Got the car back from the "mechanic" today complete with its state inspection sticker. After a panicky moment when I thought they'd botched the clutch hydraulics (turned out to be a sticky pedal), I calmed down and got it on the highway. Still very pleased with the overall driveability. I tried having my son time us past mile markers with the rpm at a steady 3000. The speedo showed that would've been about 54 mph at the old ratio. The stopwatch showed we were now doing about 67 (there was enough variability that I wonder how accurate the Virginia mile markers are). Suffice it to say that the change means the difference, on a 55 mph highway, between being constantly passed and keeping up with or even ahead of most traffic. Hallelujah!
The rear of the car definitely seems a lot less squeaky than the front now. Guess I'll have to keep working on that end. The mechanic pretty much botched the exhaust install (he was piecing together various dissimilar bits, so it wasn't entirely his fault, I guess), so it bumps the underside pretty often. I'll have to take it to a real muffler shop and see if they can't improve on things. Eventually I'll probably spring for an entire stainless set up.
I'm not happy with the camber with the new Olson compensating spring. With the hard top on and a full tank of gas, it still sits a bit high in the back. And most of the time I've got the hard top stowed. I have a new spring compressor to try, so eventually I'll try different, thinner pads for the spring.
There was something else, but we're getting a severe storm warning, so I'd better sign off. I'll try to summarize most of this thread on a couple of web pages, along with all those scintillating snapshots.
Thanks again to all for your tremendous help and patience with this old rube.
John
John Livingston
Newport News, VA
1968 280SL 4 speed manual
