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Our summer temps have been wild this year, but they're winding down now. I installed them on Sunday when it was approximately 30°C/86°F.
We're now heading back down to 23°C/73°F.
I'll update when I feel the doors have become easier to shut again.
Can anyone post a pic of how their passenger side crankcase vent hose is routed?
Mine popped out of the valve cover grommet, so I bought a replacement grommet, which turns out to be ever so slightly tighter than the old one, so the hose fitting sits snugly once more.
Yet I feel the hose itself is under some pressure from the heater control valve, adding to the issue of popping out the fitting.
Don't worry about the particles on the old grommet. My engine compartment isn't that dirty, lol. I just threw the grommet on the floor before thinking about doing a comparison shot.
My door seals seem to have reached a certain level of regularity after two and a half weeks, by the way. Maybe even a little sooner.
What remains is the effect of a slightly saggy driver's door, but the passenger side closes up nicely again.
My door seals seem to have reached a certain level of regularity after two and a half weeks, by the way. Maybe even a little sooner.
What remains is the effect of a slightly saggy driver's door, but the passenger side closes up nicely again.
Thanks for the update. I look forward to doing mine now, lol
There are adjustments you can make to the whole headlight assembly to get that door in line with the hood. It is a bit of work, but it can be worth it if it bothers you. At the very least you may need to buy shims to get it up, you could also try shimming the motor stops.
I already spent lots of time adjusting my front end and it just keeps looking quirky in pictures, mainly because the headlight lid is thicker than the hood.
There's no way this will ever look any better and it doesn't seem as bad IRL.
Yeah, not long before that cr*p starts coming down
It's been a while since I first posted the pictures of all those parts I had ordered.
That's almost been the last time I saw the T/A till two days ago.
I had the shop remove the engine and overhaul most of it.
The head gaskets and the oil pan had been leaking, plus one of the freeze plugs had to be replaced in the past. It just was time for this engine to be reworked.
Also, my cam had seen better days. I still don't know what happened to it, though.
If you look very closely, you can almost see the lunar lander near one of the craters!
Thankfully the crank was in much better shape.
I was surprised that the freeze plugs were in fact just covered with dirt and already brass plugs. I thought they were all close to dying on me, after that first one cracked open.
Still got them replaced. You can't get to them all while the engine is in the car.
So yeah, it got the whole shebang: timing gears and chain, balancer, plugs, freeze plugs, gaskets, shaft seals...
So now, after exactly 8 months of waiting, I finally got it back and took it for a spin or two.
It's all sealed up now, but I had secretly hoped to get rid of a certain "jitteriness" in the drivetrain, which is still there.
Guess I'll have to get the transmission redone at some point, too. You can feel how it'll slightly... clunk... during gentle acceleration or when it'll kind of jerk a little while holding the speed.
There's also RPMs where you can hear how the engine suddenly seems to get more load for a moment. The RPMs will not increase steadily for a moment or they'll keep increasing, but it fills like the power's not getting to the axle.
Sounds like slippage. What do you guys think?
I did have that issue of the transmission jumping into neutral while backing the car up once, so it just keeps pointing to the transmission.
Yes, Dave. Those are hydros, so this shouldn't have happened. I mean... if there were dirt in the oil, ok, but why should there be and why would it only cause damage up there and nowhere else?
Today I went back into my steering column to figure out why it wouldn't return the turn signal lever to its neutral position when I completed a right turn.
Turns out the turn signal cam didn't pick up the switch's upper spring on its way back, instead nudging it out of the way.
I still had the original switch, so I compared the springs to each other -> no significant difference.
Tried a new signal cam -> no difference, but when I pulled it out a bit, it seemed to lock on a bit.
Eventually I removed the moving component from my old switch and replaced the new one with it.
That's ok, as the original issue was in the wiring and not in the contacts of this part.
Gone are the days of the forgotten manual turn signal return
Yes, Dave. Those are hydros, so this shouldn't have happened. I mean... if there were dirt in the oil, ok, but why should there be and why would it only cause damage up there and nowhere else?
Well, I'm not engine building expert. But no, that shouldn't happen. Was this an aftermarket cam?
I had a carrier bearing fail years ago. Kept the old one...it's on the radio in the shop. Failed due to spalling, and that due to an excessive load is my guess. Looks a lot like that. I know the cam isn't a bearing, but it has a similar surface appearance.
I'd think it was the stock cam. It looked exactly like the replacement and I didn't go for a performance cam.
Would be surprised if the previous owner had swapped it out for an aftermarket cam.
That's a great document you shared there. The part about contamination comes very close to how the lobes looked, just less serious.
Excessive load seems to be concentrated around certain areas of the bearing, but all my lobes were damaged over their entire surface.
Both is possible, though. I used to have failing injectors and a lot of heat for a while. Perhaps someone used some kind of additive in the oil... we'll never know :/
Today my distributor would not stop screeching, so I went ahead and replaced it.
The old unit would not turn as freely as the replacement once it was out and my weird drivetrain issues plus that occasional whirring sound seem to be gone now, too.
I'll have to keep an eye out for that on my next cruise, though.
Do you know these creepy issues you can never quite pinpoint the cause of?
Let's look at how to get down to the cause and not just throw new parts at the car.
My car still had that chugging issue in low load cruises and sudden drops in power while accelerating, so I hooked up my computer to the ALDL port and did some test driving.
Additionally I studied my FSM once more, which taught me that my MAP sensor, MAT sensor, fuel pressure and TPS were ok and that the ECM uses those values to choose BLMs and INTs and checks AFRs using the oxygen sensor.
What I found suspicious was how TunerPro displayed my O2 sensor's readings and how the INTs repeatedly kept going down and back up after roughly 10 seconds at idle.
The BLMs and INTs should both be at 128, ideally. If the values are less, the ECM thinks the air/fuel ratio (AFR) is too rich, (less oxygen in the exhaust stream) and tries to compensate by reducing the injector pulse width, so they inject less fuel, thus leaning out the mixture.
This could also mean leaking injectors, but mine are BOSCH pink tops I had gotten replaced in 2012, so they should not be so far gone yet.
Higher BLMs and INTs suggest a leaner mixture, btw, so the ECM would compensate by adding fuel.
Now why didn't I dig into the injectors?
Well, the O2 sensor crosses between low and high voltages quickly, I think between 100 mV and 800 mv? The graph shows that my O2 was sticking somewhere in the higher voltages.
And that is exactly why the ECM thought I had a rich mixture. A higher Voltage means less O2 in the exhaust stream.
I got a replacement O2 sensor and had a hell of a time getting the old one out of my exhaust manifold. No space to work with all that emissions stuff, the steering column and the brake system around there.
This is how it looked.
See that duckegg blueish color at the tip?
My FSM diagnosis chart said something about dustlike deposits coloring the O2 sensor gray if you use a wrong type of silicone/RTV on gaskets.
I don't know about that, but I recently had my engine overhauled, including the valve stem seals. They were leaking oil into the cylinders and that would of course deposit itself on the O2 sensor.
This is how my graph looks now.
See how the O2 sensor alternates through the entire band as it's supposed to?
My BLMs and INTs are not perfect, but far better than before and the repeated resetting of the values at idle is gone, too.
So far I have not witnessed the power loss and chugging again, but I will keep my eye on it.
FYI: The ECM should use a reference pulse of 450 mV while the O2 sensor is still cold, disconnected or the engine isn't running.
Mine is somewhere aroung 560 mV and I don't know why. Always has been.
That could also cause the ECM to think something's too rich, but I have to investigate that separately.
Here's another job I just can't recommend doing AT ALL!
I was putting it off so badly that I polished the oil dipstick instead.
Well, it was all grimy in a few spots, so why not?
Nice, huh?
This one's just for fun, because it looks like something you could use as a stock photo for something.
But to get back to topic:
My lower driver's side door hinge was troubling me, as the bushings had clearly failed and I didn't want to put it off for too long, in fear of damaging the holes on the door side hinge... which is welded to the door.
I had a Dorman hinge pin and bushing kit lying around for a couple of years now.
A few pieces of advice before we get started:
- This is a two-people job. I'm sure you can manage it alone, given the right equipment, but I would not recommend it
- The FSM says to compress the door spring, remove the lower pin and unbolt the upper hinge. Hell nah! You can't get the spring out and how on earth are you going to get that pin out of that tight spot?
- Turn the front wheels to the right as far as they go, loosen the rear half of the fender liner and get your arm and a 13mm wrench into that space, so you can remove the front lower hinge bolt
Right, let's begin.
You'll quickly notice there's no simple all-in-one connector for the door electronics ANYWHERE.
Nope. You seriously have to remove the door panels and disconnect the power lock motor, window motor and power mirror and pull the wires through the hole towards the body.
That is, in itself, not a big problem.
It is a hassle, though, because you have to remove the protective foil from the door, at least in certain areas, and the adhesive won't hold again.
See this little fella? There's one sitting behing the metal sheet your armrest is screwed onto. Have fun opening it up and getting it back together in the end
Even more fun are those grey connectors with the staple through them. You can pry two of them out, but on the inside of the door, toward the front, there is a bump with another one and you can't rip it out.
There's no outside access to it! WHO THOUGHT OF THAT? I tore a long piece of plastic out of the wiring's isolation, which held it in place and I didn't replace it either.
Also, you may want to unscrew this switch so your interior lights don't kill your battery over the weekend. It closes to ground, so keep it from touching the body, like this.
Once you unbolt 4 13mm screws from outside the body and two 15s from the inside, you can pull the door away from the body and move those cables out of it.
These doors are heavy. I recall something around 70 pounds? I had trouble lifting it up far enough to get it onto my benches.
Next thing is the spring. You'll need a spring compressor and it will have to go between the spring coils as far apart as possible. Squeeze it, pull it, put it aside and don't remove it from the tool.
This was the end of day 1 for me. To get the fender liner out, I had to kill the pins holding it to the fender. 29 years and those suckers were still doing their job unwaveringly!
I had to break the heads off and push the remains into the fender to get them out. I still had some replacements from my Firebird left over, so I could put those to use in the end.
And since there's a mouse that keeps returning to the garage and lives inside my car jack and keeps crapping all over the floor, I decided to close the car up for the night.
Day 2. You can remove the pin from the lower hinge by squeezing the two prongs together and pushing it out toward the top. Take the body-side hinge, push out the old bushings using a vise and replace them.
Then simply reattach. Do something against any rust spots you may encounter.
Give the moving parts some grease, reattach the spring and this hinge is done.
Oh, another piece of advice:
That single hole for the 13mm bolt? Some tutorials advise to drill it to a larger size and I totally get it now.
For the assembly at the factory this was probably a nice feature. Attach the door to the body using this one as sort of a guide pin, then tighten the rest of the bolts and all would align up nicely.
After so many years and sagging doors this tiny hole diminishes all possibility of adjusting that door. And it's a hell of a job trying to get it to align with the hole on the body.
So if you have alignment issues, enlarge this hole and spare yourself some suffering.
The other two holes have oval counterparts and allow for adjustment.
Now this is the part where it gets interesting as these two studs were flattened under pressure, so there's no easy way to remove them.
I tried a file. No chance, takes forever.
I then tried a drill with different sizes. You can't get it to line up straight, so you'll drill at an angle and get nowhere.
Finally, I got a cutting disc for a Dremel and that's what helped me achieve my goal.
Still was a PITA, because I could only remove tiny parts from the squished stud and it took me forever.
Go for the small end, btw. Not the large end.
This is what it looked like after I had removed enough material and punched the sucker out.
Punch the bushings out any way that works and carefully hammer the new ones in. Small steps, no big hits. They go in quite easily.
The new studs have threads and are secured in place with self-locking nuts.
You may experience something cracking sound, because there are teeth on the studs which will find their way into the hinge eventually and it pops into place while tightening the nuts up.
So, this is how it'll look in the end. Lower hinge...
...upper hinge.
My door works nicely again.
Oh, and when you go on to reattach the door, attach the frontmost 13mm bolts first!
You'll still be able to access the upper one without trouble and it's hard to align the holes for the lower one once the others keep the lower hinge from moving around.
Alright folks, this is all for now.
Good fight, good night!
Be safe!
Thanks!
Yes, I'm saving loads in car taxes; the insurance stayed just about the same in my case, but it covers more now, including coverage for the cost of a replacement car of the same value if something really bad were to happen to it.
And I don't need to put that ugly big green emissions sticker on my windshield anymore
Thanks!
Yes, I'm saving loads in car taxes; the insurance stayed just about the same in my case, but it covers more now, including coverage for the cost of a replacement car of the same value if something really bad were to happen to it.
And I don't need to put that ugly big green emissions sticker on my windshield anymore
Sorry for the rant but then you have even more socialist countries like Romania that "copy" Germany so well that I can't even get the green emission sticker for my 2004 GAS as in NOT DIESEL Chrysler 300M. The idiots think euro norm = emissions. Following their logic a Daewoo Matiz from 98 gas 800cc pollutes more than a euro 5 3000cc diesel BMW just because it was built earlier ...the level of stupid of these green communists in Europe is destroying so many cool classics. Following these waste of atoms I should scrap my Firebird and never ever ever get it near a city where now "adults" go around on those electric scooters kids used to have as toys back when humans were normal in the head. We are f*****... ,especially me because I have lots of american cars and I'm really into american cars in general.
Oh and for my american friends....google Matiz and remember that crap was built under Pontiac too lol
Last edited by FirebirdUSX; 03-09-2020 at 04:31 AM.
That's what you get for having people in governments deciding stuff without being qualified, without checking facts or even doing their homework.
But that's how Europe works these days. Somebody has a great idea, their government adopts it but modifies it so it doesn't make any sense anymore.
The other states observe, then adopt the idea and change it even more. Germany has a few great examples of this process, e.g. their version of interchangeable license plates.
Yes, I remember seeing the Chevrolet logo appearing on dealership lots and how happy I was about it until I realized what they were selling, lol
That was far worse than what Pontiac did to the LeMans in the 90s, which was just a successful German "Opel Kadett" with a Pontiac logo.
Interesting how Pontiac marketed them, though. I can't imagine myself going for one of those back in the days.
That's what you get for having people in governments deciding stuff without being qualified, without checking facts or even doing their homework.
But that's how Europe works these days. Somebody has a great idea, their government adopts it but modifies it so it doesn't make any sense anymore.
The other states observe, then adopt the idea and change it even more. Germany has a few great examples of this process, e.g. their version of interchangeable license plates.
Yes, I remember seeing the Chevrolet logo appearing on dealership lots and how happy I was about it until I realized what they were selling, lol
That was far worse than what Pontiac did to the LeMans in the 90s, which was just a successful German "Opel Kadett" with a Pontiac logo.
Interesting how Pontiac marketed them, though. I can't imagine myself going for one of those back in the days.
You could in theory go to your local Chevy (Daewoo) dealer and ask them to fix your Trans AM lol ...
I went to Fiat with my Chrysler 300M and asked them to change my oils and radiators...they looked around and said they don't have the tools and by tools they don't have the sockets for american nuts and bolts (inch not metric) ...that was a gold experience. Ain't doing that with my Firebird because I'm affraid someone will try to "fix" it.
As for government...i have to get the Firebird as historic car ,I still pay 2,000€ a year on property tax for it...then road tax and insurance ,all this because it has 5.7 liters of air inside the engine block. If I'd get 5.7 liters of air through a turbo then it would be fine...the more I think about this the more I feel moving on Mars.
Thought I'd help you out on the "Unknown" RPO's on your list.
VAN = ASSEMBLY PLANT, VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA
6ZX = COMPONENT FRT LH COMPUTER SEL SUSP (6ZX)
7ZX = COMPONENT FRT RH COMPUTER SEL SUSP (7ZX)
8NL = COMPONENT RR LH COMPUTER SEL SUSP (8NL)
9NL = COMPONENT RR RH COMPUTER SEL SUSP (9NL)
AAA = 4-WAY MANUAL SEAT ADJUSTER
D3W = GEAR SPEEDO DRIVEN (D3W)
Your car was made in Van Nuys, California. The 6ZX, 7ZX, 8NL, and 9NL are your front and rear springs. They are selected by a computer according to the strength needed for your car (those are the commonly used springs for most of your older GM cars). Hope this helps!
Hey, thanks for the info!
They have different RPOs for LH and RH? How weird is that, lol?
I guess they have the same stats nevertheless. At least on a per axle basis.
I've been wondering why the plug on my passenger side cupholder always looked so weird.
Turns out they are marked L and R and there was an upside down L plug in there, so I went looking online for an R plug.
I found a fairly cheap set of reproduction plugs from Hawk's on eBay and they looked ok in the pictures, so I ordered a set.
Here they are. Replacement L on the left, original L on the right.
Shape and fitment are perfect, but the texture is just too flat on the replacement, so it does stick out of the cupholder a bit too much for my taste.
I've NEVER had a single (visible) reproduction part for our cars from Hawks or any other vendor, that was spot on. NEVER! All repro parts I ever bought differ in optics, function and quality. Center console shift plate, window switches, D81 spoiler, mirror switch, gta emblems, fenders, headliner, carpets, you name it.
The rubber drip guard on my passenger side's t-top finally got on my nerves enough for me to seek out a replacement.
It kept getting snagged between the window and the seal up front which eventually led to its untimely demise.
Well, the main reason for getting my rear end up to fix this was always having to wait for the wife to get out of the car and then having to roll the window up and down so the window closes up properly.
I found the rubber edges for somewhere between $60 and $80 on the net at a couple of the known parts stores' sites, but they would either not ship internationally or ask $100+ just for shipping, which is one of the reasons for not doing this earlier.
Luckily, I found a local parts dealer who had two sets left! Best day EVER! 130 bucks, but still better than a 160-180 plus customs and taxes.
So, I read up on how to approach this and there are several steps to do.
1. Find a soft surface, because there will be plenty of movement that can scratch the glass.
2. Remove the torx screw (the others are phillips head screws) from the handle and the handle itself.
3. Remove 3 screws from the bezel and the bezel.
4. Remove 2 screws holding the rubber seal that meets the door window's edge.
5. GM sure loved their weatherstrip adhesive back in the days.
As I would be reusing the seal, I had to fight that gunk with a flat screwdriver from the outside in.
You'll need to pry around the ends of the seal and behind it across the entire length.
Using an upholstery/door panel removal tool or a screwdriver the edges of the seal can be carefully pried over the channels that hold it in place. Kind of like the t-top seals around the roof openings.
The seal can then be easily taken out of the channel/rail.
6. Remove 4 more screws and then the rail itself, which btw is padded with foam tape on the backside.
7. Remove drip guard. This gives us the picture below.
8. Clean all that gunk out of the rail and, most importantly, clean up all those longish dark spots where the new drip guard's adhesive will stick to.
I used a WD-40 equivalent for the main stuff, silicone remover for whatever remained and then Isopropyl to get remaining types of grease/fat etc. off of there.
9. The new drip guard will have spaces for the screws that will most likely not match perfectly, which is not a problem for those selftapping screws, though.
I just centered the new guard by visual estimate, put it up against the rear wall and pushed it downward so the adhesive strip got right where it was supposed to go.
10. Put everything back together. I noticed that there used to be some type of foam adhesive/padding on the locking edges of the mechanisms frame, so I went ahead and replaced it while I was in there.
These replacements look almost like the original, but the angle up front is a little sharper, which will make it harder for the guard to get caught in the future, should it ever begin to sag like the original one.
I need to do exactly the same repair to mine, for exactly the same reasons. Just home from driving, and had to always lower the window before the wife gets in or out.
My RPO sticker had been peeling off for years now and, of course, it got worse every year.
I could have ordered a replacement sticker, but that would be too easy, right?
So in these modern days, where you can find anything if you look for the right stuff in the right places, I went searching for a very thin type of double sided adhesive tape like any kind of sticker would have.
And I finally found some from 3M on eBay. They have several thicknesses and I got one that's about 0.015mm thick. Perfect for the task at hand.
Getting the sticker out of the car was easy. It barely stuck to the adhesive layer. Getting that gunk out is a different story, though. I bashed it with WD-40, vacuumed the residue out and then cleaned up with rubbing alcohol so the new adhesive has a clean surface to stick to.
There's not much I can do about the torn part on the right side. I don't know when and where I lost it.
It's not exactly made of paper, by the way. More like some sort of thin plastic film.
Here's the backside of the label. 300LSE is the type of tape and there are several different versions of it that you can get. They provide a brochure/catalog with the information.
If you're careful, you can clean this sticker up with some lighter fluid. Just don't go hard on the printed lettering, because it will come off.
Anyway. I can finally put my stuff in the compartment again without having it tug at the sticker every time.
Definitely feels better, even if it is just a small detail.
And I guess I got at least 2 more HP out of it
Here's a quick update about a job done quick and rather dirty... kind of the damage control type of work.
The plastic part of the lid on my center console has cracked and broken up over the years and instead of replacing it, I wanted to try fixing it up a little.
There was a crack around one of the screw openings and the front raised stopper. The rear stopper had disintegrated years ago.
Apparently there are some plastic welding or plastic repair kits available, which should be great for this type of repair work, but I couldn't source one in Germany, so I just got out an old soldering iron with an even older tip and a couple of pins.
Those repair kits usually contain a soldering iron with a triangle shaped end and a couple of S-shaped wires to melt into the plastic to bridge any cracks and solidify the part in those places.
Pins can be shaped, too, if necessary, and if you cut off the head, it won't stick out, especially if part thickness is an issue.
The soldering iron will heat up the pin and it will sink into the material, after which you can smear surrounding material over it, which would look far better with one of those kits.
I wanted to reinforce the area with JB Weld, so I scuffed the area up with 80 grit sanding paper, so it will have a better hold than on a smooth surface.
The really tricky part was the missing corner, though. I bent a couple of pins into L-shapes and melted them into place, because JB Weld would have a hard time bridging such a large gap.
Metal mesh would have been preferable.
I put duct tape of the visible side of the part to get an even surface and keep the epoxy from dripping off.
Sanding the rough edges with 400 grit paper gave me some decent edges. The pattern comes from the duct tape.
Paint would be great to cover up the spot and proper texturing even more so, but for now I'll be observing how the fix holds up over time and use, maybe then going back in and finishing the job.
Not great, but better than before.
Next up will be the replacement of my rear wing, which has corroded beyond repair. More info on that around the beginning of next month.
I did something similar last year to repair the case on the TV in our motorhome. After I drilled holes at the ends of the cracks, I used the "shaft" of a small old screwdriver chucked up in the soldering iron to give me a wider blade to heat with, and bridge the gap. I also looked at the recycle mark on the case, and found a matching item in our recycle bin to use as donor material to "weld" with. I did this from both sides. So far, so good.
I hope this holds up for you. They all seem to do this eventually. Mine has a really hard "detent" to close it, which I think puts undo stress on the part.
Hey Dave. Almost looks like a metal weld there
I tried welding some other plastic like that once, without reinforcing it first, but it broke rather quickly again.
I assume it's okay as long as there's no force being applied to it. How's it holding up on your TV set?
Finally got my car back after a week. The old Aerowing disaster ist finally gone.
Here's a look at how bad it was. The edges were already disintegrating.
And this is now.
Of course it had to start raining after a couple of dry sunny days.
They were able to use my original third brake light as it seemed to be identical to the one that came with the new wing.
Yes, there were indeed some that came with an indentation for this light.
08-13-2018, 05:30 PM
