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At one point in time, I went by G92_Z28 on the forum. I had a 1988 Iroc-Z which I still have (hopefully will also start a thread for this car, doing a lot more work in a more restomod style) and a 1991 Z28. I unfortunately sold the 91' a couple years ago now and have still been working on the 88' but I've had the itch for another.
Recently while going on my daily stroll through Facebook Marketplace, I came across an 89' Iroc-Z convertible with a 5 speed. According to the description the input shaft was destroyed, and all the gears acted as neutral. The car also unfortunately had been in an accident with a deer in the early 90's, which I verified with carfax, and it currently has had a rebuilt title in Ohio since 2005. Although knowing these issues going into it, something about the car drew me in and I knew I had to save it. After a Saturday road trip to Ohio from New York, I was towing the car back home.
A few things became clear immediately, whatever had happened to the car during the salvage claim must not have been too bad and/or repaired extremely well. All of the body panels still have the original vin stickers for the most part and the doors actually close the best of all 3 third gens I've owned up to this point. I was initially told the car was indeed an original 5 speed car. I was not too concerned if the car was originally a 5 speed or auto as I wanted a manual anyways, I also began to have questions when I looked under the car to find cutoff transmission cooling lines. So long story short the car was originally an auto, and someone swapped in the 5 speed at some point.
NY requires any rebuilt car brought into the state must undergo a salvage inspection in this state (thank you NY!) which essentially is a check to verify there are no stolen parts on the car in order for them to issue you a new title. Therefore, to pass the inspection I am currently doing a rebuild on the T5. Once the inspection is passed, I have several other plans involving paint, interior, suspension, etc. I know I may get hate for the fact the car is a rebuilt title and the fact that I'm rebuilding the T5 for the time being, however, I'm building the car I want and that's what's important to me. Just hoping to share some of my knowledge and document my build here for others to see.
Below are some pictures in the garage once it was unloaded from the trailer:
Ended up making some wheel cribs to help raise the car to max height for the transmission drop:
Good news is that the floors appear to be solid, just dirty, nothing I can't clean up:
Thankfully, since I've had a few thirdgens now I have a wealth of spare parts to help along the way. If you're interested, please stay tuned and follow along as I build my dream car.
Nice find! Rebuilt title makes it a perfect candidate to do what you like with it, if the fixes were done well, then the car should be fine. Your wheel cribs ended up much straighter than mine .
Hate? Are you kidding me? I probably speak for many of us when I say this, but I think it's great that you're saving it. If the car is safe, that's all that matters. We see good vehicles being parted out or decent cars being neglected to the point of going to the recycler far to many times.
Over the last few days, I began with removing the transmission to diagnose the supposed broken input shaft and cause of every gear being neutral. Upon removing the transmission, I did a complete disassembly and discovered that the 4th gear on the input shaft had lost all of its teeth. Unfortunately, it appears that during explosion it also caused damage to the 4th gear on the main cluster which is expected due to the mesh. Below are some pictures of everything disassembled.
After removing the bellhousing, also found a rather spent clutch/pressure plate and flywheel as seen below.
Now before moving anymore forward, I will have to order up some parts to rebuild everything and hopefully get her moving under her own power. Other than ordering parts I will post an update once I get everything in and cleaned up!
Nice buy! I contacted the seller of this vehicle a couple months ago but couldn't get any feedback from them. Glad your saving it!
Thank you! I am surprised you never heard back as I watched the listing for quite some time before making an offer. However, I am glad I was able to get it and look forward to giving it a second chance on life.
Finally getting time to post an update. The T5 is rebuilt. As expected, upon paying more attention the T5 they swapped in was from a V6 car so I put in some effort to make it a custom V8 trans. Gear set I went with was a Z code 2.95 heavy duty gear set rated for 330 ft/lbs and 350-400hp. Knowing the case is a week point and I only have a 305 in it for now that’s more than enough. However, I kept the .63 overdrive vs the .75 or .83 that would have come with a V8. This should help with some of the highway driving I’ll be doing as I’d like to put in 3.42 or 3.73 gears (still undecided) to help off the line. Essentially going for a stop light to stop light get up with the occasional highway trip to work or cruise.
As is common in a high mileage T5 the tip of the main shaft was spalling. From some reading and talking to foxbody T5 guys, and since my father is a machinist, we turned the main shaft OD down to .600” and made a new race for the rollers from a hardens drill bushing with an OD of .831” and just under 3mm wall thickness. Also upgraded the cluster bearing race retainer to a heavy duty retaining plate. Pics of trans and repaired main shaft below, just realized I never took pics of the gears inside:
Stuff I have to go in the car and on the way:
Centerforce Dual Fricition Clutch
New Flywheel
New Clutch Master and Slave Cylinder
Pro 5.0 Shifter
Some other miscellaneous pieces I’ll show in another post as well.
I believe I’m going to take the time to clean up the whole underside of the car before I reassemble the trans in the car. I want to prep everything and paint with a good undercoat paint. Once the trans is in and working the rear end will be next.
One question if anyone can answer: when doing a T5 swap, is the reverse light wiring tied in from what I believed to be the TCC lockup connector under the car? I have no idea where the connector went from the auto shifter which is where I thought that got tied in.
Did some digging today and found what should have been the auto shifter connector therefore I found the correct wires to tap into for the reverse lights. Under closer inspection they also decided it would be a good idea to just twist the purple and green/white wires, that should be the neutral safety switch, together and tie it off with electrical tape. Tomorrow I plan on getting a more neutral safety switch and fixing the wiring up. Will post some more pics tomorrow.
Prepped and undercoated the car. Floors were in great shape and I was hoping to protect them some and I like the look. Got the T5 back in after the rebuild. Went with a centerforce clutch, pro 5.0 shifter, got new clutch master and slave, and used a spohn torque arm relocation crossmember with their adjustable torque arm. Also used the an energy suspension transmission mount.
As mentioned before I tackled some of the hacked wiring. The radio wiring was the biggest hack, that is now sorted and we have functional radio. Next problem I found was the fuel pump ran all the time with key in the on position. Someone decided to do the following. Tapped into the switched 12VDC for the ignition coil to power a new relay coil. A wire was then ran from the alternator to a relay contact that was then hacked into the old fuel pump power. I had another hacked harness which I cut the fuel pump relay connector out of. Once I pulled the harness back in the car all the original wires were there and the proper 12VDC priming power from the ecm worked. So I soldered in the new connector and got a new relay. Seemed to fix the constant run however, I have no idea why this was previously done.
Finally was time to get it started. Picked up an optima red top to replace the shot duralast battery that was in the car. Filled the trans up with 3qts of royal purple synchromax and we were good to go. Fired up on the first shot and off around the block I went. Trans shifts smooth as butter and the clutch feels great. Makes me realize how shot the trans an clutch were in my old 91 Z28.
Will get some more underneath pics within the next few days but here’s a video showing it running. Still a lot of work to do but, making great progress from a car that didn’t run and drive to one that will.
Got everything reassembled and started diagnosing regular operational issues. Again, the goal is to get the car to a drivable and operational state and then work on appearance (paint, bodywork, interior, wheels) and suspension and performance after. Once testing the turn signals, I knew I had a faulty flasher. Replaced the flasher and the passenger side marker bulb, I had fully functioning lighting. This also included my fixing of the reverse light circuit which was left out by the previous owner during the T5 swap they performed. Then I picked up a new horn pigtail from AutoZone and had a functioning horn. I believe I am at a state in which I have a fully operational/drivable car now. Granted it may not look the best but, it will eventually. I currently have a set of Alston inner subframe connectors on the way from a member of the boards here and have a potential lead on a new spoiler center section.
Next big project will be a rearend/rear suspension rebuild. Decided to keep the 10 bolt and swap in a Torsen Posi unit and 3.42 gears from a 4th gen. I also have a set of 28 spline axles to go with it from a 91 Z28 and will be doing a rear disc conversion well I'm at it. I am going to go with Founders for their panhard bar, panhard relocation, and lower control arms. I also have a set of vogtland lowering springs from my old 91 Z28 that never got installed before I sold it.
Here's some updated full car pics for those following along...
I bet that paint will really pop after some rubbing compound. How far into the column did you have to go to replace the horn pigtail? I bet the other end of mine looks like a sewer pipe and I've found out those don't conduct the electricities so good .
I bet that paint will really pop after some rubbing compound. How far into the column did you have to go to replace the horn pigtail? I bet the other end of mine looks like a sewer pipe and I've found out those don't conduct the electricities so good .
Actually, wasn't so bad for the horn. Had some things randomly unplugged, which seems to be all over in this car. I tested the ground connection with an allen wrench first. Just stuck the allen wrench in the horn pigtail hole on the column and touched the other end to the wheel to ground it. Seemed to be all good and I just scuffed it up to clean it some. My understanding is the horn pad just provides ground for the relay so as long as it's cleaned up, should be good to go.
Got everything reassembled and started diagnosing regular operational issues. Again, the goal is to get the car to a drivable and operational state and then work on appearance (paint, bodywork, interior, wheels) and suspension and performance after. Once testing the turn signals, I knew I had a faulty flasher. Replaced the flasher and the passenger side marker bulb, I had fully functioning lighting. This also included my fixing of the reverse light circuit which was left out by the previous owner during the T5 swap they performed. Then I picked up a new horn pigtail from AutoZone and had a functioning horn. I believe I am at a state in which I have a fully operational/drivable car now. Granted it may not look the best but, it will eventually. I currently have a set of Alston inner subframe connectors on the way from a member of the boards here and have a potential lead on a new spoiler center section.
Next big project will be a rearend/rear suspension rebuild. Decided to keep the 10 bolt and swap in a Torsen Posi unit and 3.42 gears from a 4th gen. I also have a set of 28 spline axles to go with it from a 91 Z28 and will be doing a rear disc conversion well I'm at it. I am going to go with Founders for their panhard bar, panhard relocation, and lower control arms. I also have a set of vogtland lowering springs from my old 91 Z28 that never got installed before I sold it.
Here's some updated full car pics for those following along...
07-07-2022, 09:34 PM
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