<VV> 69 Fun! (Long)

[Rick & Janet Norris]

Well,
Saturday here in the hills of West Va. was a nice spring day with temps
getting into the not quite Florida like low seventies. ( It is currently
snowing!! ) It was time to get the 69 out for another road test with the new
Flaming River quick box installed.
To back track here, I installed it several months ago but the weather was good
for one road test which pointed out some other needed repairs. As I've said
before, trying to replace one thing on the old steering gear is like trying to
replace one piece of old plumbing. Once you disturb it you will end up
replacing all of it. So it was with my front end repair. I rebuilt everything.
The only thing I didn't do was remove the cross member.
As Seth stated in his product announcement for the Quick Box I had to grind a
small flat on the input shaft to make it fit the 69 steering shaft coupling.
With both boxes side by side on my work bench I matched it with my old box by
clamping on some ViceGrips and rotating the shaft all the way left, then all
the way right then centering it and marking it with a piece of tape. I did the
same to the new box to be sure it was centered before I whipped out the mini
die grinder with a disc to do the deed.
A note here to the racers. My old box weighed nine pounds while the new box
was eleven. As Seth said it is made of all new heavier parts. It still bolts
in with no "clearancing" needed so put down that BFH!
The rest of the install was bolt up as required.
I did the "string, level and eyeball" alignment and hit the road for another
test. It is really nice to have taut, responsive steering on my Corvair that
tracks straight down the road. The sitting still effort is higher than stock
which is to be expected. I also have a smaller diameter Grant Signature series
wheel which doesn't help with steering effort but it sure looks nice! All of
this pointed out some slop in the coupling which will be addressed later.

I did a "few" other things while I was waiting for spring, speaking of which,
I replaced all four springs with HD convertible units from Clarks and
installed a set of KYB Gas Adjust ( Not adjustable.) dampers ( Shawks to you
red necks! ) from CorvairMotorsports. The car now sits higher, about stock
height as the old springs were sagging but it rides really nice. Not too stiff
and not too loose.
Another improvement was a set of carbs smoked over by Bob Coffin of The Shop
with some turn cut out mods. She runs very nicely now and it's even more of a
pleasure to drive.....and it's snowing! Well, it wont be as long as it has
been!

Rick Norris
First President CORSA 1971
Email rickjanet@charter.net
Web Page http://webpages.charter.net/corvairalley