'62 Monza convertible "Ralphie"

[66vairguy]

Yeah, on the Carter, after throwing in the towel, I realized that the fuel pump I was using has a 4-7 PSI rating. Much greater than the 2.5 the YH carbs are supposed to have. When it started flooding, I turned off the pump and the fuel valve between my little tank and the pump, but the line could still have been pressurized. Doesn't matter now. Funny thing, way back when I was running the YH on my '66, I didn't have any issues. It was hooked directly to the mechanical pump.
I know the YH carbs go back farther than 1954, but the claim to fame was the triple YH set up used on the 54 Corvette with the BLUE FLAME 6 cylinder. I also recently learned about some interesting applications using manifolds and dual YH carbs.
Today's mail brought my Bob Helt book and my 199 vacuum advance - still in the Delco box. I got a confirmation of my Clark's order being shipped
For John: Yes, I will take plenty of pictures. Dennis

Most of the Carter fuel pressure issues seem to be on the EM cars. I've been told the Carter, like the Rochester, was revised every year it was used on the Corvair turbo cars. The 65-66 cars seem to have benefited from the last changes.

[Dennis66]

Entirely possible. I have no idea what year the carb on my old '66 was from (1975). The guy had Corvair parts laying around his backyard (literally). I gave him the 10.00 for the carb, compressor housing, and crossover tube. I think I got the chrome heat shield too. I do know that my current system is from a 1964. This came with the turbo system bolted to a stock '63 102 engine, and the '64 Spyder (RA) bottom end fitted with 102 heads and Rochesters (heads and carbs too far gone. All of this was originally for sale with the '64 Spyder convertible, but the car went to a small boneyard, and i ended up with the 2 extra engines. I also bought some parts from the boneyard. The '64 was way too far gone (tin termites) to be worth saving. Dennis

[Dennis66]

Update time. I got a small box of Clark's goodies and my fuel pump this week. Only real progress was taking choke and throttle shafts out of one of my carbs to find that even with the new shafts, there is still some slop, not near as much, but still some slop. What was really surprising was the amount of slop in the choke shaft holes. One would think (expect?) wear on the THROTTLE holes after 62 years of 4 speed shifting with throttles being moved every shift, but you'd think the chokes move less than 1/4 turn and really only one time per cranking with warm up - you'd think. Maybe the tension of the choke springs puts pressure with vibration to make the wear. ?????
For grins, I pulled the one remaining ('64 / '65 ?) carb I have. It has a broke off cluster screw, but I could probably get that out. This carb has good tight holes with the new shaft in place. I tossed the other carb because the cluster screws broke off flush, and the bowl was kind of corroded. If the other carb had been salvagable, I'd be tempted to put my parts in them (throttle shafts, accelerator pumps, improved float valves). I did also receive Bob Helt's Rochester book and have looked through it (focusing more on the '62-'63 carbs). I do have something up my sleeve for the sloppy shaft holes.
Moving forward, this doesn't fix my carbs, it doesn't get the car running sooner, and it doesn't make it faster, but I got a "want" today. This has pretty much always been in the plan, and when I first got the car there were several at reasonable prices. Then the prices jumped to pretty much double what I had been seeing - until I saw this one.

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I have no intention of making a "Spyder clone", but I now have the panel, and if I really wanted, I could build a 150 turbo. I have everything but the heads. It would simply become "a Monza with a Spyder dash and engine" Hopefully there will be carb progress this weekend. Dennis
P.S. I always thought the Spyder panel was about the sharpest panel out there. The Corsa is sharp (had two on my LMs), but the Spyder panel looks "race car".

[66vairguy]

Yes the Spyder panel is sharp. I've never seen anything about who designed it. It would be nice to get the story of the folks behind the creation of the Spyder. Many agree that the moving the Corvair toward a more sporting type of car saved it.

Years ago someone published a nice little story about one of the early Corvair turbo car factory evaluations. The plan was to run a turbo out in Arizona from around Flagstaff down to Sedona. I've driven that highway a few times over the decades and it was a fun drive before it became overdeveloped.

Zora Duntov and a few others were convinced a naturally aspirated Corvair was a better choice and "quietly" built up Corvair engine for more power. On the day of the "test drive" Zora and team showed up with the naturally aspirated Corvair and followed the turbo test car. The fellow who wrote the story was in the "evaluation/parts van" and said the two Corvairs pulled away from the test van and disappeared up the road at "probably illegal speeds". When the test van finally arrived in Sedona they found the two Corvairs. It seems Zora and crew never could overtake and pass the turbo car, although they stayed up with it. Basically both cars arrived at the same time as the story goes. The turbo car got the green light for production. Of course in 65 we also got the four carburetor 140HP. Who knows if the "Zora" car had anything to do with that.

Not sure how accurate the story is, but back then it certainly was possible and a good story.

[Dennis66]

Finally back to some real forward progress on the Corvair. As some will remember, I was having trouble getting good manifold vacuum on my engine. I already knew there was slop in my throttle shafts, so I had ordered replacement shafts from Clark's and had posted about this back on the 15th. When I test fit the new shafts, there was still some slop on the accelerator pump side of each throttle shaft - meaning I had wear in my carb bases. I had seen it somewhere and I don't remember exactly who, but somebody had come up with a throttle shaft fix using Briggs and Stratton valve guide bushings. These were made for the old, larger flat head engines, and are a perfect fit for our Rochester throttle shafts.
There isn't a whole lot of material for boring out the throttle shaft holes. The holes have to be pretty precise for the shaft to not bind and the throttle plate to seat properly when closed. These bushings are fairly thin, with a 5/16 I.D. and the O.D. is just under 3/8. The first thing I did was to make a jig that would hold my carb base rigidly to the table on my small drill press. then I inserted the new throttle shaft and lightly fixed it in the drill chuck to center the hole. I then removed the shaft and installed a drill bit that was just a bit smaller that the bushings (I had test drilled and fit in a piece of scrap aluminum). Moment of truth, I drilled through the worn hole (what have I got to lose? The body was already worn). After drilling, I made two small hones (5/16 and 1/4 bolt shanks slotted to hold a piece of sandpaper). I honed the hole to a press fit for the bushings and pressed it in with a long 5/16 bolt, nut and two close fitting washers. After installing the bushing, the throttle shaft was a tight fit. I used the smaller (1/4) hone to clean the bushing until I was able to freely rotate the throttle shaft. It's now a good, tight fit. Tomorrow, I will assemble the rest of the carb and I have to make a bushing for the choke shaft. The choke shaft isn't as critical as throttle shafts as while there is some vacuum during choking, there isn't a critical mixture issue.

bushing installed

Picture shows part box, complete bushing, and end trimmed off with a Dremel after pressing in

[toms73novass]

Nice tip on the carb shaft.

[Dennis66]

No pictures this time, but I got the carb all put together and got the second one bushed. A little side note: I switched from the original float valves to the new ball type. I was concerned that the float setting might have to be changed. When I measured, it was the same. Another thing I did was to clean up the flash that is located in the most narrow part of the venturi. It seems lot of cast carbs have this, just the way they are cast and they don't clean it up on the assembly line. I used to do this on the old two barrel Rochesters on my small block Chevys and on my Vega two barrels. Bob Helt also suggests doing this in his carb book. While I've rebuilt more carburetors than I can remember, Bob's book has been a great help and I recommend it to anyone planning to do their own work on their Corvair. I also got the correct vacuum advance that I had purchased put on my distributor. Dennis

[Dennis66]

Update: Found out that my two carbs had two different venturi clusters. One side had the original 1962 cluster with equal spacing of the nozzles, while the other side had the newer cluster with the offset nozzle. I had an extra (offset) cluster so I swapped it for the original.
I also installed the correct (rare) vacuum advance for the 102 HP engine (199 vacuum advance). After installing everything, the engine cranked right up. A minor timing adjustment, and it is running much better and my manifold vacuum was around 15-16 inches. Both carbs matched pretty closely with the Unisyn meter. I wasn't able to set the idle as mu old meter wouldn't work. Have to get another.
I also started making an extra wiring harness for the additional gauges in the Spyder panel I bought (tach and head temperature). I'm also adding an extra wire to run from the engine compartment to the fuel pump, which will be mounted near the tank.
Final tasks for today was sandblasting the front seal tin and straightening out the mangled front tin seal retainer. I traced the shape of the tin onto a piece of 2x stock, cut the shape out, and shaped the retainer with various tools and a hammer. Then it got sand blasted and all were primed.

[Project65]

Dennis. I love your handy work! Brilliant work on the carb throttle shafts and shaping the sheet metal!!

[Dennis66]

Cranked it up and ran it some more this afternoon. I had purchased another "vintage" analyzer to set the idle speed. My other analyzer had stopped working - always a possibility dealing with old systems for old cars. Got the idle down to a decent speed and wanted to check the timing. My timing light flashed once then wouldn't work after that . After extended idling, it kind of loaded up a bit. Tomorrow, I may start fresh and lower my float levels a bit.

[Dennis66]

Finally getting back to the project. (Life update: the trailer has finally been sold so THAT'S off my back). A few weeks ago I came across a good deal on the upper rear suspension bushings / cups, so it was time to start thinking about the next steps. I wanted to address the "saggy butt syndrome". Before I bought the bushings, I crawled under with a flashlight and sure enough, mine were squished. This also led to my next Clark's order for all the other bushings. Today was the day. First thin I did was measure the rear curb height (ground to top of rear fender opening) - 22''. I couldn't find th eactual spec in either my assembly manual, mu shop manual, or my supplement. Found in on the web (CORSA?). It's 24.2 +/- 1/2.
I jacked the whole car up on stands, removed the rear wheels, and undid al the necessary linkages (shifter, throttle, clutch cross shaft and bracket, tunnel covers) . Now the "fear of the unknown" Will the bolts break loose easily (yes, no problem at all). I then supported the transaxle at the transmission, and left rear control arm at shock absorber. For precision, I used a pair of dependable scissor jacks (NOT OEM Corvair jacks). I lowered the trans, then the control arm in sequences until I could pull the left upper bushings out. Replaced them, then put lower bushings and bolts back in. Lunch break, rest, move to right side. I chose to do one side at a time so the other side (loosened) would hold everything in place (fear of the unknown again). Dennis

Fun just ahead

old vs new

[Dennis66]

"Snowball effect". Someone just started a thread about this the other day. Bushings are all in. I had the linkages all disconnected and had to remove all the rear tunnel cover screws to lower the shift shaft. While it's up o stands and the tunnel cover is this far... I figured I have to run the wires and vacuum line for the Spyder dash. While I'm under here, this heater cable was sticky... I ended up with all HVAC cables and the quadrant out, the gas pedal came out to properly adjust the lever, the quadrant got painted, the gas pedal bracket got cleaned and painted. Cables are freed up and hanging to let oil soak all the way through. Starts going back together tomorrow.

[Dennis66]

Whew! I don't know how long it's been since I spent that much time under a car. The cables are all freed up and lubed nicely. They weren't really rusty and that sticky, just didn't move smoothly. They do now. I will say this: anyone doing cable work, take plenty of pictures of all routing before removing. The defroster cables weren't too bad to route, but the long control cables to the blower box were a pain. I looked through my assembly book and through my shop manual and neither detailed the routing around the crossmember. It took a couple of tries, but I finally figured it out. With that done, time to hook up the quadrant. There was one problem, my initial concern was that when trying to operate the controls before, one of the lever guides popped out of it's track because of the stiffness. I got it back in, but a different one was also able to go past the track (note the rectangular holes near the screwdriver handle in the picture). The other end had full movement, so i figured I had to come up with a way to limit the control lever movement. I noted where the full deflection was and decided to drill a couple of holes in the sides and run a thick wire across to stop the guides before they popped out. It's actually the same way the Military used to do the throttle and supercharger controls on training planes to keep them from going to full "Military Power". Works pretty good and not noticeable unless you are sticking your head under the dash. With everything hooked up on both ends all controls and doors move smoothly now. I also ran the electrical wires for my tach, fuel pump, and temperature gauge. I included a 12 foot section of oil pressure / vacuum hose and ran all that through the tunnel. (BTW, 12 feet only goes from the instrument panel area to about the top of the transmission, I will have to splice an extra section to make it into the engine compartment. On the fuel pump wire, I added an extra lead that will run up to the dash to a push button primer.

pinned quadrant

[Wrengraky]

Have you encountered any unexpected challenges or discovered additional maintenance tasks while working on the rear suspension bushings and other components under your '62 Monza convertible, considering the snowball effect you mentioned with the cables and dash work?

[Dennis66]

No challenges with this so far. This was originally a California car, so rust wasn't a problem (I'd had some concerns about 62 year old suspension bolts, but they broke right loose). As I mentioned earlier, I loosened all bolts then undid the one side and lowered it to remove the old bushings, after loosely installing those bolts, I moved to the other side and repeated the process. Yes, this would be easier with the powertrain out of the car, but wasn't all that bad even with it in. The one thing I would change might be to stuff a rag down inside the crossmember because the one bolt / cushion washer is difficult to start and if dropped, goes right down inside the crossmember where it has to be fished out with a magnet.
I currently have the left coil spring out to install spring spacers to alleviate the saggy butt syndrome. This required supporting the control arm at the brake drum, removing the shock, unbolting the bracket that holds the brake hose, then lower the control arm and remove the spring. It all goes back in this morning.
Haven't really gotten to the dash (instrument panel) yet other than taking the whole Spyder panel apart, cleaning everything, testing the tachometer, and resetting the odometer to match my current mileage (which my state doesn't care about with older vehicles). I did notice an "extra" wire under the existing dash that I have to figure out what it's all about. There was a hidden toggle switch when I first got the car. It was damaged. I figure it was to disable the ignition. There will obviously be wiring alterations to install the Spyder panel, but I already ran those wires and will have to tap in and add extra light bulbs. I bought two (regular) dash wiring assemblies off ebay at a good deal to get all the light sockets.
Cable and control is tricky to reassemble as while you are attaching cables to the control, everything is upside down and you will have to flip it over on install. Obviously, all the little internal "star washer" retainers had to be cut to remove cables. Dennis

[Dennis66]

Rant break: I HATE installing dishwashers. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. I'm 6'4'' and everything is on the bottom of the dishwasher. There, that's off my chest. Now back to the Corvair. Dennis