427 engine (part 2) - RHS block

[Rich Z]

Actually, it looked like it was me being bashed in the last few posts on that thread, and not a vendor. One of the guys obviously had never read the entire thread or he would have known that the car hasn't been driven over the past three years, as he is claiming. And I guess he is supporting the quality of workmanship I have documented from certain shops that worked on my car as being acceptable to him......

All I asked of Pfadt was to refund the money for that driveshaft rather than send me a replacement, as I have no need for it any longer as I certainly am not going to pull the driveshaft that Shane installed in there for me simply to put this carbon fiber one in there. That would be downright foolish to do. And quite honestly, the thought of having that carbon fiber drive shaft in my car has sort of lost it's luster for me.

So I just don't need a $2,000 paperweight, and would prefer to not have the additional headache of trying to sell the replacement drive shaft Pfadt would send me. I'm sure I won't be able to get anywhere near $2,000 for this item, so any money I would get from selling the thing would just be a drop in the bucket even only considering the repairs I recently had to pay for, that appear to have been caused by the over length driveshaft. Seriously, if a prospective buyer asked me point blank if I would recommend the product, I would have to say an emphatic "NO".

BTW, Chris Harwood did do some checks on that driveshaft, but I don't know how comprehensive they were. He commented that there was "30 thousandths runout" on it but I don't know what exactly he meant. He said he did talk to Pfadt about it and they said it was OK. Did they mention to him about measuring the LENGTH of that driveshaft to verify it's length? Beats me. And I know Aaron Scott told me pretty much the same thing when he had the driveshaft out, and he also spoke to Pfadt about it. So seriously now, if an over length driveshaft is such a common occurence, then why did not BOTH Chris Harwood nor Aaron Scott catch this incorrect driveshaft that Pfadt sent that was supposed to be compatible with my car? I'm wondering if the pilot shaft bearing or input shaft were showing any damage at the time that Aaron Scott was replacing the clutch.

Look back through this thread at the damages found when Shane pulled my drive shaft out of the car.

• The pilot bearing had been drilled into by the input shaft of the drive shaft.
• The input shaft of the drive shaft itself had the splines worn down 4mm at the end that goes into the pilot bearing.
• The torque tube was damaged at the front end from the input shaft wobbling around there.
• The teeth in one of the clutch disks were chewed up considerably. Just focusing on this for a moment, how hard do you think the metal is in these disks to be able to handle someone dumping a clutch at 5,000 rpm at the drag strip without just stripping them clean out of that disk IMMEDIATELY? And yet, look how much they got damaged? What caused that? This isn't some MINOR amount of force you are seeing for that to happen.

Aaron Scott put just over 400 miles on my car while he had it at his shop. I drove it home from Thomasville, GA to my garage in November. Mike Carnahan took it out for a short drive to do the tuning while he was here. I took it on three test drives after the tuning. So what, maybe at the most 700 miles on that drivetrain since it was installed by Chris Harwood, and reinstalled at least two more times while at Aaron Scott's shop and that much damage results?

I know for a FACT that there were two bolts missing on the driver's side of the bell housing attaching to the block, and the only other bolt on that same side was sticking out a quarter of an inch when I noticed it. As for the Pfadt carbon fiber drive shaft that Pfadt sent to Chris Harwood for my car, Jarrett Bryden of Pfadt claims that the length of that shaft should be 1063.5mm. I measured it at 1070.77 mm. I took that shaft to the local NAPA store here in Crawfordville and they measured the shaft as being 1070mm using a flexible tape measure and converting from inches to metric. So that shaft that Pfadt sent is 7mm longer than they say it SHOULD be for my car.

What sort of damage is likely from a loose bell housing? What sort of damage is likely from a drive shaft that is too long? What sort of damage is likely if BOTH the bell housing is loose and the drive shaft is too long?

The last time that I know of that the drivetrain and engine had been separated was when my car was outsourced by Aaron Scott to Jon McGee's Auto to have the engine pulled from the car. Would anyone have noticed a damaged pilot bearing and input shaft to the drive shaft at that time? Damn I wish I had spent more time taking photos and video like I did while the car was at Chris Harwood's shop. I think a lot of answers could be inferred from photos of the parts in question taken at points all along at this point to determine WHEN the damage actually BEGAN.



I'm sure I'll never really KNOW.

[Rich Z]

Did you read the post there with that guy claiming that I am victimizing people? This is so hilarious that I just had to capture it here for the chuckles...

Quote by steven31371 over on CorvetteForum:

seems to me that Rich is just fishing for Pfadt to pay for other f**k ups on his car

when I was in college I worked at a high end steak house to pay my way through school...this guy comes in and orders a steak and eats half, then calls the waiter over and says its under cooked and can he have a new one, we oblige, then he does it again a second time and we oblige....the guy kept comming in over and over doing this getting free steaks...after his third time comming in and doing this I politely informed him that our world famous steaks were never good to be up to his standards, so please feel free to order something else off the menu....he never came back pulling that crap


point is, in this mammath thread spanning years and years of fiascos I havent seen Rich have one single thing go right on any part of his build or have even one Vendor or Service provider that he didnt ultimately have a big problem with and bad mouth in a very public way until he got money back or new stuff to fund his ungoing addiction to continously keeping the drama going on this car and thread, he uses very unethical bad mouthing of others professionalism to fund his corvette fever that we all have that keeps us modding our cars continuously...honestly I don't know why every vendor, tuner, amd mechanic don't politely inform Rich the Badmouthing Moocher that although they may have one of the best pedegrees for the most demanding racing apllications in the world that they unfortunatley cannot possibly provide a service or product that is good enough for him and his super vette that mysteriously breaks every part ever put on it...and run away when they hear his name.


as far as I'm concerned, you Rich, are the biggest crook in this thread who has no remorse whatsoever in destroyin folks professional reputations to further yourself getting free parts, service, or just some attention for yourself that will fuel this fiasco that has gone on for years and will likely keep going on for as long as service and product providers continue to fall for your crap.


as to this Pfadt issue...hmmm...I buy a pair of shoes three years ago that don't even come close to fitting, then I where them anyway and get blisters...I then miss work as a result and get fired and have to get therapy....three years later I call the shoe company and call them unprofessional amd unethical in a very public way that damages their repution and continue to do so until they pay for my blister care, my time off work, my therapy visits, and my pain and suffering....wow, thats a pretty good racket if you can get away with it Rich...but who is the unethical one here....the guy who sent the wrong size in the order, or the schmuck who wore them knowing they didnt fit and then waited 3 years to say or do anything about it and then called the providers professional reputation into question in as public a way as possible until you unethically got as much of a free ride from their ethical nature as you could



what an unbelievable D***

I gotta admit, you have managed to find a way to keep your corvette fever funded and moving constantly forward this way, so Kudos for the accomplishment, but did ya ever stop to think about the damage you might be causi g to peoples personal and professional lives with your bullcrap scam jobs of playing yourself off as the remarkly unlucky amd continuous victim?


three years ago you got shoes the wrong size and wore them anyway, and now not only do you want a refund or new shoes three years later, you also want tge shoe compay to pay for you blisters and pain and suffering....laughable and pathetic really...also a scam for sure

we all love to continuously mod our cars with new or sifferant stuff....but you sir, have no shame in suckering people into helping you for free and ruthlessly attacking someones reputation to get the means to fund your next mod choice

And he claims that he has read that entire thread.....

[Rich Z]

I got the empty box from Pfadt yesterday, so I packed up the driveshaft and sent it off to them today.

So we'll see what they say about this.....

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by Rich Z

I got the empty box from Pfadt yesterday, so I packed up the driveshaft and sent it off to them today.

So we'll see what they say about this.....

what did the local machinist measure it at?

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by Benjamin

what did the local machinist measure it at?

42 1/8th inches which is 1070mm. They used a regular inch tape measure, and I honestly was hoping for something a bit more precise.

When Shane and I measured it using a tape measure, we came up with 42 1/4 inches, but we were measuring from one of the orange colored shaft ends. Then when I got the shaft home, I used a rigid straight edge ruler and came up with 42 5/32nds being as careful and precise as I could measuring only the carbon fiber tube.

[Rich Z]

Oh, btw, it was Kevin at Kevin's Machine Shop in Crawfordville who I emailed about measuring that drive shaft. He banged his foot up pretty badly about a month ago, so he asked me to ask one of the other guys at the NAPA counter to do the measurement for me. I guess the two are associated in some manner.

I was hoping to get a little tour of the machine shop while doing this, as that sort of thing has always been an interest of mine, but unfortunately that didn't happen.

[Rich Z]

Well, we didn't get any rain on Sunday, but our road is pretty messed up in sections with deep ruts from all the rain the past several days. So I likely won't be taking the car out till the roads department gets around to fixing...

[Rich Z]

Well the road just got graded but I can hear thunder on the horizon already. Radar shows the rain storms are coming back again.

[shakedown067]

Just means you need to drive faster!

[Rich Z]

Yeah, that would be OK if I were just going to be driving east. But I'm not sure I can go fast enough to be able to jump over the Atlantic Ocean to keep on going that way.....