Bill R. brought his 1965 Corvair Corsa in for a few needed repairs to the electrical system, a leaking fuel system, and a nuisance oil leak . We completed the rebuild to his (4) One Barrel Rochester Carburetors, replaced the oil pan gasket, reworked the fuel system and fuel pump, and replaced / installed a few electrical wires.
While it was on the lift we gave it a full inspection and identified other items that needed repairs – some immediately and some in the future.
Notice anything wrong with this picture?
If you said it looks like the lower control arm ball joint isn’t seated in the spindle you would be correct. We attempted to just tighten the nut but seems it was installed with “Alabama Loctite”. Meaning, the nut was cross threaded on the ball stud. Getting it off wasn’t easy either – since anyone from Alabama knows, the shaft and ball would spin in the socket like a tire stuck in the Alabama mud after a rain storm.
Not that we’re experts by any means – but whomever worked on the car last – knew it wasn’t correct. And not only was it not correct, it wasn’t safe by any stretch of the imagination.
Oh, I forgot to mention – all the castellated nuts on the suspension were devoid of cotter keys. Well maybe all but one – but it sure looked odd.
We should be seeing Bill shortly to replace the original 53 year old Harmonic Balancer and a few motor mounts of the same age. It was a pleasure working on Bill’s car and having him as our customer and friend.
It’s a nice looking car and soon a nice running and safe car.
(Yes – we fixed the ball joint and tightened all the suspension nuts and bolts…including installing all the necessary cotter keys.)
