Bought Myself a Lemon

Rob R. wrote:

gaw wrote: That "mud" could be sealant. GM used sealant tabs in some engines to take care of small leaks and they claimed it made the waterpump seal last longer. The sealant tabs are made of ground up ginger root and almond shell.

A lot of guys called them the Cadillac pills...apparently they were mandatory in the 4.9L V8.

That was the first vehicle I knew that used them I believe 1987 or so. Maybe 86.

Oh man ... I don't envy you on this job Richard. God, I HATE working on front wheel drive cars ... But I just spent the day under another rusted out GM truck replacing 11 feet of brake line, so not sure which is worse anymore. Had to weld a bolt to the bleeder to get it out of the caliper.

Yeah, that might be stop leak - probably an attempt to stop the leak that caused the bearing to puke. Either that, or someone flogged the *censored* out of it before selling. They probably dumped 2 quarts of STP or Motor Medic, or some other mechanic in a can that won't pour below 60° to try and hide the racket.

My '71 C20 had a 305 in it that someone did that to. The first oil change I noticed the knock. Then after I spooled it up to 7k on the highway, trying to put some distance between me and the tailgating douche in a Mercedes, the bearing melted down, along with a few others ... AAA to the rescue! 98 mile tow - was a close one.

Yep - your smart to fix that one up. Solid body - like you said, you can't fix rust, but you can fix everything else. Car will be mint when your done - just like new, only without the high taxes and insurance.

SMITTY wrote:Oh man ... I don't envy you on this job Richard. God, I HATE working on front wheel drive cars ...

Actually it doesn't look that bad, you don't pull it. You just drop the whole sub frame and then you can work on it. I have decent set of tools, compressor and I'm getting engine hoist off CL tomorrow. I'm not working in the dirt, if that were the case it be going to the garage. Looks like there is perhaps 10 electrical connectors, 2 transmission cooler lines, 2 heater lines, AC compressor, struts and the exhaust.... Struts are already off because I had to take them off for new ones anyway. Apparently if you know what you're doing you can have it out in about 1 hour. Should take me about 3 or 4 .

As side note the Meet and Greet has been moved to this week at my house.

Richard S. wrote:

SMITTY wrote:Oh man ... I don't envy you on this job Richard. God, I HATE working on front wheel drive cars ...

Actually it doesn't look that bad, you don't pull it. You just drop the whole sub frame and then you can work on it. I have decent set of tools, compressor and I'm getting engine hoist off CL tomorrow. I'm not working in the dirt, if that were the case it be going to the garage. Looks like there is perhaps 10 electrical connectors, 2 transmission cooler lines, 2 heater lines, AC compressor, struts and the exhaust.... Struts are already off because I had to take them off for new ones anyway. Apparently if you know what you're doing you can have it out in about 1 hour. Should take me about 3 or 4 .

As side note the Meet and Greet has been moved to this week at my house.

I have an engine crane you can borrow if you like. No need to drop all that. Engine easily come out the top.

Flyer5 wrote:
I have an engine crane you can borrow if you like. No need to drop all that. Engine easily come out the top.

I found a 2 ton on CL for $125, says it's like new and it's foldable. Might just keep it if it folds up enough, be nice to have around for other things. I'm sure I won't have any trouble selling it for $125 if I need to get rid of it.

Actually calling the guy now, I would of had it already but having trouble setting up time. Thanks for the offer, I appreciate it.

Just seems like it would be easier instead of busting knuckles, other than the transmission cooling lines and frame bolts I don't think there is anything extra involved. plus I got this burn on the top of my hand about the size of nickel between my thumb and finger I keep hitting. There is also a little bit of rust around the frame mounts, really the only place there is any on the body. I'd like to get to them and I can't do it easily with the frame on it.

I have new struts so I had to take them off anyway, I have to change the sway bar too and I'm not sure that is going to come out without dropping the back part of the frame anyway. When I get done it's going right to the garage for an alignment.

Richard,

Not sure if you know about this or not:

http://www.alldatadiy.com

You can buy a 1 year or 2 year subscription for the exact year, make , and model of the vehicle you are working on.

Gives you access to all the technical repair data for 1 specific vehicle including repair step by step and TSB's.

Rick

Rick 386 wrote:Not sure if you know about this or not:
http://www.alldatadiy.com
You can buy a 1 year or 2 year subscription for the exact year, make , and model of the vehicle you are working on.
Gives you access to all the technical repair data for 1 specific vehicle including repair step by step and TSB's.

I bought a one-year subscription for my 1998 Civic and found it almost worthless. Great if I wanted to know the flat-rate hours for a job, which I didn't, but seriously lacking on the step-by-step stuff. Admittedly my mechanical skills are low (though I have rebuilt two engines in my time and both ran well once I remembered to put back all the parts), but I expected much more from DIY instructions. Maybe OK for other cars?

I will say they were responsive when I emailed them about a missing TSB -- within a few days they found and published it.

I've been turning wrenches for while, should be fine and if there is anything I need to know specific there is the entire internet.

Managed to get the struts together without killing myself, that is one job I would not want to do every day. Didn't like that at all even with the right tool... If I had a garage I'd have table with clamp for the spring and strut. I secured the strut in a vice and used a tie down for the spring.

Who wants to play what the hell is that?

This ring is on the negative cable to the battery terminal, there is a connector with wire that goes to it that's disconnected and not in the picture. The ring itself has small piece of plastic on the bottom and it's just taped to the wire. It's not wired to the negative cable in anyway. There is also that other wire, I'm assuming GM does not tape wires to negative terminals at the factory.

Any idea what this is for?

Richard S. wrote:Who wants to play what the hell is that?

This ring is on the negative cable to the battery terminal, there is a connector with wire that goes to it that's disconnected and not in the picture. The ring itself has small piece of plastic on the bottom and it's just taped to the wire. It's not wired to the negative cable in anyway. There is also that other wire, I'm assuming GM does not tape wires to negative terminals at the factory.

Any idea what this is for?

Looks like a CT for monitoring amps. But a CT does not work with DC so I am confused.

It measures the amperage draw.

coaledsweat wrote:It measures the amperage draw.

For what though? This looks like aftermarket to me. I'll get some better pictures later.

Not sure. Where does the wire go from it? To the harness?

Richard S. wrote:

coaledsweat wrote:It measures the amperage draw.

For what though? This looks like aftermarket to me. I'll get some better pictures later.

Look up current transformer. It will take high current or EMF and transform to a low voltage that can be measured and knowing the # of turns in the CT it can give a current reading by conversion.

coaledsweat wrote:Not sure. Where does the wire go from it? To the harness?

The single black one taped to the negative terminal is going to the cabin harness, it has really thin wire on the second half after the connector.

The one for the ring has bundle of three wires going to the cabin harness and are average sized.

There is bundle of two wires from the cabin harness going to the engine harness, red and orange and they are pretty thick.

I also have a bundle of 6 wires crossed over from the cabin harness to the harness for the front of the car for lights etc and those are average size.

All four of these are connected at same spot on the cabin wiring harness. It's regular electric tape, doesn't look like someone did a shabby job but doesn't look factory either. The bundles are wrapped with regular electric tape. There is nothing extra on or near the front of the car I'm aware of.

There is also this in the glove box. I forgot it was there, not sure if it's related or not. This is for ipod isn't it? If so I'm not sure how it's integrated with radio.
There is also a big giant red button that says do not push, should I push it?