----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 10:00
AM
Subject: RE: [Chevelle-List] small block
motor opps!!
OK, John. Lest
you feel too stupid, allow me to ahhhh one-up you. I hauled my car down to
Gary Levitt, a frame guy with a very spiffy Brewco 360 degree frame machine.
All I wanted him to do was "dimension" the car and prove that the frame was
square. You see, I've been chasing a vibration bug all summer and started to
think the frame might be slightly out of square, blah, blah blah. Anyway, I
decided to PROVE that it was either OK or not and took it to
Gary.
He dug into the
job, dimensioning away, and found that the frame was - for some weird reason -
higher on the passenger side than the driver side. Well, he chewed on this
factoid for a couple hours, trying to figure out how in the world he could
correct such an oddity. I mean, the lower control arm heights were off by 3/8
of an inch! When I got there we crawled all over the undercarridge while it
was up on his Brewco. Could not figure out what was wrong. Meanwhile, I'm
getting sick to my stomach thinking - oh no, I bought a real pig this time -
one that can't even be FIXED!
Then I happened
to glance at the tires...five minutes later, while staring intently at my toes
and blushing with embarassment (really), I confessed that it was none other
than yours truly that mounted the 245/60's on the left and the 225/70's on the
right the night before I broght it in to Gary's shop. Apparently I had
suffered a "Homer Moment" (dohh!).
Ok, I'm posting
this in hope that nobody makes the same mistake I did this past Sunday, I
have a 66 Malibu I am restoring and it has the original 283 motor with all
the smog stuff on it, here in Calif we are not required to have smog
checks on car 25 yrs and older. So I proceeded to remove all the smog
pump and components, the smog pump is held on by a 1/4 in thick plate by a
intake manifold bolt. I then proceeded to put the intake manifold bolts back
into the manifold using the same bolts. I buttoned everything up and
started the car to make sure I did not have a vacuum leaks and hear this
very LOUD popping thru the carburetor. After checking every possible item on
the motor I decided to remover the valve covers to see if I dropped a valve
or worse!!! YIKS!!! the #4 cylinder intake rocker was off to the
side and the pushrod was bent.......The longer intake manifold bolt went
thru the head and screwed down onto the pushrod........I had no idea this
bole hole went thru the head and into the pushrod area. Now I have to
try and find the other half of the pushrod that fell down into the
lifter valley...I felt so stupid..I figured if the bolt was to long it would
just bottom out in the head! .This should be filed under "Stupid
things not to do on a Sunday"
Signed
NAH...I'll leave
this blank!
