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| Gen Z Garage - Episode 30 : Rebuilding the 1984-1987 Fiero Rear Suspension (Page 1/1) |
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82-T/A [At Work]
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APR 13, 08:07 AM
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richard in nc
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APR 14, 06:14 PM
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two questions.what happens if you don't remove the rings off the axles?
would that company want to buy my wheels like hers?
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1985 Fiero GT
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APR 14, 06:22 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by richard in nc:
two questions.what happens if you don't remove the rings off the axles?
would that company want to buy my wheels like hers? |
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on my dad's cutlass ciera which uses a very similar knuckle, the rings rubbed on the knuckle, which would have made some noise, maybe effected the torque spec on the axle nut, not much else.
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1985 Fiero GT
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APR 14, 06:26 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:
Hey guys, thanks again for allowing me to post these here... I really appreciate it!!!
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Wait, are those the seats? are those what they will be or just temporaryers or what? they look too good to be temporary, but i wouldn't have thought they would be done that aftermarket looking, I don't know what to think haha.
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pmbrunelle
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APR 14, 10:03 PM
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For information, the MacPherson strut is holding the weight in the rear of the car, so the rear lower ball joint is not under huge tension.
The lower control arm is basically just stabilizing the bottom of the strut+knuckle assembly to keep it from toppling over.
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Be careful about paint on critical bolted joints!
I saw paint on the axle nut washer, and on the brake dust shields which were clamped between the wheel bearing and knuckle.
If the paint is soft enough, and the film thickness is thick enough, sometimes the paint can collapse under the bolt load, resulting in a loose joint when the paint gives way. When driving, listen carefully for the sound of loose parts...
Best practice is to use masking and avoid painting surfaces that are clamped with bolts.
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82-T/A [At Work]
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APR 17, 09:09 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by richard in nc:
two questions.what happens if you don't remove the rings off the axles?
would that company want to buy my wheels like hers? |
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With the ABS ring still on the axle, it will interfere with the knuckle. You won't actually be able to get the axle nut tightened down enough properly as it will have clearance issues and it will grind.
| quote | Originally posted by 1985 Fiero GT:
Wait, are those the seats? are those what they will be or just temporaryers or what? they look too good to be temporary, but i wouldn't have thought they would be done that aftermarket looking, I don't know what to think haha. |
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Those are actually some seat covers that came with the car. Remember that this video is like... 6-8 months old... she's just getting to them now. She's already re-upholstered the seats, but hasn't done the video for it yet... haha. The seat upholstery basically came out looking like 86-87 SE and GT seats, but in leather.
Kind of hard to see... and I just got back from a business trip so I don't feel like going outside to the garage, haha... but this is a picture of her car from her high school's car show that she went to a few months ago (car was running and driving again at that point with the new motor).
... you can kind of make out the recovered seats. I do still have those weird seat covers if anyone wants them... they're made for Fiero seats, haha.
Also worth nothing... in the background you can see a bunch of Dodge Durangos. Her school has 8 Dodge Durangos for Drivers Education. They all have V8s in them. When I was in high school, I went to school in a good area, and we had two piece of crap Dodge Omnis. She has no idea how lucky she is that her school basically has everything.
| quote | Originally posted by pmbrunelle:
Be careful about paint on critical bolted joints!
I saw paint on the axle nut washer, and on the brake dust shields which were clamped between the wheel bearing and knuckle.
If the paint is soft enough, and the film thickness is thick enough, sometimes the paint can collapse under the bolt load, resulting in a loose joint when the paint gives way. When driving, listen carefully for the sound of loose parts...
Best practice is to use masking and avoid painting surfaces that are clamped with bolts. |
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She painted like every washer she could, haha... but the dust shields came painted that way from the Fiero Store. I think the factory ones were too. We merely moved it between the Hub and Knuckle, but it's still behind the bolts. Personally, I absolutely think it's much better to have them there... I hated not following the service manual, but when we installed them the correct way, they were in direct contact with the rotor. We would have had to seriously bend them out of shape. Anyway, from what I could see, the shield would be more likely to rust around the bolt holes for the shield if installed in the factory location in poor climates (though this is Florida so no road salt). Point taken... I will say though, this is an Iron Duke, haha... it'll probably never see 90 miles an hour in it's whole life.[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 04-17-2025).]
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1985 Fiero GT
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APR 17, 11:34 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:
Those are actually some seat covers that came with the car. Remember that this video is like... 6-8 months old... she's just getting to them now. She's already re-upholstered the seats, but hasn't done the video for it yet... haha. The seat upholstery basically came out looking like 86-87 SE and GT seats, but in leather.
Kind of hard to see... and I just got back from a business trip so I don't feel like going outside to the garage, haha... but this is a picture of her car from her high school's car show that she went to a few months ago (car was running and driving again at that point with the new motor).
... you can kind of make out the recovered seats. I do still have those weird seat covers if anyone wants them... they're made for Fiero seats, haha.
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Ok, makes sense, I wondered what was up haha, looks great, only thing is it's maybe riding high, which I guess makes sense, I think you used the ws6 springs (stiffer for the heavier v6), and of course new struts (gas charged, adds some extra springiness), other than that, looks great, cool that her school has so much car related stuff, you both have it lucky haha, my (2) high schools had nothing, nothing at all for drivers Ed, car club, etc. didn't really matter, I got my driver's Ed through a specific driving school, paid by Hagertys license to the future program, not that it taught me anything (it was a garbage driving school, and the amount of teaching they did should not have gotten a diploma, I literally had no class time, anyhow, I had driven 10,000kms with my dad before I could even drive alone, in 8 months, everywhere from NB backroads to Toronto in rush hour, so I'm well taught)
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82-T/A [At Work]
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APR 18, 07:50 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by 1985 Fiero GT:
Ok, makes sense, I wondered what was up haha, looks great, only thing is it's maybe riding high, which I guess makes sense, I think you used the ws6 springs (stiffer for the heavier v6), and of course new struts (gas charged, adds some extra springiness), other than that, looks great, cool that her school has so much car related stuff, you both have it lucky haha, my (2) high schools had nothing, nothing at all for drivers Ed, car club, etc. didn't really matter, I got my driver's Ed through a specific driving school, paid by Hagertys license to the future program, not that it taught me anything (it was a garbage driving school, and the amount of teaching they did should not have gotten a diploma, I literally had no class time, anyhow, I had driven 10,000kms with my dad before I could even drive alone, in 8 months, everywhere from NB backroads to Toronto in rush hour, so I'm well taught) |
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I'm sure it was pretty cool though driving around those mountain and back-roads. When I got my drivers license, it was all Washington D.C. suburbs... which were always busy. We had some back roads in Fairfax county, but that just meant you'd see a car once every couple of minutes late at night. There's a whole story with our driver's Ed car though... one of my buddies, for reasons unknown (he was dared), took a crap on one of the driver's ed cars. He used a box of Kleenex to clean himself up, and then got so sick that he then threw up on the car. We picked him up like 20 minutes later, and we were like... dude, we were just kidding, we can't believe you actually did it. That's why I say, my daughter is so much more responsible than I was when I was her age. My buddies and I were always doing stupid stuff. It seemed way more funnier when I was younger, but I happened to be driving around behind the school (I ran track), and saw the driver's ed car doing it's thing... and it still had the crap and tissue paper on the rear window where my friend Kevin left it. It was so nasty. It looked like it had been baked from the sun. Oh man... no one bothered to remove it... so the kids were just driving around in the parking lot with it on the rear hatch glass.
But yeah... she actually already had WS6 springs on her car (hers is an SE), but the odd thing is, when we checked the RPO codes... three of the spring RPOs were the stiffest spring rate, but ONE of them (in the back) was the one just below. It's the craziest thing... her RPO sticker is either incorrect (meaning they typed it in wrong at the factory), or she actually had 3 WS6 springs and 1 Y99-rated spring. I'll post a pic of the RPO sticker later...
But yeah, on the ride height, it's not horrible... the front-end still hasn't been re-done, but it'll look the same as the back once the shocks are changed out. When I swapped out the struts on my 87 back in the 90s, it did the same thing. I had KYBs at the same (which I'd never do again for a car that I wanted to just drive around). But the ride height was high like that for at least the first few thousand miles, and then it settled down again.
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