Rear brake sliders on the left side were stuck in the caliper & the ones on the right were very stiff. After driving the sliders out w/ a hammer and a punch, I used synthetic brake grease on the O-rings the tubes slide in. Put the sliders in, pulled them out and greased things a second time. Calipers slide freely now.
This ought to increase the city gas mileage slightly, probably not do much for the highway mileage.
From the wear on the right rear tire, I need to do the string alignment check.
Checked rear camber: Left - 2.0 degress Right + 0.3
Potholes, who needs 'em!
Adjusted camber to -3/4 degree both sides. Torqued strut bolts & nuts to 150 ft-lbs.
It's 101 F outside, too hot to spend time setting up strings. Some other day.
Meanwhile, on the postive side, w/ global warming we might not experience freezing winters which produce frost heaves and pot holes. Someday we might be able to have roads as smooth as SoCal. But, there's still the good old "Let's dig a trench in that newly paved street" water company.
[This message has been edited by 30+mpg (edited 07-29-2006).]
In the above post, my wife had filled the tank before the trip. I filled it after the trip. I probably filled the tank a little fuller than she did. If that is the case, I may have achieved 32+mpg.
Took the car from Russellville, Ar to Parsons, Ks and back last weekend. A 520 mile round trip. A lot of fun on I-540 flying thru the mountains of NW Ar. Other than some problems w/ the CD player, the car was flawless.
Not too shabby for a car w/ a total cash investment of somewhere around $2,000. Plus my labor.
[This message has been edited by 30+mpg (edited 11-14-2006).]
Didn't pay too much attention to the tach when passing 60 mph vehicles on two lane blacktop. Pull out into the oncoming lane and punch it. Lockup disengages and the transmission drops into 3rd gear. About the time I've just passed the nose of the car I'm passing, tranny shifts into 4th at a little over 80 mph. Needless to say, acceleration drops off and I pull back into the right lane in front of the car at about 90.
Need to see what the RPM is at 80 in 3rd. Be good to stay in 3rd a half a sec longer.
Need to get a new wiper blade for the driver's side. I really like the exhaust moan when accelerating. Fires right up in the mornings even when the temp is 15 degrees.
Changed oil. Also decided to replace the pan gasket. The gasket I had made from the blue silicon RTV leaked. New Fel-Pro is solid blue rubber, no cork. Comes with 4 "quills" that thread in the corner bolt holes. Slide the gasket onto the quills & it holds it in place. Next align the pan, bolt it up, unscrew the quills and install the last 4 bolts. Slick!! Hopefully the leak is gone.
I've been following your progress from teh beginning and was simply amazed at the detail that you placed in the engine bay. Your progress encouraged me to get off my behind and do something with my wire/vacuum line/fuel hose mess.
Yeah, there is a part of me that really miss having the torsion rod. When I use the remote trunk release, the lid does not pop up without the torsion rod. The aftermarket struts work great for holding the decklid open, but does nothing to "help" lift the decklid.
Got the transmitter. It will only play the songs in the order they are loaded onto the USB drive. No folders allowed. So if you have 6 CD's w/ 15 tracks each and you want to hear song six on CD 6, one has to push the forward button 81 times.
Works great! Can even access songs from the end of the file. Ex. Song #81 is only 9 clicks back from the end of a 90 song queue. Now for an aux. port in a less conspicuious location.
It does generate some heat.
[This message has been edited by 30+mpg (edited 06-15-2007).]
Bushings were crumbly yellowed plastic. Fortunately, I had half of a Rodney's headlight motor rebuild kit on hand. Somewhere back earlier in this project I had rebuilt the left motor. The right one wasn't broken then, so I didn't fix it. Anyhow, both headlight motors now are working normally again!
30+mpg, thanks for the post on the tachometer! Mine is doing the same thing and by procrastinating on the repair, you may have saved me a bunch of time and trouble.
One of the things I had to do to get the A/C working was to ground the clutch wire for the compressor. The Buick to Fiero wiring harness splice wasn't complete. Whoever did the wiring could of done a better job.
Starter runs & doesn't turn the engine over. Either a bad drive gear or flywheel teeth gone. I hope it's the drive gear as I replaced it in April 05 and still have the receipt (I think).
Removed the flywheel splash shield, teeth in great shape. To pull the starter, I'll have to disconnect the a/c hoses to the compressor. Good thing I'm using environmentally friendly and inexpensive ($13 for a 17lb bottle refill) R-290 as a refrigerant.
Found the receipt for the starter drive dated 4-17-05 right under one dated 4-23-05 showing that I returned the drive for a refund. Hmmmm... maybe I didn't replace the drive. I thought I did. Oh well, I'll replace it this time if that's the prob.
from my son after he used it (and broke the battery cover 
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