Shoot me a PM with details.

 

Love me some winter projects! I may have asked this before but how do you like the maxjax? thinking that might be a winter project for me. I have a basement garage and I cant clear a two post.

also your hose reel is ridiculously awesome

 

I find myself telling people over and over that the MaxJax and unit heater are the absolute best 2 tools in my garage.

I actually did a refurb on the C6Z lower box when I bought it used, before even installing it in the car for the first time. It needed a thorough cleaning and lubrication, and that did help the general smoothness of the action, but didn't do anything for the sloppiness.

Here is my train of thought and plan of attack:

The plastic bushings that hold the "yoke" shaft have a 1/16" of slop in them which translates to play in the shift **** when in neutral, or any gear really. They will be replaced with either delrin or bronze bushings that will provide a much more solid "hold" on the shaft.

The C6 Upper box looked to be fine. I found that the black "cup" that rides in the lower "receiver" has no slop and moves very freely.

With the entire drivetrain removed from the car (minus engine), the shift linkage (with no shifter attached) still does not spring back from 5-6 to center. This rules out the shifter as causing my centering issue, although the shifter still contributes to the slop.



I bolted the shifter assembly back onto the torque tube to visualize what the shift linkage was doing, and chase down the slop. This video shows the bushing wear in the lower box. The left to right wiggling of the shift ****/lever at the end of the video has no effect on movement of components in the trans - it's all slop in the joint at the rear bellhousing! Any similar front/rear movement of the shift ****/lever has equal slop that is a result of the worn bushings inside the lower box.


There is also lots of play evident in the joint assembly right before the shift linkage enters the transmission. It looks to be held together with roll pins, I have not yet disassembled that area.

Of course I COULD purchase a (relatively) expensive aftermarket shifter such as MGW, Hinson, Kirban that has internal centering springs, but I feel that they are somewhat of a band aid to the pre-existing condition inside the transmission. They also tend to be very stiff and the throw is excessively short, which makes the effort go way up. I drive my car 99% on the street with a couple track days a year so an easy, low effort throw is important.

So the final list of suspects, working towards the back of the car:

C6 Lower box mount bushings (that mount the box to the torque tube) - non issue. These are solid on my C6Z shifter. No movement.

C6 Lower box shaft bushings - cause shifter sloppiness. Plan to install new bronze bushings custom sized to my yoke, press fit into box. Not too bad of a job, will require some machining.

T56 Shift linkage to trans - cause shifter sloppiness. Need to investigate, there looks to be a brass bushing inside a mini u-joint that is worn.

C5 T56 internal centering spring - causes shifter not to snap back to neutral from the 5-6 gate (in my case). Again, an aftermarket shifter might help, but I want to get to the root cause. I initially thought this might be caused by the fore-aft detent ball that rides on top of the shift gate (NOT the detent ball that is altered by the anti-venom mod)

So I mounted up my T56 on the worktable.

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

After pulling the rear tail housing case I visually verified that the shift detent ball wasn't binding up. This is not my picture, just an example of the guide plate that the lower detent ball rides in. I can't get the shift rail block off yet to verify if the ball is physically free, but that will come later.



According to Bill Curlee: "There is a U shaped spring on the bottom plate that returns the shifter back to the center: " Through the process of elimination, this must be what is causing my shifter not to return back to center.



Tailhousing off.
by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

I don't know if someone has gone through this trans in its life, but the buildup on the magnets didn't look TOO bad for 115k. I will be removing and cleaning these prior to reassembly. For what it's worth, I did replace the trans fluid with Dexron III ATF 1 year and 10K miles ago, and it looked brand new while draining.

That's where I left off for the night, my snap ring pliers were not big enough to handle the rings on the reverse shaft. More to come tonight.[/QUOTE]

 

if you are trying to firm up the shifter feel, you may prefer bronze if you are trying to firm up the shifter. 90% of the time most cant tell the difference between the two but if its something you are specifically trying to resolve, the bronze is less compliant than delrin. In other words it would register less slop in the shifter.

Thanks for the info on the max jax. I keep going back and forth on it. I have an odd shaped garage its the whole basement of the house. I have a single door in that is its on garage roughly 26ft deep with door access to larger side of the garage that is the full length of the house with a double garage door. so its 2 cars wide about 40ft deep but then it opens up but has metal supports in the centers. I wanted to put it in the back section but it would be really close to an exterior wall if done this way. So the alternative is to put it in the center of my side of the garage, and just take it down when Im not using it though I'd prefer to just leave it up.

 

Good news - I was able to pull off the 5-6 driven gear without much difficulty after making up some 3 jaw puller extensions

Not my pic, just an example



Main case nearly empty of parts (all 5-6 and reverse stuff gone)



Everything laid out in order of disassembly



The bad news is that both the 5-6 and reverse shift fork pads showed issues of cracking. Probably to be expected after 115K miles. I will be replacing them for all gears/forks with billet bronze units.



Magnets will need some cleanup but no chunks of anything on them, just that metallic paste



Hoping to have the main case off the front plate this week so I can finally get to the spring that made me take this whole thing apart in the first place.

 

Got some work in last night.

Main case off
0131171903 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

And it's remarkably light
0131171903b by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

The torsion spring I've been trying to get at.
0131171903a by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Shift guide plate was in nice shape, so was the detent ball that rides in it
0131171905 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Mainshaft off, parts pile grows
0131172025 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

The stock 3.42 diff arrived today at RKT Performance for a rebuild and Motive 4.10 ring and pinion install. Rick sent over some pictures of the worn clutches and broken Belleville spring.

unnamed1 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

unnamed2 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

unnamed3 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

In addition to the Motive 4.10s it will be getting new C6Z06 clutches, springs, seals, and o-rings.

While I wait on T56 parts and the diff I think I'll start to work on the torque tube. That will consist of inspection of the rubber couplers (guibos), bushings, and bearings. Last of the "must do" items is an LS7 clutch and flywheel. I am starting to get the itch to drive this thing.

 

Diff is all torn apart at RKT Performance.

unnamed7 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

LS7 clutch, flywheel, pressure plate, pilot bearing on order.
Torque tube guibos on order (stock replacements). Old ones looked generally ok but had some stress cracks starting up.
Polyeurethane rear sway bar bushings on order.

 

So while I wait for the diff to come back and other parts to come in, I had a friend make me some brass bushings for the C6 lower shift box.

After a long Monday at work followed by some snowmobiling, it was nice to come home to this and relax.
by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

Pressed into retaining plastic
by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

Great fitment on the larger (rear) bushing, only minor hand sanding needed.
by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

The rear bushing needed more work to to fit correctly as it was too tight. It was taking forever to hand sand this stuff so I chucked up the shift rod in the 5 axis CNC lathe and got to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqcF...ature=youtu.be

 

 

The transmission is back together, 4.10 diff came back from RKT56, torque tube is reassembled with new couplers, LS7 clutch and flywheel installed, drill mod done on new LS6 clutch slave...it was a busy weekend.

 

Time for some updates:

 

Those wheels look sick

 

Thanks, I need to finish up the other 2. I am thinking they are going to look badass with the high gloss black finish and some race scrubs with the yellow lettering. We shall see.

 

Did you get any pics with the black magnesium wheels mounted yet??

 

Thanks for asking. I didn't. I repainted 2 of them with regular black enamel, and they turned out like crap - need to strip them/sand them and try again. The other 2 (shown in pictures above) are just waiting on tires. I am on the hunt for some 275s in a square setup but don't want to plunk down on a new set.

 

Been a while since any updates, but I've been busy on this thing.

With the majority of the small stuff assembled, it was time to get the drivetrain back in the car. The Pfadt trans mount is easily the most "bling" piece on the car, shame it's hidden underneath the rear end. I installed it with the hopes that it would cure some of my wheel hop from a dig.

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

Filled the trans up - this stuff isn't cheap but gets good reviews.

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

So the whole reason for all this drivetrain work was to improve shift feel and eliminate some of the "slop" in the gear lever, most of which was in the factory shift linkage that runs from the lever back to the trans. The small factory u-joint consists of a small pin held in a brass bushing, which had worn out.

Measuring for the new setup:

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

A factory replacement shift linkage u-joint doesn't exist, and I think the linkage arm is discontinued. The other option was a custom machined replacement brass bushing, but that would have worn the same way as the old unit. So I found a universal steering shaft u-joint on Amazon, chopped the ends off it, and welded it to the linkage. ZERO slop achieved!

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

While the rear subframe was out I also tossed in new sway bar bushings. In retrospect, I should have installed all new poly bushings in the control arms while the cradle was out, but I was confident that the Pfadt trans brace would cure the wheel hop. (This did not end up being the case).

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

How to get the ultimate lows - remove wheels and put the lift all the way down.

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

The rest of the work was boring reassembly, I tend to get a little OCD with torquing everything to factory spec, but the first start/drive went flawlessly (despite being 20F outside).

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

So after a long and agonizing 500 mile break in for the clutch, trans, and new rear gears (of which all was spend <50mph), it was time to put it to the test.

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

Hauls stuff like a beast.

I had a titanium Z06 exhaust on the car but sold it to a local with an automatic C5 ragtop - I installed it for him, and he was kind enough to leave me his old stockers (stainless steel). So now I had that stainless set, in addition to the stainless stockers on the car that I bought last year. More on that later...

The factory tips are awfully ugly, so I chopped up some spare 3" polished stainless laying around and chucked it up in the drill press to spend time polishing it. The final effect is a brushed finish. I used a 3" hole saw to cut a slug out of a 2x4, then jammed the wood inside the pipe, put a nut and bolt through the wood, and got it all in the drill press.

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

Welded over the existing oval (trimmed) tips:

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

I used a small steel rod welded to each pair of tips to keep them perfectly square and level.
by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr


Finally installed my race pads in prep for an open lapping session at Toronto Motorsports Park. Great stopping power (finally activates the ABS) but dust extremely hard.

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

Track day bro
by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

Great evening lapping - but it exposed a few flaws in the car. Still need to address the minor oil consumption issue that only occurs on track, so an LS6 valley cover/PCV is waiting in a box in the garage. I also found myself wishing for more grip in corners. More on that later in a future update...

Finally, I got fed up with the wheel hop that occurs when aggressively leaving a light, so I ordered up a full set of Energy Suspension Control Arm bushings - in the process of installing that now. Like I said earlier, I should have done that while the cradle was out, but such is life.

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nogiba/, on Flickr

I'm working on this thing quite often now, so hopefully I'll be posting more updates soon.

 

Detailed and interesting posts.

 

That picture at the gas station from the rear.....is your back glass out?

I have to say if I saw that in person.....id probably laugh quite a bit. Shame you didnt get rid of the wheel hop yet.

 

Thanks. I enjoy writing this stuff.

No, just a freshly washed car/reflection.

I am hoping the new poly bushings kill the wheel hop.

 

So is the wheel hop gone?