Well, the car is back in the garage. When Connie and I got out to Champion Chevrolet, my car was up on the lift and Shane handed me a flashlight so I could inspect everything. He pointed out a couple of things that he said I might want to dress up somewhat but he already did most of that work and had it looking pretty good. Everything looked in good order, so he got the car off of the lift, and I got behind the wheel for a test drive.
That new clutch works really nice. Pretty much like a stock clutch on letoff from a dead stop, and gear shifts are really smooth. I had no complaints whatsoever and figured maybe we have a winner here. So I paid the bill and headed on home with it with Connie following behind, just in case.
Seriously, the car drives REALLY nice now. No mysterious noises coming from the drivetrain, no odd feeling to the clutch engagement, and a subtle vibration that used to be there around 1800 to 2200 rpm seems to be gone. Matter of fact, I have to admit that the drivetrain sounds better than it did before I drove the car into Chris Harwood's shop many moons ago. There used to be an annoying rattle and vibration between shifts most of the time, and that seems to be completely gone now. Once I got used to the clutch, it seems effortless to use. Engages smoothly from a dead stop, and the car pulls up to speed without any apparent lugging, hesitation or odd groaning noises that I used to hear.
Quite honestly, I'm impressed. I think Shane did an exceptional job of fixing this problem for me and obviously went above and beyond what the job would have really required from the dealership's perspective from one of their techs. Based on what I experienced on the drive home, I honestly could not have wished for anything more. Man, thanks Shane for helping me out with this. I know people were ragging on you for taking on this car, and honestly you were my only hope of getting this done locally. I really appreciate your taking this on and bucking that "don't want to get involved" attitude that seems to be rampant around this area lately concerning me and my car.
Oh, Shane did tell me that a few of the bolt holes for the headers in the heads have gotten buggered up a bit by the work done prior to the car getting into his hands. They are fine for now, and holding, but I really should not be planning to be taking the headers on and off very often if I don't want things to get worse. And I can't recall if I mentioned it before, but yes, those two bolts holding the bell housing to the engine block were, in fact, missing, as I surmised.
And I also did not hear anything disconcerting from the engine neither, so maybe the increased endplay of the crankshaft is just a non issue.
Ah well, hopefully I've finally got my car back in driveable condition. Lordy I do hope so...
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