the things you do, that you wish you...

grumpyvette

grumpyvette

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Some of the things you do, that you wish you never got involved with relate to family members, I spent the day driving about 270 miles to pick up my sons 1992 corvette that he could not get running, since the last hurricane, Im reasonably sure its a combination of lack of maintenance and a few wiring issues, or blown fuses.
what pisses me off is everyone just expects me to spend my time and money to correct these issues as if It no big deal if it takes me a couple days or costs me a couple hundred dollars, after all IM retired.
I got the corvette back to the house and started checking things out, the battery needed to be replaced, the battery cables are corroded, so those two problem areas will need to be replaced. once those components are replaced I can move on to other testing if it starts and runs.
If you run into a similar problem,
Hook up the MULTI METER and verify you have 12 plus volts at the starter, then, if you do, why not try jumping the starter leads to see if its an ignition or starter issue an checking voltage drop under load as a first test, if the starter spins the engine with the manual switch you know its not the starter itself, if it fails too you know its a starter failure
starterconnect.JPG

remotestartswitch2.jpg





l981.jpg

l982.jpg

L98 starter

1995starter1.jpg

1995starter2.jpg


LT1 starter
 
If you ever feel really frustrated at simple problems you know you could easily fix if you simply had access, to the car under reasonable working conditions, you know how I feel, at this time.
my sons corvette was dropped off its transport trailer
(which it started up and was driven on too btw)
in front of my shop two days ago, and now it won,t start or run and the battery is fully charged, and by myself I can,t push it up the incline into my shop to work on it.
now normally, if it was not sitting on an incline,on the lawn,in soft soil, in front of my shop, Id jack it up and get access to the starter to test and locate and cure the problem in a few minutes, but its rained off and on continually since its been dropped off, its sitting in an area of soft soil, with a ton and a half of fire ants who just love the shade under the car, and under those conditions Im not about to risk having the car shift and fall or get eaten alive by a zillion pissed off fire ants.
most of the rest of the lawn is still a bit muddy from the recent flooding ,so theres a zillion fire ants on the few remaining fairly dry areas like the raised foundation pad under my shop. so Im hoping to get some help and manually get it pushed into the shop where I have lighting, tools and a solid level concrete floor thats less than 30 feet away....with out the damn ants and with a safe way to put the car up on my lift.......damn thats frustrating!, and as usually As I type this its RAINING AGAIN!


read this also
viewtopic.php?f=67&t=7645&p=25918&hilit=flooded#p25918
 

With all the tools you have don't have a winch??? Even one on a trailer might be put to use!

 
I foolishly LENT my portable chain jack that I used on my car trailer, out to a "friend" who loaned it to a neighbor, who has since MOVED with no forwarding address
(Ill never understand why people don,t feel obligated to return tools they borrow in the exact condition they got them or replace the tool if they break or loose it!)

chainjack1.jpg


BUT THANKS, that idea is valid, and I do have a 5 ton rated chain hoist hanging from the shop rafters so Ill see if I can rig up something with that!

http://www.harborfreight.com/5-ton-chai ... -2239.html
 
not yet! but Im working on it! working alone has its problems, I called several local guys they all said they would swing by to help but so far no ones showed up, its amazing how if they have problems they USUALLY show when they say they will but if I have issues, showing up, time seems to be rather flexible in their schedules.
not that thats new, its been like that for decades.
I got kind of side tracked as I went to jump the car battery with my jumper cables and found that they were so corroded that they no longer work, seems that my neighbor borrowed them recently and left them outside during the recent local flooding and I just got them back, only to find them soaked, you could see water dripping out from under the insulation, as they heated up , and the coppers light green/white and they looked fine a few weeks back when he borrowed them. I swear, I'm just not loaning tools any longer! most people just don,t take care of loaned tools.
keep in mind that was not a dirt cheap set, it was made from dual 25 foot long 2/0 welding cable, but it was at least a 30 year old set that Ive had for decades, prices have gone up a great deal since I fabricated those


http://weldingdirect.com/500ampsteelc.html

http://weldingdirect.com/wcwecaawg27.html
TALK ABOUT SHOCKED!
look what decent replacement jumper cables cost! (near $200 a set)

http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Cable-Boost ... sbs_auto_6

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002NGLNU0/ref ... B002NGLNU0
 

Wow.....and I thought I bought a good set of cables. I could never
spend that much money for a set of cables.

 
http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Catal ... 0006384240

http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Catal ... 0388775516

well I needed to replace/repair my jumper cables, so I went to NAPA and bought two packs of the jumper cable ends clamps for $46,these were hardly the best clamp ends but they were available locally, and I could not find better ones at this time, SO, I stripped the old 0/2 cables back until I found decent condition copper core wire, which required cutting about 8" off both ends then I added a NEW additional 8 gauge copper conductor to each of the current dual 25 foot long 2/0 welding cable conductors which are now shorter by about 18" , I figure the added conductor might help, and the new ends are a huge improvement over the old corroaded clamp ends on the cables I foolishly lent out

now HF sells cheap 12 ft long 8 gauge cables for $12

http://www.harborfreight.com/12-ft-8-ga ... 69295.html


you can buy 4 gauge cables that are 20 ft long of EBAY for $30
http://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Duty-Auto-J ... B0007U7I76

but once you start pricing 2/0 cables the price skyrockets

http://www.truckntow.com/p-11146-profes ... ables.aspx


http://www.centurytool.net/QuickCable_B ... 00-001.htm
http://weldingdirect.com/500ampsteelc.html

http://www.wesbellwireandcable.com/Weld ... ng2_0.html
 
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