'62 Monza convertible "Ralphie"

[66vairguy]

Thanks guys. I now have to make a list of priorities for the "fine tuning". I ordered a pair of Viton accelerator cups from California Corvairs first thing this morning. I have a big list of non-Corvair stuff for the weekend, but at least another crank and run may be on the list. I want to hook a vacuum gauge to the balance tube and compare between each carb and manifold vacuum. I also still have some spot blasting to do. I posted a picture and brief story on the facebook group (I steer a lot of FB people over here where they can get "qualified" help). My post there is already about 300 like or comments. The car is sexy. Dennis

You can buy the accelerator pump cups separate and install them on the old pump unit. davemotohead has a good video to use a pen cap to get the cup on without damaging it. Only problem is the Bic cap he uses is from an old pen I could not locate. I found the tip off a tube of calk works fine if cut to the correct size.

[Dennis66]

Thanks. Yes, that's what I ordered was just the cups. I do have the parts from an extra pair of carbs I had. The carbs were junk because the cluster screws broke off in the bodies of each carb.

[Dennis66]

So I'm nursing a case of the flu . At the end of today I finally felt well enough to do a little something. My accelerator cups had arrived this morning, so I thought "How difficult can this be?". First thing I found was there were two different types of accelerator pumps. On was original and still had the leather cup with a garter spring. The tip on these is much larger and there is no way these cups are going to slip over that. As Bob mentioned, the old Bic cap isn't available any longer (probably some kind of safety thing. I tried cutting the ball point end of a pen, but that didn't work out so well either. I ended up placing the plunger in a vice, just tight enough to hold it, and I used a small pick to walk the cup around the end of the plunger (much like you would mount a tire). This worked for me. I had soaked it in warm water and soaped it first. I will have to remove the pump from one of the other carbs before repeating the operation for the second carb.

The other problem I had was there is a tiny retainer bar that holds the rod in the plunger. I didn't realize this, and it had fallen to the floor. Fortunately, I was able to find it. Center of this picture

[66vairguy]

Sorry to hear you got the Flu. So far I've avoided it.

One thing to look at is the little one way check ball in the accelerator pump. When you shake it you can hear the check ball rattle. If not the it is missing or stuck. I never thought about it. Now I check it after someone posted their pump didn't work because of the check ball.

Feel better and have a good Thanksgiving.

[Dennis66]

Turns out I have Covid. Not as bad as it was years ago, but still not fun.

[66vairguy]

Turns out I have Covid. Not as bad as it was years ago, but still not fun.

Sorry to hear that. COVID is still with us and it seems it will be, just like the Flu.

I'm old and an older friends who got it died so I try to be careful. When I read that over half of COVID deaths were people over 70 that got my attention. I recently went to the doctors office and to see my lawyer and BOTH places asked me to wear a mask. Hey NO PROBLEM. One thing I will say about being more careful is that I have NOT had a cold or flu infection in the last three years!! Yes Mom was correct, wash your hands before touching your face or eating!

[Dennis66]

Yeah, immediate family came through the thing with no infections (my oldest daughter, who is a nurse did get it, but she wasn't living at home). I do seem to be on the mend now and my doctor prescribed a fancy covid medication. I've never been one for a lot of pills, but I've taken more pills this last year.

[66vairguy]

Yeah, immediate family came through the thing with no infections (my oldest daughter, who is a nurse did get it, but she wasn't living at home). I do seem to be on the mend now and my doctor prescribed a fancy covid medication. I've never been one for a lot of pills, but I've taken more pills this last year.

Keep in mind that the anti-viral COVID medication works, but sometimes folks have a rebound episode after they go off it. So be aware and if you don't feel good after going off the meds, call you doctor. Hope it all goes well.

[Dennis66]

Oh, I'm in close communication with them. My primary care doctor works pretty closely with my daughter (I don't get away with too much). Very pleased with this doctor. So far, just the nasty taste of these pills - 3 per dose.

[Dennis66]

Back to Corvair progress. As I felt better here and there I did make some progress. I got both accelerator pumps done and put in the carbs. Then I got energetic Friday, dropped the back of the engine, pulled the mount plate, and changed out the harmonic balancer for the good one. Barely got everything buttoned up and the weather turned sour. Today, I finally found a deal on a tach / dwell meter. It's a Sun, and I took a battery, my points distributor, coil, a cordless drill, and tested it. Works. I used to have a Snap on one back in the '70s, but it suddenly stopped working. Since then, everything either had a factory tach, or it was computerized or both, so I haven't worried about it. Between getting the UniSyn gauge and this, I'm returning to my old school roots. Maybe the weather will improve tomorrow and I can play some more. After that, I have 3 days of work, then off on a cruise next weekend. Pics to follow. Dennis

[Dennis66]

Wow! Been almost 3 weeks since my last update. Well, there was a very enjoyable cruise in there (didn't see any Corvairs in the Bahamas), and schedule and weather are still not cooperating. There is currently a tropical system covering most of Florida. The Corvair took the garage from wife's car for the weekend, but no work is getting done). What I did get done was to hook up my Stewart Warner tach / dwell meter and I was able to get the idle below 1,000 RPMs. I'm reading low vacuum, but that could be from there still being some slop in the throttle shafts. I currently have timing at maybe 13 degrees for smoothest idle. The vacuum advance is working (but it doesn't affect idle as there is no vacuum to the distributor port at idle) and I can watch the advance and mechanical advance come in as it is revved up. There also seems to be a leak of some kind from my transaxle as there was a small puddle under it. If weather clears, I hope to check the leak, and maybe check a plug or two to check on mixture.
I'm also working on a jacking attachment that will lift the rear from the swing arms (if it all works out okay). Back in the day I always just jacked them under the differential, but am now aware of how bad that is on the power train mounts, one of which is showing it's age. Much of this will be part of my next stage of work. Dennis

[66vairguy]

Thanks for the update.

Yes other things get in the way of Corvair work. It is a great day at my place today, and I'm stuck fixing the gate on the driveway!

[Dennis66]

Didn't get much done today. Storms always leave me with tons of leaves (from all MY NEIGHBORS' trees ). Got that cleaned up and checked distributor numbers. Currently, the car has a 1110372 (5J13) distributor with a breakerless conversion kit which is a Crane Cams XR700 / XR3000 (Clark's #C2851). Apparently made under a different name now. I can't find anything for the 1110372. I also have the 1110296 2F5, which shows as a 1963 "Super Turbo Air". This one has points, and was the distributor I originally started the engine with. Thinking about swapping distributors tomorrow, and if it runs better, changing the crane kit over to the 0296 distributor.
Also appears that my leak is coming from the back up switch, but I haven't been under it yet. Dennis

[66vairguy]

Didn't get much done today. Storms always leave me with tons of leaves (from all MY NEIGHBORS' trees ). Got that cleaned up and checked distributor numbers. Currently, the car has a 1110372 (5J13) distributor with a breakerless conversion kit which is a Crane Cams XR700 / XR3000 (Clark's #C2851). Apparently made under a different name now. I can't find anything for the 1110372. I also have the 1110296 2F5, which shows as a 1963 "Super Turbo Air". This one has points, and was the distributor I originally started the engine with. Thinking about swapping distributors tomorrow, and if it runs better, changing the crane kit over to the 0296 distributor.
Also appears that my leak is coming from the back up switch, but I haven't been under it yet. Dennis

For some reason most of the books don't list the 1110372 (but obviously it exists). My notes say it was used on the on the 66-67 Air Injection Engines (emission controlled) 110HP, manual transmission cars. Keep in mind there is some conflict in the GM books so it might be other distributors were used earlier in 66, then changed later in production. In 66 only a few states required emissions controls (not only Calf. as usually assumed). In 1967 emissions controls were on most engines. GM had planned to phase out Corvair production during the 67 model year if the Camaro did well (and it did). Loooong story why they didn't cancel the Corvair, but it resulted in some confusion, substitution, and less than accurate records for the 67-69 Corvairs.

The 1110296 was used on the 63 102HP manual OR automatic engines. It has the uncommon #199 vacuum advance can only used in 62-63 on the 102HP engines.

Keep in mind this information is from my notes based on years of data published from different sources.
NOTE: I sometimes find the wrong internal parts based on the distributor part #. Some parts are numbered, but the flyweights and springs are difficult to identify as some are very similar visually.

[Dennis66]

So it appears this "199" vacuum advance (VA) is unobtanium. Clark's doesn't even have a listing for it. I can just about guarantee that it currently DOESN'T have one. The VA that was on my 296 distributor was completely immobile. I tossed it. I happened to have a VA from am old Buick V-6 that looks the same, so I put that on the 296. TBH, until now, I was unaware of all the different VAs except the turbo ones. Back in the day, we didn't know or care. By time I started "learning", everything was controlled by the ECMs. This is one more reason I am so appreciative for the vast amount of Corvair knowledge that is shared here. Any ideas of a reasonable substitute? I imagine the differences are in the mechanical limit for advance and possibly spring tension against the diaphragm. Dennis

[66vairguy]

So it appears this "199" vacuum advance (VA) is unobtanium. Clark's doesn't even have a listing for it. I can just about guarantee that it currently DOESN'T have one. The VA that was on my 296 distributor was completely immobile. I tossed it. I happened to have a VA from am old Buick V-6 that looks the same, so I put that on the 296. TBH, until now, I was unaware of all the different VAs except the turbo ones. Back in the day, we didn't know or care. By time I started "learning", everything was controlled by the ECMs. This is one more reason I am so appreciative for the vast amount of Corvair knowledge that is shared here. Any ideas of a reasonable substitute? I imagine the differences are in the mechanical limit for advance and possibly spring tension against the diaphragm. Dennis

I MIGHT have the vacuum advance tables. Now I'm swamped with outside work trying to beat the rain. Later this week I'll look.

Keep in mind some of the differences are minor. GM's divisions liked to make a lot of variety in parts (coils, vacuum advance units, etc.) to match each engines HP/torque and transmission installed. Sometimes the differences are minor. At one time Clark's sold a "one size fits all" vacuum advance unit and I have never seen a data table for it (not saying it doesn't exist).