1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Update your progress on your various car projects.

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MostMint
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by MostMint »

those video links not working - looks like the link is from your creator studio not one the general public can use
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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wxo
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by wxo »

Should be fixed now.
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Maverick
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by Maverick »

After all the mouse nests in the Maverick (air cleaner, AC ducts, headliner, ...), I love seeing one so easy to clean out. :mrgreen:
Maverick
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Basement Paul
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by Basement Paul »

The highs and lows of car projects. Keep fighting the fight. This car is so cool.

-BP
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wxo
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by wxo »

I believe it's going to take a lot of time and many miles before I can trust it to go any distance from home. Seems like very little has been touched for 25 years.
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by wxo »

Since I'm waiting for parts to get the engine running again, today I started on the front brakes. First, I couldn't stand the grubby looks of the nice aluminum front suspension. So armed with a putty knife, wire brush and lots of paper towels saturated with brake Kleen I got to work. It was a nasty dirty job, but the outcome is worth it.
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Next, I decided that I should grease the fittings while they were accessible. I had not used my grease gun for a long while. I think it was 1996 when I used it last. :roll: Anyway, it wouldn't push grease. It had an air space and needed to be burped. What a struggle! I had grease everywhere trying to get that air out. Finally, I resorted to YouTube again. I scanned through a couple of videos and tried some of their tips before I hit on something that worked. Step 2, done.

Now, I turned to rebuilding the caliper. I had the parts in stock so I went to work. Popping out the pistons with air went well, so I cleaned everything inside and out and started assembling again. When it came to inserting the piston and at the same time getting the dust cover in the proper place, I could not make it happen. I struggled and struggled until I decided to start all over again by removing the piston. Starting over didn't help. I knew there must be a trick to getting this together, so back to YouTube again. I had to wade through a couple of knuckleheaded videos before I found a guy who knew what he was doing and could explain it. Once I knew the trick, I was home free. The pistons were in in no time and I was on my way again.

The rest was normal stuff and I finished the job. With the education I got today and a working grease gun, tomorrow's right front brake job should be fairly easy except for the initial cleaning. I will probably take the weekend off and think about tackling the clutch next week.
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wxo
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by wxo »

As predicted, today was a lot less hectic than yesterday. Rebuilding the caliper and all the cleaning went better than yesterday. Now both front brakes are finished. I'm impressed with the aluminum calipers. They are made by PBR in Australia. The body and the pistons showed almost no wear. They were very easy to clean up and assemble (once you know one little trick).
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The first of the heater hoses arrived to today, so I'll tackle the cooling system next week. I'm thinking of replacing just the heater hoses and running it for a while to get the dirt and debris in the cooling system into suspension before draining it and doing a proper job of it some time in the near future. The rad hoses look and feel OK for now. Outside temperatures are going to stay in the mid to upper 90's for the next seven days. With my AC running, my garage is the place to be. 8)
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TireSmoker
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by TireSmoker »

Between your AC-equipped garage comments, and working in Andy's garage with the AC, I might be getting an idea for my next upgrade...

Does your car have the J55 brakes?

-Dave
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wxo
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by wxo »

Yes it does.
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wxo
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by wxo »

My day didn't go as well as I had hoped. The first thing I tackled was the oil pressure sensor. I tried every conceivable wrench/socket combination I had, along with some I borrowed from Maverick, without success. When I finally figured out it took a 27MM deep socket, I borrowed one from Maverick and even that would not fit in the space to get the sensor out. I decided that it was time to put this task aside for something else.

With newly refurbished rotors, calipers, pads and rubber brake lines in front and newly installed hoses in the rear, I was ready to get this system ready for prime time. Not wishing to get Randi involved in the bleeding process, I tried to bleed with my Miti-Mite hand vacuum pump. Remind me never to try that again. I pumped until my hands would not move the lever anymore and all I was pulling was a bit of fluid and lots of air. At first I thought, well, it might take a lot of fluid to fill all the lines from front to back, but finally I realized that it wasn't working. So back to the tried and true two person bleeding. I enlisted Randi but she doesn't like to sit in the car while it's on jack stands, so I taught her to work the bleeder screw and I pumped the pedal. It wasn't long before we started seeing progress. We were on the last LF wheel when suddenly I noticed that the pedal changed it's feel. I had forgotten to refill the master cylinder reservoir. :cry: Back to square one. This time we made it all the way through all four wheels again and the pedal was felling very solid. As I was going around tightening each bleeder screw I noticed brake fluid on the floor under the RR wheel. RATS! :x Long story short, it took a bit more tightening on the banjo connection on the brake hose to stop the leak. Now the brakes feel right. A least I know that the brake fluid is new and clean throughout the system. I ran two quarts through it during the bungled bleeding process. Many thanks to Maverick who supplied me with a couple of extra quarts from his stash.

I had planned to change the heater hoses today, but the second of the two molded hoses I ordered turned out to be wrong. To expedite getting this car moving on it's own power, I decided to use a length of standard heater hose instead. I should be able to snake it around and hook it up temporarily to allow the engine to run for further testing. More to come. Stay tuned...
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wxo
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by wxo »

wxo wrote:To expedite getting this car moving on it's own power, I decided to use a length of standard heater hose instead. I should be able to snake it around and hook it up temporarily to allow the engine to run for further testing.
Shouda, Couda, Wouda. It turned out that the heater hose in question has one end larger than the other and my idea to use standard heater hose won't work. I will be waiting several days, if not more, for delivery of the required hoses. So much for getting the engine running again soon.
While attempting to change the heater hoses today, I ended up removing the radiator hose attached to the thermostat housing. This is what I discovered:
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I believe this is the pink sludge I read about which results from mixing Dex-Cool with another type of antifreeze. I have a new 180° thermostat on order. I plan to replace the heater and radiator hoses, fill the system with water and add some Prestone AS105 Radiator Flush and Cleaner and run the car for several hundred miles to try to clean out this mess. Looks like I need to get this show on the road to do that. Could be a while. :(
I also went back and attacked the oil pressure sensor installation today. I decided to remove a part of the EGR apparatus that hindered my access to the sensor. I was finally successful using Vice-Grips and a Crescent wrench.
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While staring at the engine and pondering how I was going to get that sensor out, I noticed that the PCV valve and it's hose were not there. I had removed it to work on the fuel rail and set it aside. I believe I just corrected another sizeable vacuum leak. Could it be the reason for the stumbling off idle?
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wxo
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by wxo »

While I'm waiting for the final radiator hose and hose clamps to arrive, I decided to go ahead and replace the clutch master and slave cylinders. The slave cylinder wasn't much of a hassle, but the clutch master turned into another deep hole I dug for myself. The focal point of the problem was detaching the link connecting the master cylinder rod to the clutch pedal. I had made an attempt to get to it by kneeling on the floor and trying to get my body twisted 180° so that I could look up under the dash. No way that was going to work. I had read that a guy advised removing the driver's seat to create space to lay on one's back. The only problem with that is my power seat is all the way back and won't move forward so that I can remove the two rear mounting bolts (a problem for another day). After more reading and video watching on the web, I learned that the seat cushion comes off rather easily, so I removed it to see if I could get to the rear to bolts for the seat rail. Nope, they are still not accessible. So I decided to look at circuit diagram to find out which wire controls the seat forward movement. I'm thinking maybe I can just hit it with 12 volts and get it moved forward. Nothing happened. I think my choice of grounds was not good, but there were no easy options. Grounding points on a Corvette are hard to come by. Just any old bolt won't do. So, I abandoned that path and went back to the web and saw that some guy had figured out how to remove four bolts which allowed most of the seat to come out leaving just the rail and motors still mounted which provides access to the two rear bolts.
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That was just the ticket. I had won that round.
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Now for the removal of the clip that holds the rod to the clutch pedal. Once I got myself upside down with my head wedged under the dash, I saw that this was not going to be easy either.
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I could just barely reach the clip with a long screw driver and push it off. Getting it to go back on is going to be a real challenge. My hand won't fit up in there where it's located.
So now that the clip was off, I had to push the clutch rod connector off the pin on the pedal. It would not move and It's way up in there. So I got a longer screwdriver and was able to wedge the blade in between the pedal and the connector and worked to force it off. The problem turned out to be the rust that had formed on pin. I was well paid for my efforts, though. I found a nickel and a penny under the seat along with 25 years of accumulated crumbs and debris. So now, once I get the new clutch master and slave installed and bled, I'm faced with diagnosing the reason for the inoperable power seat. At least the seat is out and I can access the wiring rather easily now.
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wxo
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by wxo »

Is there such a thing as negative progress? While waiting for parts to arrive, I decided to follow up on a tip I read about in one of the online sources. It recommended that since the battery is out while servicing the clutch master cylinder, it would be good to go a step further and dive a little deeper to check the grounding points behind the battery. I found two there. One was the separate wire attached to the battery negative cable plus another grounding terminal. This is what I saw:
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That tall rusty thing is a broken off remnant of one of the battery tray bolts. Someone had tried to remove it and ended up breaking off the head of the bolt. Once again, vice grips to the rescue. It took me all of 20 minutes to work that thing out, but I got it out in one piece. A major success for the day. Here are pictures of the master and slave cylinders:
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Maverick, do you recognize the markings on the gasket material you donated?
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The lower rad hose that I had ordered from Home Depot came in on time today, but it was the wrong hose. I ordered a Gates version of what I needed, but it was not the correct hose even though it should have been. The GM version of this hose is hard to find and expensive, but I guess I'll go ahead and get it where I can. All in all, I'm really glad I followed the tip about checking the grounding lugs. This could have caused some nasty electrical problems down the road.
PerryB
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by PerryB »

Looks like plenty of work but of course you'll be even better educated and know exactly what you have when "finished". I love the late C4s, wish I fit in them better. Congrats on the find, hang in there, and enjoy!
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MostMint
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Re: 1996 Collector Edition Corvette

Post by MostMint »

Did you check the Gates part # online to see if it the right one? Like did Gates have the problem or did Home Depot have the problem in terms of the correct part # ?

I have taken to getting replacement parts that I want to last from NAPA.
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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