What have YOU being doing or are you planning to do with your Vette?

[teamzr1]

Good smart thinking in drilling the hole at end of bolt to fish it through, glad it fixed your problem

On another type of failure is the U-joint from diff to driveshaft

I was doing about 170 MPH in my #94 ZR-1 Snakeskinner during an Open Road Race in the mountains of Nevada
that is very windy and many elevation changes

With no notice I heard a big bang and then constant noise through my full face helmet
Was real hell keeping the car straight enough and car was freewheeling
Finally, got it stopped without going into a ditch or mountain ridge :-(

Looked under the ass end to find the end of driveshaft to diff and come apart, U-joint broke, and that end was then bouncing off the ground

Damn $20 part cost me winning the race, and I was most pissed about that then doing a fix after I trailered it 1,200 miles home

 

[Chuffer]

A great job done Antijam with some inovative thinking and a very well presented ` How To` thread . I think I will check mine out over the winter hibernation .

 

[Forrest Gump]

Another excellent tech write-up Antijam

This and some of the other items in this thread would do well to be put into their own titled threads so that they can be found by others with same problem in the future.

 

[Forrest Gump]

Good smart thinking in drilling the hole at end of bolt to fish it through, glad it fixed your problem

On another type of failure is the U-joint from diff to driveshaft

I was doing about 170 MPH in my #94 ZR-1 Snakeskinner during an Open Road Race in the mountains of Nevada
that is very windy and many elevation changes

With no notice I heard a big bang and then constant noise through my full face helmet
Was real hell keeping the car straight enough and car was freewheeling
Finally, got it stopped without going into a ditch or mountain ridge :-(

Looked under the ass end to find the end of driveshaft to diff and come apart, U-joint broke, and that end was then bouncing off the ground

Damn $20 part cost me winning the race, and I was most pissed about that then doing a fix after I trailered it 1,200 miles home

Wow…..we’re lucky you’re still with us.
I worry about half shafts letting go and flailing around right behind where we sit.

 

[teamzr1]

This was all at fault of the shop I went to having the rear end gear ratio changed.

I suspect they did not properly torque down the nuts for the U-joint and second I told them
to install a driveshaft hoop, this would have prevented it from dropping on ground and damn fricking lucky the
end did not hit some hole in the road or a cattle guard which is metal slats that go across the road with gaps between them
Cattle are scared when they see the gaps and will not cross them

Being the Snakeskinner ZR-1 was a ground up built racer, it was not legal to drive on public roads,
so I could not test that shop's work before doing the race :-(

 

[Roscobbc]

In my teens and when attending engineering courses at our local day release technical college (back in the late 60's) there were only two of us with cars of any consequence - I was in to larger UK Fords and had a 2 1/2 litre Mk2 Ford Zephyr and one of the other guys was in to larger Vauxhall's - he had a PA Cresta, also 2 1/2 litre. There was a degree of rivalry between us - his car had the edge with its wide wheels and totally unmuffled exhaust. We did 2 no. 8 hours days and 4 hour evenings each week. The next time the other guy came in (can't recall his name now) he looked as though he had been in a fight with basly swollen lips. He had seemingly just come from the dentist sorting out some damaged teeth too. The story revealed that he was driving through Romford's main shopping street (fortunately I'm guessing at a reasonably slow speed) when a UJ snapped or broke apart at the gearbox end of the prop shaft. There were no 'safety' loops fitted on early 60's cars. Nor were seat belts fitted. This resulted in the car effectively trying to pole vault itself as the broken prop shaft snagged some ironworks or something on the road surface and threw the driver and front seat passenger on to the dashboard and steering wheel (and the reason for the facial injuries).

 

[Forrest Gump]

The composite rear spring and sway bar that I ordered in January arrived this morning. Spring was on back order when I placed the order but I wasn’t expecting it to be quite this long, but happy to wait for a decent product. There was some issue with their supplier so VanSteel decided to setup in house manufacture, hence the delay.
The composite spring is part of a full suspension upgrade - new front springs, front and rear sway bars and Bilstein B6 shocks all round. VanSteel pens, note pads and stickers thrown in too

 

[johng]

So you are the test driver (or guinea pig) for their new manufacturing process then Andy! Good luck

 

[Chuffer]

The composite rear spring and sway bar that I ordered in January arrived this morning. Spring was on back order when I placed the order but I wasn’t expecting it to be quite this long, but happy to wait for a decent product. There was some issue with their supplier so VanSteel decided to setup in house manufacture, hence the delay.
The composite spring is part of a full suspension upgrade - new front springs, front and rear sway bars and Bilstein B6 shocks all round. VanSteel pens, note pads and stickers thrown in too
View attachment 14145

Sounds like an impressive set up you are going for .

 

[Forrest Gump]

So you are the test driver (or guinea pig) for their new manufacturing process then Andy! Good luck

Ha Ha, I’m putting that to the back of my mind! I know they had to get tooling but not sure if they just brought that from their previous supplier, plus someone who knew how to make them I’m hoping.
The spring weighs just 7lbs, but has the job of supporting the weight of the car….what’s to worry about?

 

[teamzr1]

That is the skinniest sway bar I have ever seen, mine is like 3-4 times more diameter !

 

[Oneball]

I reckon my rear one is about the same.

 

[Forrest Gump]

That is the skinniest sway bar I have ever seen, mine is like 3-4 times more diameter !

The stock ones are as thick as a Biro pen! This new one is 5/8“ - as large as recommended by Van Steel for my tyre grip level. The front sway bar is 1-1/8” - that looks quite meaty (not shown in photo)

 

[teamzr1]

My front swap bar is maybe 3 times as bigger than the one you show
Rear is maybe 2 times bigger

A little trick I have been doing for many years is when at the drag strip I remove one end of front sway bar bolt from mount
this cancels out what the bar does
That allows then when launching for the front to come up more, shifting weight back onto the rear tire patch

 

[Forrest Gump]

A little trick I have been doing for many years is when at the drag strip I remove one end of front sway bar bolt from mount
this cancels out what the bar does
That allows then when launching for the front to come up more, shifting weight back onto the rear tire patch

I’m not understanding how that would affect the front lifting?
Why are the shocks mounted upside down?

 

[Roscobbc]

I’m not understanding how that would affect the front lifting?
Why are the shocks mounted upside down?

Presumably is would allow one side of the front end to lift before the other - can't see that being of use on a Vette unless it had a live rear axle?

 

[teamzr1]

I’m not understanding how that would affect the front lifting?
Why are the shocks mounted upside down?

As you know as one end of sway bar is forced downward, the twist/torque at the other end goes up
By taking the force off of one end by taking the mounting bolt off then cancels the bar
which then allows more upward movement of front end to shift the weight backwards to put more downforce on tire patch

By mounting the shocks upside down, then there is less un-spung weight
In my 1999 C5 case I lowered it as much as possible, that meant then the stock shocks travel would be less and then the
valving (tune) would not be correct

So I went with Penske race shocks that were shorter and designed to be mounted upside down and then use the bump stops
to prevent bottoming out when car is in downward motion

 

[Forrest Gump]

Okay, with the assumption the car will always squat to one side.
Upside down shocks serious stuff

 

[Chuffer]

I'm PLANNING to drive it home as soon as the bank sorts out my payment... By the way burger king now sells small and large tubs of ben and jerrys.

Post some pics when you get it . The Vette that is , not the Ben & Jerry`s .

 

[Nassau65]

Post some pics when you get it . The Vette that is , not the Ben & Jerry`s .

Take it nice and easy, as your not used to LHD . Also pick it up and drive it back in daylight. I sold a corvette recently to a chap his first LHD, picked it up at 8.00pm pitch black to drive it home.