well, I've been fixxing up a '78 I bought over the winter. The previous owner had it since '97 but barely ever used it (only 9,489 original miles when I bought it) and for the last 2 or 3 years it sat untouched outside under a plastic tarp. It was one of my winter projects to fix the car up and today I think I finally got the last part done......
One thing that was bothering me since I got the car running was a faint squeaking noise coming from the drivers side rear wheel. It progressively got worst........ not on moving forward - that stayed about the same sound, but when reversing it because a horrible shrill grinding noise that would make you sick to your stomach worrying what was destroying itself. I pulled the wheel off but couldn't see anything.
I did all the work on the car under the hood but have never touched brakes on a car before so was hesitate to do anything or take anything apart myself. I hated to do it by decided to take it to a mechanic that I used a few times in the past on my '65 but gave up on. I figured brakes should be generic enough that maye he wouldn't screw it up too bad.
Well, found the problem in less than 5 minutes....... after getting the car on the lift and pulling the wheel & caliper off he started to pull the rotor off and things started to literally just fall off the car onto the floor.
OK, found the answer to TWO issues now......... the squeaking, squealing, grinding noise AND why the parking brake was useless. Everyspring inside the parking brake was off, and fell out onto the ground except one that was hung up and was rubbing against the rotor - the noise source.
After calling around he finds out the '78 Parking Brake Hardware Kit is discontinued but luckly he found springs in his shop that would work to replace all the mangled springs that fell out of my car. got everything back together and it works fine and no bad noises anymore.
now, why bring up Bubba on this?? I have all the past service records from the previous owner and literally the day before the car was placed outside and left to sit for 2 or 3 years it had been to a large and well-known Corvette specialty repair/restoration shop not too far away. They had replaced the rear brakes on the car. It was driven approx 12 miles back to the owners home it and didn't move again until I had the cae flatbedded to my house when I bought it which means they didn't reassemble the parking brake correctly at all. It probably fell apart between their shop and the previous owners house on that last drive.
Oh......... the other service work they did on that same service visit was rebuild the carb as the owner complained it wasn't running right.
When I first got the car home I tried to start it and it barely started after a lot of fighting but wouldn't stay running on it's own. I sent the carb out to be rebuilt and the guy doing it comments that someone had already been inside this carb (which I knew from the service records) but they literally put things back together wrong and there were even broken parts inside. He couldn't inderstand how the car even started and ran at all let along poorly. Makes me wonder how the previous owner even managed to drive the car home from the service shop those few years ago!
so much so the quality of service from this well-known Corvette Specialty shop. And their service is expensive too!!
Tell you what, i'll NEVER let them touch any of MY cars even if they were the last service place in existence.
One thing that was bothering me since I got the car running was a faint squeaking noise coming from the drivers side rear wheel. It progressively got worst........ not on moving forward - that stayed about the same sound, but when reversing it because a horrible shrill grinding noise that would make you sick to your stomach worrying what was destroying itself. I pulled the wheel off but couldn't see anything.
I did all the work on the car under the hood but have never touched brakes on a car before so was hesitate to do anything or take anything apart myself. I hated to do it by decided to take it to a mechanic that I used a few times in the past on my '65 but gave up on. I figured brakes should be generic enough that maye he wouldn't screw it up too bad.
Well, found the problem in less than 5 minutes....... after getting the car on the lift and pulling the wheel & caliper off he started to pull the rotor off and things started to literally just fall off the car onto the floor.
OK, found the answer to TWO issues now......... the squeaking, squealing, grinding noise AND why the parking brake was useless. Everyspring inside the parking brake was off, and fell out onto the ground except one that was hung up and was rubbing against the rotor - the noise source.
After calling around he finds out the '78 Parking Brake Hardware Kit is discontinued but luckly he found springs in his shop that would work to replace all the mangled springs that fell out of my car. got everything back together and it works fine and no bad noises anymore.
now, why bring up Bubba on this?? I have all the past service records from the previous owner and literally the day before the car was placed outside and left to sit for 2 or 3 years it had been to a large and well-known Corvette specialty repair/restoration shop not too far away. They had replaced the rear brakes on the car. It was driven approx 12 miles back to the owners home it and didn't move again until I had the cae flatbedded to my house when I bought it which means they didn't reassemble the parking brake correctly at all. It probably fell apart between their shop and the previous owners house on that last drive.
Oh......... the other service work they did on that same service visit was rebuild the carb as the owner complained it wasn't running right.
When I first got the car home I tried to start it and it barely started after a lot of fighting but wouldn't stay running on it's own. I sent the carb out to be rebuilt and the guy doing it comments that someone had already been inside this carb (which I knew from the service records) but they literally put things back together wrong and there were even broken parts inside. He couldn't inderstand how the car even started and ran at all let along poorly. Makes me wonder how the previous owner even managed to drive the car home from the service shop those few years ago!
so much so the quality of service from this well-known Corvette Specialty shop. And their service is expensive too!!
Tell you what, i'll NEVER let them touch any of MY cars even if they were the last service place in existence.