It's been quite a productive week and I have made some progressive on a number of (somewhat random) fronts....
First I stripped and cleaned the headlight switch as the vacuum part of the mechanism didn't seem to be working. It does seem to be working now although I can't honestly say that I did anything significant to it - perhaps a clean was all it needed. If anyone was wondering what the internals look here is the mechanism in pieces before cleaning. I also took the opportunity to clean and burnish all the electrical contacts too as they were quite tarnished.
All the individual pieces of the vacuum system seem to work now but it doesn't work as a connected system so either I have connected it up wrong (very possible), the pipes and connections aren't sealing properly (more than likely) or the manual vacuum pump isn't powerful enough to work the whole system. Or all of the above. More investigation necessary....
Having cleaned the gearbox casing (again) I removed the side cover and had a look inside. I realise I am a novice at this but from what I have read and watched the gearbox appears to be in good shape. The teeth aren't worn or chipped, the synchoniser rings don't appear to have a lot of wear and the selector levers don't have any appreciable wear either. The selector shafts don't have any play nor do the input and output shafts. I think I have been lucky here. Please let me know if you see something I should know about!
So after a little cleaning I replaced the scissor mechanism and the 2 seals and gasket on the side plate.
This week I will remove the tail shaft housing, inspect inside and replace the tail shaft bush and seal. Hopefully that will go as well as the front half.
I finally got round to refurbishing the very tatty gauge cluster and vent housing from the dash centre. After cleaning it was sprayed with a matt black rattle can and then the 'volume', 'tuning' etc highlights were trimmed carefully back with a bit of 800 grade sandpaper wrapped around a large washer. A bit like doing a scratch card and yes it took a long time but I think it came out ok. Here's the vent section after paint but before doing the highlights.
Then I got a bit of a surprise with this..... the warning light on the right hand side...
Apologies for the poor quality picture. How very advanced for 1972..... I scoured the internet for an obscure feature on the Corvette options list but could find nothing. And then it twigged and I realised it corresponded to an odd mod to the wiring loom in this area that I had noticed on strip down. The previous owner had connected their radar detector to the seat belt warning light and made a custom fitting for it. I will order a new seat belt lens and that should bring things back to stock.
Whilst the cluster was stripped I polished the clear gauge lens - which made a surprisingly big difference - burnished all the electrical connectors and painted the rear cover which was originally quite rusty, just masking off anything that looked like a potential earthing point. New vents were fitted as the old ones crumbled on disassembly. I also noticed that the anti rattle foam strips (which also fell out on strip down) were now hard as nails so I improvised with the 'furry bit' of a self adhesive velcro strip which looks ok and certainly works well. The resulting cluster is below - quite pleased with it.
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Before packing away I will test each gauge (not sure how yet) and the radio to see if they work.
Over the weekend and next week I will remove the gearbox tail shaft housing and do what's necessary there, complete the vacuum rig work and maybe move on to the seats or perhaps some engine work. Or maybe something else entirely - probably something I trip over in the workshop.
