Location: 25 miles south of Boston, MA. Also have a house in Dunedin FL.
Posts: 1,927
Name : Andy Anderson
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich Z
Yes, it is a two piece bell housing, but in order to get off that bottom inspection section, the headers (meaning the entire exhaust system) would have to come off.
I guess a lot depends on whether I ask the guy from Tampa to come up here to help me, or if I just take it to the Chevrolet dealer and let Shane take a look. I can see pros and cons to doing it either way.
MAN...........That SUX!
I really hope it's something simple and not a major show stopper. I can't imagine what
it must be like to drive something with that much power. Must have a tendency to
get a little "squirrelly" at the drop of a hat (or maybe pedal). Good luck finding out
what's causing the ruckus.
Andy
Been looking over a bunch of old videos I took while the car was being worked on at Harwood's shop to try to take a look at everything involving the drive train, looking for any clues that may be pertinent to the latest problem. I was reading a vette magazine and noticed some polyurethane driveshaft couplers in an ad, and I was under the impression that Harwood put solid metal couplers on my driveshaft. I was assuming that was making some of the chattering noise because of a lack of play or flex. Well, come to find out that the Pfadt carbon fiber driveshaft doesn't utilize couplers, as apparently the shaft itself has enough flex so that the couplers aren't needed. So I wanted to take a look at that.
Yep, sure enough. No couplers. So that kind of rules out the couplers as making any noise, I guess.
I have some video of the pilot bearing install as well as the clutch being installed, and quite honestly I don't see anything wrong (from my novice viewpoint) that Harwood might have done wrong in that install. Well, except that he put in the cheaper Fidanza clutch, that is, that we found about later on. So that was replaced by Aaron at his shop. Unfortunately, I don't have ANY video of such activity while at Aaron's shop, because quite frankly I just trusted him and didn't think I needed to keep watch over my car while it was with him. Yeah, VERY unfortunate that I thought that way, in my opinion. So there is no video evidence of what might have happened when the clutch that is now in the car was installed. Plus when Aaron farmed the work out to have the engine pulled by another shop, I have no idea what may have happened at that time concerning the drive train.
I'll do a video later of that initial clutch install, but honestly, it looks like someone would have to work pretty hard to screw that up. The disks are labeled as to their orientation and everything bolts together without much room for error that I can see. As long as they read the instructions and pay attention, any way. Since Aaron told me the flywheel and pressure plate were burned because they weren't designed to hold the power the engine was putting out, I have to assume that the entire package was replaced, flywheel and all.
Oh yeah, and I specifically asked Aaron to verify that the carbon fiber drive shaft was still in the car when he pulled the trans and diff to send to RPM and he said that yes, it was still there. I can only hope that he REALLY checked it.
I haven't taken the car out for any more test driving lately. I guess I've just not been in the mood much to deal with it yet.
But today I put the car up on the lift because I wanted to inspect the flywheel to see if there were any sort of witness marks indicating that the starter gear was contacting the teeth of the flywheel when it shouldn't be. But no, I didn't see any indication of that. So while I was there, I decided to check around for everything that might look out of place or be not as I think it should be.
Well yeah, I can see that at least one bolt holding the torque tube bell housing to the engine is not even close to being tightened down, much less torqued to specs....
I can't see any of the other bolts at the top of the bell housing, so no telling if there are others loose up there as well. Honestly, with the number of bolts I have found loose or completely missing, I have to face the possibility that there are bolts loose or missing on the clutch itself, or even the flywheel possibly being the cause of this racket I've heard.
Well, I'll cross my fingers for you it's just the bell housing that's loose. Not that even that is a quick or easy fix. I still can't get over that these guys get paid to goof off working on someone else's car. They clearly didn't pay attention to any details, which is why they get paid to work on cars. Otherwise anyone could build them. Mind boggling.
Nah, the Twilight Zone is unexplainable stuff. We know where these problems came from, (enter expletives here)!
There is still an unexplainable "why" to this. I'm having trouble coming to grips with any reason why I would have been treated like this by someone who is supposed to be competent and has an otherwise good reputation.
Very true, but still seems simple. One dude was lazy and incompetent, the other clearly didn't want to deal with someone else's left overs, and at the end just wanted your car out of his shop. No one should be treated this way, no one.
Just a couple more months and you can probably be a certified mechanic with all the documentation you have here!
Very true, but still seems simple. One dude was lazy and incompetent, the other clearly didn't want to deal with someone else's left overs, and at the end just wanted your car out of his shop. No one should be treated this way, no one.
Well yeah, maybe I guess. I can understand getting frustrated and just giving up, but in my opinion I would think anyone reflecting THEIR quality of workmanship (or lack thereof) in such a blatant manner as I have found expressed on my car would embarrass the hell out them if they had even a shred of a conscience or pride in themselves. 14 months and $22K later THIS is what they consider as acceptable to tell a customer that their car is ready to go? I am sorry, but that just boggles my mind.
Quote:
Originally Posted by shakedown067
Just a couple more months and you can probably be a certified mechanic with all the documentation you have here!
Well if the guys who worked on my car are considered as "certified mechanics" then that certainly doesn't appear to be a very difficult target to hit, in my opinion.
Not that I have any intention of going that route, of course. I believe that all the wrenching I have had to do on this car has really screwed up my elbow. So becoming a mechanic is certainly never going to be in the cards for me. I'm not sure how much I am going to be able to do even on my own vehicles any longer.
Yep, couldn't agree more. I'm seeing this kind of work more and more in every aspect of workmanship. No one takes the extra effort without charging you double...for still only doing half of what they could actually do, but making you believe they are doing double for you. It's getting ugly out there and I believe there are A LOT of parents that need to be slapped! This kind of lack of respect for others starts at a very young age...seems side tracked, but I think I'm right on track.
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