Ed's Daily Fun 2SS

[Eddymel1998]

Welp from one issue to next, Monday I was preoccupied with brakes not working then yesterday I noticed that the steering shake is back with the vengeance, so guess it's on to troubleshooting that, I know it has to be something I've touched recently because the shake was not there last week, I made a list and going to be making my way through it until it stops:


-rebalance rear wheel- when I was putting wheels back on I noticed the weights on the inside of RR wheel were knocked off by the now chewed up handbrake cable (like what happens on other side), it only tore the jacket on cable and I can fix it Saturday but must have gotten nicked while working because otherwise there is maybe 1-2" of clearance to the cable, gonna schedule a rebalance today hope it ends here if not...
-take off the rotors and check contact surface- when installing I got too excited and forgot to clean the rotor hat contact surface, might be some crap under there wobbling whole thing slightly
-check the knuckle- specifically front left, when removing the disk I went for prybar instead of hammer and might have pryed some things I shouldn't have, hard braking when bedding the pads\rotors probably didn't help

-check alignment- could be I threw something off, something that needs to be done anyways I was just hoping to do it after the suspension stuff to save a trip.


I don't think it's a warped rotor or a faulty caliper because shake only appears above 60 and not during braking or anything like that, under 30 it rides fine. Shake tends to fade depending on how wheel is turned, obviously on freeway it's not something I can test very much but it kinda felt like it, which is why knuckle and alignment are on the list. That's ups and downs of cars for ya, gotta take the highs with the lows, will say those brakes make the car look substancially better and will be 100% worth it when this problem is resolved.

[Eddymel1998]

So after rebalance it's back to the shaking I was getting before the brakes, I tried tying off the handbrake back but didn't have hose big enough and due to some life problems can't buy one because someone got into my bank account and it's getting figured out, so I went wish a thich layer of duct to and a hose clamps, don't think it does much but not much else I can do.


While in there I finally installed the bramvo stickers in the rear and updated the stickers under the hood on the brace bar then slapped some new ones on the back windows, will probably add more over time.


Driving around I still think about that shake, it's pretty much textbook unbalanced wheel (only between 55 and 70mph going straight) but they've been balanced multiple times now, so I am looking at the almost obscene number of counter weights across from the valve stems and wondering if some heavy cheap TPS-es were installed, or maybe tires were damaged in the mounting (wouldn't put it past them), heck if guy left like a glove inside the tire it wouldn't surprise me at this point, so I am considering dipping into the emergency funds to get some proper sized tires so they can be mounted by a reputable shop together with maybe bringing them some of my own TPS-es for them to install, would push my suspension upgrades until after new year's but the shake is becoming extremely annoying.

[Eddymel1998]

So when I did my brakes I had maybe half a bottle of brake fluid left, I tossed it in my back seat with idea being that if I have a leak and get that low fluid light I have something I could toss in to limp the car to nearest auto store or home, unfortunately I forgot about it, so on Friday I noticed it again and figured I should get it out, but when I did I saw the bottle was leaking, it leaked on seat covers and passed through the baby seat holes to the seat underneath. On Saturday I went and removed the seat because the covers don't come off with it still on and found out it seeped through the seat and soaked into the foam.


At this point I had no clue what to go, I squeezed out as much as I could using paper towels to soak it up, then only other thing I knew, other then the fluid won't evaporate and it's very corrosive, is that brake fluid dissolves in water, so I sprayed a bit on, soaked up as much as I could, then hit with heat gun to dry it out, then rinse and repeat 3 or 4 times. I got as much out as I could but there is still some left, so called it a day there, put the seat back and hit the leather with an excessive amount of conditioner just in case.


While car was in the garage I decided to swap in the new battery that's been sitting around for few weeks now and finally use some proper tape to secure the vacuum purge solenoid for the NPP system (in past I used thermally conductive tape so that car body can be a heat sink since solenoid overheated very quickly, but since then I wired it so it's not on for long periods of time).



I then also rounded the weekend off by buying some new tires, I've been having wheel troubles ever since they got mounted so this is next logical step, I paid way more then I was honestly expecting to but if these are as good as people claim it should be worth it.

[Infidel67]

Originally Posted by Eddymel1998

So when I did my brakes I had maybe half a bottle of brake fluid left, I tossed it in my back seat with idea being that if I have a leak and get that low fluid light I have something I could toss in to limp the car to nearest auto store or home, unfortunately I forgot about it, so on Friday I noticed it again and figured I should get it out, but when I did I saw the bottle was leaking, it leaked on seat covers and passed through the baby seat holes to the seat underneath. On Saturday I went and removed the seat because the covers don't come off with it still on and found out it seeped through the seat and soaked into the foam.

That Sux but do a Rear Seat Delete, you be happy.
There is a good place in Charlotte NC who makes em, not too high either $300 or so.

[Eddymel1998]

Originally Posted by Detleg

That Sux but do a Rear Seat Delete, you be happy.
There is a good place in Charlotte NC who makes em, not too high either $300 or so.

Honestly there was a hot second there while I was staring at that soaked foam that I was considering it, but unfortunately it still gets some use, usually pick the shortest friend and stick them in there, like a month ago had one sit there for 9 hours drive, I still think he was lying when he said he was alright with it, I wasn't even mad to find some trash he left back there day after.

[chevy pilot]

Hot water and laundry detergen to seat.

To other surfaces brake cleaner.

[Eddymel1998]

New tires got mounted yesterday, now riding on 275s up front and 315s in the rear, didn't get to appreciate them much because of the dark but quickly glanced them over this morning and they look good, steering shake is also now finally completely gone so I can stop worrying about that and move my attention to the clunking in the front left on bumps (money is on the ball joints, but won't know until I get time to jack up the car). Was also planing on selling old tires to offset costs since I bought them about a year ago, but according to the tech tread was at 4\32" on those, so guess I've been pretty hard on them, all four had a pretty even wear though so I guess I'm doing a good balance of hard launches and hard braking.

[SlowLS1]

Looks great! Excellent choice of tire.

[Eddymel1998]

They better be good, had to sell my third kidney and second first born child to afford them.

[Eddymel1998]

Suspension upgrades are piling up, still few more pieces missing, I was planning on throwing it all on during the week I'm taking off at the end of the month (gotta use it or lose it with that PTO), but even though I was able to track down everything else, the sway bars are backordered until next year, so just gonna have to sit around and wait until that, will probably do rear cradle bushings during that week anyways since i have a feeling that will be the hardest part and wont require an alignment afterwards.

[Eddymel1998]

Last week had some time off and checked off few mods, biggest one by far being the cradle bushings, thought it would be a day job, turned into 2.5, biggest issue is that I don't have space or equipment to drop the cradle, so I did just about every sketchy move in the book and even dropped the car once (always make sure you have some backup jack stands). The big issue were the two large bushings the small ones went in and out easy but those rears were pain to get out because they sat too high for jack to reach for press method (that's how I dropped the car, was using wooden fence post planks which I knew I shouldn't and thats why I had multiple backup jacks put around thd car) and there was too much flex when putting in further onwards, plus there are spikes on the car frame that made it a pain to get stuff jammed in the gap and then getting the upper BMR bushing part in (had to build a see saw using a jack in center of the cradle and a jack on either side to get a little extra space after it bottomed out), then they just would not seat properly, if you're like me you'd think that the pressure of threading the bolt would do it but because of the flex in the bottom part, the metal touched before the gap was entirely closed, my dad and I spent close to 4 hours just trying to close the gap, trying every trick in book, in the end there is a less then quarter inch gap at the top, now plan is to rally the car around for week or two and hope it settles in, then re check the torque on the bolts


Second thing I did was add these little plastic covers for the rearviews, the mirrors become practically useless when I leave car in rain for a while so I plan to see if those do anything, they're cheap chinesium, but if they do their job it's fine, also learned left and right mirrors are slightly different


Final mod was the mishinoto catch can, it was gift from parents and after feeling sore, bruised and partially violated by the bushings, this was my reward, fun and easy, ended up routing the hoses along the wiring on passenger side because I didn't like the driver side stuff that I think they wanted me to do, also got an excuse to use some new fender covers.

[The_bald_eagle_machine]

I may have copped out a bit on this but... My local performance shop quoted me $500 to install the cradle AND the rear diff bushings... I couldn't pull out my wallet any faster. I knew that job was going to be a nightmare without the proper tools and a lift. He told me it was a bitch and he had access to air chisels, torches, etc... which I did not. I was happy to pay them to suffer instead of myself.

[Eddymel1998]

Can't blame you, there was one positive in it for me though, I've never had to do any extensive work with a cradle or rear of the car in general, and just like how after pulling the dash I'm not afraid to pull any of the interior apart, after this I can jump in with any cradle and suspension work because I got very intimate with how everything is put together. Also now I know for certain that the moment I have an access to a garage I can call my own, first thing I'm saving up for is a lift.

[SlowLS1]

Good work on the Camaro. I've got to do the bushings also and NOT looking forward to it.