Recent content by WradDad

On the track...

Z06 Rep. Wheels and RA1 tires I'm selling four 9.5X17 wheels, with Toyo Proxes RA1 tires mounted and balanced. The wheels are off my 1996 coupe, but should fit other early 90's C4's as well. The wheels, marketed under the name Sport Edition, are replicas of C5 Z06 wheels and were purchased from...

Follow-up... Well, the verdict is in, and the problem was a rear main seal retaining ring bolt that worked loose, and wedged itself between the flywheel and the bell housing. It chewed up the outside edge of the flywheel a bit, but didn't get into the ring gear at all. The shop should be able...

Hello. The LT4 in my ’96 CE seized last weekend. I was doing a track day at a local road course. Last session of the day, about halfway through the warm-up lap, a really loud nasty sound started up from the front of the car. It sounded as if something was being turned on a metal lathe. I...

I took my LT4 into the shop, as I thought the transmission was going. Turns out it was the dual-mass flywheel going. The shop put in a new flywheel and matching clutch. This change has made the ZF trans noisy. I searched and found several threads that confirm that the purpose of the...

You have mail. Sent ya a PM.

I finally had a chance to drive the car today. Wow, what a difference! All the play in the steering is gone. I expected to have a lot more vibration being passed on up to the steering wheel, but I really don’t find that happening. All in all, I’m very happy with the rag joint eliminator!

Hey John, what I did to narrow down my problem was put the front of the car up on ramps (engine off), and have my son move the wheel back and forth a bit. I was then able to see where the slop was. I really have no idea how that '85 shaft is constructed, I was just venturing a guess as to...

Yup, sure did. Looks different than the one out of my car. Do you have a factory service manual? Maybe the '85 had a different intermediate shaft assembly, the FSM might show what a '85 shaft looks like. In my research on replacement rag joints, I saw a few "inline" type items. Basically...

By way of an update, I replaced the rag joint on my car with a solid aluminum piece from unbalancedengineering.com. The piece itself is the correct size, but the center hole, and two of the bolt holes, were about 1/16 of an inch too small. I drilled them out a bit, and it mounted up just fine...

It's in the intermediate shaft... This is what the steering shaft loolike on my '96. The rag joint is a fabric-reinforced rubber disk, located near the rack and pinion steering gear.

Ok, a bit more research into the purpose of the rag joint reveals that it’s there to control noise, vibration and harshness in the steering. I found a web site that makes a solid aluminum piece for mid 90’s Camaros, and it looks like it might fit the Corvette. I’ve e-mailed the company asking...

Thanks Junk! I haven't hit the parts store yet to look for the universal replacement rag joint, but I'm assuming that I will have to drill out the two rivets that hold the old joint in place. Is that correct? And then I'm guessing put bolts in there instead? Since I occasionally do track...

Thanks much for the great information! I got the intermediate shaft out today, and sure enough, the problem is the rag joint. It's worn pretty badly. I'm going to check with the dealer to see if it's available, and how many limbs I will have to donate. :ugh :w Thanks again, Barry

Hello Guys and Gals, haven't posted here in a while, as everything has been going along pretty smoothly! Recently though, the steering has been getting a little loose, so I did some checking today. There's an intermediate shaft that runs from the firewall to the steering gear, and I found that...