427 engine (part 2) - RHS block

[Rich Z]

Yeah, I sure would like to know "the rest of the story" on that one....

[Rich Z]

Well, I talked to Shane this evening.

Not any good news, I'm afraid.

He said the slave cylinder was completely destroyed. Apparently the torque tube is damaged as well. And I think he said the pilot bearing is screwed up, but honestly, my mind started freezing over when he mentioned that the end of the crank might be damaged. He is going to check into this further tomorrow. He's not sure about the status of the drive shaft itself as he's not real certain on what exactly went wrong.

I'm not sure where it's going to go from here. But if the crank shaft is damaged, then the game is over with. I will be done. If the crank has to be replaced, then I am finished with it. Heck, if a new torque tube is going to cost me a bunch of money, it may be over with anyway.

I guess I need to see just what sort of ducks I am dealing with before I can even think about trying to get them all lined up in a row.

I guess I've got another sleepless night ahead of me again...

[shakedown067]

Originally Posted by Rich Z

Yeah, I sure would like to know "the rest of the story" on that one....

From what I remember reading, the vette spun out and hit the wall. Was damaged and he didn't get to request a tow truck. The highway patrol ordered the car be cleared, so the tow truck hooked up and drugged it off. It was already damaged. And no, you usually have to sign a waiver before they'll even touch your car stating they aren't liable for ANY damages.

Sorry to hear about the news on the car Rich. Hope it's not as bad as he's making it out to be.

[Rich Z]

I'm trying to put some pieces of the puzzle together in my head, so please excuse any dumb questions that I throw out here.

How does the clutch slave cylinder mount in the drivetrain? It looks like it has a couple of mounting bolt holes, but where exactly does it bolt into?

What keeps the driveshaft from moving FORWARD within the torque tube? I know there is a big snap ring in the back to keep it from moving backwards, but I just haven't looked closely at the front with this in mind.

If you pulled your driveshaft out and saw your crankshaft and driveshaft end looking like this, what would you think was the cause?












And then we have the splines in one of the clutch disks....




What happened here?

[navy2kcoupe]

Rich, you may be right. That car seems to have the world's supply of "bad Juju"
locked up! It just may be time to say "enuff", and bail out........although I was
REALLY hoping to see a successful end to this saga............. BUMMER
Andy

[CorvetteJohn]

All the runs on the dyno with the bell housing moving under torque causing the spline to be crooked in the teeth. That is what I think caused that to happen. I think you have print outs from those runs and if they were pulling the engine to get horsepower and torque numbers. most teeth will hold a lot of torgue if they are mating the full length of the flat. Now if you torgue them so they only are in contact on a patch that is only 4 or 5 thousands wide that is what will happen.

I looks like the spline was pulled out of the mating part because the drive train was being allowed to move with the loose bell housing

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by CorvetteJohn

All the runs on the dyno with the bell housing moving under torque causing the spline to be crooked in the teeth. That is what I think caused that to happen. I think you have print outs from those runs and if they were pulling the engine to get horsepower and torque numbers. most teeth will hold a lot of torgue if they are mating the full length of the flat. Now if you torgue them so they only are in contact on a patch that is only 4 or 5 thousands wide that is what will happen.

I looks like the spline was pulled out of the mating part because the drive train was being allowed to move with the loose bell housing

Well, then if that is the case, the $64 question would be "When did those bolts go missing in the bell housing?"

[Benjamin]

where is or what's left of the pilot bearing / bushing? it looks to me like there was some sort of failure on it's part looking at the wear on the part of the shaft that goes into the crank, but the other thing is was the driveshaft thingey all the way in the forward position so that ALL the splines were meshed from the clutch disks and the driveshaft thingy?

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by Benjamin

where is or what's left of the pilot bearing / bushing? it looks to me like there was some sort of failure on it's part looking at the wear on the part of the shaft that goes into the crank, but the other thing is was the driveshaft thingey all the way in the forward position so that ALL the splines were meshed from the clutch disks and the driveshaft thingy?

Well, I should have taken a picture of that pilot bearing. Pfadt wants me to measure the carbon fiber driveshaft, so I guess I'll have to run back there sometime to do that. I guess I should have taken more pics while I was out there, but I was trying to not be underfoot too much.

Shane had speculated that Chris Harwood had put in the wrong carbon fiber drive shaft, so I contact Pfadt about it, and luckily the drive shaft was ordered directly from them, and they were able to find the order. Yes, the drive shaft was for a 2002 C5 Z06. But they still want me to measure it to make sure the correct one was SENT. Shane told me that the drive shaft being too long could likely cause the damage seen, but I'm having trouble understanding how such a thing could happen.

Anyway, I believe Shane said that the problem was that the drive shaft had moved too far FORWARD. I'm trying to figure out how that could happen. I thought that the slave cylinder bolts to the front of the torque tube, so does that hold the drive shaft from moving forward? Obviously SOMETHING must do that, but I just don't know what. I would think at the very least the pilot bearing would stop the shaft from going forward enough to eat into the crank. I watched the video of Chris Harwood having to hammer that bearing into the crank, so it's not like it would just slide in and out on it's own.

As for the driveshaft being too far BACK, heck, I don't know how it could do that either. There is a big snap ring in the back of the torque tube that holds the drive shaft solidly back there. So it shouldn't have been able to move in that direction at all. Aaron Scott told me that he verified that the carbon fiber drive shaft was still in the torque tube when he pulled the transmission and differential to be sent to RPM. I asked him to do that, as I really didn't trust Chris Harwood all that much by that time. As far as I can tell, you really can't tell the carbon fiber drive shaft is in there without removing that snap ring so you can pull it out to see it.

If the splines of the drive shaft weren't fully engaged in the clutch disks, then I would think the car would have made a hellacious racket with one of the disks flopping around. And the drive shaft would have been wobbling around like crazy since likely the shaft would not have been seated in the pilot bearing. Probably would have sounded like a bunch of cats being burned alive in a dryer.

But heck, I'm just trying to figure this all out, and having trouble putting the pieces of the puzzle together. And I'll be quite honest about it, none of this is making any sense to me.

[Rich Z]

Oh well. I decided I was going to have Shane pull the engine and have it taken to a local engine builder to have it checked out and fix whatever needs to be fixed. But I called him on the phone to talk about it, and he just flatly refused to help me. Didn't want to get involved, he said.

Oh well, not really sure what to do now.

EDIT: I just wanted to clarify what I typed above. I called the ENGINE BUILDER and it was him who refused to help me and did not want to get involved, NOT Shane. It sounded a bit confusing when I read this over later on, and I wanted to make sure it was clear who I was referring to.