Sorry for the lack of updates lately.  Here is what I have been so busy with:

On the night of July 10^th (a Saturday) I was coming home from the Streets of Woodfield when I leisurely shifted my car from 3^rd to 4^th gear.  I then proceeded to try and shift into 5^th, but the shifter would not budge.  Not realizing what was wrong at the time, I pushed relatively hard and the shifter popped out of 4^th.  I put the shifter through all the gears, and thought that it getting stuck in 4^th was just a one time deal, so I put it back into forth, only this time it would NOT budge.  Hence, I had to drive home on the expressway, then on residential streets, only using 4^th gear (not fun, let me tell you).  The dealer was closed Sunday, and both Monday and Tuesday I was extremely busy.  Finally on Wednesday (and after me ripping apart the dash to make sure it was not the Hurst shifter that may have caused this problem) I had the car flatbeded to the dealer I purchased it from, Woodfield Chevrolet.  I drove in without an appointment, and within thirty minutes they had a technician looking at the car.  The technician said he had seen similar problems before in other Corvettes (didn’t really know how to take that…heh).  Later that day, they called saying my 4th gear synchro went out, and they were going to replace that, 4th gear, and the 3-4th gear shifting fork.  They also said it would be ready for pick up either Thursday or Friday.  I didn't get my hopes up...for good reason.  Thursday came and went.  We called the dealer and asked if the car was done, but the person who had been helping us (named Eric) was gone for the day.  We had someone else look into it, and they said "if yours is an EB Z06, nope, tranny is still out and it’s up on the lift."  Obviously, that annoyed me.  Early the next morning (after leaving a voicemail for the Eric) we got a call from him and he said they looked "deep into the transmission" and realized they needed a bearing, but that it would not arrive until Monday because no where in the Chicagoland area had it in stock.  Thus, they would have to get it sent from Chicago.  No offense, but I would have driven into Chicago (half an hour away) to get the part.  To me, something just didn't seem right.  I was pretty angry because of that, so I decided to go check up on the car Saturday.  It was indeed still on the lifts; however, there were small paint chips on the rocker panels and a few on the door.  The TI exhaust was lying on the ground getting scratched up, and the car was, in general, dirtier than when I brought it in.  I became even more angry when one of the workers was extremely condescending toward my father and myself (we were given permission to go look at the car, but the guy back there kicked us out in about five minutes, and was not very kind in doing so).  I got home and left a message for the Service Manager, Mark.  I explained everything that had been going on, and told him to call me ASAP Monday.  Around eleven o'clock Monday, the phone still sat silent.  I finally called the dealer and asked to be connected to Mark.  They told me he was out to lunch.  When Mark finally called back he said he had "just gotten in."  He then proceeded to tell me the bearing came in, but they also needed a shaft for the transmission, and that was nowhere to be found (but would hopefully be there the next day).  I brought up the condition of the car and he adamantly said it had been there the entire time, and no mileage was put on it.  I told him one donut in the back lot could do the damage described, and he became offended I would say this and then said "there is no conspiracy to hide up anything that happened to your car."  He said the car should be done Tuesday, assuming the part came in.  So finally, I get the call that the Z06 is ready.  I just want the car out of there, so I go, pick it up, and start driving it home.  I had put the stock shifter back in (just in case they tried to blame that on the malfunctioning transmission), and had not driven with it for quite some time, so I partially forgot how it felt.  However, the shifter was NOT centering itself.  If you pushed it to the left or right, it would partially stay there; it would not spring back into the center position.  Then, when I tried to back the car out of my garage, I could not get it into reverse.  It took me about five minutes to finally maneuver the car into reverse.  I called Mark again, and left a message for him.  The next day, Mark did not call back, so again I called him.  He claimed he never received the message, but that I should bring the car in ASAP.  So, today, Thursday the 23^rd, I brought the car back in to the dealer.  I explained what was wrong with the shifter, and was quite confused on how someone who had test driven the car would have said everything was ok.  A few hours later Mark called me up and said that they had forgotten to tighten a reverse pin, and that the problem was all fixed.

 So, after over a week at the dealership, my car is finally back home, with a partially rebuilt transmission.  I re-installed the Hurst shifter, and everything seems to be back to normal. 

 The dealership still never gave any straightforward answer to why my 4^th gear synchro would go out with less than 2,600 miles on the car, and with me babying it most of the time.  Oh well…at least this whole ordeal is finally over with.  In my opinion, don’t take your car to Woodfield Chevrolet to have it serviced.  Mark turned out to be a somewhat nice guy at the end, however, he knew I was at wits end and if any more problems arouse, I would become a massive thorn in his side. 

 Here are the parts replaced according to the invoice:

-         3-4 gear synchronizer

-         4^th gear

-         Bearing

-         F-Shaft

-         F-Shaft ASM

-         F-Bearing

Hopefully with this all behind, I can now return my attention to the site.

Carleton