Must be for some other coilover kit but I swear MM has a grooved option on one of their bilstein struts.
Progress Thread Komo's 1990 GT - Parts Gathering Purgatory
- Thread starter gkomo
- Start date
I run Griggs Racing coil over kits and they have a "similar" sleeve design as MM but the spanner nut does not have the set screw like on the MM. It did not hurt that one of my good friends was a dealer so I got them at a nice discount.
If I had the MM's I would just skip the set screw if it will damage the threads on the sleeve. Talk to them and see if that is okay to leave out for a street car. I have had zero issues with mine moving and changing the ride height.
If I had the MM's I would just skip the set screw if it will damage the threads on the sleeve. Talk to them and see if that is okay to leave out for a street car. I have had zero issues with mine moving and changing the ride height.
i think it would just be better to get another spammer nut and jam them vs the set screw method. This is all if you are concerned with it moving.
Man, MM are my homies, not trying to talk bad about them, love those guys. BUT, my last 4 orders with them either doubled or tripled the lead time advertised and i've only gotten movement after emailing them requesting status. I ordered my 4-point k-member brace on 7/1, heard nothing until i emailed them on 8/1 asking for status. On 8/4 they replied that it was going to powder coating, haven't heard anything since and no shipping notification.
Luckily i am in no hurry with parts, especially just a kmember brace... but this has happened on 100% of my last four orders.
Luckily i am in no hurry with parts, especially just a kmember brace... but this has happened on 100% of my last four orders.
Same complaints with the C2 corvette suppliers on the Corvette forum site..... All " not in stock" or " backordered" ..... Will we ever recover from who was in charge during covid??????
Ugh, still getting code 34.
I’ve replaced the EGR valve, solenoid, EVP, and cleaned the diverter (I think it was the diverter). I tested my EGr valve by blowing/sucking (hehe) on the vacuum port. Diaphragm moves when sucking, can’t blow through it so I think it’s fine.
I have a smoke machine that I need to buy some smoke liquid for to check for vacuum leaks.
On another note, I still get a faint belt squeal on startup. I have a washer/shim pushing the alternator forward, I added another washer today to see if it would help, made it worse, so I took the second washer out, sanded the existing washer down a little, back to a faint squeal. Need to test no washer again, if it’s worse again I know I’m close to dialing in the alternator positioning.
I’ve replaced the EGR valve, solenoid, EVP, and cleaned the diverter (I think it was the diverter). I tested my EGr valve by blowing/sucking (hehe) on the vacuum port. Diaphragm moves when sucking, can’t blow through it so I think it’s fine.
I have a smoke machine that I need to buy some smoke liquid for to check for vacuum leaks.
On another note, I still get a faint belt squeal on startup. I have a washer/shim pushing the alternator forward, I added another washer today to see if it would help, made it worse, so I took the second washer out, sanded the existing washer down a little, back to a faint squeal. Need to test no washer again, if it’s worse again I know I’m close to dialing in the alternator positioning.
For the foreseeable future, I wasn’t planning on it. Just gonna run engine as is with the low boost and FMU.Are you getting a tune for boost? If so, just have them turn thatoff.
I also just want it to work correctly lol I’ve read the jritchker threads talking more about the electrical side of it, need to dig into that but I’m not very good with a DVM and knowing what the readings mean.
Well think of this as practice and we all know that the only way you get good at something is what? That's right....practice...wait, what?
@nicholase sorry to bug you, but when you shimmed the alternator with the s/c install for pulley alignment, did you only shim the 'stay' bracket from the smog pump where it connects to the alternator, or did you shim like the entire alternator attached to the s/c bracket? i tried shimming the alternator itself, but i don't think it can be... it seems to be sandwiched in between two mounting points (one on the s/c bracket, and the other on the smog pump) so i don't think it can be pushed 'rearward', but just wanted to make sure. I am seeing a tiny tiny gap between the smog pump pulley and alternator pulley (gap is on the bottom of the smog pump pulley - top of smog pump pulley and both top/bottom of alternator pulley line up) when i put a straight edge on the two pulley faces so there is some alignment gap.
I 'think' the alternator needs to move rearward ever so slightly but i'm not seeing how it can be done.
Or maybe I’m spinning my wheels and I need to shim the bottom of the smog pump forward… ugh I hate this
I 'think' the alternator needs to move rearward ever so slightly but i'm not seeing how it can be done.
Or maybe I’m spinning my wheels and I need to shim the bottom of the smog pump forward… ugh I hate this
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Lol. No problem. As far as adjusting the alternator in the Vortech bracket i was referring to just the stay bracket.
The large bolt that goes completely through the bracket and also completey through the large boss on the alternator should hold it perfectly in line and parallel when tight. Unless there was a manufacturing defect with either the bracket or alternator.
It's the small stay bracket that was causing me issues. It's just a stamped steel 90° bracket and not really all that precisely made from what I could tell.
Mine needed to be tweaked (slightly bent) to resolve my belt squeal. It would pull the alternator crooked when tightened. I could physically feel the alternator shift when I tightened the bolt.
I'd take the belt off and loosen the stay bolt to the alternator and see if the alternator moves at all. If it doesn't tighten it back up and loosen the other bolt from the stay bracket to the smog pump and see if the alternator moves at all.
Any movement there, even a barley measurable amount will cause it to be out of parallel enough to cause a quick squeal at startup. You really need to put a hand on the alternator as you tighten the bolt and see if you feel the alternator shift at all. I could move my wrench from snug to to tight and back and forth and feel the alternator itself shift ever so slightly as I turned the wrench back and forth.
It's difficult to use a straightedge like you're doing. The metal face past the last belt groove is a little thicker on some of the pulleys. So the straight edge doesn't always show you exactly what's happening.
For the time being just trust the alternator is at the proper depth and the long bolt is holding it true. Also trust that the stay bracket is pulling the alternator one way or the other a minuscule amount causing your issue.
I really think you'll find it there.
The large bolt that goes completely through the bracket and also completey through the large boss on the alternator should hold it perfectly in line and parallel when tight. Unless there was a manufacturing defect with either the bracket or alternator.
It's the small stay bracket that was causing me issues. It's just a stamped steel 90° bracket and not really all that precisely made from what I could tell.
Mine needed to be tweaked (slightly bent) to resolve my belt squeal. It would pull the alternator crooked when tightened. I could physically feel the alternator shift when I tightened the bolt.
I'd take the belt off and loosen the stay bolt to the alternator and see if the alternator moves at all. If it doesn't tighten it back up and loosen the other bolt from the stay bracket to the smog pump and see if the alternator moves at all.
Any movement there, even a barley measurable amount will cause it to be out of parallel enough to cause a quick squeal at startup. You really need to put a hand on the alternator as you tighten the bolt and see if you feel the alternator shift at all. I could move my wrench from snug to to tight and back and forth and feel the alternator itself shift ever so slightly as I turned the wrench back and forth.
It's difficult to use a straightedge like you're doing. The metal face past the last belt groove is a little thicker on some of the pulleys. So the straight edge doesn't always show you exactly what's happening.
For the time being just trust the alternator is at the proper depth and the long bolt is holding it true. Also trust that the stay bracket is pulling the alternator one way or the other a minuscule amount causing your issue.
I really think you'll find it there.
Ok good to know! I think you’re right I was under there just looking at it today and there’s no adjustment ability with the top bolt that goes through the front a/c bracket, alternator, and then through the rear bracket. So like you said I’ll trust that’s all squared up.
When I added a second washer to the stay bracket it made the squeal worse, so that tells me it does have something to do with the stay bracket. The dayco laser tells me it’s perfect but obviously that’s not the case, just need to figure out the correct washer width. I’m shocked such a small amount of washer width can make such a difference. Thankfully, I’ve done this enough times where I can take the belt off, take the bottom stay bolt out, test a new washer and put it back together in like 10 minutes.
I will hand feel if the alternator moves next time I loosen the stay bracket. I have yet to bend the bracket one way or the other so that will probably be my next step.
Appreciate the feedback.
Sure. In my case it wasn't enough for a washer or shim. When I tightened the 'stay to smog pump' bolt I could see the stay bracket wasn't laying completely flush on the alternator. So when I'd tighten the bolt it would flex the alternator just a little. I just had to tweak it until it layed flush.
I think the reason such little changes in pulley alignment introduce a squeal is because the vortech bracket relocates the alternator so close to the smog pump. The pulleys are nearly touching. So any bit of an out of parallel situation is amplified due to the closeness of the pulleys.
Same deal with the relocated belt tensioner. It's relocated to be almost touching the AC pulley. Trust the two bolts holding the tensioner bracket to the vortech bracket are true, and also trust the single bolt holding the other end of the bracket to the water pump is flexing it a little out of line when tightened.
When all that is sorted you can fine tune your belt length. The Vortech relocated tensioner is in a different relation to the belt than the stock setup.
On the stock setup there is quite a bit of slack created when the tensioner arm is fully turned because when under tension it dives deep into the belt. There is a bunch of belt bent around the pulley. You could probably get away with several different size belts because of all this movement.
On the vortech setup the tensioner is relocated and doesnt dive as deep into the belt. There is little to no belt wrap around the tensioner pulley when under tension. So when you fully turn the tensioner it just doesn't create that sort of slack for any margin of belt lengths.
Finding a belt that fits around the pulleys and allows the tensioner to properly tension the belt can be a little difficult. If anyone has done this you'll know even with the tensioner arm fully turned and completely out of the way of the belt, the determining factor is if the belt will go around the rest of the pullys or not.
I went through several belts until I found one that fit snugly around the pullies but I could get it on pretty easily by hand. However I felt the tensioner wasn't applying enough tension and the next size smaller belt wouldnt fit around the pulleys by hand.
To remedy this I drilled a second hole in my tensioner bracket for the tensioner nub to go through. This clocked the tensioner more and allowed more spring tension on the belt.
I think the reason such little changes in pulley alignment introduce a squeal is because the vortech bracket relocates the alternator so close to the smog pump. The pulleys are nearly touching. So any bit of an out of parallel situation is amplified due to the closeness of the pulleys.
Same deal with the relocated belt tensioner. It's relocated to be almost touching the AC pulley. Trust the two bolts holding the tensioner bracket to the vortech bracket are true, and also trust the single bolt holding the other end of the bracket to the water pump is flexing it a little out of line when tightened.
When all that is sorted you can fine tune your belt length. The Vortech relocated tensioner is in a different relation to the belt than the stock setup.
On the stock setup there is quite a bit of slack created when the tensioner arm is fully turned because when under tension it dives deep into the belt. There is a bunch of belt bent around the pulley. You could probably get away with several different size belts because of all this movement.
On the vortech setup the tensioner is relocated and doesnt dive as deep into the belt. There is little to no belt wrap around the tensioner pulley when under tension. So when you fully turn the tensioner it just doesn't create that sort of slack for any margin of belt lengths.
Finding a belt that fits around the pulleys and allows the tensioner to properly tension the belt can be a little difficult. If anyone has done this you'll know even with the tensioner arm fully turned and completely out of the way of the belt, the determining factor is if the belt will go around the rest of the pullys or not.
I went through several belts until I found one that fit snugly around the pullies but I could get it on pretty easily by hand. However I felt the tensioner wasn't applying enough tension and the next size smaller belt wouldnt fit around the pulleys by hand.
To remedy this I drilled a second hole in my tensioner bracket for the tensioner nub to go through. This clocked the tensioner more and allowed more spring tension on the belt.
Thanks again for the detailed write up!Sure. In my case it wasn't enough for a washer or shim. When I tightened the 'stay to smog pump' bolt I could see the stay bracket wasn't laying completely flush on the alternator. So when I'd tighten the bolt it would flex the alternator just a little. I just had to tweak it until it layed flush.
I think the reason such little changes in pulley alignment introduce a squeal is because the vortech bracket relocates the alternator so close to the smog pump. The pulleys are nearly touching. So any bit of an out of parallel situation is amplified due to the closeness of the pulleys.
Same deal with the relocated belt tensioner. It's relocated to be almost touching the AC pulley. Trust the two bolts holding the tensioner bracket to the vortech bracket are true, and also trust the single bolt holding the other end of the bracket to the water pump is flexing it a little out of line when tightened.
When all that is sorted you can fine tune your belt length. The Vortech relocated tensioner is in a different relation to the belt than the stock setup.
On the stock setup there is quite a bit of slack created when the tensioner arm is fully turned because when under tension it dives deep into the belt. There is a bunch of belt bent around the pulley. You could probably get away with several different size belts because of all this movement.
On the vortech setup the tensioner is relocated and doesnt dive as deep into the belt. There is little to no belt wrap around the tensioner pulley when under tension. So when you fully turn the tensioner it just doesn't create that sort of slack for any margin of belt lengths.
Finding a belt that fits around the pulleys and allows the tensioner to properly tension the belt can be a little difficult. If anyone has done this you'll know even with the tensioner arm fully turned and completely out of the way of the belt, the determining factor is if the belt will go around the rest of the pullys or not.
I went through several belts until I found one that fit snugly around the pullies but I could get it on pretty easily by hand. However I felt the tensioner wasn't applying enough tension and the next size smaller belt wouldnt fit around the pulleys by hand.
To remedy this I drilled a second hole in my tensioner bracket for the tensioner nub to go through. This clocked the tensioner more and allowed more spring tension on the belt.
I think I have the belt length dialed in at 90.31”… took me buying 4 belts to figure this out (should have done the string method before wasting money), but it works now and I have good belt tension. I also have the Cobra WP and alternator pulleys still on the car.
Anyways I will focus my attention on the stay bracket and I get what you’re saying about the alternator and smog pump pulleys being so close to each other making the pulley alignment more critical.
Damn that bracket is not easy to bend with the tools I have on hand. It’s thick! I tried heating up the 90 degree bend but not sure I got it hot enough. From what I can see I need to not only ‘open’ the bend a bit, like to 93 degrees, but also twist it so the bottom hole moves to the drivers side more.
On another note, is this a good spot to have the wide band bung welded in? It would make the sensor be easily accessible, meets the 10 or 15 degree above center requirement and is before the O2 sensor. However, it’s very close to the O2 sensor and I’m not sure if that matters. The guy I would have weld it in (same guy who did my subframes) would probably need me to like tell him where to weld it in and he just does the cutting/welding. So I wanted to literally mark with a sharpie where it needs to go.
This is the drivers side view of the xpipe looking up where it meets the headers.
On another note, is this a good spot to have the wide band bung welded in? It would make the sensor be easily accessible, meets the 10 or 15 degree above center requirement and is before the O2 sensor. However, it’s very close to the O2 sensor and I’m not sure if that matters. The guy I would have weld it in (same guy who did my subframes) would probably need me to like tell him where to weld it in and he just does the cutting/welding. So I wanted to literally mark with a sharpie where it needs to go.
This is the drivers side view of the xpipe looking up where it meets the headers.
Do you have a vice? Put in in the vice and tap it with a hammer in the direction it needs to go.
On another note, is this a good spot to have the wide band bung welded in? It would make the sensor be easily accessible, meets the 10 or 15 degree above center requirement and is before the O2 sensor. However, it’s very close to the O2 sensor and I’m not sure if that matters. The guy I would have weld it in (same guy who did my subframes) would probably need me to like tell him where to weld it in and he just does the cutting/welding. So I wanted to literally mark with a sharpie where it needs to go.
This is the drivers side view of the xpipe looking up where it meets the headers.
Most widebands give the clock position and also the minimum distance from the closest exhaust port on the head. It's probably around 18" or so. Widebands generally need to be further away than narrowbands because they can't take as much heat. You might have to make some concessions and have it closer than recommended because you're running the cali cats. I'd put it (before the cat obviously) as far away as possible where you can maintain you clock position.
Oh, and once you sharpie it, tap a center mark with a center punch. The sharpie mark will likely burn off on the way.
I do have a pretty beefy vice, just no where to mount it to lol. Dad gave me one of his old ones, but my work ‘benches’ are like Costco shelvings that wouldn’t be strong enough for something like a vice. Maybe I could bolt it to a thick piece of wood.
For the O2 bung I’ll have to read the directions again I thought it was 15” from the manifold to head flange and before the O2 sensor, but maybe I’m mistaken. If it is right before cat then that should be easier actually.
Hmm, took the car to work today. I ran codes when i got to work just since the car was fully up to temp and that doesn't happen often. Just showing code 34 still, no surprises there.
However, i took a break to get gas and on the way back there is a long straight stretch of road so i floored it in second gear, was pulling great up in the rpms until i got to 5k, it completely fell flat. Like 90% power was gone. Very weird feeling. I shifted up to 5th and just cruised to the stop sign at the end of the road. Did one last quick pull in second, just up to like 3,500 rpms and felt fine. Parked it and checked for leaks, didn't see any. Any ideas?
Just to refresh regarding the fuel system, injectors are freshly rebuilt and flow tested, Walbro 255lph in take pump. Ignition is all stock, plugs replaced not too long ago, new cap/rotor, wires. Coil is 'old' (don't know history, but i haven't changed it).
However, i took a break to get gas and on the way back there is a long straight stretch of road so i floored it in second gear, was pulling great up in the rpms until i got to 5k, it completely fell flat. Like 90% power was gone. Very weird feeling. I shifted up to 5th and just cruised to the stop sign at the end of the road. Did one last quick pull in second, just up to like 3,500 rpms and felt fine. Parked it and checked for leaks, didn't see any. Any ideas?
Just to refresh regarding the fuel system, injectors are freshly rebuilt and flow tested, Walbro 255lph in take pump. Ignition is all stock, plugs replaced not too long ago, new cap/rotor, wires. Coil is 'old' (don't know history, but i haven't changed it).
