The Camaro Club (UK)

Hopefully it's just that, i'll move it further down and see if it makes a difference. Will get a better angled pic later to try and make it easier to see. Cheers!

_________________
How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").

Little bit of an update:

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.
Done

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?
Sorted, will have to keep an eye on it and see if it happens again.

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.
Seems to be ok since the plunger pressure relief thing and gapping the spark plugs. Starts up straight away. Also changed vacuum from ported to full as it has no emissions.

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.
Swapped the LED's out for incandescent bulbs and had to a bit of a rewire to keep the brake light. Seems a bit brighter now in the daylight. Part of the reason could be that the bulb sits quite high in the housing, it doesn't sit right in the middle where you would expect. This is partly why the LED's weren't as bright, I think. Will stick with these for now and see how they get on. We were driving with the sun behind us so not ideal even for normal lights.

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.
Changed the thermostat out, it was a 160f in there. 180f in there now. It starts to flow a bit at 160f and then fully opens at 180f. Idle temp is now a touch over 180, with the fan coming on about 185 / 190. Will need to do on the road tests to see where the temp sits with air flowing through the radiator. Sitting at 180 would be nice as that's about the right operating temp.

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).
I just had a thought that this could be the handbrake cable that runs under the exhaust. Will need to look into this a bit more.

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.
Had a bit of a look but no progress yet.

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.
Haven't looked into this yet.

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?
Still need to look into this, it is a bit hard to push the car (Trans Am and 2tonne daily can be pushed almost with 1 finger on a flat surface with handbrake off). Handbrake isn't too great, so it's a bit odd, it seems to be holding but not really. Will need to pull the rear wheels off and see.

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.
Ongoing investigation, didn't notice anything at idle earlier.

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.
The blue light maybe the trunk light being triggered but something (have no parcel shelf so likely the light was coming through the holes and reflecting off the rear screen. It's a long shot. Does anyone know what trigger the trunk light? It comes on when the trunk is lifted a few inches but can't see a switch anywhere. Maybe the switch is a bit sensitive...

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?
Haven't been able to replicate.

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

Fuel pump drone
I installed some rubber mounts (thick 1" rubber at the main body mounting point and then another 1/4" rubber mount at the 2nd mount. Double rubber grommets on all of the washers as well. Didn't make a difference that I can notice

_________________
How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").

I didn't get very far with switching to LEDs on mine, but have been keeping my eye on options.
I'm happy with the ones I fitted to the front indicators. They're a bit like a fir cone - rows of round LED bulbs rather than SMBs. They give off a bit of forward direct light, but also a lot from the reflector.

I replaced the side markers front and rear and the light is OK, but the colour is wrong. This was before I found out you need to match the bulb colour to the lense colour to avoid washout. When I finally get there I will replace these with amber/red bulbs.

I'm still not convinced on anything suitable for the rears yet, but will keep looking. The tech in this area keeps moving and new options come up all the time.

One thing I will recommend is a high level 3rd light. I picked up a dirt cheap (99p !) LED strip light. I hacked it about, reducing the case size and made up a small bracket that fitted between the rear window trim (interior) and body. The light is so small it couldn't be seen when looking in the rear view mirror, but was pretty effective when viewed from the outside. Taking a quick look now, I see that there's loads of similar or even better ones available now.

Someone was showing me their Land Roveer which had LED rear bulbs - expensive compared to the ebay stuff at £15 a pair, they were Phillips branded and had he not mentioned they were LED, would have thought they were regular incandescents. They were nice and bright, same with brakes on (which is usually where LED's seem to falter). I've got incandescents now on the rear as got a bit tired of LEDs giving poor light.

I had noticed buses have LED's and they use the array type ones found on modern cars - big single LED's about the diameter of a pen, setup in a square / circular array. These are very visible. Thinking of maybe getting some and hacking them into shape, or finding those larger LEDs and making a custom board and connector, or something, as the incandescents are still a bit hard to see.

Top central rear lights is a good idea, will look one up. They have them on the third gens usually. Would like to replace the rear fog lights with a slim LED one, as the current one doesn't look great, so may do them at the same time.

_________________
How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").

That's a long gap to the reply

You don't need a fog light on a 79 (I think 80 is the year it's required), so if you don't want it on there it could be removed.

I do find that I have to remind the MOT tester about the rule though, as it's been marked as a fail a few times, then corrected. Best to mention it ahead of the test rather than after.

I must say its been a real pleasure following the progress of your project. Congratulations on a job well done.
and that modified front end is nasty & mean, I Love it.

_________________
Reality is a lovely place but I don't wanna live there