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Turned a (minor) wrench on the ole gal for the first time in probably over a year. She has been having this terrible intermittent charging issue. I chalked it up to the PS pump I replaced a couple years ago already leaking again (which it does) and killing yet another alt. So I picked up a nice Powermaster alt and the relocation kit from CBR Performance (home state holla!) So I actually had a little free time this morning to play with it some and the last couple weeks from absolute hell and beyond, it helped me to take my mind off other crap. Since the car is a somewhat DD, even with the charging issue it never stranded me. Would just go from 13+ volts to 8 steady. Dimmer lights at night but drove fine and would sometimes just bounce back up to 13+. So I couldn't do the whole thing at once since I neglected to measure and get a new belt beforehand. So I figured that I would do a little prep work to get the ball rolling and make me want to work on it more. So I got under her and dropped the alt. I noticed something that had escaped my attention each time I pulled the alt before... it already had a spliced pigtail for the exciter wire. Not only had the pigtail been replaced but whoever did it was a hack. He used 12GA wire where the original was 18GA causing an unexpected change in resistance. Not only that but I had bare wire hanging all out of the weather pack with about an eighth of an inch movement in and out of the socket. Plus he used aluminum wire instead of copper. Since I couldn't complete the job in one go I decided to stop gap fix the issue by just lopping off the connector, stripping, twisting, soldering and heat shrinking the new pigtail in there. My suspicion is that it will allow the car to run fine again until I can find the time to do the full relocation. It certainly jumped back up to 13+ volts once done and backing off the ramps.
Installed Koni yellows and strano springs, strano sway bars, mwc drive shaft safety loop, UMI upper and lower a arms, umi torque arm relocation kit, founders adjustable torque arm, on car adjustable lower control arms and panhard bar.
Now just gotta get the interior all put back together with new seat covers.
Installed Koni yellows and strano springs, strano sway bars, mwc drive shaft safety loop, UMI upper and lower a arms, umi torque arm relocation kit, founders adjustable torque arm, on car adjustable lower control arms and panhard bar.
Now just gotta get the interior all put back together with new seat covers.
This car hates me, so after getting the dash pad back together and wrapped the face of the dash cracked as I was snapping the front of the pad into place... Guess I'll be on the lookout for a '97-99 dashboard now and then get the new replacement pad from Firebird Central.
Considering my stock decarbons and springs had around a 117k on them its a pretty significant difference. Plus I put a S60 rear in it last year which made the worn out stock stuff even more noticable. So far ive only put 35 miles on it and started at full firmness and been backing down some each time I drive till I find a spot that I can live with driving in the city. Full firm will rattle you apart on rough roads today I set it to 2 sweeps from full firm and it was alot smoother just decent sized bumps caused a rough ride. Probably go 1 or 2 more and be fine. Handling wise its a night and day difference. Car is alot more fun to drive and I havent even been on any really twisty roads yet. May drive out to my parents lake house next weekend to put through its paces with all the back roads.
The new lower control arms and pan hard bar I put on replaced older umi ones that had rod ends on them that were pretty worn out. Never planned on putting the amount of mileage on the car that I did when I installed them. So that probably helped some with the ride quality and noise also.
Thanks. I met this guy at a car meet who had them for sale. he was asking $100 so I jumped on it. In the past I would wait or pass up on deals cause that wasn't something I wanted at the time. Then I decided no more passing on good deals if I want to get this budget build done. well I guess I will never be done. LOL
Considering my stock decarbons and springs had around a 117k on them its a pretty significant difference. Plus I put a S60 rear in it last year which made the worn out stock stuff even more noticable. So far ive only put 35 miles on it and started at full firmness and been backing down some each time I drive till I find a spot that I can live with driving in the city. Full firm will rattle you apart on rough roads today I set it to 2 sweeps from full firm and it was alot smoother just decent sized bumps caused a rough ride. Probably go 1 or 2 more and be fine. Handling wise its a night and day difference. Car is alot more fun to drive and I havent even been on any really twisty roads yet. May drive out to my parents lake house next weekend to put through its paces with all the back roads.
The new lower control arms and pan hard bar I put on replaced older umi ones that had rod ends on them that were pretty worn out. Never planned on putting the amount of mileage on the car that I did when I installed them. So that probably helped some with the ride quality and noise also.
How do you like where they are set now? I'm installing my Koni/BMR combo on Saturday and was gonna start at 5 sweeps from full firm on the front and full soft on the rear.
yanked out my exhaust and put in a hooker 3" cat back system. wow - the sounds difference is awesome. i'll get clips and pics later. i didnt finish until late last night.
Not today, but I pulled it out of the garage on Saturday and took it to a car meet. It rained for like 5 minutes, but we had a good time. A friend of mine was snapping some pictures and got a nice one of mine.
The guy at the inspection station was somewhat skeptical of me having cats in regard to how "loud" it was. Still passed, had full cats thanks to the Kooks true duals. I don't like getting hassled by shops or cops, so yeah. Time for an alignment!
Took the car cover off and gave it with our other 2 cars a good bath. Then hit it with a clay bar and followed that up with some Pinnacles Black Label paint sealant. Took it out to grab some food and after that the car cover went back on.
Last Thursday 6/2/2016 had a group of friends from the Bandit Run that stopped by the house and talked me into pulling the car out for a 3hr road trip up to Galena, IL. Had a blast, running as a pack of 10 cars, 8 Firebirds 2 Camaros across country. You should have seen the looks we were getting.
Not today, but I got it tuned last weekend. Changed the IAC and TPS and put in a new intake pipe. Also took off all the plastic bullshit that's underneath the car...lost my wheel well cover in the process, but I got one at the junkyard for $7.88. I need to put it back on sometime.
05-20-2016, 12:43 PM
