Nice find!

So after dinner tonight, Connie says she's going to bake a cake and shooed me off to the garage. I figured I might as well put that driver side half shaft in, as everything is as clean as it's going to get there, and the paint on the caliper bracket has been dried for a good week. So I started putting things together. Temporarily mounted the knuckle in place loosely on the control arms then installed the hub into it. Fortunately remembering to put the emergency brake bracket in place this time. :rolleyes: The reason I mounted the knuckle loosely as it is impossible to get to that lower hub mounting bolt with the knuckle installed on the lower ball joint. You would think those engineers could have figured out a way to simply rotate those mounting bolts 45 degrees or so, so this wouldn't be a problem. :banghead:

So with the hub installed with the bolts torqued down I bolted the knuckle to the lower ball joint and torqued that down. Now I have been at this spot before on the other side, and my game plan had been then to first put the half shaft end into the differential and then manhandled the other end into the hub. But try as I might, I just could NOT get that to go. So this time I figured I would try the reverse: Put the shaft end into the hub, and then manhandle the other end into the differential. But again, try as I might, I just could not get that other end into the differential. It's like the new shaft is longer than the old one by about two inches. I haven't measured it, but I would be surprised if that is the case. Well, no, maybe not surprised at all. But what puzzles me is that I was able to get the old shaft OUT of the differential with the other end still in the hub. So why can't I install the darn thing that way? :thinkin:

So I pulled the half shaft out completely and left it at that for tomorrow. I'll just have to pull that knuckle off of the ball joint again and then mount the shaft into both the differential and the hub before tightening down that ball joint nut. Like I did on the passenger side, I'll just have to tighten the bolt based on the number of grunts I make tightening it. Two grunts about equals 52 ft./lbs, I think.

The new rear rotors should be shipped out tomorrow, and the guys at ANplumbing say "they are on it" concerning my order. Maybe if I get that half shaft back in without any other issues, I may try out that HPTuners trick to drain the fuel tanks. I figure I could drain the tank to where the low fuel warning comes on. Certainly don't want to burn out the pumps by running the tanks completely dry. I'm planning on pulling the fuel line going from the stock pump to the input of the Aeromotive pump (a -06 AN line) and just use that line to drain the fuel into the tanks. That would be what I think is the simplest way to do this now.

Maybe with any luck I'll have that fuel pump out and on it's way to be modified by the weekend. Supposed to be a two week turn around on the pump mod, so in the meantime I can get the rest of the fuel system fixed up the way it should be.

Rich, lots of good info in this thread. Both good stuff (what TO do), as well as bad stuff
(what NOT to do). This whole thread should be required reading for anyone who is
interested in doing mods to their vette! I'm always astounded by what you find and
what you are doing to correct the problems. Too bad more "mechanics" don't do it
your way! Thanks for the thread, and keep on posting to it. :thumbsup:
Andy Anderson :wavey:

The more I learn about this stuff, the more I just shake my head over the people I chose to work on my car. Especially this fuel system stuff. So much was wrong with it that it is actually a miracle that the engine didn't run extremely lean while Aaron had it on the dyno and just blew the hell up. The stock fuel pump trying to feed that Aeromotive pump through a -06 fuel line SHOULD have just choked up because not enough fuel could have been provided to the Aeromotive pump in that manner. Quite honestly, I am SERIOUSLY doubting those dyno run figures I got from Aaron. From what I am seeing, I don't believe that there is any way that stock fuel pump could have provided enough fuel for a 700 rwhp run. So what does 700 rwhp equate to at the crank? 825 horsepower or so? On a stock fuel pump? :crazy9: I doubt that, unless the Aeromotive could PULL more gasoline through that stock pump than the stock pump was designed to push OUT of the gas tank.

Aaron HAD to have seen the fuel system, as he replaced that Aeromotive pump once while the car was there. He didn't notice that -06 line feeding the Aeromotive pump and question that? Wouldn't a major part of engaging in a tune of a fairly high powered engine be to make certain that the fuel supply was adequate? How COULD it have been considered to be adequate?

Well, I guess in a way this kind of explains why after the car was supposedly mostly done, every time I asked Aaron to tell me when he was going to put the car on the dyno, to let me know so I could drive up there to get video, he NEVER did tell me. I would always hear that he just ran the car on the dyno yesterday, or the day before, and now Jim had gone back home. So maybe next week when Jim comes back I can video a dyno run.... :rolleyes: When I was supposed to pick up the car, he refused to run it on the dyno again for me claiming he was AFRAID to do so. Yeah, no sheet.....

[quote=Aaron HAD to have seen the fuel system, as he replaced that Aeromotive pump once while the car was there. He didn't notice that -06 line feeding the Aeromotive pump and question that? Wouldn't a major part of engaging in a tune of a fairly high powered engine be to make certain that the fuel supply was adequate? How COULD it have been considered to be adequate?

Well, I guess in a way this kind of explains why after the car was supposedly mostly done, every time I asked Aaron to tell me when he was going to put the car on the dyno, to let me know so I could drive up there to get video, he NEVER did tell me. I would always hear that he just ran the car on the dyno yesterday, or the day before, and now Jim had gone back home. So maybe next week when Jim comes back I can video a dyno run.... :rolleyes: When I was supposed to pick up the car, he refused to run it on the dyno again for me claiming he was AFRAID to do so. Yeah, no sheet.....[/QUOTE]




Hey Rich, I guess if he couldn't dazzle you with brilliance, he would baffle you with BS...:shrug01:

Well, I do have to admit that I am completely baffled at why he thought I wouldn't notice this stuff. :shrug01:

Anyway, I spent the day working on the car. Got the half shaft installed on the driver side, so now both new ones are in. The replacement rotors are supposed to show up on Friday, so maybe over the weekend I'll have the rear end stuff all done. Well not completely, as I'm going to hold off replacing those brake lines till I have the front wheel hubs and brakes replaced. That way I can bleed all four calipers at the same time.

I also checked on the steel tube brake lines and was making sure they were out of the way of any moving parts or rubbing and banging against anything. I decided to slip some convoluted tubing over them all as that will protect them pretty well.

I was looking over the engine compartment from underneath looking at all the wiring and fuel lines running real close to the headers, and decided to run some high temp convoluted tubing I bought over them to protect them. The stuff is kind of gaudy looking, being bright chrome looking, but supposedly they protect the insides from temps up to 1,000 degrees F. I didn't like the main fuel line running up to the passenger side fuel rail running directly over top the header on that side, as that would likely heat up the gasoline running through it. So I ran the convoluted tubing as far up towards the fuel rail as I could, then ran the rest of the tubing into the tunnel plate. It was only a 3 foot section, but that should do the job. Plus it keeps that positive battery cable running to the starter from rubbing against that braided fuel line. I also have a complete tunnel plate insulating mat that I'm going to try to figure out how to install later on. It looks like it works by adhesive, so I'm not sure how long that will hold up. So I may have to also remove some of the tunnel plate bolts to put them THROUGH that mat to help hold it in place. Over on the driver's side there were some wires and connectors too close to the headers for my comfort, so I covered them up as best I could as well. I didn't do anything with the return fuel line going to and from the fuel regulator, as I figured I would be replumbing that stuff pretty soon anyway.

While I was under there, I cut any restraints on the fuel line that I'm going to use to drain the fuel tanks. Might get to that tomorrow. I'm going to have to feed that fuel line back over the differential when I disconnect it from the Aeromotive pump, so hopefully it won't be spewing gasoline all over the place when I pull it off. Might need to have something on standby to plug that hose quickly if that is the case.

Oh yeah, I found a section of old rubber fuel line just laying up in the tunnel plate, with the ends hanging out and tucked out of the way, so I just pulled that out of there completely. No sense keeping any junk in there that's not being used.

Doesn't really sound like a lot, but I feel good about what I accomplished today.

Here's a few pics I took when I had that shaft and hub installed on the driver's side.....

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/d_side_01.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/d_side_02.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/d_side_03.jpg

Looking GOOD! Sounds like you now know much more than the people that have worked on the car.

Yeah, that's kind of been my mantra lately while I jump into this stuff. I certainly can't do things much worse than the supposed experts. And I don't even have to put up with hearing myself lie about the things I'm really NOT doing all along the way.

True, and you no longer have to wait on someone to tell you when they aren't going to get the car back to you...it's all up to you (and your new suppliers)! Is it too late to incorporate CorvetteFlorida.com so you can write the car off as a HUGE marketing loss?