<VV> thermisters, Stingers, shocks

[Joe West]

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Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 11:24:55 -0500

From: Thomas Robert R Civ OC-ALC/MAEAPE <Robert.Thomas@tinker.af.mil>

<VV> thermisters, Stingers, shocks



The device on Ebay in that particular auction isn't a thermister, it's a

simple temperature sending unit found on water cooled engines. Their web

site has some useful Corvair electrical parts listed but no thermisters. As

far as being accurate - the cylinder head temperature indicator installed in

Corsas probably weren't all that accurate to begin with and serve as they

are supposed to - an indication of what the temperature is doing - rather

than as an absolute measure of the temperature. The easy way to check the

thermistor is to wire it to a CHT gauge and suspend it in boiling water.

The gauge ought to read around 212 degrees. Of course the gauge markings are

too coarse to indicate degrees with that kind of accuracy and there's no

telling what it's doing up around the top of the scale.



There are 4 actual thermisters listed on E-bay, two broken and two that

look decent starting @ $15 each which is about $80 less than a used one at

the east coast place if they had any.



Questions about Stingers are better addressed at FastVairs. Many owners are

there. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fastvair and they know virtually

everything about those desirable cars. Plus they're really great people.



Shocks - I'm not understanding the idea of using stiff shocks on the back

and softer shocks on the front due to the weight differential. When shocks

are engineered, the weight each end suspends is one of the important

elements taken into consideration. Using stiffer shocks on the back can be

a very bad thing because that can exacerbate oversteer. I believe if a

manufacturer sells front and rear shocks for Corvairs, they should be

installed as a matched set unless the owner of the car knows a lot about

suspension engineering -especially for street cars. This seems too logical

to me to be ignored. Of course if I were logical I would have a Corvair in

the garage.



Bob Thomas

68 Monza, CORSA, INCA, OK

[plbooth]

It has been my experience that stiffening only one end of any car tends to cause rather dramatic chgs in the handling characteristics. That said, for years stiffer rollbars were added to countless frontends and they only caused slightly LESS understeer, not oversteer. Having added rear bars to a number of cars, 64 chevelle, 69 nova, 65 corsa, 71 Buick GS, 60 chevy sedan delivery, 81 chevy pickup, and 91 blazer (in roughly that order over 25 years), it has been my experience that since all understeered rather badly (yes, the 65 corsa in factory attire understeered), extra stiff in rear hurt nothing. My daily criver corsa has the lower rear arms inner attach pt lowered by 2 inches for better geometry, gas shoocks all around, stock front, and 1/2inch rear bar added at the outer shock attach pts. and even with stock sized tires, still understeers up to the point of adhesion loss, then the vair is gonna swap ends if no quick action is taken. I modified some Monroe 32080umm and 32132 to fit by pushing out the lower rubber and pushing in the corvair tubes. works peachy tho much stiffer. Best if luck,