My Black Bitza

[metalhead]

Feel free to let me know if you'd prefer I didn't post more here, but I thought you might be interested. I got my tko bolted in this afternoon, using the Hurst mounts. I can't use any shims to raise the box, it's very very close to touching the top of the tunnel as it is. The difference in angle between box and diff has increased from ~2.5 degrees to just under 4 degrees. Hopefully will still be ok, will have a look at the angle on the unis when I get a driveshaft in (have to get it shortened). Don't think it's as steep as yours was, but it's still an obvious angle on the engine and box:

[Jethro]

looks like a marriage made in heaven 

[Scott]

I can still get my fingers in between the top of the box and the body, so probably just under 10mm clearance, although I have the vette specific shifter so I don't know if that sits any higher of lower than the stock one.

The angle on your transmission looks similar to mine.

[metalhead]

Looks good, and as you say, fairly similar to mine, so that's good, makes me feel more confident about it. I need to open up my shifter hole a bit for clearance of the modified stick shifter, and will have to buy a different rubber boot to suit, but the stick comes up perfect through the console. The back of the next flat bit forward of the shifter on the box is tight enough that I can't get my fingers between it and the floor. Dropping off my driveshaft to be shortened today, and my pistons at the machine shop. All going well I might have everything back to reassemble it over Easter... Probably not though!

[Scott]

Still progressing with this.  A while ago I bought an allow brake MC to replace my leaking one.  Looking at it closely, it's cast from the same style mold at the original, but the reservoir has been formed with a re-usable plug rather than sand casting like the original.  the result is a much smaller reservoir and much thicker walls.  It's still lighter than the original, but could be much lighter.  It still has unneeded lugs on the outside etc.  Not bad for the $120US I think it cost me.









I also found a place for the hydraulic clutch reservoir, tucked slightly under the guard.



Lines all connected up, ready to go.




So I started filling up the brakes with fluid, ready for the painful bleeding process, only to discover a major leak from one of the front calipers.  Upon pulling it apart, it was full of grit.  I had run into this issue previously with the rear calipers.  I cleaned them out and replaced the lip seals with the better o-ring type seals.  That was a few years ago, so I'd completely forgotten that I never did the fronts.

I pulled the calipers and split them.


One of the halves has been punched to hold the dust seals in place.  These seals still popped out much easier than all the others I've done.





The piston had a bit of crud on it, but nothing over the top.



And here's the grit inside.  The other caliper had 2-3 times more grit inside and was the one leaking.



Here's the other caliper half, with no punch marks.



Once everything was apart, I gave all the parts a good scrub and then dried the calipers in the oven to make sure there was no water in the galleries.  75 degrees did it great.  Then I masked off where I didn't want paint and hit it all with some satin black.











Everything is bolted back together, but no fluid yet as I was distracted by the interior.  I've filled all the holes in the firewall with rubber grommets to keep the hot air out as vettes are notorious for having hot footwells, mainly due to hot air shooting through random holes.  I also had a bit of a think about the vacuum system that runs the aircon and heater system.  There is a vacuum switch that is activated when the temp lever is set to full cold.  This vacuum switch then activates a vacuum valve, which turns off the water supply to the heater core.  I think I'll just ignore all this and fit a ball valve to the heater line.  I can then turn on the heater manually for those 2 weeks of the year when I need it. 



I think the next thing I need to do is put the wiring harness back into the car.  I have already pulled a lot of extra wires out of it, but there's still a heap more that I'll be removing I think.  I spotted the  wires that went to the neutral safety switch on the old auto so I'll have to join those, and I'll be pulling all the courtesy light stuff out and re-doing that with LED's, which I already have.  First up I need to buy a decent soldering iron.

[metalhead]

Good work!