The Big Day

Yesterday was finally the vehicle inspection day for the Corvette. The inspection started at 10am but I woke up early to tune some final points. First I tested the horn as for some reason it had not worked the day before. Now it worked fine. Strange. Secondly I tightened the hand brake cable a bit and finally checked the lights once more. Then it was time to go.

Drive to the inspection office proved to be a test of waterproofness. It was raining quite heavily the whole way but I couldn't see any leaks yet. But another problem appeared! The wipers didn't always work properly. They would randomly stop working. Awkward... I would have to check the wiper switch grounding at home.

The drive took about 30 minutes and I went to fill the papers and pay for the inspection. After a cup of coffee, the inspector appeared and we went to see the car. And first failure was found immediately: the heater motor didn't run. I didn't known that it was mandatory so I had not fixed it. The motor was fine but some wire was loose from the AC control panel. Despite this problem, we continued.

Another slightly embarrassing fault appeared a little later. One of the power steering hoses had been chafing agains the cylinder bracket and was in bad shape. And then decided to burst right in the middle of the inspection spilling fluid all over the floor! Wonderful!

In the end the car didn't pass and I got the fault list:

1. Driver side hand brake was too weak. As all the parts were new, I just needed to tune the brake a bit.
2. Parking light color was wrong. I had yellow bulbs in the lights but they were forbidden. I would have to change the bulbs to clear ones.
3. Back-up lights were faulty. They worked but not when the reverse gear was on. I would have to adjust the switch a bit.
4. Tie rod clamps were loose. Just would have to tighten the nuts.
5. Power steering hose had to be changed.
6. Steering didn't return to center when turning. The steering box adjustment was too tight and had to be set.
7. Gear indicator was missing from the center console. 
8. Heater motor wasn't working. I would have to reconnect the wires.

That's it. Many small things but mostly just fine tuning. Only parts that I would need were the hoses. I had four weeks to fix the problems and inspect the car again. With the list in hand, I drove home in pouring rain. This time some leaks were found. The upper edge of the windshield was leaking and water started dripping in. I had waited this as my friend said he had seen the same thing earlier. I would have to glue the chrome trim again and hopefully that would stop the leaking.

I went to work and found the power steering hoses from US-Parts. I decided to replace all four hoses as most likely they were pretty old. With the hoses in hand, I had all the parts I needed.

After getting home in the evening, I started going through the list. I replaced the bulbs, tightened the tie rod clamps and adjusted the steering box a bit. Problem with the steering box was that I would have to take a test drive to see the effects but couldn't legally drive the car as the temporary plates had expired...

Finally I decided to replace the power steering hoses. I drove the car out to the yard and jacked it up. Unfortunately it started to rain again. I really want a larger garage! Luckily I had a car cover that I used to make a tent :)

This kept the rain away for long enough for me to replace the hoses. It was a pretty simple job, if somewhat fiddly to do without a lift. The return hose needed to be cut to correct length but the rest went straight in. I didn't have any power steering fluid so it would have to be added later.

So after a few hours of working, half of the faults were fixed already. The rest shouldn't take that long either so the car should be fixed soon!