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With politics heating up in the US of A, I was reworking my joke about Ralph Nader promising to bring back the Corvair if elected.  But apparently, he’s not running for president this time. In any event, I came across an article about Nader and the Corvair that sheds a new light on his book, the car, and automotive safety. Perhaps he wasn’t such a bad guy afterall.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/timothy-noah/95749/nader-and-the-corvair

In the words of Volvo’s founding fathers, “Cars are driven by people. Therefore the guiding principle behind everything we make at Volvo is – and must remain – safety.” I get that … but couldn’t somebody bring back the Corvair anyway?

After three months of work (and too much money) the white 1966 Chevy Corvair 500 coupe got to the point that it was running and drivable. I was able to drive it to work three days last week. But the rattling flywheel was something that would have required more work than I was willing to do. So, last weekend, I sold the car to a young man who had been looking for a good project car. After a careful explanation of the problems and a test drive, Ricardo agreed to purchase the car for a reasonable price.

It was with mixed emotions that I watched him drive it away. It was a good looking car and the kids loved it. But it was not a car that I would have driven during the winter. And I’m not one to keep a car in the garage for any extended period of time. Cars are meant to be driven! So, on to the next project. Speaking of projects … once I finish a few projects around the house, I’ll talk things over with the family and see about getting another car — this time a daily driver.

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Above: The 5th Grade Class of Mentor Christian School

For those interested in purchasing my 1966 Chevy Corvair, here are a few pictures of the car. It is a 110 hp Flat-6 air-cooled engine with a 3 speed manual transmission. It runs and drives and can be driven at highway speeds. I have recently replaced the rear shocks, spark plugs, points, cap & rotor, wheels and 5 tires, carb choke coil, and both fuel filters. It has been timed and the points set. While this is not a show car, it looks nice and could become a nice car for someone. The front and rear windows need to be sealed and the chrome trim put back on. The clutch makes a rattling noise when you let the pedal out which may be the throw out bearing or flywheel rivets (depending on who you talk to). The speedometer cable is disconnected and so the miles is unknown but it says 31k miles. It’s a fun car for the right person.

I drove the Corvair to work on Saturday. With the exhaust fixed, the engine is pretty quiet. But there is a rattling noise that happens only when the clutch is released. But it doesn’t happen when accelerating or if I slightly depress the clutch pedal. Bob St. John thinks it might be the throw out bearing. But Corvair Underground said otherwise.

THE ENGINE MAKES A HORRIBLE RATTLING NOISE – yes, I realize that you think you have rod bearings going out but this is rarely the case. First, remove the fan belt and run for a short period of time. If the rattle goes away you can be pretty sure that the blower bearing is bad. That not being the case the next thing to suspect is a bad flywheel. A positive test is to let the engine idle in neutral and slightly depress the clutch pedal – if the rattle goes away or changes then you have bad rivets in your flywheel and it must be replaced with a new bolted unit Sometimes there is no rattling but a lot of vibration.

The funny thing is that I was able to drive home on I-90 Saturday evening and keep up with traffic (60-65 mph). So, it can’t be that bad. The other issue is that the car stalls at traffic lights. I tried to adjust the idle myself but couldn’t figure it out. So, I think I will have to take it back to Bertone’s to see what he can do.

For the past few months, a leaky windshield seal has kept the Corvair in the garage. But that’s not the only reason it’s been in hiding. The biggest problem is that I have not been able to keep it running. Even after installing two rebuilt carburetors and timing the carbs, the car would not run correctly. Bob St. John (a friend from church) and I got the linkage worked out and timed the car until it purred like a kitten. But the next day, it died two miles from the house and had to be towed home. So, I parked it in the garage hoping to find a good “old school” mechanic who could help me out. But who still knows how to work on a Corvair?

I thought I had found the answer when an instructor at Ohio Technical College agreed to make the tune-up a class project. Kris Brickman, the dealership’s picture taker, is currently taking classes at Ohio Technical College and arranged everything. You can imagine how excited I became about this. The school would provide the labor and any parts would be my responsibility. That sounded like a good deal especially as I already had a set of points from NAPA, a choke coil, and the carb sync tool. But as I was making arrangements to transport the car to downtown Cleveland, the instructor took a different job thus ending the possibility.

As I considered these things, I found a set of five Corvair wheels and almost new tires on the local Craigslist site. For only $150, the car no longer has dry rotted rear tires. But I also found that two of the wheels were missing a lug nut. That led me to NAPA in Painesville where I found out about Bertone’s 76 gas station. “Zeke” (NAPA) told me that Mike Bertone was an old school mechanic who could handle the Corvair. So, after a short conversation at the gas station, the car is scheduled to be worked on Friday morning. They expect to have it over the weekend and be finished (here’s hoping) on Monday. Maybe I’ll be able to drive the car before the snow flies afterall!

It took a while to get the nerve up, but the worn out carburetors are finally replaced! The following pictures show the engine compartment before and after.

They still need to be adjusted, but we were able to drive the car on the freeway and around town. The only problem we had was … running out of gas! Thankfully we were across the street from a friend’s house when it happened. The next step is to use my newly acquired air flow measuring tool. It’s supposed to measure the flow of air through the top of the carburetor enabling me to match the two carburetors. We shall see how that goes.