The Camaro Club (UK)

When i took the trye back, the guy put a black glue type thing around the rim to help it seal and it seems to be still inflated a month on

This weekend is supposed to have decent weather, so i will attempt a few thing:

Put some rubber insulators between the electric fuel pump mounts to help lower the interior drone.
Relocate the oil pressure sender (found a nice place on the intake manifold but apparently they should be mounted away from vibration, so will try somewhere on the firewall).
The windscreen fluid bottle has a hair line crack in it, so will try and super glue that up as otherwise it means only have it half full.
Give the engine bay a clean - it has various coatings of dust and overspray so would like to bring it up a nice finish.
If i have time, i will also need to put a themorstat in - it's either stuck open or non existent, as when driving it back from the MOT it went to about ~150f with air passing over the rad. Will put a 185 in there.

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Yesterday saw the first outing which was a good +45 minute drive to Ace Cafe so it served as a good shakedown.

I heard some loose clanking type sounds on the first part of the drive down the B road so we pulled into the service station before getting onto the motorway (Phill was following in his '79).

It looks like the passenger side exhaust has movement and is hitting the leaf spring and/or lower rear quarter. Not a lot of room there so not sure what to do there, other side is ok.

After pulling out of the car park, my indicators decided to not work - they would tick once and then stop. That was strange. Then they started working again on the motorway and have been fine since.
Phill said the rear indicators were barely visible in daylight, despite them being superbright LEDs so will need to look into that.

Got some Axle whine from about 50mph. Then the exhaust starts to resonate and drone the interior quite badly at 60 -70mph. Odd as it shouldn't, being the 50 series flowmasters. 70-75mph seems to be the sweetspot where there seems to be no noise.

Got a very strange knocking / clunking sound at low speed from the rear right. Almost felt like the lug nuts weren't done up. It happens all the time when slowing to a stop - just before stopping, it's an erratic clunking. It's posi rear end, maybe has to do with that?

When looking at the engine bay after being parked up, noticed little dots spattered everywhere. Looks like the power steering pump hose connection is spraying up fluid? Odd! Not sure what to do about that.

Also when braking and almost being at a stop, i would see in the rear mirror a small blinking / flashing blue light that appeared to be coming from the back. At first i thought sirens, then i thought camera flash but then it would just happen everytime when coming to an almost stop. Almost like something was letting off a blue spark, as it would randomly flash. Very, very weird.

My driver side headlight doesn't work, including the sidelight in the 7" housing (which comes from it's own separate wire). So thinking maybe there's a ground issue there?

I stopped on the way home for some food and when i got in the car and started it, the interior dash lights didn't light up. I could turn the switch so that the interior light and foot well lights came on, but the dash lights wouldn't come on. Not sure what that's about, maybe a bad ground as well?

The engine started well both times when leaving the ace and also after getting food. However, went to start it this morning to meet some friends and it just turned over without firing again. I didn't have time to keep trying so left it. But ruled out any likelihood of the float bowls not being filled. Need to work out what's going on.

Fixed the washer bottle crack with some rtv, so that's a plus.

Checked the spark plugs and the ones in there had a bout 25 thou gap. Should be 45. Managed to gap 2 of the plugs, the others were a bit difficult to access to so will do them later.

Oil pressure held good - 50 psi when cruising and ~30psi when at idle.

Temp held at 160f when driving and 180f at stops, with electric fans coming on then.

Do need to work out the temp bit to see if it has a thermostat. Engine seems to sound a bit quieter and smoother when at 180 vs 160. Also need to work out something about the electric fan. It should come on at 185 and off at 170 but it comes on at 180 (i imagine that's within tolerance) but it turns on and off every 10- 15 seconds. Seems to have too narrow of an operating range.

Gearing seems decent - 70mph @2000rpm.

Need to calibrate the speedo as its out. Or everyone else just drives faster.

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Wow that's a good list of stuff to check, but considering the car's been totally rebuilt and first proper maiden voyage it's not too bad really.
Hoping dodgy light's are just grounding issues, tougher one's are the drone and axle noise. Could the knocking noise be rear brake related ?
I thought you addressed starting issues with timing adjustment ? ..
My exhaust hits the bottom of the rear left quarter, gonna attack the quarter with a hammer at some point.

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

Cheers Stu

I haven't checked the timing yet so I should give that a try. I did gap the spark plugs yesterday (comparison pic below - non-gapped on left and gapped on right) and there is a very noticeable difference. I gave the engine bay a good clean and noticed the throttle linkage was squeaking. Cleaned with WD40 then lubed with white lithium but was still squeaking. Manually pushed the plunger down and put some prolonged pressure on and it kinda sunk down all of a sudden and a bit of fuel squirted through the carb jets (had the air filter off). Squeaking stopped after this and when I started the engine it fired right up. Not sure if it was the plunger issue or the spark gap, or both but sounded a bit better when idling.

Looks like the front light was just the connector had come loose out of the back of the housing. I remember it being a bit tough to get on so looks like it didn't seat properly.

The interior dash lights all work now, so not sure what happened there. Would like to make some changes to the gauge layout as the small gauges (fuel, temp etc) are a bit angled inwards and found myself leaning forwards to seeing the properly. Will have to have a think about how to go about it.

Have thought about maybe going for an LSD axle as this one has posi and was intended by previous owner as a drag car. I heard posi's clunk when going around corners so thought it was related to that. Not thought about it coming from the rear brakes, any idea what i could look out for?

Sounds like the rear wasn't designed symmetrical in that case? It seems both of ours have reduced space between the leaf spring and quarter panel. Driver side has a good amount of clearance both sides, passenger side not at all.

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I'll add my 2 cents...
I had that too. I can't remember what exhaust you put on, but mine is in sections bolted together. I solved it by loosening the first joint foward of where it was hitting, rotating the joint a bit and retightening. If your's is welded up I'm not sure you've got many options.
Not been too sure about LED bulbs myself. Maybe good in the dark, but suck in the daylight. I'm not sure what type you have, but I would suggest you look at ones that send the light sideways, and make use of the back reflectors in the housing, like they were designed. I don't think the bulbs that aim straight back are the right ones for the job.
I had whine on the pinion bearing, but that was noticeable when you lifted off the throttle and coasted. I've not had much dealing with the axle myself, so can't really offer any advice.
I think I had something similar once, and if memory serves me, I think it was one of the springs in the drum brake assembly had broken in two. Should be quick and easy to check.
Which end of which pipe? One side is under high pressure, the other is low.

Fuse? If I remember correctly, there's one for the dash lights.
I had something similar with dry joints on the carb which was affecting the choke mechanism. Cleaned and greased all moving parts and it worked well after that.

As above, look for broken springs, or anything that falls out when you remove the drum. If in doubt, take some pics and post em up.
I believe that the rear is symmetical, but is intentionally offset slightly to the right. Sadly, I can't remember what that reason was, but it's the whole driveline - engine, box and axle.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice.

Haven't looked at the exhaust yet but it's good to know that having a shorter space on the pass. side is normal. I custom made the exhaust (part welded but is made in sections) - will have a look at the joins and mounts and see what I can do to try and secure it a bit better. Noticed a couple of exhaust leaks so will need to get onto that too.

Indicator light wise, they are the tower style ones (LED's all around and some facing the bottom) so they reflect off the housing but not enough it seems. Strange as when comparing them side by side to incandescent they appear the same brightness. I have Switchback bulbs that allow both reverse lights and and indicators in the same bulb housing which is why I went with LEDs so it's a bit of a shame. Spent good money on them too. Might have to go to a scrap yard and get some LED#s out of a production car. Or just place a dual fitting amber incandescent in and add in a separate bulb for the reverse light. I know the reverse light isn't required but i like people knowing when the car is going to go backwards.

Thanks for the tip on the brake. I'll check it out. I'm pretty sure I rebuilt the brakes, or i'm getting confused with the trans am. I remember doing one of the two cars rear brakes

Power Steering pump wise it's the top right hose (when stood in front of the car looking towards the firewall). Phill said it looked like the return line. I tightened the hose clamp for what it's worth so not sure if that's made any difference. Seems ok on idle as can't see anything then so it looks like it's just under higher RPM OR when turning.

Dash lights work now, not sure why, they just worked. So that was odd. Fuses are all intact.

Used some WD40 to clear out the carb connections and levers etc. and then followed up with white lithium grease. Seemed to be not squeaking afterwards.

A few things ticked off the list but still a few left...

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With my car in the state it is, I can't check to see which port is which on the pump. IIRC, one pipe goes from the back of the pump into the box, and the other goes into a fixed pipe at the bottom of the pump. The one coming out of the back is the high pressure feed, and shouldn't have hose clamps due to the pressure requirement.

Is the leak at the pump or 'box end?

Cheers - I'll post up a pic shortly.

In the meantime, there is a high pressure hose (it has the long metal crimped sleeve) and that sits on the top of the box, lower down (towards the radiator). That routes over to the left side of the box. This connection is ok.

The other hose uses small hose clamps. It sits on top of the box but higher up (towards the firewall) and routes to the back of the box. It has a leak on the hose that comes out of the top of the box.

Hope that helps until I can post a pic. Cheers!

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Here's a couple of pics. One is of the spatter of oil left in the engine bay. The other is a close up where you can see the oil slightly pool around the joint.

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Hard to tell from the pics, but is the hose pushed on far enough?