Ken's SLC build thread

[Tom W]

Looking good....

 

[Steve]

My wife thought those were bronzed antlers from a moose....

 

[Ken Roberts]

I just got lucky and found a brand new Racelogic traction control system (with the digital adjuster) for my next car build. They are getting very hard to find but well worth it for piece of mind.

Now if I could just find another Ricardo transaxle....yuk yuk yuk.

A question for any of the Grazianno owners. If you elect to install the "drop gears" is purchasing the V10 model still preferred over the V8 model?

 

[Brian Kissel]

Great find Ken. Ricardos's are out there also. I recently found a new one and sent it to RPM. There they hand fit the sliders, micro polished the gears, cyrogenticly treated the gears, magged and zygloed the parts and reassembled. I bought some spare starters, and gear lube also.

Regards Brian

 

[Allan]

I just got lucky and found a brand new Racelogic traction control system (with the digital adjuster) for my next car build. They are getting very hard to find but well worth it for piece of mind.

Now if I could just find another Ricardo transaxle....yuk yuk yuk.

A question for any of the Grazianno owners. If you elect to install the "drop gears" is purchasing the V10 model still preferred over the V8 model?

The drop gears are designed to go into the V8 model so no need to pay the extra for the V10. The drop gears bring the gearing more like the Ricardo and first gear becomes useful.

 

[Ken Roberts]

Is anybody that added the E-Stopp handbrake system interested in selling me their leftover pull type handbrake lever? I'd like to design a mounting bracket for my next car.

 

[Ken Roberts]

Is anybody that added the E-Stopp handbrake system interested in selling me their leftover pull type handbrake lever? I'd like to design a mounting bracket for my next car.

I ended up purchasing the hand brake lever from this company. It appears to be the one used in our cars if anybody needs a replacement. They sell for $38.

Emergency Brake | Levers and Controls

 

[Scott]

Now if I could just find another Ricardo transaxle....yuk yuk yuk.

Ken, I just bought a new Ricardo and starter this week -- I already have a set, but I wanted backups. Ricardos are available but the price is only going to go up. I know where you could get a new one for a "reasonable" price... PM me if you're interested.

Have you made any progress on upgrading your rear hubs?

 

[Ken Roberts]

The rear hubs can't really be upgraded due to the custom made 27 spline axle stubshafts we have. The SLC C4 hubs use 27 spline. The C5 and C6 up to 2008 use a 30 spline stubshaft. The 2009 and up C6 use a 33 spline stub axle.

The C5 and up hubs all have the same bolt pattern but they are slightly different then our C4 hub bolt pattern.

To upgrade to a rear SKF X tracker hub would mean getting a new custom rear upright made with the C6 hub bolt pattern and then a 30 or 33 spline stub shaft would need to be made for the axles. Sounds too expensive to me unfortunately.

 

[Daniel G]

Ken,
I just finished looking through your entire build thread. That's one hell of a car your building. I like the way you integrated a lot of the GM factory components. I thought about doing the same with my build. I'm still researching on a factory audio system that is easy enough to retrofit into our cars without spending too much money and time. Keep up the great work. Your car is looking fantastic!

 

[Ken Roberts]

I finally got around to installing the ZR1 Corvette SKF X Tracker front wheel hubs. The adapters to convert them for use on C4 Corvette and 1998-2002 Camaro are made from Chromoly steel. They fit up snugly just as the hubs supplied with our SLCs do.

The C4 Corvette owners and Camaro owners that track their cars regularly claim that the front hubs must be changed out twice per year. When they switched over to SKF X Tracker hubs they were able to go two years without changing them out. There was far less pad knock back as well when cornering.

Mounted in place (left picture)

What the adapter looks like.
Pointing to the lip

A back side look at the lip once installed in the upright

The snug fit in the upright (right picture)

 

[Ken Roberts]

The only bit of modification that needed to be done was at the top center of the pocket in the upright. A very light touch with a die grinder and aluminum bit easily took care of it as shown in this picture (between the 2 black marks).

 

[Ken Roberts]

These SKF hubs are available in two models. One has the passive ABS sensors for use in C5 and C6 Corvettes up to 2008, and the other model for C6 Corvettes 2010 and up with the active ABS sensors. These "passive" hubs should work with my Racelogic Traction control system to increase the resolution from 5 pulses per revolution to now 47 pulses.

The SKF X Tracker hubs can be purchased here:

Corvette SKF HD X-Tracker Racing Hubs

Even the OEM stock C6 Corvette hub with the adapter would be an upgrade over the older C4 hub if you don't like the $700 price per pair of the SKF X Tracker hub.

If you are just building a street cruiser than this mod may not be for you due to it's price. If you plan on tracking the car occasionally and want to enjoy driving/racing it without as much maintenance than this might be the ticket.

 

[Ken Roberts]

The chromoly adapters sell for $475 shipped for a pair. They have mounting ears on them for a cooling duct plate. I will post pictures of the cooling duct plate fitted to the upright/hub assemby after I get finished fabricating them.

Contact Jim Dulaney by email at [email protected] if interested.

 

[Ken Roberts]

Here are a couple of pictures showing the differences between the stock C4 hub that is used on the SLC and the SKF X Tracker hub used on the ZR1 corvette. The SKF hubs shaft is hollow where as the C4 hub is solid. The SKF hub and adapter was slightly less than a pound heavier. You can see the difference in thickness of the flanges when side by side.

 

[Terry Oxandale]

Great photo documentation of comparisons between the two. I use the C4 hubs on my project, but have always had a concern about reliability with them. What you've posted is a big help.

 

[Ken Roberts]

Here is another option to consider Terry. Hoosier Performance also sells a rebuildable style of heavy duty wheel hub. Scott Swartz has installed them on his SLC. They are expensive at $1400 a pair. They use the more traditional cone bearing and replaceable race.

http://www.gt40s.com/forum/502515-post114.html


4th Gen Fbody Heavy Duty Hub Assembly - The Hoosier Hub

EDIT 2018........these are no longer available.

 

[Scott]

In the following post there is a good picture comparing the hub supplied in the kit with the Hoosier one. My understanding is that the one the kit is better than the OEM one. The primary reason that I did the upgrade was to get an OEM-like tone ring for traction control. So you have three known options; free, $1,175 (when you include the adapters) or $1,400 (plus machining). The Hoosier's are heavier duty, re-buildable and come ready for press in or threaded studs, but they're more expensive and require the uprights to machined in you have a newer car.

Ken, if you recall my uprights had a lip on the uprights that I had to machine off. Your earlier version didn't have those lips so I'm wondering what happens with someone with a newer car copies your upgrade... will they will need to machine them off. Looking at the pictures, it doesn't look like it, but it would be great if you could check how they compare in that dimension.

http://www.gt40s.com/forum/502086-post104.html

 

[Ken Roberts]

The lip on the adapter is much shorter than the lip on the factory supplied wheel hub so it should fit without needing to machine the protrusion in the upright bore.

Compare my 2nd picture (adapter lip) to the 8th picture (factory supplied hub lip) I posted.

 

[Ken Roberts]

I finished the custom LS9 build for the next project car and developed a belt wrap that eliminates the large and heavy power steering pump. There is very little in the way of 11 groove belts. It's an odd size. Quick work with a utility knife and a 14 groove belt in the desired length and it's now narrowed to a 11 groove belt. The drivers side idler pulley was removed and a 12 groove pulley from a Caterpillar with a machined spacer (for alignment) was installed. The belt runs on the 11 inner grooves.

Now the water pump coolant outlet piping will be easier to route as well as the large air intake piping that must be curved around to face backwards.