Finally! Boy it feels good to be driving an SVX again. As many of you may know, my first SVX was stolen from my home just after this past Christmas. Tuesday I flew to Kentucky to meet with Huck and take the keys to his 92 Pearlie 5-speed. Huck met me at the Lexington Airport after he got off of work and we drove back to his place. He is every bit the nice guy in person that he is here on the network. He showed me his project cars and his bikes and even showed me a couple "Hill, Billy" hotrods at his in-law's place.
After a restless night of sleep at his place he woke me up so we would be on the road by 7. After saying our good-byes and his farewell to his (formerly) SVX I embarked on my 11 hour ride home to PA.
As any other owners of stick-shift SVX can attest, having a manual tranny really changes the personality of this car. WOW! Everything about it feels...different, for a lack of better words. If you ever have the opportunity to drive one please do. I must also add that there is a definite difference between the 92 LS and the 92 LS-L. Not just a cosmetic difference but the overall refinement. I know that it's got to be my imagination and the fact that I had been from behind the wheel of an SVX for a month and a half, but even the switches felt more refined. Something in the tactile feedback that seemed different from my LS. One thing that I know is not my imagination is the way the thing steers. Much nicer than the base LS. I remember driving Mike's 5-speed at the Reading meet last year and noticing the night and day difference between my old car and his and I am happy to say that this car feels just like his did.
The interior is in great shape. One small hole in the passenger seat vinyl and a very dry, cracking patch in the leather of the passenger seat side that faces the glass. I also need to repair the headliner by the passenger sunvisor. The visor flaps down and the original owner must have used pins to hold up the visor. The pins ended up pulling the fabric loose from the headliner so it is all bubbly in that area. Huck used a different method to hold it up and that stopped it from getting any worse. Other than a couple scratches that occur from normal use it is immaculate. Even more impressive considering that it has over 157K miles on it.
The exterior is in good shape overall. No rust anywhere that I have found. A small dent in the driver's front fender and what looks like a walnut dent in the roof. The area around the driver's side of the radiator mount needs to be pulled down so the hood closes square and the lights are level and even. When Huck purchased the car it had frontend damage. The shop that did the repairs did a great job except for that one little area. It's not really that noticable but I hope to one day get it fixed just to make everything "right".
Mechanically it seems very sound except for the tranny. The engine is the second one it's had. Huck replaced the original one with a lower mileage engine (100K compared to 150k). Before installing the replacement he replaced all the seals and gaskets, pumps, plugs, belts and hoses on it. It should be good for another 100K on top of the original 100k it has seen. It does burn some oil and this morning when I started it there was a lot of blue smoke coming from the exaust until it cleared out. More than likely it is leakdown from the valves area seeping through the valve guides. Once it is running I did not see any more smoke from it. The tranny will need to be replaced, hopefully by the end of this year. The 4th & 5th gear synchros are going and the lower gears whine much more than I would expect or have heard from other manual transmissions. I am not surprised at all by this considering that the tranny has close to 200k on it. I should be able to get a decent low mileage Legacy tranny that will use the same clutch for a few hundred dollars or less. Those parts should be pretty cheap around this area as Subies are quite common on our roads. It is also something I planned on replacing before I purchased the car so all is good.
I do plan to replace all the engine and tranny mounts as they are way soft and seem to be shot. Huck installed a 5-puck Kevlar clutch this past year and when warm it gets really grabby. Pulling out in first gear is quite tricky to do smoothly (at least for me) and when it shudders the whole drivetrain shakes and bangs. I half expect to see the hood make like a container of "Jiffy Pop" when the engine pops loose and spins inside the front end.
New mounts should be fairly cheap and easy to replace. I would like to adapt STI mounts to it and have even considered fabricating solid mounts.
The exaust system on the cart is amazing. The owner before Huck had it had installed a Magnaflow package. Huck said he believes it to be a special package created just for the SVX based upon the overall appearance of the system. Too clean and professional looking to be a cobbled up system. I haven't crawled under the car yet to examine it but the sound it makes is amazing!!! It sounds like a Ferrari or some other exotic racer. I have heard the Stebro system on other SVXen but this system sounds even better IMO. I can't wait until the Reading meet to show it off.
While driving it home yesterday I created a mental punch list of things to repair or replace on the car. Any suggestions on "how to" or "what with" are welcome.
I LOVE THIS CAR!
High priority:
Loose heat shield - rattles something awful at highway speeds (repair/remove)
Remote side-mirrors (don't work)
Driver's left rear window switch (not working)
Drivers side window switch auto up/down (not working)
Adjust clutch to engage closer to floor
Passenger visor (flops)
Recondition leather (good product?)
Replace stereo (cd's skip/don't read) *Purchased one on the way home with the car.
Indiglo gauges (don't light up)
Replace rear rotors (warped)
Replace engine mounts
Switch lights (replace bulbs)
Tighten all the dash bolts (a little creaky)
Medium priority:
Replace tranny
Low priority:
Fix fender dent
Repair frame by radiator
Johnny (did I mention that I LOVE this car??
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