1966 L72 built March, 1966

[Dave Dezinski, Sr]

I was the original owner of a 1966 427/425 convt. I special ordered this car, it was built in early March of 1966. I owned this car for almost 3 years and was driven daily (my only transportation at the time).


I have a couple of questions I often wondered about over the years, and never really got any concrete answers:


1. When I picked up the car at the dealership in 1966, the MSRP sticker was incorrect, an option I had ordred was NOT listed on it. I brought this to the attention of the dealer, and was told the option was probably missed at the factory. Still bought the car, could live without the option.


A couple years later, while working on the car, I found that the option was on the car, it was just not listed on the MSRP sticker.


Anyone run across MSRP mistakes like this? 2. After I had the car about 3 months, the alternator belt snapped in to, in my driveway. I removed the upper alternator brace adjusting bolt and pulled the brace up. I found the car had TWO upper alternator braces sandwiched together.


The next time I was at the dealer, I asked a mechanic that had a 1965 L78 coupe about the 2 upper braces I found. He told me that GM had a problem with the upper brace cracking at adjusting bolt slot on the L72's, and was probably a factory fix.


Anyone have any information on this fix?


Dave NCRS #16980

[JAT]

Re: 1966 L72 built March, 1966

My car is four years older than your 66 but my alternator belt adjustment brace was a single application from the factory, however it did break in the bolt adjustment portion of the brace about 15 years ago. Bought a new one from GM, but its not exactly, a true ringer for the original one. I think I still have the old one somewhere though. I also lost the alternator belt on my car after it was about a year old.

[Everett Ogilvie]

Re: 1966 L72 built March, 1966

My '66 L72 was built May 31. The original alt. brace is still on the car, and was cracked in the same location. I bought a couple of repros, and after looking into things like slot locations and lengths, I came to the conclusion that anyone who sells one part that fits both the '65 396 and the later 427's, is getting by with having one incorrect part for all applications. SO, I welded my original up, and so far so good. (Must admit I am a fanatic about using original parts, as this is a Bowtie car).