A Pair Of Deuces

It’s time for something just a little different.

Some weeks ago, in fact the week that our red ‘Vette came back from the paint shop, we had another ‘Vette in the shed.

Rex, a friend, bought a ’74 in California and brought it into Oz via John Cain, a well known identity in this area.

Rex’s ’74 is a lovely yellow car. It’s previous owner had done quite a bit to it, but when it arrived in Oz, we had to do a few things to keep the inspecting Engineer happy (like seat belts, blinkers etc) plus the usual brake calipers and a few other bits & pieces.

Rex only drives his ‘Vette about every 3rd weekend.


On many occasions, he is met with a battery that won’t turn the engine over. We decided to take it to my place, place an ammeter in series with the main battery lead, and monitor what goes on over a period of time.

It turns out that there was nothing really wrong. The radio draws about 60 milliamp and, in time, this is sufficient to bring the battery voltage down to a point where the car won’t start. Rex bought a “Battery Fighter” from Supercheap. This thing plugs into mains power. You connect it to the battery and it monitors the condition of the battery and applies a trickle charge when required. Problem solved.

I also pulled the instrument cluster out to see why the ammeter didn’t work. The contacts at the back were a bit corroded, so this wasn’t a hard fix either.

It was nice having two ‘Vettes in the shed. The yellow and red complimented each other very nicely. Dayle started thinking a “his and hers” scenario. All I can say is “bring it on”.

But Rex wouldn’t want to part with his ‘Vette anyway.

Some Days Are Diamonds

I’m sure you know the words to the song.......But today was a stone, more like a rock.

I would have achieved more if I had stayed in bed.

The day went a bit like this………..
Prime objective for the day – finish off the wiring, make sure all electricals worked OK, and move on.

1st problem: wipers won’t work. Initial thoughts were that there was no earth to them, so I made a wire with bare ends, touched one end to the chassis and one to the wiper motor and away they went. Found that I had neglected to connect one of the earth wires when I installed the engine & gearbox. Problem solved!

2nd problem: heater blower motor won’t work. After some investigation & testing with a multimeter, I realized that it was just a fuse. Problem solved!

3rd problem: radio only works with Ignition on, should work with Accessories on. At about this time, I found that I couldn’t turn the ignition switch to the “Lock” position. Hmmm, why hadn’t I noticed this before? It has to be either a faulty/incorrect key, faulty lock, or faulty switch at the base of the steering column. Only one way to find out...... pull the steering column back out.
With the column out, the cause was not evident, so I started to pull the column, complete with its tilt & telescopic functions, apart.

With a whole lot of bits lying on the floor, diligently placed in sequence so I knew how to put this thing, back together, I found the cause of the problem, which I’ll get to later.

After about 4 frustrating hours and many attempts to get the column back together, hindered by its strong spring that takes the slack out of the top bearing, disaster struck! The big circlip that holds it all together gave up the ghost..... it snapped in two. Bugger !!!

Only one thing to do now ……. Walk away, have a few beers and watch the footy Grand Final. I’ll get back the steering column tomorrow.....Primary objective aborted.

Oh yeah, what prevented the Ignition Switch from going back to the “Lock” position? Well, the Corvette has this safety feature you see. There is a lockout mechanism that prevents the car from being started unless the gear lever is in the “Park” position. I hadn’t fully connected this yet. Bottom line is, all I had to do was move a lever a bit and the ignition switch would have gone to the “Lock” position, no probs.

So, at the end of the day, I’m further behind than I was at the start of the day.

The picture above show the patented method of reinstalling the column, the jack was used to push the inner shaft up to its correct position.

Here's the broken circlip.