Images and steering couplings

So I drove the car over to my pops' house so I could take the wheels off and look at the parking brake, which isn't working correctly. I took some pictures while I was there, all of which can be found in the gallery. While I was taking pictures, my brother noticed something. The "flexible steering shaft coupling assembly" (rag joint) was all fubar.

It looks all bent and broken and broken, but it's supposed to be like that. The problem is that the bolts aren't the right kind, and the rubber part is all brittle and mangled. Someone bought a cheap overseas repair kit to fix it sometime over the last 42 years, and didn't do it right.


I went hunting all over the internets to find out what the part was called, how to get a new one, etc. Thanks to Jim Shea and the guys at the Corvette Forum, I was able to track down the GM part numbers for a 1968 Corvette Coupe. The coupling is part number 7806391. The pinch bolts (to mount the coupler to the steering shaft) are part number 7807271. I ordered them today, so hopefully they arrive in time to work on it Saturday.


New rag joint and pins: $102


I never did get around to fixing the parking brake. Turns out, whoever owned the thing before I did put on some wheel lock nuts (lug nuts that need a special tool to be taken off, so no one steals the rims). Of course, when I bought the car over 120 miles away, the guy didn't give me the special tool. We spent the majority of the day trying to figure out how to get the stupid lug nuts off without damaging anything important. In the end, a Dremel grind wheel and brute force got it done. The two rear wheels are done, but whenever I get around to taking off the front wheels, I'll have to Dremel and fight with it again.


New, non-pain-in-the-butt lug nuts: $5


Finally, I looked at the braking system and found out what was wrong, but that's another day (and paycheck).