This page contains material from the July 2004 newsletter.


Updated 30-Jan-2007 - Copyright (c) 2007 Corvairs of New Mexico. Volume 30 - Number 7 - July 2004 - Issue 346 EDITOR: Jim Pittman NEXT MEETING: Wednesday 07 July 2004 at 7:30 PM Galles Chevrolet, Lomas & University THIS MONTH: Dues Due Dave Huntoon June Meeting Notes Chuck Vertrees Car Council Report Robert Gold CNM Birthdays Sunshine Committee You Won't Believe: Brake Repair Steve Goodman Tech Tip: Fuel Hose Steve Goodman Calendar of Coming Events Everybody Wanted or For Sale Everybody Seven Years Ago Jim Pittman Del and Dave's Great Adventure Del Patten Rebuilt and Restored Mark Domzalski Fast-ratio Quick Steering Seth Emerson Constitution of Corvairs of New Mexico COVER: Wendell's removable hard top convertible Del & Dave on their Great Adventure =CNM= "When I go to casinos, the most ridiculous sign I see is the one that says: 'If you have a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER.' "So, I'm at Cripple Creek and I have a problem. I call them and say, 'I have an ace and a six. The dealer has a seven. What do I do?'" Dues Expired or Due or Approaching Due: EXPIRED: Gordon Johnson 2004-June Mark Morgan 2004-June THIS MONTH: Robert Gold 2004-July Dwight Simmons 2004-July Kevin Sullivan 2004-July Tarmo Sutt 2004-July COMING DUE SOON: Mark Domzalski 2004-August Richard Finch 2004-August Steve Johnson 2004-August Jacob Schlessinger 2004-August Ray Trujillo 2004-August Sylvan Zuercher 2004-August Steve Gongora 2004-September Joe Ashton 2004-September Sally Johnson 2004-September Lee Olsen 2004-September DROP: Jay Ecclestone 2004-March John Myers 2004-May 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! On the cover: Wendell's convertible fitted with a removable hard top. Del and Dave's adventure finds them in Kentucky at the Convention Throughout the newsletter: Photographs supplied by LeRoy Rogers, Del Patten and your editor. =CNM= JUNE MEETING NOTES Chuck Vertrees The meeting was called to order at Galles Chevrolet on 6/2/04 at 19:37. All officers were present. There were 24 members also in attendance. There were no guests present. The minutes of the last meeting were approved as printed in the newsletter. Treasurer Wendell Walker reported that CNM had $103.26 in the checking account and $2,398.81 in the GMAC account for a total worth of $2,502.07. There was no report on membership or from the Sunshine Committee. The awards committee will meet at noon on 6/5/04 at Wendell's. The Constitution Review Committee presented a draft to the board, which went through the draft and approved it. There is more later. The New Mexico Car Council report is on the web. Upcoming CNM events for June are the International Corsa Convention in Lexington, KY. Four CNM members are going. The monthly breakfast will be on the 26th at Mimi's Cafe at 08:30. This is at Jefferson and I-25. July has the July 4th car show on the Plaza in Santa Fe, the "Old Route 66" cleanup on the 10th, and the club breakfast on the 17th. A location has not been chosen yet. August is pretty active with the campout at Ruth's on the first weekend of the month and the progressive dinner on the 21st. The normal June board meeting has been canceled, so the next CNM meeting will be the regular meeting at Galles on 7/7/04. Our good times at the Tri-State meet were recounted. Quite a few members enjoyed the Gold Mine tour. The banquet was well attended with good food and visiting. Jim Pitman presented the "Saint Francis of Corvair" award to Ben Benzel. A little history of the award was presented for the newer members. The First recipient in 1998 was Jim Pitman. Kay and Tarmo Sutt followed this in 1999, Sylvan Zuercher in 2000, Steve and Ruth Goodman in 2001, Steve and Rita Gongora in 2002, and Bill Reider in 2003. Pike's Peak chapter won the attendance award for the first time. The next Tri-State will be in Ouray, Colorado on May 20-22, 2005. There is more information about Ouray on our web site. Steve Gongora will check further into the costs for embroidery on shirts and jackets before a decision on ordering is made. There was an article in the paper about Jerry and Sylvia Goffe's loss of their oldest daughter 10 years ago. There is a beautiful rose garden at Temple Albert on Louisiana NE dedicated to Michelle. If you have not stopped by to see it, it is well worth the trip. The big event of the evening was the reading and discussion of the draft for a new Constitution and bylaws for CNM. The draft was read through a line at a time and was open to discussion by the members. This took some time and some parts were re-phrased a number of times until everyone was satisfied. Finally everything was worded to the satisfaction of everyone, it was moved, seconded and approved by all the members that the new Constitution be adopted. It will be printed in full on our web site. The meeting was adjourned at 20:43. -- Chuck =CNM= CAR COUNCIL REPORT Robert Gold I've just completed what I would call a Car Council marathon. That's because the May meeting of the council occurred very close to the April meeting. The council met the Wednesday before the May 16 Museum Car Show so that the members could put together the packets that were distributed at the show. I'd like to say that CNM was represented at the meeting, but that would be a lie. Two things happened that prevented me from attending. The first thing was that I flat forgot that the meeting had been moved up. The second thing was that even if I had remembered I was out of town so I couldn't attend. The good news is that the packets were completed and ready for the show without my help. I will now resolve to do a better job of remembering the dates of the meetings. I will try but I'm not very optimistic. It's one of those age things. Anyway, since the May meeting was special in nature there really isn't much to report except to say the Museum Car Show worked out just fine. The Gold clan had two FC's entered to go with the 8 other fine Corvairs on display. I heard that there was another Corvair around, but since it wasn't on display with the Club I didn't get a chance to see it. I've discovered that I'm suffering from an affliction when I enter car shows. I drive in, park, set up my chair, and sit with a blank stare most of the day. At the Museum Show while most people were dutifully looking at the cars to fill out their ballots I just sat and looked at the people who were filling out their ballots. Another case of voter apathy.... I don't want you to think that I didn't like the show. It was well run and had some really nice cars (I think). Sally Johnson did a good job of reserving a prime location for our cars. I would have preferred however, that we would have had a little more space between our entries. We did manage to angle Larry Hickerson's Rampside so his $2.5 million dollar paint job was reasonably protected. Sally and Geoff also did a nice job of lining up breakfast at the Little Anita's. The food and the company were first class. I also want to thank Geoff Johnson, Anne Mae Gold, Steve Gongora and Terry Price for helping with the ballot count. This is a good way to show that CNM is an active supporter of council events. You might be interested to know that it is through our support of the council activities that we qualify to vote at council meetings. It would be a drag for me to attend the meeting and not be able to vote. (That's sort of like me attending a car show and not voting... wait a minute??!) I heard that the organizers claimed that we had about the same number of entries as last year. The concern in planning the show was that the construction in the front of the museum would discourage entries. I'm personally not sure that we did have the same number of cars this year, but the cars that showed up and the nice sunny day made numbers rather unimportant. That's really the reason I show up - to be surrounded by such nice cars and people - and that's why I'm already planning on attending next year's event. I hope to see you there too! Looking into the council's future, don't forget that we have a swap meet in September and maybe a picnic in August. Tune into to this column to see how those things turn out. I guess that is all for now. I'll talk to you again next month. -- Robert Gold =CNM= SUNSHINE COMMITTEE The following CNM members celebrate birthdays in July: Larry Blair Gayle Finch Kay Sutt Mark Domzalski Richard Finch Tarmo Sutt One couple, Susanne and Larry Hickerson, celebrate their wedding anniversary this month. Congratulations! The Sunshine Committee wishes all our members a happy summer. STAY COOL! Heula Pittman =CNM= YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS...... by Steve Goodman Rocky Mountain CORSA - June 2004 Another story that will seem unbelievable or simply ridiculous about our favorite car, the CORVAIR After writing the story about the rubber hose splice in a brake line that happened years ago, I figured I would never be able to top that brake story. HOWEVER, two weeks ago a baby blue 1965 sedan from Maryland landed at the shop. The girl driver asked me if I could fix her brakes better than what her dad had done before leaving Maryland. She said there was a leak and her dad "plugged it up." She said the leak was in the driver's rear corner so I picked the car up and pulled that wheel and tire. I found the short steel line between the wheel cylinder and the rubber hose was cut and folded back on itself several times. This is how her dad fixed the leaky wheel cylinder. Luckily I had a wheel cylinder kit and the short steel line and got her on her way to Arizona in a couple of hours. I kinda hinted that her dad had given her an "unsafe" vehicle but she replied that her dad KNEW the CORVAIR was UNSAFE but she liked it because it was her favorite color. TECH TIP, RUBBER FUEL LINE CAUTIONS by Steve Goodman Rocky Mountain CORSA - June 2004 The new gasoline compounds might be good for clean air but the additives are pretty tough on rubber fuel lines. I have noticed two distinct failures of the neoprene hose. Failure number one is when the fuel lines are allowed to dry out. For instance, the hose from the tank to the body line seldom gets hard and cracked but if the car is allowed to sit idle for anywhere from a couple of months on, the connecting hose over the rear axle will be cracked and brittle. Likewise the tank to filler neck hoses will dry out and leak at about the 1/2 tank level. If the tank is always full, the filler neck hoses seem to live ok. The most obvious problem with the connector hose failing is that the mechanical fuel pump will leak the vacuum there instead of pulling fuel from the tank. Many times the pump is blamed for this failure. Failure number two is worse. Many owners will use rubber line in the engine bays. If the hoses get cracked on the pressure side of the pump OR if an electric pump is being used, the fuel will spray in the engine bay. Needless to say, one small spark jumping from a plug wire will result in a bar-b-que. Adding to the rubber line failures, the only kind of hose clamp available these days is the "screw" type. The old "spring" type seems to have been discontinued. Unfortunately, the "screw" type deforms the hose easily and will cut into and through the outer layers where the cloth reinforcing is laminated to the rubber. This allows the premature failure of a hose directly at the hose barb. It is also very easy to over tighten the "screw" type clamps. The old "spring" type clamps would just keep putting pressure on the hose but never too much. -- Steve =CNM= ============================================================================ 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 u l y | A u g u s t | S e p t e m b e r | | | | | | : : : : 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | : : : 1 2 3 4 | | 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 | 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 | 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | | 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 | 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 | | 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 | 29 30 31 : : : : | 26 27 28 29 30 : : | | : : : : : : : | : : : : : : : | : : : : : : : | ============================================================================ Sun 4 Jul early! Santa Fe Plaza Car Show and Breakfast Wed 7 Jul 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Wed 7 Jul 7:30 PM We need to decide on an Aspencade Tour destination! Sat 10 Jul 8:00 AM Route 66 Clean-up - Oliver Scheflow Wed 21 Jul 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 23 Jul 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sat 24 Jul 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast - TBA Wed 4 Aug 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Fri-Sun Aug 6-8 CNM Campout - Ruth's place in the Pecos - more later Wed 18 Aug 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 20 Aug 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sun 21 Aug 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast meeting - TBA Wed 1 Sep 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 11 Sep 1:00-4:00 CNM Ladies - TBA Wed 15 Sep 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Sun 18 Sep 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast meeting - TBA Fri 24 Sep 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= FOR SALE: 1961 Monza coupe, '66 110-HP engine, Powerglide. New interior, needs paint and minor body work. Price negotiable. Hurley Wilvert 281-1732 FOR SALE: 1968 Monza coupe, 110-HP rebuilt engine with 4 carbs, Powerglide. New paint, good interior. Price negotiable. Hurley Wilvert 281-1732 WANTED: 1964 Chevy Biscayne Station Wagon - parts car. V-8, 3-speed, 4-speed, Auto. H. C. "Lube" Lubert - cell 505-400-3680 WANTED: 1962, 1963, 1964 Corvair Spyder convertible - 4-speed, 180-HP turbocharged. Bob Sully 2216 Alamogordo NW Albuquerque NM - 505-831-9460 FOR SALE: 1960 900 Monza coupe. Automatic. Owned for 30 years. Car came from California. All original except for some interior work and paint. Top is pearl white, bottom is burgandy. New tires. Needs seal to fix small transmission leak. About 60,000 miles. Always garaged! Call: Tony August: 505-864-3415 Belen, NM. Cell: 505-363-3702 FOR SALE: Yellow Tri-State T-shirts - $10 - XXL $12 Call Bill Reider Yellow Tri-State Golf Shirts - $14 - XXL $16 299-4597 * * * * * CNM ADS ARE FREE TO CNM MEMBERS, $5.00 TO NON-CNM MEMBERS * * * * =CNM= SEVEN YEARS AGO Jim Pittman Seven Years Ago - July 1997 - Volume 23 - Number 7 The cover featured Larry Blair and his 1964 Spyder convertible at the Museum car show; inside, Paul Campbell proudly posed next to his 1965 Monza coupe. New members were Mack & Marleen Milner of Farmington. President Mark ran our meeting, secretary Chuck scribbled minutes and treasurer Wendy counted up $7354 in monetary assets. Dennis emailed a tech tip on replacing a 1964 Spyder's wiring harness. Other tech tips outlined special requirements for rebuilding a turbo engine, the easy way to change from generator to alternator, using touch-up paint, some early model shock tips and things to watch out for when changing springs. Fourteen Years Ago - July 1990 - Volume 16 Number 7 The cover celebrated the CORSA convention in Ontario, California. VP Tom Martin ran our meeting and a guest was Ed Gast and his 1963 Monza. Bill Reider asked who wanted to pay $5 for a printed copy of Clark's parts list. Jerry reported there were 419 cars at the 1990 Museum car show. Tarmo invited us to bring our cars to the Plaza at Santa Fe for the Fourth of July Fiesta. President Dale Housley's column advised those of us without air conditioning to "roll down our windows and drive as fast as possible" to stay cool. Tom Martin's La Ventana revealed the private lives of "mischievous" Jerrold Aaron Goffe, a CNM fixture in more ways than one. Some interesting statistics on automobiles were lifted from GREENPEACE magazine. For instance, they claimed that an EXXON-VALDEZ-worth of used oil is dumped into drains and sewers by American shade-tree mechanics every two and a half weeks. Do you believe that? We've gotta get these guys out of the back yards and into garages - the sun is cooking their brains. Finally, we had an article from Bill Smith about the future of the Tri-State meet. He wanted each club to discuss the options, vote on them, and let him know in time to plan next year's event. And the issue wrapped up with tech tips by Steve Goodman on cleaning your battery box and adjusting your tire pressures. It's vital to keep the rears 15 pounds higher than the fronts. Twenty-one Years Ago - July 1983 - Volume 9 - Number 7 We must have run out of Corvair photos because our cover showed a rather washed-out picture of a Mercedes-Benz 500K/AK. We had $204 in the bank. Some members planned to join the parade in Moriarty for July 4th. A new member was Karl Elsner. It was announced that Larry Claypool was working on a Corvair tech guide for CORSA and tech tips were solicited for it. Bill Reider, Francis Boydston and Robin DeVore were planning our own parts interchange booklet. Bill Reider started a series of articles on his 1965 Monza sedan. He told about many modifications he made to the car to bring it up to 1983 standards. Twenty-eight Years Ago - July 1976 - Volume 2 - Number 7 We had no cover illustration and most of the Newsletter was a membership roster: fifty-two members. Steve Gongora's meeting notes said we had $82 left in the bank after sending the June newsletter to "every possible CORVAIR contact in the USA" and as a result we were getting feedback from other clubs. We planned a Winrock car show. Steve reported on attending the recent Tri-State get-together in Montrose, Colorado where a good time was had by all. Yes, this was the very first "Tri-State" event. =CNM= DEL AND DAVE'S GREAT ADVENTURE by Del Patten Dave is always telling me that life is an adventure and what better adventure could one embark upon than a 1300 mile trip across the states to Lexington KY?? Well, I can think of some much better but none I can afford. And Kim couldn't go because of school so we decided to do the deed anyway!! And we have rebuilt most the car in the last year or two anyway so what's the risk?? Well, if you don't know the answer to that one, you don't drive a Corvair everyday or very far!! So after a few head scratches and a feeble attempt to charge up the AC, we packed the car to the window sills and left early Sunday 12 June... well, early afternoon!! And we got there... after fighting off hoards of marauding bugs at a rest stop in Arkansas... I think they had in mind a little BBQ with Dave being the main course... otherwise nothing went wrong... nothing much as the story goes. Dave even let me stop and eat sometimes!! Only when it was my turn to drive or gas up!! And we finally got to the Kentucky Horse Park a little too late to hit the drag races and pitched our tent and relaxed awhile before we started to go over the car!! We lost the tach somewhere and the temp gauge somewhere else so we thought we might see what could have happened. Now most of you know that if you raise the hood of a Corvair where other Corvairs are, their owners will appear just like bees to honey and we soon enough met many of our neighbors!! We didn't manage to fix anything but we did replace a few lost nuts and screws and cleaned off the 20 pounds of bugs from the front of the car!! The Martineks were camped across the road along with Bonito... or Bonita... Bonnie anyway, who was frequently seen dragging them on a tour of the park!! The next morning we ran into Debbie and Dennis and the boys at the hotel and started our search for buried treasure at the swap meet and vendors!! Found some too!! Eventually we caught up with Dave's brother and dad and I got to eat again... only because Walter likes to eat too!! Course, he is a little guy but always looking for a good meal!! My kinda guy!! His brother will eat pretty much whatever doesn't eat him first so Dave was out voted a few times there!! We even found a real Mexican restaurant!! Not Tex-Mex, not New-Mex but real Mexican food!! We even ran into Mark D there... kinda hard not to since he was the voice of the concours!! Of course the cars were there and plenty of them too... 300 plus we guessed!! And while there were only a few hardy souls on the concourse side of rope there was a ton on the car display side. Most notable probably being the Northstar Vair of Frank Parker... too cool and not even done yet... and there was even two flame jobs and Dave and I got a lesson from Dauber who makes his living doing flames and pinstriping. And yes, there were a few people that thought my seats were pink!! Go figure! The races were Friday and it was a nice course... someone let a full boat Firebird on the course in the afternoon and while that beast snorted and snarled around the course, it took him most the day to finally beat the Corvairs!! Course they weren't your mother's Corvair but they did bear a close resemblance!! I don't remember who had FTD but they were loud to be assured!! Makes my flowmasters sound quiet... almost!! Speaking of which, we got chased down in the parking lot by a guy that wanted to know what we were running cause his son wanted the same thing!! Good taste in that kid!! Other notable events were the nightly rains and the daily humidity... my feet finally dried out about Wednesday!! Cost 246 dollars in gas and I don't know what the speedo mileage was... we borrowed Wendy's GPS which was good at telling us how fast and how high we were but it seemed like the miles were way off!! You can tell we got home but not without some misadventures including a dead coil, a bad distributor cap, a broken rotor and a loose plug wire... really not all that bad... we changed the belt when we got to KY but it was preventative!! Really!! And I was glad to get home and I think Dave was too... like fish, friends begin to stink after a few days!! Really Dave, it was my wet feet!! I still have his magazines and maps so he has to come back to see us... Kim was worried to death because she could only find one of his cats!! Anyway, we're home and ready for another adventure... like maybe all the way to... Ruth's cabin!! -- Del =CNM= Subject: Tri-state stats Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 20:49:30 -0500 From: Dennis & Debbie Pleau ( ddpleau AT earthlink DOT net ) Cc: Steve Goodman ( rearengine.steve AT worldnet DOT att DOT net ) Early Closed = (tie) = Ben Benzel ....................... blue 1964 coupe = Michael & Jennifer Wiltrout ...... blue 1963 coupe Early Open = Laura Wilshire ....... red 1964 Spyder convertible Late Closed = George Leyner ............ maroon 1966 Corsa turbo Late Open = Bud & Pon Edwards ..... red 1965 Corsa convertible Forward Control = Jim Rushton ................... gray 1963 Rampside Oldest Corvair = Jerry Gertison ............ 1962 Monza convertible Newest Corvair = Ruth Goodman .................... 1968 Monza coupe People's Choice = Larry Yoder ..................... 1965 Monza coupe Boydston Award = Ben Benzel Hard Luck = Bud Duncan of RMC for a faulty oil pressure sender switch in his 1962 Monza convertible Attendance: PPCC = 42 (Note: Pikes Peak took the traveling trophy.) RMC = 34 CNM = 18 San Diego Corvair Club = 2 CORSA North West = 2 Inland Empire = 2 Central Valley Corvairs = 2 Mid Continent Corvair Assn = 1 Bonneville Corvair Club = 2 Corsa South Carolina = 2 (I asked Jon Anderson for an article on the Tri-State for last month's newsletter but I didn't give him time to get all the statistics. Thanks to Dennis & Steve for correcting the statistics. -- Jim) LOCATION FOR 2005 TRI-STATE ANNOUNCED THIS WEEKEND The announcement for the 2005 TRI-STATE CORVAIR MEET was made during the 2004 awards banquet on May 22, 2004. The host club is ROCKY MOUNTAIN CORSA (Denver) and the dates are May 20-22, 2005. The location is Ouray, Colorado in the southwestern corner of Colorado near Durango. The TRI-STATE was held there in 1987. Ouray is a small high mountain town with very nice scenery on the drive over. Remember that even Late May in the high country can bring brisk temperatures, especially in the evenings so don't forget some warm clothing. Details of the motel costs and reservation phone number will be released shortly. If there are any questions, fell free to contact Steve Goodman either by phone: 303.278.4889 (day) or 303.934.5027 (eve) or email me at: rearengine.steve @ worldnet . att . net All of us at RMC hope to see everyone from CNM at Ouray in May 2005. - Steve Goodman =CNM= Rebuilt and Restored Mark Domzalski - July 2004 The days are getting shorter and the year is half gone. Where does the time go? It has been a busy past two months since you last saw a column. Thanks to the membership, we have a revised Constitution for our chapter. It is being published in the new Care and Feeding book. I will try, for your use and convenience, to have copies that will fit into the existing Care and Feeding books in August. The final chapter for Elizabeth's step-father was written. He just could not rally enough and succumbed to his injuries May 29. Elizabeth was with him when he died and I flew out for the services the morning after our last June membership meeting. After the services, we scattered him in his garden and yard that he loved so much and ultimately cost him his life. It just takes an instant for fire to get away. Elizabeth, her sister and mother along with the rest of the family are doing well as can be expected. Losing a loved one from sickness is terrible, but losing a loved one from a preventable accident takes the loss to another level. This is one of the worst fire seasons in New Mexico. Please be careful. We cancelled the June Board of Directors Meeting due to a conflict with the CORSA International Convention in Lexington, Kentucky. At the Convention I saw chapter members Mark and Mary Lou Martinek, Dave and Walter Huntoon, (Gary Huntoon was there as well) and Del Patten. Past members Dennis and Debbie Pleau, along with sons Michael and Steven, were there in their respective official capacities as Western Director and CORSA Merchandising Chair. I can say with complete accuracy that it was a wet heat for the convention. The Concours and Car Display featured, according to local statisticians, somewhere around 220 vehicles. There were 69 vehicles judged in Concours. I announced Concours, which we executed in about 3 hours and 45 minutes. Del had his car in the Car Display. I'm not sure if Mark and Mary Lou or Walter had theirs in the Display as well. Outdoor vendors were pretty substantial. Still not as good as the Fan Belt Toss, but very good for a Convention. Indoor vendors were setup in a ballroom in a lower (lowest?) level of the host hotel. Most of the indoor folks that attend every year were there plus some jewelry folks and a few Corvair type vendors that are local to the region. Regrettably, I had to leave Friday morning. I'll leave the reporting of event winners to our other chapter members in attendance. The Fourth of July Car Show on the Santa Fe Plaza is next weekend. Tarmo, who, along with Kay, will be in Estonia over the holiday asked me to let you know that entry time is 7:00am. Elizabeth and I will be in Portland, Oregon over the holiday to use our tickets that we cancelled at Thanksgiving last year. Please have a safe holiday. No fireworks this year!!! Burning down Albuquerque or the Bosque would be terrible, but burning one of our own would be much worse than that. Thanks from Elizabeth and me for all of your kind thoughts and prayers. See you soon. -- Mark =CNM= FAST-RATIO QUICK STEERING GEARBOX FOR ALL YEARS OF CORVAIR Seth Emerson THE AIRHORN - Chicago June 2004 - volume 37 number 6 (The following article was originally printed in the April, 2004, issue of the Corvair Society of Baltimore's newsletter, The Dryspot. The Dryspot article was based of a March 20, 2004, message from Seth Emerson on Virtual Vairs.) Manufactured by Flaming River Industries, this new gearbox is a faster-ratio direct replacement for the slow steering box in early model Corvairs (60-63). With a selection of adapters, it can be made to fit any year of Corvair car. The original standard Corvair steering ratio was described by one reviewer as "like winding an alarm clock." There have been "quick" arms available for many years, but shortening the arms to reach an acceptable ratio (by themselves), causes some goofy steering angles and hurts your overall turning radius. The factory did it right, shortening the arms a little and changing the ratio inside the steering box. If you have a Corvair with the original slow steering, you will be amazed by quicker response of the faster-ratio box. The factory quick boxes have become hard to find, ($$), at least in good condition. Flaming River Industries, at our behest, completely re-designed the steering box for the Corvair, adding needle bearing where sleeve bearing once lived and generally made a slightly beefier design, but one that interchanges with the original. No Corvair parts are used in the production of the new box, it is all new parts, nothing rebuilt. Steering Gear Tutorial Over the years of Corvair manufacture, Chevy produced six visually different steering box designs. Two of them were available with regular or quick "innards" but were visually identical. The six are: TYPE ONE - 1960-1963 - Short shaft, aluminum housing - slow ratio TYPE TWO - 1964 - Long shaft, all the way to the steering wheel TYPE THREE - 1965 (early) - Long shaft, all the way to the wheel (different than 1964) TYPE FOUR - 1965 (early) - Telescoping column - solid steel double-splined coupler TYPE FIVE - 1965 (late) - 1966 - Large stamped coupler - available slow or quick ratio TYPE SIX - 1967-1969 - Short shaft again (allows collapsible column) - Available slow or quick ratio All coupler equipped Corvair boxes (TYPES ONE, FOUR, FIVE and SIX) use the same column spline .625"x36 - But only the 60-63 TYPE ONE, uses a full 36 spline tip. The others have a flat edge ground onto the splined tip to "orient" the coupler onto the shaft when it is installed. The TYPE SIX box is virtually the same as the TYPE ONE, but with the added "flat." The TYPE FOUR and FIVE are almost identical to each other, they also have the ground flat on the spline. But the column shafts are much longer then the TYPE ONE and SIX. On the TYPE FIVE box, the column shaft extends about 15.25" out of the box, on the TYPE FOUR, about 14.25". The Flaming River replacement boxes are TYPE ONE direct replacements. To replace a TYPE SIX box, the flat must be grounded to properly orient the coupler. (The coupler expects a flat, and won't slide onto the shaft without it.) To replace the TYPE FOUR or TYPE FIVE box, an extender shaft must be added to reach the stock coupling; the splines on the extender must also have the flat ground onto it to mate with the coupler. I am working with Flaming River to produce extension shafts. They already make all the component parts for it. TYPES FOUR and FIVE are interchangeable, as long as the steering column is also changed over. Either complete system can also replace a TYPE THREE installation. If you have a TYPE TWO or THREE steering gear and you decide to race your car, (at any place you could actually hit something) you should seriously think about replacing it with a type that has some type of bolt-together coupler. The "front of the wheels" location of the Corvair steering gear and the proximity of the steering wheel to your chest is not a good combination when a solid shaft is added. Although a 60-63 column might be swapped into the 1964 (TYPE TWO), the solid coupling used in the early models simulates a solid shaft, with all the same drawbacks. Steering Arms Chevy only produced two designs of steering arms for Corvairs, regular length and shorter length. All were machined from forgings. The faster arms were only available as part of the fast ratio steering option for late-1965 through 1969 models. There were several after-market shorter arms available, and some are still available. All are machined from steel castings. In his book "How to keep your Corvair Alive," Richard Finch described how to shorten the factory forged arms to achieve a faster ratio steering. In order to fully realize the fast ratio steering option exactly as Chevy designed it, you will have to find or build shorter arms. For an autocross or racing car, the quick box can be combined with even the aftermarket cast arms - but it is very "twitchy" on the street, and I do not recommend it. At least replacing the slow factory steering alignment and turning radius. The fast ratio steering boxes are available from Silicone Wire Systems and other select Corvair performance dealers. You might be able to order one from Jeg's or Summit too. But wouldn't you rather support your Corvair vendors? Silicone Wire Systems is introducing these boxes at a special price $299 plus shipping. Just to prove I do not discriminate against non-racers, brand new "standard" ratio boxes, identical except for the ratio are on sale for the same price. These are an all-new heavy-duty replacement at about the same price as a rebuild! Silicone Wire Systems 3462 Kirkwood Drive San Jose, California 95117 (408) 247-2237, Sethracer@aol.com =CNM= The Constitution of Corvairs of New Mexico (see text on Jim's main web page) http://www.unm.edu/~casa/Constitution.html =CNM=