mattius Posted October 19 Posted October 19 It's been a while... Last year my life fell apart, my hero, my idol, my dad very unexpected passed away. That left my 75 year old mother the owner of all of his junk, and his 1970 Corvette Stingray. In his final days he had been talking about wanting one last hurrah on the race track. We didn't know at the time, but he wouldn't get that chance. My brother and brother in law hatched a plan to give him just that. Surprisingly mum was all for it. One slight problem, we didn't really know the condition of the car, being the only spanner wielding member of the family, that would be on me. No pressure... To my surprise it ran, and I was able to get it out the garage, little did I know it was lulling me into a sense of false security.
mattius Posted October 19 Author Posted October 19 I've been working on his car for years, he lost a lot of strength in later years, so I was hired muscle, so it's very familiar to me. But I'd neglected to keep up with his tinkering. I knew he had been rebuilding the top end of the engine ( he stripped a spark plug thread ), I'd helped him remove and replace on of the cylinder heads. ( This will become relevant later...) So happy it was running and I made a small list of cosmetic and tedious things to get working and tucked her away. The next time I went to take it out, nothing, dead, no spark. After tearing apart the wiring harness, and many many hours of testing wires, even getting out the oscilloscope, I eventually came to the conclusion the MSD control box had disintegrated. Turns out, they don't like moisture, given the car hadn't run in 9 months, I guess frost etc had taken it's tole.
mattius Posted October 19 Author Posted October 19 (edited) So we bit the bullet and £600 later a new shiny MSD unit ( with improved insulation that apparently doesn't disintegrate ) was here. Temporary hooking it up and turning the key was one of those f***ing yessss moments, as the car fired right up first time. My hunch was correct, all good, just need to strip out the old wiring and wire in the new one properly. So I tucked her in, happy that I had a plan. Or so I though... Edited October 19 by mattius
mattius Posted October 19 Author Posted October 19 The next time i came along to pull the car out and put the new MSD unit in properly, it wouldn't start... No spark again... It had been running just a few days before on the new MSD, i was sure this was the original fault, but now i was doubting myself. I went back to basics again, the new MSD unit was definitely working, it passed all its diagnostics, and when you trick it by crossing a few wires.. Spark... So it wasn't the MSD anymore, progress! The suspicion fell further down the line, the MSD control unit was defo working, but it wasn't getting a trigger signal to spark. In this ignition system, the distributer has a magnetic pickup in it, which triggers the MSD to fire, logic dictates, if the MSD is working, but it isn't getting a trigger signal, it must be the pickup or something related... Taking the distributer apart, it looks like its suffered the same problem, moisture and condensation have made it not so pretty. So a new magnetic pickup was ordered, confident this was the issue. Remember this car, bites back...
mattius Posted October 19 Author Posted October 19 Replacing the pickup ( no small job, you have to fully dismantle the dizzy, shaft has to come out etc ). Then putting the distributer back in ( again getting it to seat properly is a bitch ). Confident, this will be it, it will now fire... Nothing... damn wrong conclusion. What followed was a torment of pulling out every bit of hair that remains on my head, days and days, of trying various things, checking wiring, nothing would work. It was only when i called a friend over for some moral support, i actually had a crazy idea to pull the dizzy again. I was showing him how the ignition system works, when, when spinning the distributer by hand, Spark!!!!! Ok so back in, and again fighting to get it seated right. Turn the car over, nothing.. It was then another eureka moment hit, its not spinning fast enough to trigger the spark... So ok, lets try a new battery, nothing... It made no sense, the engine was turning over, just slower than it should on the starter... Shit... the starter motor, i hadn't checked that... Yeap, looks like the pinion seized and tore it apart, weirdly it was still working, still engaging, just seriously down on torque. So, another order to the states, and a new starter motor was on its way.
mattius Posted October 20 Author Posted October 20 (edited) New starter motor delivered and fitted ( Amazon of all places got it here quicker than anyone else ). And boom we are back in action. With the help of the coil from my spitfire ( Yeap the coil failed as well, suspect the MSD fried it ) Engine fires on the button every time. Finally can get the new MSD in situe and wired in ( the old one was faulty btw, we tried it again ). It's now beginning to look like it should again First few test drives went well, except we discovered he accidentally put a litre of diesel in it when filling it up But then started to notice a lot of oil under the car after running... Remember I said about the cylinder heads... I'd fitted them and left him to do the intake manifold and all the fiddly bits. We finally discovered where he got too, the intake manifold was bolted down but not torqued down, so oil was pissing out the back of it under load. Edited October 20 by mattius
mattius Posted October 20 Author Posted October 20 Decided to not take any chances and just strip it off and redo it with new gaskets. The damn distributor had to come out again... Used all the proper stuff this time rather than the 40 year old tubes of hylomar the old boy insisted on using. And after a surprisingly stress free hours, excluding seating the damn dizzy again. It was done, running and with no oil leaks!!
mattius Posted October 20 Author Posted October 20 With the help of the local hill climb organisers the old boy was part of, we registered to race the Corvette up the hill at Boness. I got my race license again and the plan was to just cruise up the hill not setting any meaningful times ( I would have loved too, but mum was there and it's her car ). There was also an interesting conversation with the scrutineering about dad being in the back of the car, they weren't too happy about that. We came up with a different plan, and for the day, the course car was substituted for a 1970 Corvette Stingray The aim was to tick off his bucket list rather than anything else, and we did it! It's fair to say a rather large amount of whisky was drunk that night. 2
thebrookster Posted October 20 Posted October 20 It is nice to see the Stingray in action again, Matt! I'll never forget the ride you gave me many years back, and that was just round the streets of Edinburgh! Also, good to see you back! Hope you are otherwise keeping well? Phil
JohnD Posted October 20 Posted October 20 Wow! What a saga! And well done for getting your dad back on track! Great story! John
Hamish Posted October 20 Posted October 20 Well done. I had similar with dad’s last ride in his damlersp250 in 2018 but thankfully without the electrical dramas - neither of us did electrics beyond a test bulb. you’ll remember those runs with him
mattius Posted October 20 Author Posted October 20 It was his happy place so chuffed we managed to do it for him. The trials and tribulations, continue with the Corvette. I will try and keep updating... This winter has a long list of jobs The dash has to come out because my clutz of a brother ripped the wire out the rev counter. The gearbox is a bit noisy so I'm gonna change the oil in the hope it's just a bit low. The doors need rebuilding as the window handles are both falling off ( I remember doing this before, it's a true **** of a job ).
mattius Posted October 20 Author Posted October 20 2 hours ago, thebrookster said: It is nice to see the Stingray in action again, Matt! I'll never forget the ride you gave me many years back, and that was just round the streets of Edinburgh! Also, good to see you back! Hope you are otherwise keeping well? Phil All good just lost motivation for a while. I still have the spit, though it needs an engine rebuild, so hence hasn't been touched in years.
mattius Posted October 20 Author Posted October 20 Corvette clearing it's pipes of diesel... I got a ticking off from the local rozzers for the amount of smoke, but after a chat they recommended a road to go where I wouldn't be a nuisance
RedRooster Posted October 20 Posted October 20 You may need a MSD tacho adapter for the rev counter to go with the control box, I did. Also if you could I'd mount the box inside not in the engine bay. Nice write up though, I enjoyed reading it. RR
JohnD Posted October 20 Posted October 20 I put a quarter of a tank of diesel into Silverback, very early in the morning on the way back from Le Mans. Filled up with proper stuff, but it whinged for ages, even into two more fill ups on the way home. Eventually, I pulled the plugs and they all had diesel in them, but after cleaning them with rags it behaved itself thereafter. John
mattius Posted October 20 Author Posted October 20 1 hour ago, RedRooster said: You may need a MSD tacho adapter for the rev counter to go with the control box, I did. Also if you could I'd mount the box inside not in the engine bay. Nice write up though, I enjoyed reading it. RR Thanks for the advice, Corvette doesn't actually need the adapter. He just snapped the wire, it was working before clumsy feet got in the car, it's got a shift light with a digital tacho so no biggy the original doesn't work. I wouldn't have chosen to mount the control box inside the fender, but that's where MSD actually install it in all their guides, so who am I to argue. Plus its where the original was.
Nick Jones Posted October 20 Posted October 20 Great to hear from you Matt - but very sorry to hear about Dad…… no cure for old…… You gave him a great day though. The Beast made you work for it though - well done for pushing through with it. Look forward to updates as and when
mattius Posted October 20 Author Posted October 20 I think that's why it hit us so hard, he may have been age old, but not mentally or physically. He was just back from a walking holiday. It was a blood infection that got him in the end, kinda like sepsis, went from fit and healthy to really bad in hours.
Nick Jones Posted October 22 Posted October 22 Yes, that’s hard. Mostly on those left behind. Though having a front row seat to watch several aging relatives fade away from a variety of unpleasant age-related afflictions, I’m really not sure which is worse.
mattius Posted November 4 Author Posted November 4 Was reminded of this image last night. This is a steel half shaft, and what happens when you have too much torque... 1
mattius Posted November 4 Author Posted November 4 (edited) Bit of both, lit up the wheels on a manhole cover then it bit on the tarmac. Could be worse that was him, I blew the diff to pieces doing the same thing The first diff to go ( blew two up before finding one strong enough ). Edited November 4 by mattius 1
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