Thanks for setting up the cruise Russ. We had a great time and the weather turned out really nice.

 

Hey nice shots there. Sorry I had to cut out before the cruise could start-- car stage fright I guess.

At least it finally cranked on me after a couple hours and made it home. Now to figure out which part of the car to kick.

 

The cruise was fun for those of us who made it. The weather was really weird. I don't think I saw rain heavier than a light sprinkle that made turning the wipers on a waste of time except for a circle of about a 5 mile radius around Don's shop! Once out of Orange County, it was cloudy West of the mountains, but I never saw another rain drop!

 

Yep, all the rain was over Don's shop. The rest of the cruise was real nice. All Pontiacs showed up for breakfast. Not a Camaro to be seen. However Mike did make it to the Casino with his Camaro. The line was to long for him to stick around and still make Chula Vista. Nice trip and the wife and I had a good time.

 

man im jealous wish i was there,great pics

 

I'm bummed I missed out. It was raining really hard at 7am on my way to the shop. And I had gotten little sleep the last two days, so I bailed out. I ended up taking a nap after you left, Russ.

 

It was really strange, Kevin. he weather in Orange looked like we were possibly about to experience a 100 year flood. When I got to the 91/55 interchange, the rain had stopped and I didn't see another rain drop all the rest of the day. When I left your dad's shop, I thought I would be the only one at thew restaurant for breakfast, but since it was a cruise I was organising, I figured I ought to show up just in case someone else made it. By the time we finished breakfast, the parking lot was dry enough for me to get down on my hands and knees to make sure my exhaust system had not come apart again to cause the ses light that I told you about in the pm. The previous rain had washed all of the dirt and oil off the parking lot, so I didn't even get dirty!

 

One of the nice things about having alot of horsepower on tap is the ability to pass a car on those two lane mountain roads. You are around them in an instant.

 

Did you find the problem yet? Have you tried having a volt meter on the battery while you crank it to see if it drops like crazy. It just reminded me of my car when I got it, and it turned out to be that the battery was worn out.

 

Apparently it was the starter that burned out because it was not disengaging properly. I took it to a shop to have it all inspected and they couldn't shim the starter properly so I had to remove the LT-1 starter and put the stock starter back in, which is a royal pain to get in there. I still believe it can be done with the LT1 starter so why it is such a problem on my car is beyond me.

 

I think the shop that tried to shim your lt1 starter didn't know what they were doing, or else they didn't have the right size shim to do it correctly and didn't know or were too lazy to go get the right shim(s). The other possibility is that the partts store where you bought the Lt1 starter sold you an Ls1 starter instead, but I don't think the Ls1 would even bolt up. I have an Lt1 starter in my T/A and it went in without a problem. 305's and 350's are all identical with respect to the starter mount. The Lt1 starters are all identical, so it isn't "rocket science" to install an Lt1 starter in a 305 or 350 for a competent mechanic.