As she sits now.
Need to lower the front and raise the rear, but I think the 5-spoke look is perfect. I won't be able to steer without clearancing the lower front of the front wheel arches. I have a plan for that, but not til she's running.
Rear fitment is pretty dang tight. too bad the C4 sawblades wouldn't clear the C5 brakes. 275/40-18 is just a bit too beefy for stock wheel arches, I think. Short-term solution is more preload on rear springs to raise the ride height, then dial the fore-aft position with camber (adjuster is on inboard front bushing of LCA).
Not a stance guy but if you could roll the fenders or something to make that rear height work it'd be awesome.
Today I went from this:
to this:
in about 4 hours. I designed the powertrain cart at the same time as the crossmember and engine mounts, because that's how I roll.
here's the list of steps to pull the powertrain, as well as the list of stuff I'm going to do while it's out:
gonna be a busy winter.
Looking at the "while it's out" list, one item rises to the top: it's gotta run. Which means I have to clearance the bellhousing to fit the relocated starter. Armed with a short carbide burr, a Hammer Store cordless drill, and a can of Tap-Matic for Aluminum, I went from this:
to this:
in about 2 hours. So I bolted up the starter and connected jumper cables (B+ to big lug on solenoid, B- to housing) and a trigger wire:
and had the wind completely let out of my sails.
I don't know yet whether the whole flywheel is eccentric to the crank, or if it's just the starter ring gear, but what I do know is that the starter binds up in one area to the point that it stops cranking. I quick and dirty cut some shims and spaced the starter out from the plate about 1/8", which helped some but it's still binding. I think the problem is two-fold: first, as adding shims showed, the starter gear plunges too far and crashes into the aluminum behind the ring gear; second, the starter centerline is too close to the crank centerline, and the teeth are meshing too deeply. I have to remove the transaxle to (1) make sure it's not contributing somehow and (2) to get accurate runout measurements on the flywheel.
stay tuned...
Your build is so great! I have never seen a real life Corvair in real life, but they are great looking, speaking as a kid who took his driver's test in a 68 Firebird which stole its looks from the Corvair. Rake is good, especially with larger rear wheels and tires. It will come in handy when you put a full belly pan under it for ground effect during the 180mph runs.
In reply to VolvoHeretic :
thanks man, i appreciate the kind words. I took last night off, but i'll get back at it tonight. i have a couple ideas to try.
Is it possible to just slot the holes for the starter and move it slightly away from crankshaft centerline?
Or, just park facing downhill. Starters are just extra weight!
Lolz.
maschinenbau said:
Is it possible to just slot the holes for the starter and move it slightly away from crankshaft centerline?
Starter has a snug pilot to the adapter plate, which I will certainly be removing in the solution to this problem. It doesn't have to pass durability, it just has to last an estimated 250-ish starts.
wvumtnbkr said:
Or, just park facing downhill. Starters are just extra weight!
Lolz.
Have you never been to Gainesville?
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Sounds like you and that carbide burr have some more quality time ahead of you.
You ASSUMED parts were made and built to perfection. If you cant make it perfect, make it adjustable.
stafford1500 said:
If you cant make it perfect, make it adjustable.
modifying my signature block now
Just throwing this out there. I recently learned, while working on an old Montgomery Ward tractor, the starter gear has a specific taper. Don't know if this helps, but i have put this in my memory bank. You'll get this, small change considering how far you've come.
NOHOME
MegaDork
1/19/23 10:10 a.m.
Offset dowels.
Either in the adapter plate to center it on the crank centerline or drill out the two starter mount holes and insert a press-fit "dowel" with an offset hole to move the starter to where you need it to be.
last night i used feeler gages and a sharpie to measure and mark gap between flywheel ring gear and starter mount:
The good news is the flywheel is pretty consistent at 0.130" clearance to my reference point, with one dip down to 0.121" over about 30 degrees of rotation. So it looks like i just designed the starter cutout too close to the flywheel, which is pretty obvious from looking at the roots of the starter pinion gear:
The semi-bad news, which isn't really that bad, is that i'll have to hog some material out of the pilot bore in the adapter plate. As you can see from the starter staying in place without bolts, it's currently a pretty tight fit:
There's about 0.040" slop in the starter's mounting bolt holes:
so i think i should be able to make it work just by removing material from the plate. Then if i ever have to replace the starter in the future, any replacement should work with no mods.
my goal for this weekend is to have the motor rolling over at a consistent speed with the starter. if i get any farther than that, i'll be a happy boy.
i'm also thinking i should modify the dipstick tube for header clearance and install it, then put some oil in the engine before cranking on it too much. aside from the assembly lube on the new cam and rockers and timing chain, she's been dry for almost 4 years.
ejs262
Reader
1/20/23 7:32 p.m.
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:
i'm also thinking i should modify the dipstick tube for header clearance and install it, then put some oil in the engine before cranking on it too much. aside from the assembly lube on the new cam and rockers and timing chain, she's been dry for almost 4 years.
if you're particularly worried about doing some kind of pre-lube, I've used cheap pump sprayers filled with engine oil, and adapter fittings to adapt it to the oil pressure sender port on my crappy V6's.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
I've never been a fan of my recorded voice. Starter definitely sounds better now than it did the other day.
