World's slowest Fiero/Quad 4 Swap (Page 31/51)
Quadfather JAN 12, 09:52 AM
Dug my '88 cradle out of the storage unit yesterday and made a quick stop at the shop this morning. Obviously, the rear mounts on the '88 cradle are taller than the ones on the '87.



The '87 is 9 and a half inches, the '88 is 10 and a quarter.





After looking at the photos, I noticed the attachment points for the control arms are about an inch higher on the '88 cradle than they are on the '87.



When I get back over to the shop I'll measure from the plane of the rear mounting plate to the bottom of the control arm attachment points. If the measurement is the same on both cradles, then I can just weld a flat plate onto the rear mounting points of the '87 cradle and get two correspondingly shorter bolts, right?
Quadfather JAN 15, 10:10 PM
Did an experiment with the cradle and tried bolting it to the car with no spacers on the rear mounts. The mounting flanges are too wide to fit, they conflict with the sheet metal and fender liner.









In order to make this work, I’d have to either cut off the end of the mounting flange or notch the sheet metal and fender liner. Neither would be a big deal, but while I was lying under the car I realized that mounting the cradle this way would cost me 3/4” worth of clearance for the muffler and exhaust pipes.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 01-15-2022).]

pmbrunelle JAN 16, 12:17 AM
That tips the cradle with more of a forwards lean.

Do note that this leaning the cradle forwards will also add the same forwards lean to the rear control arms.

During launch, the road applies a forward force to the tire.
The forward force from the tire is transferred to the wheel bearing.
The forward force from the wheel bearing is transferred to the knuckle.

From there, how the knuckle moves (in response to the tire force) depends its path, as defined by the suspension.

The more the control arm is tipped forwards, the more the knuckle will rise into the body during launch.
Quadfather JAN 16, 07:50 AM

quote
Originally posted by pmbrunelle:

The more the control arm is tipped forwards, the more the knuckle will rise into the body during launch.



Good point. I was hoping that since the tail end of the cradle would be raised only 3/4” to 1” the axis of the control arm’s up and down motion probably wouldn’t be affected very much. Wouldn’t be the first time I was misguided.
Quadfather JAN 16, 09:39 PM
Today I used some steel plate to fill in the openings on the rear cradle mounts. But first I checked to see how the bolt holes lined up with the openings.

Driver’s side.



Passenger side. Looks like the factory didn’t get all the layers of sheet metal lined up before spot welding them together.



Maybe I should hit that with the die grinder. The captured nuts can still line up in the center of the openings. I made some fillers, tacked them in then reinstalled the cradle to make sure the bolts would fit through them.





The bolts fit so I welded the fillers into place. I then cut a couple of pieces of pipe to weld to the top of the mounts, but didn’t take any pictures and ran out of time. Hope to get over to the shop again next weekend, if not sooner.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 01-16-2022).]

Quadfather JAN 23, 09:09 PM
Just about got the cradle ready for the engine. Took me all weekend to finish the perches for the rear cradle mounts. I ended up using the pieces of oil field pipe I had cut years ago.



I test fit the cradle every step of the way.





[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 01-23-2022).]

Quadfather JAN 23, 09:31 PM
After that the last thing to fix was the main engine mount. I always planned to add some more metal, but especially after looking at the mount on my ‘88 cradle..





Then it was time to paint.



Then my wife texted me and said her car wouldn’t start. Should’ve known as soon as I make significant progress something goes wrong with another car in the family.
Quadfather JAN 30, 06:15 PM
Not much progress this week. Spent a lot of time trying to solve the no crank situation with my wife’s LeSabre. The starter works, the battery is brand new, the ignition switch is new. I suspect the neutral safety switch is bad, because the digital indicator for which gear is selected has disappeared and the symptoms act like the computer thinks the car is in gear.



We were planning to replace this car in May 2023 but may have to do it now. It has 233k on it, needs front lower control arms and new intake manifold and valve cover gaskets. The neutral safety switch is INSIDE the transmission and I’m not thrilled about pulling the engine and transmission and then being wrong about what’s causing the no crank.

On the Fiero, still painting the cradle, but also started cleaning up the transmission.



Looks like the bearings are worn out on the throw out bearing shaft. Can’t figure out how to get the shaft out.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 01-31-2022).]

Quadfather FEB 06, 04:57 PM
More slow progress. We had a major winter storm in Oklahoma this week, which means very long days at work. We also decided to replace my wife’s car instead of trying to fix it, so we spent yesterday car shopping and made the mistake of visiting one of the big dealers in the area.

Today I’m trying to clean up the Getrag so I can figure out how to get the clutch arm out. Trying a different type of Dollar General oven cleaner.





Tough not to be discouraged while looking over the engine compartment and firewall. Thirty five years of dirt and age.



The week began on a high note, when my son and I went to our first Tool concert.



What a show. I was a casual fan for years, but with the loss of Neil Peart and Rush no longer able to release new music, I’m loving this music.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 02-06-2022).]

Quadfather FEB 12, 05:24 PM
Dug my spare Getrag out of the storage unit only to be disappointed. I remembered that it has a hydraulic throw-out bearing, so I was thinking instead of worrying about the bearings in the shift arm on my GTZ unit, I could convert it to an HTOB. No such luck.

It appears the transmissions are the same model. GTZ on the left:







Unfortunately, the flange around the input shaft is different on the spare unit and the GTZ transmission has a sleeve that’s not present on the other one.



I know other people have had trouble getting the length of the throw correct when using a Quad4 transmission in a Fiero, so I was thinking a HTOB would solve that issue. I also noticed that the HTOB has a bleeder.





I got this spare transmission for free off the old Quad 4 forum. It came from a fellow Quad enthusiast in New Mexico and my brother picked it up while on vacation. Unfortunately, all my communication with the enthusiast was via the Quad 4 forum so I lost all the details when that site went down.

I think he told me it came out of a ‘92 or ‘93 Olds Achieva SCX, which would mean different 2nd and 5th gears and a different final drive, according to Wikipedia. All I know for sure is that it fits a Quad and it was free.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 02-12-2022).]