Support/Help needed - a host of issues

[ghook1967]

Proud new owner of a new to me '76 vette here. It passes the "Looks great" test from 10 feet away. However...

Boy can I smell my brakes!

I have no brake lights, period... thinking it's the switch because I have tail lights and signal lights

Horn does not work, when I test the connection (i.e. rewire to an auxiliary slot), the horn turns on and stays on.

The factory AC Makes a LOT of noise (squealing).

oil pressure gauge reads 80? Seems awfully high

wondering if I have an inner wheel bearing gone bad. (Squeak... squeak... squeak... chirp... chirp... chirp...)

The car sat a lot before I bought it. In the last 3 days I've put about 150 miles on it and all of these things became apparent.

any easy fixes here? any and all advice will be appreciated.

[GTR1999]

Well welcome to the world of old vettes. Typically you will find they have been worked on by a lot of people some of whom may have done more bad then good.

If this car sat for some time I would not be driving it anywhere until you get it checked. The brakes for one will need attention. The brake fluid will turn to an acid base mud and it will clog and rot the lines. The rubber hoses will close and lock the brakes. You need to bleed the system and probably check the calipers. Cars like this I just install a new brake system from Muskegon Brakes.

The bearings could also be going bad. I had trailing arms sent to me from cars that sat for years and the bearings ate into the race with corrosion. Fronts are easy to replace but the rears are unique and require special procedures and tools.

Electrical problems could be corroded terminals or mouse damage.

[Vettehead Mikey]

oil pressure gauge reads 80? Seems awfully high

Bubba may have installed a high flow/high pressure pump during a rebuild. No need for that kind of pressure. 50ish maximum is more normal.

[Dirty Dan]

Howdy,
Rear wheel bearings aint bad. Just get a bearing splitter, good punch, and a nice hammer. Be carefull when setting them. The worst part about any of the rebuild since it's that old is the rust and just getting it apart. I had to cut my trailing arm bolt to get them out. But now that it's all done it runs great. pay attention to shim packs if you take the trailing arms out. I would have a couple seals on hand for the bearings, because I bent the hell out of some when trying to set them. But the bearings are definitely worth doing. Just make sure you only have under 2 thousandths of play in the spindle after setting them. And over about 1.4 thousandths. The closer the better you wont want to do it again. If it gives you any confidence I'm 18 just bought an 81 vette and did this all on my own and took it on a 120 mile round trip without a flaw after rebuild. bushings are important too. you will see a lot of stuff that needs to replaced when you get under it.....
good luck with the vette
Daniel