

Before taking my spindles off I wanted to test for myself the bump steer that everyone has talked about with the b-body swap. I certainly felt it on my road trip. So I got my dial indicator out and attached the base to the frame and positioned the tip against the rotor. I made sure the rotor had a couple lug nuts on it to keep it steady.



This was a very limited test because I did not take the coilover off and run the suspension through its full range of travel. However, I was able to measure the bump steer from approximately ride height through 1.5" of travel in rebound. Here are the numbers.

Ride height-------dial indicator set to zero
1/2" rebound-----.1" toe in
1" rebound-------.2" toe in
1.5" rebound-----.320" toe in

I am no suspension expert, but I am pretty sure the above numbers suck ass. Once my brakes are here, I will do the same test with the ATS spindles installed.



On a side note, since the rear end was on jack stands I wanted to see if my vibration was gone. I started the engine, ran it up in 5th gear (1:1) and at about 3200 RPM I am still getting that buzzing vibration. I messed around with the pinion angle and nothing made any difference. I finally put a dial indicator on the driveshaft at the rear to measure the run-out. I watched Terry do this on his fixture and I knew the shaft was within .002". To my surprise I saw .038" on the dial indicator. I suspect that my pinion yoke is off. This is driving me insane. Tomorrow I may try the old "hang big hose clamps on the driveshaft test."

I am open to suggestions. :/

Andrew