No plug behind the kick panels? With as many b bodies as I've had I don't think i ever took a door off
No plug behind the kick panels? With as many b bodies as I've had I don't think i ever took a door off
Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:No plug behind the kick panels? With as many b bodies as I've had I don't think i ever took a door off
Nope, just a wiring run that starts to split a few things off then goes along the rocker panel. As long as I don’t pull it out the door until I’m ready to swap to the new one, I think it won’t be as difficult as I first thought.
Last few days have seen a little progress. I took the car for a drive, and am pretty certain I've got a sticky caliper. Next time it goes on jackstands, I need to finally deal with it. I forgot to mention before that I noticed there is some fluid on the rear end, so the pinion seal is probably leaking. I'll top off the diff fluid and see if it is just seeping, or if it is a serious leak. As for the transmission, yeah, it's still leaking:
I'll pull the pan, and replace the gasket at least, along with figuring out if I can seal up the linkage, too.
Next mission was to start pulling the interior apart in preparation for switching body panels out. Took a bit of effort, and sadly I damaged some trim, but the door interior panel is off. Took some extra effort, and dealing with the mess from the aftermarket sound deadening to get the wiring loose, but everything is now out of the way:
Pulling at some of the stereo wiring sent me on a bit of a sidequest, and I found all this behind the rear seat:
I have a weird reluctance to tear apart other people's work, but this adds weight, and I don't need most of it, so I've started pulling wires. Also starting to remove the MDF in the trunk area. I'll probably need some of the wiring to patch back in to connect speakers to the stock stereo when I reinstall it. Kind of wishing this didn't have the premium sound system, I'd prefer the cassette deck over the CD player, since I have an adapter for it. If the budget holds together, I'll see about getting an ultra cheap head unit later.
Back to the body panel preparation. Here's a shot of the damage:
Yesterday, I loosened or removed almost every bolt or connector that holds the fender on. Quite a bit of them put up a fight, reminding me why I'd sworn off rust belt cars for projects (oops). It took a while, but finally the fender is ready to be removed. One fender to fender liner bolt in particular was really bad. The clip that the bolt attaches to broke and spun in an unaccessible area. Thankfully, it's not like the fender is going to be reused, so out came the drill:
That let me get a pair of pliers on the insert and remove the bolt. Every bolt I don't break is one more I don't have to buy, or just go without. It is amazing how much is holding the fender in place.
wae is planning on stopping by this evening to help my wife and I remove the hood, and swap the body panels. Based on its size and weight, we figure we need two people to hold the hood up, while someone else unbolts it.
We got the panels swapped. Having three people to remove and install the hood was a very good idea. Pulling the fender went a little slow, as I had missed a couple of bolts up front, that wae noticed, and there was one inner fender bolt that had been concealed by the body damage.
They could still use some alignment, and obviously the paintwork needs to be finished, but that'll be put on hold while I switch back to mechanical work. I'll also strip the old door to get the trim, door handle, and lock cylinder out, along with the power lock mechanism and window motor and regulator, then take the remaining parts to the scrapper for a little bit of recoup.
The last few days have wiped me out. I'm crewing at Southern Ohio Forest Rally this coming weekend, so I think I'll take it easy for the rest of the week. Won't be much progress for a little while.
Oh yeah, budget update time, now that the door, fender, and spoiler are on the car:
Prior budget: $1533.02
+5.98 - Can of spray paint (not used all the way up, but I am sure I will finish it off during the project)
+8.98/4 = 2.25 - quarter of a quart of black paint.
+3.99/4 = 1.00 - quarter of a tube of plastic epoxy for the spoiler
Current Budget: $1542.25
Man that audio wiring. That must have had some woofers in the trunk
Coming along nicely. I have a really bad idea for it's challenge livery
How about John Daly Player Special?
OjaiM5 said:Man that audio wiring. That must have had some woofers in the trunk
Coming along nicely. I have a really bad idea for it's challenge livery
How about John Daly Player Special?
Not a bad idea. I had been thinking of two different ideas, but am likely just going to go for a stock-ish look:
-Hotblack Desiato’s stuntship from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Would’ve required blacking out the trim and lights, and getting a pretty dark tint on the windows.
-Cutting some black vinyl to make it look like a ghost checker cab when the light hits it right.
More likely, if the budget allows, I’ll see about using white vinyl or magnetic material to make door gumballs, i think it’d look better like that than with just the rectangular number panel on it.
Rally is over, so back to work on the Impala. No real work tonight, but did get it back in the garage and up on ramps, so I can work on it despite the weather we’ll be having this week.
eastsideTim said:-Hotblack Desiato’s stuntship from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Would’ve required blacking out the trim and lights, and getting a pretty dark tint on the windows.
Yeah, but how would you have any clue how fast you were going or how much fuel you had with black-on-black gauges?
Shift lever is off and the seal is definitely leaking pretty bad, like almost bad enough that I could see it being the only source of the leak, but I think to be safe, I'll pull the pan, and replace the pan gasket. Unfortunately, the "no specialty tool" method of removing the seal didn't work on the Impala, as there is not enough space. I ordered the tool, and it'll be here in a week or so.
Goals this weekend include replacing the o-ring on the power steering line, filling the rear diff (I already hit the fill bolt with Kroil, and intend to let it soak in for a while), and diagnose the sticky brakes, so I can order parts. I'll also need to see about changing out the lock cylinder on the driver's door, and hooking up the door/window switches to make sure the window motor and the power locks work, or I'll need to swap them out, too.
Frustration continues apace. I think I need a 16mm stubby combo wrench (or worse yet a 16mm stubby flare nut wrench) in order to disconnect the power steering line. I'll run out tomorrow morning. Don't feel like dealing with crowds today.
In reply to eastsideTim :
16mm interchanges with 5/8ths if that helps.
Stampie (FS) said:In reply to eastsideTim :
16mm interchanges with 5/8ths if that helps.
Should have checked the thread before I left. Such is life, I am sure the new set will come in handy down the line.
I think the old o-ring was about done for:
Took way too much effort to remove it, and even more to reinstall. The flare nut really wanted to cross thread, and there was just no easy way to get it lined up right. After several attempts, I finally got it lined up, and it is in. Also, dropped the wrench a lot, and had to grab it with the pick up tool. Took a lot less work to replace the power steering pump on a rally Neon last weekend, with access to less tools. This should end the power steering leakage. Still need to get the alternator and the belt back on, but I'll do that later when I need an easy job to act as a pick-me-up.
Next up - gear oil, and inspect the rear brakes, which I think are what is dragging.
Edit: Oh yeah, budget:
Prior budget: $1542.25
+7.99/382 = 0.02 - one o-ring out of a 382 pack from harbor freight. No receipt for the o-rings, as I've had them for ages, but I checked and screenshotted the HF page for the pack at $7.99.
Current Budget: $1542.27
If bad rear calipers i have new ones in boxes that you can have for shipping that ironically came to me the same way from curtis a few years ago
Patrick, I might take you up on that, depending on the outcome of this current weirdness:
So, rear wheels in the air, parking brake on, trans in neutral: Wheels can't be spun. So, parking brake works
Parking brake off, trans in neutral - driver's side rear wheel can be spun forward, but if I try to turn it in reverse. it'll lock up within half a turn, sometimes much faster. Passenger side wheel is the opposite, can be spun rearward, but will lock up within half a turn of trying to spin it forward.
The car was about 6-8 oz low on gear oil, but I'd think that shouldn't cause a problem. It has a Torsen-style differential, so will act like an open diff with both wheels in the air. The wheels don't lock up when driving, so whatever is keeping them from turning, is strong enough to stop me from manually turning the wheels, but not strong enough to keep the car from moving under its own power.
Based on the behavior, I'm guessing the problem is on one side, and is locking the other side up, or the problem is in the differential.
Anyone else got any ideas? This is something I've never encountered before.
I don't know specifically about this park brake setup but it sounds suspiciously like there's a hardware problem (something broken or missing maybe) allowing one of them to "self actuate/energize" in one direction. Hopefully it'll become obvious as you tear it down.
Just a guess.
I had a failed rubber hose on the rear of a truck once. It would lock up the rear brakes when stopping hard from going forward. To the point you almost couldn't drive forward at all. But reverse was easy to go into, and unlocked the brakes until the next hard stop.
To this day it makes no berkeleying sense, but it happened. Replaced the hose, and all was well for another 20k until I sold the truck.
Looks like the rotors need to come off in order to adjust the parking brake shoes. I’m thinking I’ll pull the calipers, try to spin the axles on both sides to see if it was them, and if it still locks up, I’ll pull the rotors, and try again. If they spin freely then, it’s something related to the parking brake. If it is still having problems, it may be time to pull the diff cover.
It's the passenger side parking brakes. The calipers are probably good, as the pads have plenty of material left and even wear. Needed the hammer to remove the right brake rotor, and even after turning the star adjuster all the way in, I still had some dragging and squealing when I spun the axle, although at least now it is not locking up. Even after turning the adjuster in and sanding the rust ridge off the drum, I still had to hammer the rotor again to remove it from the axle a second time, when I was making sure the noise was the shoes/drum.
There's supposed to be a procedure to more crudely adjust the shoes inward that I need to read up on, and see if that'll work. Next chance I get to wrench will be Wednesday at the earliest. I'm wondering a little bit about the shoes themselves, as a few years back when working on the Lexus, I had a problem where aftermarket shoes were too big to fit, so I'm hoping this isn't the case here, and I can just make a few more adjustments and be good to go. If not, I'll try to order parts ASAP.
I suspect if I slammed everything back together now, the car would at least be able to roll down my driveway in neutral, which it couldn't do before, but I'd rather just have it apart once and fix it.
I've marked up the rotor enough hammering it off tonight that it looks like it is time to buy new rear rotors. 
I'm still not 100% certain what is wrong, but I have an idea, and it may require an axle coming out to fix. I took the adjuster apart and found that I had already adjusted it in as far as it can go. Put everything back together, and the axle spun freely. Should have left it alone there. Tested the parking brake, and it didn't work on the passenger side. Adjusted it out a bit, and it still didn't work. Adjusted it again a smidge, and it sort of worked. Went to pull the rotor off to make another adjustment, and had to hammer it off again. Said screw it, I'll adjust it inward, and have a working parking brake on the drivers side. Nope, even after adjusting it all the way back inward, the shoes are dragging.
I think it has to do with the spring clip that retains the shoes. It allows them to move in and out a bit, while the one on the driver's side seems to hold it a lot more positively. It appears held in by a screw that I may not be able to access without removing the axle. We'll see another day, because I am out of patience now. I also need to see if I can get a replacement or not. At this point, should probably just get new rotors and shoes for both sides, too.
Ordered new rear rotors and parking brake shoes this morning. The shoes come with spring clips, so if I can't come up with a way for the one on the car to hold the shoe in place, I'll have a couple more to experiment with.
This afternoon, I tackled the shift shaft seal, since the special tool for it had arrived. The recommendation is to gently tap it into the seal to get it set in place. Because of the exhaust and a very inconveniently placed O2 sensor, that was fairly difficult. After about 2 hours of trying to get it to work, I went with the "wail on it with a 3lb sledge method". That worked, and the old seal was off a few minutes later. I cleaned up the seal area, including hitting the rust on the shift shaft with some 1000 grit sandpaper to make it less likely to snag or damage the seal, lubricated the seal with a bit of oil, then started pressing the new seal in. And it snagged on the shift shaft, and flipped up the rubber part in two places. While it isn't completely on, it is on snug enough that even if it isn't damaged now, it likely will be once I remove it. I'll see about sourcing another seal (or 2 or 3, just in case) locally this weekend. Guess I'll try the same method of install again, but if it keeps failing, I can attempt to pull the shift shaft apart from inside the transmission when I drop the pan. Really don't want to go that route, though.
Picked up a couple of seals this morning (made sure I had a spare in case I mess another one up). Took a bit to get the damaged seal out, but then noticed something that looked amiss. My eyesight is bad, but it looks like there is either a hairline crack in the transmission case or maybe it is just casting flash. I'm hoping for casting flash. Sanded more rust off the shift shaft, cleaned the area with brake cleaner, and installed the new seal.
I added a half a quart of ATF, in order to get the fluid level high enough to see if the seal is leaking, or if it is indeed a crack, and it starts seeping. Taking off the rest of the day, and will check it tomorrow for leaks. If there are none, I'll swap out the pan gasket, and that should end the transmission leaks.
That's gm transmission casting flash, they all have tons of it
Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:That's gm transmission casting flash, they all have tons of it
Thank you!
No fluid dripping from the seal, so swapping out the pan gasket is a go!
Got the pan off and drained the transmission, with far less ATF in my hair than the last time I did this type of job. If it weren't for the challenge budget, a drain plug would have gone into the pan before I reinstalled it. Cleaned up the pan before reinstalling, tightened the bolts by hand, then snugged them up with a regular socket wrench, then took them to 108 in-lbs with the torque wrench. Turns out when I drained the pan, it lost about 6 qts of fluid. I only had 4 on hand, but put them in and will see if it is still leaking. If not, I'll run out and get some more. If it is leaking, I'll run out and get even more, and just give in and install the new pan I bought just in case.
While under the car, I noticed a few new drips, including one coming off the trans cooler lines. I am hoping it is just residual fluid, as I am tired of playing whack-a-mole while I should be out putting miles on the car in order to find any other critical needs it has.
Budget update time:
Prior budget: $1542.27
+$6.48 - Transmission pan gasket
+$4.99 - Shift shaft seal
Current Budget: $1553.74
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