Jan 1, 2014
340
576
Calgary AB
VetteCoins
6,987
Car
77 Corvette L82
Province
AB
Hey Guys. Been a while since I posted. Thought you might want to see the new wheels I got for my vette! I ended up going with some Foose Legend wheels as the Ridler wheels looked more made in China and I couldn't be happier.

245/18 on the front 275/18 on the rear. Word to the wise, anyone who says you can fit 275 on the rear with no clearance issues is wrong. Maybe that's true for some but not all. I went off that information and had to remove my factory rear sway bar. After driving for a hundred miles I even noticed some very minor rubbing on the rear frame. Handles very nicely and the ride feels about the same. Not very harsh but it helps with lots of foam in the Fiero seats.

I am having one problem. When I get up to 140+.... I mean... when I go fast, I get a pulse vibration. You can feel it in the seat and it keeps getting louder and more pronouced the faster I go. This was on deerfoot in Calgary which is a rough road so maybe this is the problem. I had the car alligned before I put the wheels on by a trusted shop who knows what the alignment for our cars should be and the wheels were balanced before I put the on. Any ideas? Don't remember having that problem before but it has been a while since I've been fast (finally broke in the motor). Any ideas?

Oh and I got a new air intake. The other one was suffocating the engine badly. So badly it idled rough, lacked power and had poor fuel economy. New intake, with a 1 1/2" drop base with 4" filter. You definately feel the difference and it sounds way better. Felt really strong considering I had 4 wires arking haha. Never even noticed till I caught it looking under the hood. New headers going that are ceramic coated and eastwood internal coated so it should be cooler. I'll route the wires a bit better this time too. New resonator and exhaust tips also going in. Found these awesome exhaust tips that will route straight out with my mufflers tucked up in the fenders.

Sorry this post has been so long. Been a while and a lot of changes!
 

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Very nice looking car, you will have a full time job keeping it all clean!

Is it possible that the new wheels have a slightly different offset from the wheels that were on the car when the alignment was done? Maybe get them to check the balance again, it is possible for them to get it wrong. Stick on wheel weight? Maybe you lost one? Just thinking out loud.

Enjoy the car and and thanks for letting us know what you have been up to.:thumbs:
 
Very, very nice!!! The wheels and tires look great on your car! And, as stated, that is one shiny engine!
As for the vibration. How fast is it? Does it seem like it could be at the same speed as the tires or is it a lot faster and could be a drive shaft or u joint?
 
Thanks guys!
Very nice looking car, you will have a full time job keeping it all clean!

Is it possible that the new wheels have a slightly different offset from the wheels that were on the car when the alignment was done? Maybe get them to check the balance again, it is possible for them to get it wrong. Stick on wheel weight? Maybe you lost one? Just thinking out loud.

Enjoy the car and and thanks for letting us know what you have been up to.:thumbs:

I believe they have the same offset as my old wheels just a bigger offset. I'll phone my tire guy though and check with him to make sure. Can that make a diffefence in allignment? Yes, they are stuck on wheel weights. I will get them to check them again.

Very, very nice!!! The wheels and tires look great on your car! And, as stated, that is one shiny engine!
As for the vibration. How fast is it? Does it seem like it could be at the same speed as the tires or is it a lot faster and could be a drive shaft or u joint?

It feels about the speed of the tires. It almost feels and sounds like an off balance wheel. I've replaced all my ujoints aready so it shouldn't be them.
 
Looking good. They fit the car perfectly!

Did you have any clearance issues with the ebrake cable bracket on the trailing arm with 275's?

T

No clearance issues with the Ebrake cable however I do have the offset trailing arms which have a relocated mount on top of the arm. I do remember that my wheel were very close to my arm though. I'm glad I did get those offsets because I believe stock might have rubbed and the e brake cable could have been in the way.
 
Hey Guys. Been a while since I posted. Thought you might want to see the new wheels I got for my vette! I ended up going with some Foose Legend wheels as the Ridler wheels looked more made in China and I couldn't be happier.

245/18 on the front 275/18 on the rear. Word to the wise, anyone who says you can fit 275 on the rear with no clearance issues is wrong. Maybe that's true for some but not all. I went off that information and had to remove my factory rear sway bar. After driving for a hundred miles I even noticed some very minor rubbing on the rear frame. Handles very nicely and the ride feels about the same. Not very harsh but it helps with lots of foam in the Fiero seats.

I am having one problem. When I get up to 140+.... I mean... when I go fast, I get a pulse vibration. You can feel it in the seat and it keeps getting louder and more pronouced the faster I go. This was on deerfoot in Calgary which is a rough road so maybe this is the problem. I had the car alligned before I put the wheels on by a trusted shop who knows what the alignment for our cars should be and the wheels were balanced before I put the on. Any ideas? Don't remember having that problem before but it has been a while since I've been fast (finally broke in the motor). Any ideas?

Oh and I got a new air intake. The other one was suffocating the engine badly. So badly it idled rough, lacked power and had poor fuel economy. New intake, with a 1 1/2" drop base with 4" filter. You definately feel the difference and it sounds way better. Felt really strong considering I had 4 wires arking haha. Never even noticed till I caught it looking under the hood. New headers going that are ceramic coated and eastwood internal coated so it should be cooler. I'll route the wires a bit better this time too. New resonator and exhaust tips also going in. Found these awesome exhaust tips that will route straight out with my mufflers tucked up in the fenders.

Sorry this post has been so long. Been a while and a lot of changes!

Beautiful job Jr. I personally know the effort required to rebuild one of these cars, and you have nailed it. Nice wheel and tire combo also.

Your 140+ vibration may be a driveshaft issue. Did you have it professionally built and balanced? I used Alberta Driveline here in Edmonton and they did a great job building me a new one for my 70 big block.
 
Awesome Corvette you have and love your photos. Please "play safe" ...

Deerfoot Trail is the wrong road to test 140+. I get uncomfortable vibrations in my 1/2 ton truck just bouncing on & off bridge decks with even the slightest of turn. Then there is that turn you have to always jerk your steering wheel Northbound just under and past the 17th Ave bridge. Then there is also the non-road issue with other drivers determined and preferring to be Deerfoot Speed Limit Pace-cars (and worse). I can't imagine any "safe escape" if ever getting in trouble on Deerfoot Trail.
I'm not a technical expert and can only think the loss of the sway bar can maybe affect these Deerfoot Turns and rough road. But as Mater says in Cars 3 "you wanna know what I think?" he responds after a moment of thought "I got nothing" (lol)

There are likely many better roads but I can't recommend what road(s) for you to try your vibration on (for obvious reason of the speed you are attempting to achieve) and for reason of having a clear understanding of what those who are dispatched to scrape up "road rash" have to go through.
 
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Beautiful job Jr. I personally know the effort required to rebuild one of these cars, and you have nailed it. Nice wheel and tire combo also.

Your 140+ vibration may be a driveshaft issue. Did you have it professionally built and balanced? I used Alberta Driveline here in Edmonton and they did a great job building me a new one for my 70 big block.

It could be. I did put new u-joints in but they were a bit of pain to get in. I haven't gotten it balanced either. I was thinking of taking it to my driveshaft guy and getting him to put in stronger U-joints and balance it. I'll try and get my wheels balanced again and if that doesn't fix it I'll look into the driveshaft. Thanks man!
 
Awesome Corvette you have and love your photos. Please "play safe" ...

I have to agree that Deerfoot Trail is the wrong road to test 140+. I get uncomfortable vibrations in my 1/2 ton truck just bouncing on & off bridge decks with even the slightest of turn. Then there is that turn you have to always jerk your steering wheel Northbound just under and past the 17th Ave bridge. Then there is also the non-road issue with other drivers determined and preferring to be Deerfoot Speed Limit Pace-cars (and worse). I can't imagine any "safe escape" if ever getting in trouble on Deerfoot Trail.
I'm not a technical expert and can only think the loss of the sway bar can maybe affect these Deerfoot Turns and rough road. But as Mater says in Cars 3 "you wanna know what I think?" he responds after a moment of thought "I got nothing" (lol)

There are likely many better roads but I can't recommend what road(s) for you to try your vibration on (for obvious reason of the speed you are attempting to achieve) and for reason of having a clear understanding of what those who are dispatched to scrape up "road rash" have to go through.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that jerk around the bend by 17Ave! Don't worry. I baby my car. I love her too much. When I play I only do so on a road I know well, on a nice section, for a short time, and when there isn't much risk to other drivers. Really wish they would add a track though... Really wish they never took our track away. Very boring around here.
 
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that jerk around the bend by 17Ave! Don't worry. I baby my car. I love her too much. When I play I only do so on a road I know well, on a nice section, for a short time, and when there isn't much risk to other drivers. Really wish they would add a track though... Really wish they never took our track away. Very boring around here.

I had third-party promotional involvement in Race City. My ears were privy to a few discussions in regard to some of the operational ways and means.
Diplomacy was a chore between the facility and the Municipalities that it bordered and was its likely its ultimate down-fall.
Race City had serious access issues that it could not overcome and now the City of Calgary has taken advantage if it all by building the Composting facility on the ground it once stood. If we get another track near here, it does not have a great precedence to draw from ... but maybe East of Calgary in the Badlands would do.

It's too bad we don't have a track but I do not have optimism for "quality enjoyment" on a Calgary Urban Road of any sort for so many reasons.
How about testing your vibration in the three-lane stretch North of Airdrie just past the truck stop that has three straights with one left and one right turn bend in it to Cremona Bridge? Then you can come back and test again ... I found that stretch enjoyable for the straight run. But I truly love doing more curves than straights regardless of a high or low speed.
 
I had third-party promotional involvement in Race City. My ears were privy to a few discussions in regard to some of the operational ways and means.
Diplomacy was a chore between the facility and the Municipalities that it bordered and was its likely its ultimate down-fall.
Race City had serious access issues that it could not overcome and now the City of Calgary has taken advantage if it all by building the Composting facility on the ground it once stood. If we get another track near here, it does not have a great precedence to draw from ... but maybe East of Calgary in the Badlands would do.

It's too bad we don't have a track but I do not have optimism for "quality enjoyment" on a Calgary Urban Road of any sort for so many reasons.
How about testing your vibration in the three-lane stretch North of Airdrie just past the truck stop that has three straights with one left and one right turn bend in it to Cremona Bridge? Then you can come back and test again ... I found that stretch enjoyable for the straight run. But I truly love doing more curves than straights regardless of a high or low speed.
Me too! Curving roads are my roads of choice. As I live in the SE that's a bit of a haul up north for that road. Lots of nice back roads that have a beautiful mountain view just miles away. Like I said, I very rarely do it and wanted to test what the new engine and rear end was like. I'll have to remember that though if I'm ever in that end.

Ya, there is a badlands track that's being proposed. Hopefully they can start building it but it seems held up at the moment. Beautiful proposed track though!
 
Guys, I really hate to see this happening here. Can I make a suggestion to both of you? Hope so.

Please just go back and delete your last few posts in this thread. Send each other a note and say alright we disagree but lets get moving on.

Don't let this continue please.
I've done my part. I'm out.
 
... as I live in the SE that's a bit of a haul up north for that road ...

I live in SE too and yes, it is a bit of a haul but ... I have just been on it Thursday and Today and it is freshly paved like an airport runway both directions. It just might be perfect for what you might need for testing ... in my books it's always worth the "haul" when in a Corvette. If you do take this opportunity, I would love to know how it worked out for you. Cheers!
 
Hey guys! An update to my problem. I just finished fixing my spark plug wires for a third time. After I replaced them when 4 burned through on my old headers, I was on my way to the car show and once I pulled into our meeting spot (so we could arrive at the show together), I saw smoke coming from my engine. Turns out a wire had burned through on one tight header pipe and was causing bad performance. I replaced the wire today and tied all the wires up on some wire management brackets I had. Offered plenty of room and no more burning wires!

After, I finished, I decide to recurve my distributor and added slightly heavier springs (silver instead of the black in the chart below) and 20 degrees of initial timing. Not as much as I could add but I wanted to be very safe. It really liked the timing. I had to retune my Fitech which took all of about 5 minutes. Oh boy is she fast now! Completely useable power but right on the limit, and you can feel it in the seat of your pants. Exactly how I wanted to build it!

Anyway, the problem. I noticed that under hard acceleration I got the same vibration at low speed. At around 3750~ rpm it has the same plusing vibration. I think I was only noticing it at high speed because you stay at that rpm for longer and the vibration is more (or feels more) intense.

The transmission has been having some issues already. Drive to reverse or park to reverse gives a nasty buck. However, maybe that's totally unrelated. The transmission fluid is prefect and at the proper level. I even got given some transmission additive from my transmission guy (Larry's Transmission) to help stop the buck problem.

Any ideas on what could be wrong in the transmission? Will I have to rebuild it? Will it last?
 

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