July 2020 – lee-lawmaster.com

Jeep Tax

The subject of my blog has by and large been about my dad’s IROC lately. It hasn’t been my intention, rather it’s been my saving grace in this dumpster fire of a world we are living in right now.

Due to that however, my Jeep got jealous. While driving to meet a friend who sells Amish vegetables I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting some deer. The brakes said that they were done, and starting then I had to pump the brakes and felt a constant but light grinding in the pedal.

The paint on my door hinges is bubbling up and peeling off, due to corrosion. I still don’t understand why FCA did this but the hinges are aluminum. They are placed directly on the steel body before it is painted. Overtime, they corrode.

I’ve also reached 100,000 miles. On this vehicle it essentially means it just needs a tune up. But what does that require? You must remove the upper portion of the intake manifold, called the plenum, to gain access to the left bank of spark plugs.

So, I’ve got a checklist of mechanical and appearance maintenance projects that I really need to do. This vehicle is my daily driver, I depend on it. It has been dependable to me, especially compared to the blue Jeep I had previously.

Over the weekend, I replaced the front brake pads and rotors. I don’t skimp on brake parts, as they are one of the primary safety features on a vehicle. I’ve been doing brakes on vehicles since I was just a kid. That said, this insanely hot and humid weather has been keeping me a prisoner inside. So I performed the task in my garage.

I’ve used many different combinations over the years, these are good for hard use.

The Bosch QuietCast rotors are the best rotors I’ve ever found. They are sprayed with a coating that inhibits the typical rust that happens on rotors. They come with the longest warranty I think I’ve seen for a rotor.

The Wagner OEx brake pads are quite literally the best brake pads I’ve ever used on a vehicle before. I installed these on my last Jeep. They are ceramic and have a lifetime warranty. Need new brakes? You don’t have to buy another set of pads with these. How great is that?

The removal and installation went as expected, with no major hiccups. My suspicions were confirmed however. The pistons on the front brake calipers were extended about as far as they could. The passengers side caliper gave me some troubles compressing, due to how far the piston had extended.

Once I had cooled off I decided to “bed in” the brakes. I noticed an issue however. The pedal was still going to the floor. This meant the master cylinder was bad, as it’s job is to build up pressure in the system.

Here’s where the plot twist happens though, on my drive to work (my home) today, it did not act that way at all. It acted normal, with allowable pedal movement. I’ve already ordered a replacement master cylinder through RockAuto.com. I’m going to keep a close eye on it, and possibly return this part.

So, one thing off the list – many more to go. Here is the list, in no particular order:

Replace Spark Plugs
Oil Change
Change Front & Rear Differential Fluid
Paint Repair on 3 Door Hinges
Rear Brake Replacement
Summer Deep Clean and Detail

July VCCA Meet

Yesterday was the July meet of the Indiana Chapter of the VCCA. Thankfully all of my ducks were in a row to finally bring the Camaro, and my youngest wanted to come along too.

We had a great drive up to Cicero, where we met at Red Bridge Park. It was during this drive that I learned the cruise control is now working in the car!

We were also visited by a member in a C4 Corvette that was red as well. While having our meeting someone arrived in a 1957 Corvette too!

We then cruised over to Anderson to have lunch at a golf club, where four members of the VCCA who are not members of the Indiana Region were invited. Amelia and I sat to ourselves, and had fun. She kept going on about a YouTube video, speaking in a french accent.

After lunch, we had a pleasant surprise, as one of our invited guests had brought a 1941 Chevrolet convertible with only 12k original miles on it. It was truly a beautiful car that you really don’t see anymore.

While we all were “oooohing” and “awwwwing” over this car, Amelia decided to sit in the car. With the air conditioning not working, she got hot. With the assistance of the wives in the group, I relented to take the t-tops off.

The director talked to me about how most of the members of the Indiana region have been officers multiple times, and are now getting to a point where they just want to come and enjoy themselves. Our official meeting was led by Joe, who appears to be the next closest in age to me. I definitely see and feel a urgency for a new guard to take the helms. Being so new to the club, it’s a little scary to me. This was important to my father however, and I will stand up to whatever task or challenge that is given to me regarding this club. I want it to continue.

We then cruised back to whence we came, but went to an ice cream shop. While there, cooling off from the day the sky turned dark and the weather became nasty. We all parted ways.

The trip home was full of concern and strife, as this car isn’t known for its wet weather capabilities. There were times when we had to slow to 20mph or less, as I could barely see the vehicles around me or their lights. It took us less than two hours to make it there, it took us around three to make it home.

We also drove the entire day on less than a tank of gas, which has been another concern. This makes the possibility of driving to Oklahoma a real thing. I think I still have some tweaking to do, but I am on the right path.

I really had fun, my company really knows how to make my mood be in tip top shape. I also think she really loves her papaw’s car now. That makes my heart happy.

I’m still exhausted the next day.

Vauhxx

In the past week the world has been reminded of my hometown, Bloomington Indiana. Sadly, for the same reasons it has many times in the past. A racial attack on another human took place.

It’s a little personal this time however, as the person who was attacked is someone I know of. Someone I have interacted with, and someone I equivocally believe and stand by.

At this point, the videos have went viral, the stories have been told. I am not going to regurgitate what has already been said. I’m going to explain to you how someone I first thought of as a troublemaker, an instigator, is someone I always believed.

Vauhxx Booker came to prominence (to me) as a member of Black Lives Matter. At the time, they were primarily making noise by interrupting city and county council meetings, and essentially ending a “state of the city” address. This was how I saw this man for a very long time.

I didn’t understand, nor appreciate the actions of the group at the time. I felt this was not a “proper” or “just” way to cause any meaningful change. That was of course because I hadn’t really opened my mind to the struggle the African American community has faced for hundreds of years.

After these events, Vauhxx ran for a position on the City Council. I couldn’t vote for him, but that was a move I appreciated – and wanted to see him win. The city council is full of people with ties to the university and lacking people of color.

This is when I came to know Vauhxx, as he was brought on board of a Facebook group I co-moderate. He was a loud voice for positions and issues most of us would have never thought about. He was unapologetic and brash in calling out people on their inherent biases and racial points of view. He added friction in a space that previously did not, but we all respected his voice and did not deny his right to speak his mind.

Over a few months, it was decided that the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few, and he was removed as a moderator. Our collective still respected the man however, the split was not made out of anger or haste.

At some point, he also joined one of the many commissions in the county, sitting on the Human Rights Commission. That actually inspired me, as I have reached out multiple times about joining local commissions and boards, to be more actively involved in my own community.

Vauhxx may be a well known person in my community, but he isn’t well liked by all. As witness to my previous words, I wasn’t exactly his biggest fan. He has a slight criminal record, as do I. None of us are perfect, and I don’t expect him to be either. As far as I’m concerned, all of the slanderous things being said of him at this point are just that, slander, victim blaming or apologist on behalf of white supremacy.

When I saw his facebook post that went viral, I did not doubt any facts. Nor did I doubt any of his narrative. I am sure he wrote it as soon as he could to provide a narrative in the moment. As soon as friends created a gofundme for him, I gave $500 as well as offering to cover any and all costs he might need help with for mental health services.

While I’ve never personally witnessed such behavior, I do not deny them happening. I never have. Our community has came out to support him in ways that have made me proud to be a Bloomingtonian. At the same point, there are many on the periphery of my life who have made statements that make me question their place in my life.

My mind processes things slowly. This however, I do not question. There have been too many lives lost for reasons that are without cause. There are too many lives that have been ruined by the judicial system that has imposed undue fines and even heavier prison sentences. I am proud to see society, during the middle of a pandemic, fight for this. While my physical restrictions make it unable for me to protest in the heat – I am there in spirit with you, by your side.

I Can’t Drive 145

The speedometer in the IROC has been a Pandora’s box. The first parts of it, were logical and lineal, the last parts have been anything but.

My second attempt, which resolved one problem but presented another.

The original problem was simple, it seemed. It was constantly reading a lower speed than it should, while the odometer was reading significantly faster than it should.

I first verified and replaced all mechanical gears to ensure those systems were proper for the setup of the physical car. This removes all of the problems up to the speedometer itself.

38 Tooth Speedometer Driven Gear with New Aluminum Housing

Originally, I assumed I could just adjust the needle and resolve the problem, resulting in me breaking the needle. Little did I know then, but that was a fatal mistake. Breaking the needle, broke the shaft the whole assembly connects to, which includes a clip that holds that shaft in the correct place, a clock spring to take the needle back to zero and lower the speed when slowing down, and a “black dish” that caps the assembly. The black dish butts up to but does not connect to the actual assembly that connects to the speedometer cable. This works through an eddy current system to display speed and record distance traveled.

Speedometer Carriage, take note of the spring

Backside of carriage, take note of the teeth on the needle

Black Dish piece. This attaches to the shaft on the image above in this orientation.

Eddy Current / Speedometer cable assembly. The part in the middle rotates. The black dish fits within it but operates without touching it.

My original fix was to replace the needle and shaft. To keep as many original to the car as parts as possible, which has been my charge on the restoration. Over a couple of test drives with only the speedometer in the car, I learned that the “black dish” was not staying in the same position on the shaft, causing it to then make contact with the eddy current system.

I had purchased 2 complete clusters out of other Camaros to use as parts to rebuild this speedometer. Because these parts are rare and ever expensive (a 145mph speedometer alone on eBay is $254), I only used one of these clusters initially. Yesterday is when I made the realization about the black dish and eddy current system touching. The only logical reason why that black dish refuses to stay in position is due to the cheap and thin material it is made from. The removal of it from the shaft, changes it’s ability to keep it’s position on the shaft.

Last night, I grabbed that 2nd cluster and found some pleasant surprises. It was an 85mph speedometer, from a base model car. The only gauges it has are the speedometer and the fuel gauge. The rest of the items are warning or “idiot” lights as they are known. I decided to transplant the odometer reels, face plate and needle I want to use to this one.

The pleasant surprise was that the 85mph speedometer did not have a trip odometer. The clips that hold the trip odometer in place on the other two speedometers I have been using had broken “J clips” which hold the axles of the trip odometer assembly in place. Since the frame of this speedometer had never housed a trip odometer, these clips were in place and never used. The only thing I had to do was move a simple gear that operates the trip odometer with the regular odometer, which was easy. I didn’t have to make any repairs to the assembly for the trip odometer to function. I had used zip ties on the one I was using.

The last two evenings I have been up until past 2am working on this speedometer. I have not had an opportunity to test the functionality of this as of yet, but it has the best hope of all of the things I have done so far. The largest question on this attempt is that spring shown at the beginning of this post. In each one of the speedometers I have, the collar on the spring is a different color. I’m unsure if these springs have different rates, this could play in the accuracy of the speedometer. Especially at higher speeds.

I have learned a lot on this journey. There isn’t much documentation I can find on the speedometers of these cars. The largest thing is the Trip Odometer fix from the 3rd Gen Forums. With my faithful girlfriend by my side, often having serious, heated debate on the issues with different points of view on how to resolve each problem that was faced, I think we did it. I’m so happy I have someone who stands beside me and is always up for helping me on things neither of us fully understand. That itself is worth it’s weight in gold.

Independence Day cruise with the Bloomington Auto Club

The test drives I have taken have brought up two issues that I need to remedy however. The air conditioning is not working. I will need to convert it to 134-a refrigerant. There seems to be a significant gas smell from driving, I believe this to be the charcoal canister needing rebuilt/refreshed. The car also died on me several times out of the blue with no warning, which could be associated with the charcoal canister.

UPDATE

This attempt did not give the results I were going for. Speed would not be indicated until I was going about 20mph, but would be accurate through about 40mph. Once I would reach highway speeds however, the speedometer would read much higher than I really was traveling. I’m leaving this image for evidence.

That said, I did finally reach indicator nirvana and the fix was quite easy. I changed the clock spring (pictured near the top of this post) to the one that was in the car originally. I had to make 2 slight adjustments to the needle position, and voila!

I have reinstalled the speedometer into the cluster. I just have to reinstall the entire assembly back into the car now and this wormhole will have been traversed. It’s been an adventure in learning about a subject I had no real knowledge on.