<VV> My convertible comes back to life

[Norm Witte]

It's been ages since I have posted anything of substance to VV.  To tell the truth, I kind of burned out on Corvairs.  After a lot of work to restore my convertible I have been plagued with some drivability issues that just took the fun out of the car.  So I.   have been skimming VV now and then and not doing much with my Corvairs.  It has also been distracting that my wife and I are nearing completion of a house we are building, but that's another story.  

Anyway, I'm pleased to report a lot of progress on the convertible this weekend.  I think some of what I needed was moral support, and also some mechanical help.  I'm not that great of a mechanic, mostly I think because of a lack of patience.  At any rate, I asked my buddy Jeff to come over and help me with the car and we made a lot of progress.  

While waiting for Jeff to show up I replaced the radio with another from my collection that works, so I now have tunes.  

The car ran very poorly and had a problem akin to vapor lock.  I also talked to Ken Hand yesterday and we ended up pulling the intake crossover pipe off the car.  The mounting tabs were slightly bent, which allowed fuel and air to leak out of the bases.  We chucked the the tube in the bench vise and beat on it with a hammer until the flanges were flat again.  Then we pulled all of the plugs, which were badly fouled, and cleaned them.  Finally, we cured a couple of small fuel leaks, never a good thing.

This greatly improved how the car ran.  

This morning during church Jeff called me because he was itching to work on getting my Safeguard running.  We made an appointment for 2:30 but he stood me up so that he could go watch the Transformers movie.  I went outside and worked on the car anyway, despite the 90+ degree heat.  I replaced the vacuum line to the Safeguard which was bad, tightened down the fuel pump, which was loose, and tightened the vacuum line to the choke heater, which was also loose.  I also replaced the speedometer with a rebuilt one that has been sitting on the shelf for the last six months.

After I was done with all of this I wanted to take the car for a test drive.  My 16 year old son has his learner's permit and I wanted him to take it for a spin driving around the block.  He broke the turn signal arm pulling out of the driveway, and things went down from there.  Fortunately, I had a spare part and the signals were up and running in no time. 

Much progress.  I plan on driving the wheels off the car this week.  

--
Norm Witte 
DeWitt, Michigan 
'65 Corsa 180 convertible 
'65 Corsa 140 coupe 
www.wittelaw.com/personal 

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