12 Disengagement (Part 2)

Although the realization might come a little late, I usually figure out when it's time to hire professional help.

The first time the coupe went to a local shop called "Gasoline Alley", it was running way too rich. The car was built at sea level and the carburetor jetting was way off for operation at 5280 feet. The owner of the shop knew AFBs inside out. When he finished with the carburetors, he claimed that they would pass Colorado emissions testing. They didn't have to because the car is too old, but the man knew how to brag. I will say the coupe ran 100% better.

Early in 2002, the clutch started to go out of adjustment. Each time I adjusted the master cylinder actuating rod, it improved for a few drives, then got worse. Eventually I ran out of adjustment. In four attempts, I spent a total of ten hours trying to vacuum bleed the clutch mechanism with no success.

I had the car towed to Gasoline Alley. They examined the clutch hydraulic system and found it was contaminated with thousands of rubber chunks.

We had used a hose on the remote fill reservoir which wasn't compatible with brake fluid. The brake fluid attacked the inside of the hose and eventually caused it to disintegrate.
Gasoline Alley had to remove the driveshaft, transmission and bellhousing and replace the hydraulic throwout bearing, master cylinder and the connecting hoses. Since we replaced all of the expensive parts, we replaced the reservoir too. This time we used brake hose from the reservoir to the master cylinder.

The second time we drove the car to "Hot Times, Kool Cars" (the annual firefighters car show to benefit Children's Hospital Burn Unit), the bearing in the Corvette left wheel support banjo seized. As much fun as it is to drive the hot rod, it's extremely embarrassing to the leave a car show with your car on the back of a roll back tow truck. There wasn't enough room in the cab to duck down so no one could see us. We took the '39 directly to Gasoline Alley, then rode home in the roll back.

Gasoline Alley didn't have a tool to disassemble the banjo and didn't want to use my homemade one. They sent the part to a Corvette specialist for repair. Shortly after I got the car back, an intermittent clunking sound started coming from the right rear. When they realigned the rear, they didn't get the pivot bolt tight enough. The bolt worked loose allowing the pivot end of the banjo to bang against the mounting bracket.

I fixed this at home, but I learned that it pays to check the work of every shop, even those with a sterling reputation.