New-to-me 66 Corsa!

[BobWitt]

I have a bunch of updates, that I'll get posted Sunday - but, here is my completed dash - glove box door and surround done and installed.

Now I'm off to the Woodward Dream Cruse tonight and tomorrow! This is the world's largest one-day auto event - and I'm going to represent the Corvair!

Remember to vote in the Corvair of the Month! Vote here! --> viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10192#p69333

I'll be back with a build update and pictures from the Cruse Sunday.

More to come…

[SteveH]

oh... SO sweet.. I hope I can get mine looking half as nice!!!! Well done and have fun!

[cad-kid]

Black & blue never looked so good together!

[BobWitt]

Sorry, haven't done an update on the project, been way too busy with the Woodward Dream Cruise last weekend and the Detroit Area Corvair Club Homecoming this weekend! Truely a great show, met a bunch of great people, picked up a few parts and looked over a bunch of great Corvairs...

Somehow, when I do something like these shows I don't pull out the camera much, a few cars were beyond the normal - so I got snaps of those... This first one is a 65 Corsa that is as sharp as they come... This car must have as many hours being block sanded as I have in my project overall! It also has a 140 set up with Blow-through Turbo! Unbelievable!

CorvairWild on YouTube managed to record a ride in this vehicle at the following link, and, at ~2:40 into this video, that is me heading out Saturday evening!



If you want to seem more of the DACC show, look at CorvairWilds other videos, which include a showing of fellow forum member rv6aaviator (Jeff Sandor) with his two beautiful EMs and Norm Witte with his Corsa Turbo Vert.







Another remarkable vehicle was this Corsa, previously owned by Ray Sedman of American Pi. 4-wheel disks, and Turbo, Port fuel injection!

I'll get more of my project updates done soon, promise. In the mean time, Remember to vote in the Corvair of the Month! Vote here! --> viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10192#p69333

It looks like I need to write up an entry for next month's COM, it is looking like I won't make up the distance on Pathfinder.

More to come!

[County98]

Awesome work Bob! Great job and thanks for the pics. Starting on my interior now, scraping and wire wheel...blech.

[BobWitt]

Wow, last August was my last post... Well, tonight I went to the Detroit Area Corvair Club monthly meeting - driving the Corvair...

I'm sad to report the season is almost over and I soon will put her away for the winter. I have a long list of things to do, as well as post some of the activities of the summer... So until I put her on the road in the spring, I should be a more frequent attendee here..

49 years ago tomorrow (11/3/66) this vehicle was delivered to the first owner by a dealer in Los Angles. A year ago tomorrow, I 'closed' on my purchase from the 2nd owner in Yuma AZ. It has been a good year, and I'm looking forward to the next!

More to Come...

[BobWitt]

Woo Hoo! Can't believe I got the cover! Crooked antenna and all!

Order your Calendar Here --> viewtopic.php?f=80&t=10779#p74018




More to come!

[BobWitt]

Well, Corvair season is officially over for me… 10 inches of snow Last Saturday! Sunday was beautiful, blue sky, and lots to shovel..

Fortunately the Corsa is in the garage, in the air with blankets on…

And I got some work done, the rear suspension removed and beginning to make parts lists.

I'm kinda surprised at the prices to have the rear bearings and strut rods rebuilt. >$700 after cores but without shipping?!? I will be looking at the options to reduce this. Suggestions? Are rebuilding the strut rods with rubber really that difficult? Any thoughts about the Clark's C7874 "Easy" Strut Rod Bushings? How much of a compromise is that?

I'm going back to stock exhaust, carbs and tins on the engine - need to remove it to address the input shaft seal anyway and would like better dirveability and more quiet for next summer. I could keep futzing with these Dellortos, but for what I can sell them and the headers for, I should be able to buy most of what I need to return to stock...

Headers already sold for $200. Going to pull the Dells of this weekend, get some good photos and get them listed. The BEST use of these are on VWs - any suggestions where I should go to list? I really believe these come to life on an individual runner application, not on a plenum application like the Corvair.

More to come...

[BobWitt]

Well I’ve been busier on the car than I have been on the web… On the Saturday after thanksgiving ‘Caveman’ Pete Koehler came by to oversee the removal of the powertrain. Everything was ready for the drop – just had to place the jack at the ‘sweet spot’, loosen the 2 rear motor mount nuts and the 4 bolts from the trans to the cross support. Took less than 20 minutes – having Pete’s experience guiding this, my first removal, was a great confidence builder.

Was expecting some warm weather in December, so I took the Torque Arms, Struts and pressed the old bushings out – then took to have them blasted… Got them home and primed and painted all of the following suspension bits..

Freshly sand blasted...

Primed, silver is top-coated

Chassis Black!

It feels good to put clean, freshly painted parts in the basement, ready for reassembly!

Today I pulled the trans side cover and diff top cover and pulled as much lube as I could out of each. Looks relatively good in there – what do you think?

Then I set up to remove the transmission from the engine.

Well, I think I know some of the reason for the input shaft leak – the good news, the snout is not broken… But there is no sign of a split ring retainer for the seal, and the seal ‘fell’ out with the input shaft…

I have some questions about the ID of the bearing support – posted another thread on that (here--> viewtopic.php?f=55&t=10923#p74814).

I also found the clutch fork not installed to the throw-out bearing uniformly – which is correct?

That's all for now...

More to Come...

[cad-kid]

Nice progress!

[Gregory_Miller]

The right side where all the fork "bits" are inside the sleeve of the throwout bearing.

[BobWitt]

Jeremy (cad-kid) – thanks for the encouragement, you have been my greatest supporter. Sometimes ya gotta wonder if anyone values these updates!

Gregory_Miller – thanks for the input… I hadn’t pulled the book out to look it up yet – and not going back together yet… But Thanks!

Well, I’ve pulled all the TINs off of the motor, pulled the pressure plate, clutch and flywheel. Then took an inventory and appraisal of my current situation…

I had some questions about my heads so I posted this: viewtopic.php?f=55&t=10946

And I had some questions about the state of engine sealing, and posted this: viewtopic.php?f=55&t=10949

Both threads have helped me set my course from here… I hear the heads have the same CR and expansion chamber shape. Still don’t understand having a different casting numbers then.

The plan was to reseal the bell housing, front seal, rear housing, oil cooler, cooler adapter, rear seal, oil filter adapter, pan and oil pump. All else is going to ride as it is (I guess not much left!)… Deflashed the heads and cleaned up the engine as well as I could (it was really clean to start!). Pulled the front housing and in the process of cleaning it up I made the mistake of soaking it too long in Purple Power! Well, that then generated this thread: viewtopic.php?f=55&t=10966

It took a significant amount of time to recover from this mistake, but today I managed to complete the reassembly of the back of the motor and then comparatively quickly did the clutch housing and front seal… The rear housing is not shiny, stained by the base in the Purple Power – but it is clean, all the seal surfaces ‘dressed’ with 400 grit on a plate glass and ready to run.

I also managed to clean up all the shrouds – nearly ready to reinstall.

Now on to the Transmission clean up…

As always, more to come…

[Jsr]

Bob,
Thanks for all you have posted, never think that it goes unnoticed!

I know I've re-read this post several times...

[BobWitt]

This weekend was relatively productive!

I wanted to finish closing up the engine, first order of business was to replace the Pilot Bearing. I tried the bread thing, with no success… Then went to O’Reilly’s and checked out their “loaner tools” and found they had a nice pilot bearing puller attachment to their slide hammer. This a great service for us DIYers..

Mounted up the new bolted flywheel, and clutch disk – added the pressure plate and done… I was advised to NOT use washers on any of the 4 lower bolts from the clutch housing to the block – due to possible contact to the riveted or bolted flywheel…

Next I cleaned up and painted the pan and the new harmonic balancer… Pan installed and balancer yet to do… Then can do Logs, Fan and Tins... Getting closer to trans clean-up...

As always, more to come...

[cad-kid]

[bbodie52]

OOPS! It appears that you have reinstalled the heads and the pushrod tubes without installing the air baffles under the cylinder barrels. Be sure to reinstall the sheet metal air deflector under the cylinder barrels before inserting the push rod tubes. If you forget these things you will be forced to dismantle and reinstall to get everything into place. (You would be amazed how many people reassemble an engine while leaving pieces out, only to discover later that they have parts left over).

The sheet metal baffles are each held in-place by two metal spring clips (shown below)...



Each baffle is positioned between the three cylinder barrels and the six push rod tubes, so removal and installation requires the removal of the push rods and push rod tubes. See items 7, 8 and 23, below...






How important are Cylinder Air Baffles?
http://corvaircenter.com/phorum/read.php?1,72877,72910