This page contains material from the January 2002 newsletter

EDITOR: Jim Pittman NEXT MEETING: Wednesday January 2nd 7:30 PM Galles Chevrolet, Lomas & University THIS MONTH: Dues Due Sylvan Zuercher December Meeting Notes Chuck Vertrees December Board Notes Chuck Vertrees Driver's Seat Robert Gold Seven Years Ago Jim Pittman For Sale, Trade or Wanted Everybody Calendar of Coming Events Everybody CNM Ladies Anne Mae Gold February Garage Tour LeRoy Rogers Recent Afghanistan Road Signs The Internet The 2001 Ike Meissner Award Editor TECHNICAL Corvair Gearbox Ratios Craig (NicolCS) (VV) Harmonic Balancer Jim Pittman COVER: Richard Finch's Ultravan at the Christmas Party Steve Removes the Separated Harmonic Balancer == "Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first." -- Charles de Gaulle DUES EXPIRED OR DUE OR APPROACHING DUE: Del Patten 2001-Sep Jon Lovett 2001-Oct Glen Gollrad 2001-Nov Ollie Scheflow 2001-Dec Wayne Ward 2001-Dec LeRoy Rogers 2002-Jan John Dinsdale 2002-Feb Carl Johnson 2002-Feb Frank Stadler 2002-Feb Mike Stickler 2002-Feb Hurley Wilvert 2002-Mar If your membership is due or has expired, please send your dues to: Wendell Walker, CNM Treasurer, 301 Utah Meadow, Rio Rancho, NM 87124 Note: the Club will mail in your National dues when you renew, but only if you send us the renewal form from CORSA Communique! CORSA's home page: http://www.corvair.org CNM's home page: http://www.corvair.org/chapters/chapter871 CNM's newsletters: http://www.unm.edu/~casa == DECEMBER MEETING NOTES Chuck Vertrees The December meeting was called to order at 19:30 at Galles Chevrolet on December 5th. All officers were present. There were a total of 23 members present which was an excellent turnout. There were no new members or guests present to introduce. The minutes of the November meeting were approved as published in the newsletter. There was no Car Council report since there was no meeting in December. The next meeting will be in January. Treasurer Wendell Walker reported that as of 12/05/01 CNM had $415.38 in the checking account and $5,106.98 in the money market account for a total of $5,522.36. In addition he took in $49.00 on the sale of patches at the start of the meeting. The club broke even on the Christmas brunch at Kirtland AFB and took in over $100.00 from the auction in November that was part of our potluck. (At the Methodist Church that Julia and I go to we say that, "We are not always having a function involving food, we just fellowship a lot.") It was announced that Rich Allen has a Corvair (condition and model not indicated) that is for sale. Phone 933-5015. We received a letter that there is a Corvair in Alamosa, Colorado for $100.00. Possibly shot up? Also Viola Smith is supposed to have a good one for sale. OLD BUSINESS: The pot luck and auction turned out to be a lot of fun, and we got quite a few members that we don't get to see all the time. It was put together on very short notice and we really owe a lot of thanks to House of Covers, Rita Gongora and Anne Mae Gold. Robert Gold says that the cheap fax machine he bought is working just fine and Kim Patten now knows who has her missing ladle. Robert's fax number is 262-1495. The Christmas brunch was another big success. Lots of thanks go to Hector Gongora for streamlining our entrance into Kirtland Air Force Base and to Rita, Anne Mae and the other CNM ladies. They would not accept any recompense for the goodie bags they prepared for all the children. There were 56 adults and 17 children present. The usual good New Mexico weather allowed the children to run around and play outside, which they (and their parents) thought was great. NEW BUSINESS: Robert Gold has sent in the paperwork already for the State Fair car show, which will be on September 22. Jerry Goffe will be our tour guide at the Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge on Saturday January 5th. If you want to see the mass liftoff of thousands of birds at one time you will need to be there by 07:00 at the latest. It is about a two hour drive so you will need to leave Albuquerque about 05:00. The tour led by Jerry will leave the visitors' center about 09:00 to 09:30. Jerry asks that no members of the Audubon Society be taken along so that if he misidentifies a bird, no one will know. More information may be found elsewhere in the newsletter. There will be an upcoming tech session on balancing carburetors at the Del Norte facility. Sylvan Zuercher and Bill Reider will set it up. No specific time yet. The CNM campout is tentatively scheduled for the June 8th weekend at Ruth Boydston's in the Pecos. This will not conflict with the International CORSA Convention at Flagstaff at the end of that month. Mark Domzalski gave a report on CORSA affairs. The housing at Flagstaff is getting very full. All of the rooms at the headquarter motel, Little America, have been taken. There is another block set aside, but they are quite probably gone by now. It is advisable to make your reservation as soon as possible. Flagstaff really fills up in the summer. CNM will help The Cactus Corvair Club if they need us. The banquet and the autocross are all set. They will be at the University of Northern Arizona. The convention will start one day early this year because of all the overlap problems in he past. CORSA hopes this will cure a lot of problems. A director in the CORSA Central district has resigned, so according to the by-laws, the board will appoint a new director to finish the term. In the next election there will be two seats open in the Western Division, one in the Central Division, and one in the Eastern Division. The insurance rates CORSA pays for its liability and other insurance are expected to increase by 20% this year. Insurance for antique autos will probably increase. As a result CORSA dues will probably have to be increased. The last time this happened was 5 years ago. Thanks to Joe Trujillo for getting the Galles security all worked out. The meeting was adjourned at 20:22 and followed by a talk from Larry Blair on the things that Albuquerque is doing to protect its water supply and other facilities. Some of the actions taken by the city were in response to the events of September 11, but many were put into place in anticipation of Y2K problems between 31 Dec 1999 and 01 Jan 2000. The city is much better set up than most people are aware of. -- Chuck Vertrees == DECEMBER BOARD MEETING NOTES Chuck Vertrees The board met at "House of Covers" on Wednesday the 19th at 17:00. Present were Sylvan Zuercher, Larry Blair, Jim Pittman, Steve Gongora, Jerry Goffe, Robert Gold, and Chuck Vertrees. Since there was no November board meeting, there were no minutes from November. Also, there was no Treasurer's report since Wendell was in California as far as we know. The first item bought up was an e-mail that Robert received from Dennis Pleau. This concerned the order of who would be hosting future Tri-State meetings. The meeting in 2000 was given to Albuquerque out of turn because of the special circumstance that the Corvair was the featured car at the Albuquerque Museum show. Then the 2001 event was given to Pikes Peak, and the 2002 event will be hosted by Denver in Grand Junction. The question in the e-mail was whether we should try to get back into the original rotation, or leave it as it is now. The feeling of the board was that Albuquerque was flexible and would go along with whatever would be decided; that is, we could take the 2003 event or another club could take it. Jim suggested that Denver should encourage Utah members to come to the 2002 Tri-State. Grand Junction is about 30 miles nearer Salt Lake City than it is to Albuquerque and it would be a great chance for us to get acquainted. The possibility of having the Tri-State getting bigger was discussed. The main problem would be finding a community with a large enough facility for the banquet. Some in the past have been pushed to capacity. If it grows to where we would need to feed about 200 people, it could start to limit the communities available. It still would be fun to try. The next and probably most important item was starting to try and establish a schedule for CNM for 2002. Robert had worked up a tentative schedule of events for the year. Of course it starts off with the Bosque del Apache tour on January 5th. There will be detailed information elsewhere in the newsletter. The discussion was whether we need to have an event every month. It was decided that this was good. Although each monthly event might not appeal to all the CNM members, a large number will be attracted to each event because of the variety we try to have. The important thing is to get more information to the members. Everyone does not always read their newsletter thoroughly and they may miss an event as a result. There were many possibilities mentioned by the board members who have many contacts around town. Some possibilities are: Boden Aviation engine rebuilding shop at Double Eagle airport, Eclipses Aviation, Grand Quivera, Conchas Dam with a tour of the dam, a tour of the city wastewater plant (which is much more complicated than most people know), and the a trip to the ice caves and inscription rock. There are also several outdoor projects we could do when the weather becomes warmer such as a carburetor balance session, a wheel bearing and brake check session or a headlight and tail light session. The board has set the first three months' activities. January 5th will be the Bosque del Apache tour (more details on this elsewhere in the newsletter). February 10th will be a garage tour and Doll Museum tour set up by LeRoy Rogers. The March activity will be a progressive dinner on either the first or second Saturday of the month. We have not checked with Ollie yet but March will also probably be our first cleanup on Old Route 66. Remember that we need lots of participation from the CNM membership on this cleanup! With a decent turnout it only takes one or two hours. The schedule for the rest of the year should be completed at the next board meeting. All CNM members are encouraged to suggest to the board any activity that they think might be fun. Any member is welcome to attend any board meeting. The committee on the future of the Meissner Award and the Boydston Award has had trouble getting together. They have promised that they will have a report for the board at the January meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 18:25. -- Chuck Vertrees A SHORT HISTORY OF THE TRI STATE YEAR PLACE SPONSOR ==== =============== ======= 1976 Montrose CO RMC 1986 Montrose CO CNM 1987 Ouray CO RMC 1988 Canon City CO PPCC 1989 Red River NM CNM 1990 Durango CO RMC 1991 Gunnison CO PPCC 1992 Las Vegas NM CNM 1993 Alamosa CO RMC 1994 Pagosa Springs CO PPCC 1995 Red River NM CNM 1996 Montrose CO RMC 1997 Gunnison CO PPCC 1998 Lake City CO CNM 1999 Salida CO RMC 2000 Albuquerque NM CNM 2001 Colorado Springs PPCC 2002 Grand Junction CO RMC == FROM THE DRIVER'S SEAT Robert Gold I want to begin this message with the hope that all in the Corvair community are having a happy holiday season. That translates into having too much to eat, receiving great presents, and finding it hard to get back to work come the new year. I know the club met the first criteria with a wonderful Christmas Brunch on the Kirtland Air Force Base. Though we had been warned that entry onto the base was going to be a problem, that wasn't really the case. Thanks to Hector Gongora's assistance and the patience of our club members, we made it to the meal in good time. I even found out that the Federal employees ID I've been carrying for over 30 years gave me some status for entering the base. That was a pleasant surprise. I want to thank all those who made the event a fun one. The "three elves" did a fantastic job in putting together the goodies that were distributed. I want to thank my wife, Anne Mae, for bailing me out and "Emceeing" the event! Another pleasant surprise was the easy access we had to the November meeting site. Joe Trujillo stepped up and made sure that the "coast was clear" for all the members. Another nice aspect of the December meeting was to see Ruth Boydston in attendence. With her help we resolved our concerns about the CNM campout. It will be in June rather than August of this year. June is definetly a drier time in New Mexico. I'm sure that Mark Domzalski and the other members of the car pushing crew will be happy about that! Larry Blair should be recognized for his captivating account of how the City of Albuquerque prepares for possible terrorist acts. As a parent I was happy to learn that the fire department has been enlisted to ensure the safety of children in the Albuquerque schools. I want to make special note of the upcoming January 5th tour of the Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge. Jerry Goffe has volunteered to guide us through the refuge. We'll need to meet down there by 9:00 a.m. (sorry Bill Reider!) to get on the tour bus. I've been through the refuge on several occasions in the past and I'll testify to the fact that it is well worth the trip. I remember one year there was a severe problem with Snow Geese and they tried to discourge them by shooting off cannon shots. I don't know how effective that was, but it was sure spectacular to watch countless geese taking flight in unison. I want to give all those who may want to attend the 2002 National Convention in Flagstaff a heads up. I have gotten the word that rooms are even now hard to find in the area for the Convention dates. It would be a good idea to make your reservations as soon as possible. I'm really looking forward to the get together. Now I just have to make sure the trusty '61 Lakewood is highway worthy. Lastly, I want you all to know that I've submitted the paperwork for the 2002 State Fair Car Show that will be held on Sunday, September 22. I learned long ago that when working with the State Fair it was important that all the forms be filed in a timely manner. So when you break open those new calanders after Christmas this year please mark September 22 for the car show. I guess that's it for now. I hope to see you all at the next meeting on Wendesday, January 2! -- Robert Gold == POT LUCK AND AUCTION Robert Gold The Corvair Community got together on November 17 for a night of eating and bidding. Rita Gongora and Anne Mae Gold hosted a pot luck dinner and auction at the House of Covers. I'm sure all who came to the event would agree that a good time was had by all. There was more food than could have possibly been eaten and the same goes for the various kinds of drink. The meal was followed by a spirited auction that resulted in $155 for the club treasury. Among the many items put up for auction, the item that made the greatest impression on the crowd was the antique "dust buster." I think the club should be quite proud that such a successful event could have been put together on such short notice. --Robert Gold == Seven Years Ago - January 1995 - Volume 21 - Number 1 Our cover featured a nice drawing of a Rampside. President Larry ran our meeting; we had no guests. We had $1520 to spend, $125 of which was reserved for convention expenses. We made $275 at last month's pot-luck and auction. We looked forward to our Christmas party at Sirloin Stockade. A Wurlitzer organ and some snow tires were offered in the FOR SALE section. Larry's "Noxious Fumes" column reported on a great Christmas dinner at the Sirloin Stockade. He reported on seeing a video tour of the Holy Land by Bill and Lee Reider and hearing Chuck and Del sing with the Enchanted Mesa Chorus. Larry also authored a tech tip on how to keep early turn signal mechanisms properly aligned. An advertisement for "Classic Auto Radio Specialist" in Waxahatchie, Texas said your original radio could be cleaned and tuned up, or it could be equipped with an FM tuner while retaining original appearance. The phone number does not work in December 2001, though. Did anyone ever try this company? Sylvan previewed our Red River Rendezvous II and introduced two articles from previous newsletters: Ike Meissner's "I Can Fix Anything (Almost)" and "An Open Letter to Anton H."by Bill Reider. Debbie Pleau listed the convention committees and their chairpersons; there were nearly 30 of them! Ten general-purpose workshop tech tips were reprinted from the Central Virginia Corvair Club, and a list of all sixty-five CNM members rounded out this issue. Fourteen Years Ago - January 1988 - Volume 14 - Number 1 The cover was the solution to last month's puzzle drawing: a picture of a Rampside. President Reider ran the meeting. New members were Hal Schaefer and Will Davis. Francis reported on the Fan Belt Toss at Palm Springs, California where he was awarded the Hard Luck trophy for having a bad rod in a 600-mile engine. The Phoenix club planned a mini-convention in April. Our March meeting, said LeRoy, was to feature Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain. Sylvan brought in a couple of flywheels and "rang" them with a hammer to show us what a good and a bad flywheel sounded like. The Board reported on a list of possible activities. A terrific story by Tom Martin, DARK INTRIGUE, told how he got to drive the very first Corvair delivered to Galles-Groesbeck Chevrolet on September 24, 1959. An excellent technical article by Bill and Sylvan told us most of what we'd need to know if we contemplated a clutch job. And our member list completed this issue. Twenty-one Years Ago - January 1981 - Volume 7 Number 1 The cover had our first view of a friendly CNM dragon who came back to inhabit our cover for several months; this time he was happily riding in a convertible, keeping his passengers warm with his fiery breath, no doubt. Robin DeVore gave an excellent talk on automatic transmissions. Jim penned an article, loosely founded on newsletter reports, that would have done better in the April Fool issue. Tech tips told us there were two kinds of fuel pump, warned about a bad batch of lifters on the market, told about bucket seats for FCs, and suggested that we NOT use Armorall on our glass or tires. No, there was no member list this month. ============================================================================ C O R V A I R S o f N E W M E X I C O C O M I N G E V E N T S ============================================================================ | | | | | J a n u a r y | F e b r u a r y | M a r c h | | | | | | : : 1 2 3 4 5 | : : : : : 1 2 | : : : : : 1 2 | | 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | | 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 | 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 | | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 | 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 | | 27 28 29 30 31 : : | 24 25 26 27 28 : : | 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 | | : : : : : 2002 | : : : : : : : | 31 : : : : : : | ============================================================================ Wed 2nd Jan 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 5th Jan 9:00 AM Bosque del Apache tour (leave Albuquerque 7:00 AM) Sat 12th Jan 11:30 AM CNM Ladies - Mary Lou Martineck's - 10112 Pitt NE Wed 16th Jan 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 25th Jan 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Wed 6th Feb 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 9th Feb 1:00 PM CNM Ladies - Ruth Boydston's - 6829 Kelly NE Sun 10th Feb 1:00 PM Garage Tour - the Doll Museum & Dave Langlois' shop Wed 20th Feb 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 22th Feb 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Wed 6th Mar 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 9th Mar 1:00 PM CNM Ladies - TBA Wed 20th Mar 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 22nd Mar 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sun ..... 5th May 2002 - Albuquerque Museum / NMCCC Car Show "Cinco de Mayo" Fri-Sun 17-19 May 2002 - Tri-State Meet - Grand Junction, Colorado Wed-Sat 26-29 Jun 2002 - CORSA International Convention - Flagstaff, Arizona TBA ......... Aug 2002 - NMCCC All-Club Picnic =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CNM Ladies Anne Mae Gold Happy New Year to one and all! It is still early December as I write this so it's hard to get into the right frame of mind! I hope all the CNM members and their families had a blessed Christmas and that no one out there found a lump of coal in their stocking! Santa's elves had a great time at the Christmas Brunch. Thanks Elizabeth for baking all of the gingerbread men. They are beautiful as well as delicious and nutritious! Ruth, you are sweeter than the candy you put in the bags! Thank you to Hector and Marie Gongora for hosting us yet again, I did miss Emily's singing! Where was our lounge lizard, trekkie organ player this year? It was heart-warming to see so many of you out there and I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to visit with each of you ... chasing kids and beating them into good mannered submission is tough! Someday, I'm told, they'll do it on their own ... HA! The CNM ladies are on for January and February. On the second Saturday of January, that's the 12th for the calendar challenged like me, we will meet at Mary Lou Martineck's home. She really wants to feed us, so let's meet over there at 11:30 am. I hope we have a tremendous turn out; there should be a map somewhere in the newsletter to guide us there. The second Saturday of Feburary we will meet at Ruth Boydston's home from 1-4 pm as usual. I hope more of you Corvair wives make a resolution to attend the CNM Ladies meeting once a month, it's free, it's fun and it's not that fattening! And I promise, we won't talk about cars, well, not much anyhow! If anyone would like to book a Second Saturday to host the CNM Ladies, give me a call ... 268-6878. Ta Ta for now! - Anne Mae Driving Instructions to Mary Lou Martinek's house 10112 Pitt St, NE - Phone: 275-3271. From West of Eubank: Go East (towards Sandia Crest) on Candelaria to the second right turn after crossing Eubank. This is Christine street. Go south (back towards Central) to the 4th street to the left. This is Pitt Street. We are 10112 Pitt, on the right side, third house from the corner. A covered car and an RV will be in the drive. From East of Eubank: Go West (towards the river) on Candelaria. Continue West on Candelaria across Morris. Take the first left turn (Christine Street) after passing Ashbury United Methodist Church, located on the left side of Candelaria. The 4th street to the left off of Christine is Pitt. We are 10112 Pitt, on the right, third house from the corner. A covered car and an RV will be in the drive. Mary Lou & Mark Martinek - 505-275-3271 February Garage Tour LeRoy Rogers This year's garage tour will be on Sunday, February 10. We will meet at 12 noon, at a restaurant to be named at a later date, for lunch. If you do not wish to have lunch you can meet us at the first stop at approximately 1:00 PM. The first stop will be the Doll Museum at 5201 Constitution NE (the northeast corner on San Mateo and Constitution). The place is not what you would call automotive related but I think it will be interesting. There is a small entrance fee. It will be a group rate. I will not know what the fee is going to be until the middle of January when the final arrangements are made. The second place we will be going to is Dave's Auto Repair at 1603 San Francisco NE. Dave probably has the only commercial garage in town that specializes in repairing Corvairs. If you have any questions call LeRoy at 294-0623. == * * * * * * * * * * * * * FOR SALE, TRADE OR WANTED * * * * * * * * FREE: 1965 Corvair Parts Car - free to good home - Steve Johnson - 864-6278 2-Dr 500 - 110 - PG FREE: 1965 Corvair Parts Car - free to good home - Steve Johnson - 864-6278 2-Dr HT Monza FOR SALE: 1960 Monza coupe -- $650.00 Needs ground up restoration. Automatic, Radio, gas heater. Powder coated engine shrouding. Full set of '60 Monza wheel covers. Extra front & rear suspension with less that 27000 miles. Assembly & Shop Manuals for the '60 Corvair. Extra gas heater parts. Call Bill Reider 299-4597 FOR SALE: 66-67 Corvair body has dual master cyl. Has good bumpers with bumper guards front and rear. Very straight body with a few very minor dents. $400 drive train is in car, will leave in until you get car so it can be moved or towed. Call Bill Reider at 299-4597 FOR SALE: Black Clark's carpet late coupe $ 100 Rear Fold seat carpet black late model coupe $ 15 Package area carpet black late model coupe $ 35 Padded dash Clarks 65-66 installed on metal support $ 150 Black headliner Clarks late model coupe $ 60 110 hp engine auto bell housing 10,000 miles since valve job. $ 500 Late model 3.55 automatic differential $ 75 Call Bill Reider at 299-4597 WANTED: Late model coupe lower fenders Ollie Scheflow 897-2611 FOR SALE: 1962 Greenbrier 140-hp 4-speed Mike Stickler 344-2039 WANTED: rocker panels ..... John L Matten RADIO INSTALLED: where to go? ..... John L Matten * * * * * CNM ADS ARE FREE TO CNM MEMBERS, $5.00 TO NON-CNM MEMBERS * * * * * == THE MEISSNER AWARD FOR 2001 Jim Pittman At our Christmas Party, Rita Gongora presented CNM's Meissner Award to Oliver Scheflow. As you know, Ollie has been the spark plug and cheerleader for our Route 66 Cleanup project for several years. For most of us, the chore is just showing up, participating in the general bull sessions before and after, and then trudging up and down the highway, fighting the wind and sun and rain, dodging 70-mph pickups and filling up plastic bags with cans, bottles, fast food detrius. We watch out for the occasional oddities such as cement blocks, tire tread fragments, dog skulls, porno magazines, rooster heads, sheets of plywood, pads of fiberglas insulation and broken plastic spoilers. But Ollie's chore includes providing plastic cups, cool water and sticks-with-nails, getting orange safety vests and plastic bags from the highway department and letting them know that we have left bags of trash along the highway to be picked up. Thanks to Ollie for all his work on behalf of the club. == TECHNICAL: From dpleau@efortress.com Fri Nov 30 08:01:04 2001 Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 20:36:38 From: Dennis & Debbie Pleau (dpleau@efortress.com) To: casa unm edu Subject: (VV) VV Transmission ratios From: NicolCS@aol.com Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 22:02:12 EST Subject: (VV) VV Transmisison ratios Sender: owner-virtualvairs@corvair.org Please write this down as I ain't gonna do it again! 60 3 speed 3.22, 1.48, 1.00 61-63 3 speed 3.50, 1.99, 1.00 61-63 4 speed 3.65, 2.35, 1.44, 1.00 61 FC 4 speed 4.27, 2.55, 1.68, 1.00 64-65 3 speed 3.22, 1.84, 1.00 64-65 4 speed 3.20, 2.19, 1.44, 1.00 As long as we are at it... 66-69 3 speed 3.11, 1.84, 1.00 66-69 4 speed 3.11, 2.20, 1.47, 1.00 -- Craig 1966 Monza 140/4 efi 1967 Monza 140/4 with 3.08 and 61-63 4-speed (wink-wink) Note: Original Saginaw = 3.55 x 3.11 first = 11.04 overall first gear Also: Original Saginaw = 3.27 x 3.11 first = 10.17 overall first gear Also note: My combo = 3.08 x 3.65 first = 11.24 overall first gear,hmmm... ****************************** This message was sent by the Corvair list, all copyrights are the property of the writer, please attribute properly. To unsubscribe, mailto: majordomo@corvair.org with "unsubscribe virtualvairs" (without the quotes) as the first line of the message. To post, mailto: virtualvairs@corvair.org. For help, mailto: vv-help@corvair.org. This list sponsored by the Corvair Society of America, http://www.corvair.org/ ****************************** == HARMONIC BALANCER Jim Pittman You know how it is with old cars; they are doing okay but finally something breaks; you fix it; something else breaks and you fix that; something else breaks ... well, you know how it goes. Pretty soon you are being nickel-and-dimed to death but you can't afford to stop and just fix everything. My 1965 Monza may be on this path. When I bought it, the steering was a little loose, but not too bad, so I just put off fixing it. Then the brake pedal started to sink toward the floor ever so slowly when I'd be waiting for a light. I filled up the master cylinder, but it wasn't so bad, so I put off fixing it. Then the gas tank started to leak at the base of the filler tube. It was not really wise to ignore that, so I took it in to fix. Now all was well. It was a Wednesday board meeting day so I drove the car (usually I take the bus) and parked a quarter mile from the University and walked to work. That afternoon when I started the car I thought the gasoline smell was pretty strong but I figured it was those leaky old carburetors and drove the half mile to House of Covers. Well, by the time I got there, the car was leaving a trail of liquid. Steve, Mark and Chuck consulted and we soon saw there was fuel spraying from the bottom gasket of the (probably original) fuel pump. Everybody said, "Time for an electric pump!" and Steve said, we'll push it down to the lot and you can leave it there until you get the parts to fix it. So, I got a ride home and thought about it. I do not drive the car very much and it would be a time-consuming chore to round up all the components to install an electric pump and do a good job of it. I decided to just take the easy way out, trust Clark's to send me a non-defective new fuel pump, and then do the simple job of changing out the pump. So, I ordered a new pump. "Do you want a viton O-ring?" the guy said. The new pumps just come with a regular O-ring." "Sure." I said. The pump arrived. One afternoon after work I walked over to HOC and Steve got his tools and we changed out the pump. It was getting dark by the time we were ready to test the pump. We started the engine; it ran fine; what's this? Still leaking? How can that be? Well, it soon developed that the leaking fluid was oil, not gasoline. But how could changing a fuel pump cause an oil leak? Must be that new viton O-ring. But it's too late to pull the pump, check the O-ring and put it all back together, it's dark, it's cold. Let's leave the car sit until a better time. I finally got a day off work and I drove to HOC with my tool box and a supply of new O-rings. I carefully removed the fuel pump. The O-ring looked fine. I cleaned and dried off all the gas and oil from everything, put my 3/4" wrench on the harmonic balancer bolt and turned over the engine until the cam that drives the pump was at the bottom of its travel. I carefully installed the fuel pump -- with a brand-new O-ring, even though the viton ring looked okay. When all was ready, I started the engine. It ran fine; no fuel leak that I can see, but oil is dripping everywhere! How can this be? I quickly shut down the engine. Now, with nice weather and plenty of light, I started looking over the whole engine, trying to think how oil could leak from a new Clark's fuel pump. And then I saw it. I suddenly noticed that the harmonic balancer looked to be a little too near the oil filter. I looked more closely. It was really too near -- it was touching it! Mystery solved in a second. The balancer was starting to separate and the outer part was gradually moving away from the inner part, and it had started rubbing and then cutting into the oil filter, thus the leak. It had just happened to start this when we replaced the fuel pump the first time but in the dark we didn't see it. I ordered a rebuilt harmonic balancer, got a new rear seal and a few days later Steve and I replaced the (doubtless original 1965) balancer. Problem solved! Steve guessed that the balancer was about ready to go bad from years of gradual deterioration, and being sprayed with fuel was enough to start it working its way off. I was lucky. Sometimes these things come off while you are doing 75 down the freeway and what a mess that can make! Ask Larry about that. Well, my 1965 Monza needs a few more things to make it work better. Do I dare start fixing those things a few at a time -- or should I bite the bullet and go to the trouble and expense of doing a complete restoration? == CNM MEMBER LIST - JANUARY 2002 ALBUQUERQUE Kathy & Larry Blair 505-821-1386 Ruth Boydston 505-821-1506 Roger Chavez 505-271-4536 Tamara & Anthony Couture 505-237-2959 Chris & Rick Covington 505-764-9639 Debbie & Ron Deck albdeck@juno.com 505-836-4845 Kathy & Doug Gadomski gadomski@unm.edu 505-265-8345 Sylvia & Jerry Goffe goffephoto@aol.com 505-345-3100 Anne Mae & Robert Gold beisbol30@aol.com 505-268-6878 Rita & Steve Gongora stevegongora@houseofcovers.com 505-292-5570 Carl Johnson 505-344-3178 H. C. "Lube" Lubert 505-256-9331 Mary Lou & Mark Martinek mjmartinek@juno.com 505-275-3271 Alice & John Mattern 505-823-9543 Robert McBreen 505-265-2808 Marian & Bill McClellan 505-821-7728 Tracey & John McMahan jtmacs@flash.net 505-830-9079 Joel Nash 505-884-5064 Heula & Jim Pittman casa unm edu 505-275-2195 Terry Price 505-244-3075 Lee & Bill Reider breider@gte.net 505-299-4597 Emma & LeRoy Rogers lmrogers@qwest.net 505-294-0623 Frank Stadler 505-255-7326 Kris & John Stichman 505-856-6242 Brenda & Mike Stickler 505-344-2039 Julia & Chuck Vertrees vertrees@swcp.com 505-299-0744 Megan & Jason Ward 505-898-1205 Anne & John Wiker 505-899-3076 Opal & Sylvan Zuercher zuerchero@hubwest.com 505-299-7577 BELEN Steve Johnson 505-864-6278 CEDAR CREST David Huntoon corvair66@aol.com 505-281-9616 JEMEZ SPRINGS Fred & Brenda Edeskuty 505-667-1876 LOS LUNAS John Topp 505-459-7297 PLACITAS Elizabeth & Mark Domzalski domzalski@lanl.gov 505-867-0030 SANDIA PARK Kim & Del Patten del.patten@plk.af.mil 505-286-6690 Brenda & Hurley Wilvert hbwilvert@prodigy.net 505-281-1732 CORRALES Barbara & Gordon Johnson 505-898-7688 Mary Alice & Oliver Scheflow 505-897-2611 TIJERAS Shirley & Joe Ashton 505-286-1513 RIO RANCHO Wendell Walker defarge505@aol.com 505-892-8471 SANTA FE Dana & Glen Gollrad 505-995-9773 Kay & Tarmo Sutt tarmo@juno.com 505-471-1153 WHITE ROCK Marilyn & Richard Foster 505-672-9404 LAS CRUCES Robert Harvey 000-000-0000 Judy & Wayne Ward spyder@zianet.com 505-523-4863 TULAROSA Gayle & Richard Finch finchbird@juno.com 505-585-8035 NORTH BEND, WA Mark L Morgan lobo76mk@aol.com 425-831-7274 MELBOURNE, FL Sachiko & Willard Davis davis6207@msn.com 321-242-8092 ELGIN, IL Doris & Walter Huntoon 708-464-4848 LARNED, KS Lydia & Lee Olsen obros@ruraltel.net 316-285-6672 DUNCANVILLE, TX Sharon & Jack Bryan 214-296-6300 AURORA, CO Deborah & John Dinsdale 000-000-0000 ELBERT, CO Debbie & Dennis Pleau dpleau@efortress.com 719-494-1380 DENVER, CO Kathy & Jon Lovett 303-777-9506 COLORADO SPRINGS, CO Debra & Jon Anderson 719-535-0294 == Signs seen recently along the road from Kabul ... IT'S OVER NOW THEY KICKED OUR ASSES TIME TO HEAD FOR THE MOUNTAIN PASSES BUT BEFORE WE COME OUT OF THE CAVE LET'S LOSE THE BEARDS WITH ... Burma Shave =end=