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| mercdeking's 1985 Chevrolet Camaro Iroc/Z28 | |||
| Joined back in Dec 2006, have lurked most of the time getting info. for fixing my car when things broke. Most recently getting the rearend fixed after destroying the stock 10bolt. Finished replacing it with a 9 bolt borg werner rear that fit pretty good. Just need to fix my brakes since the rear brake calipers need to be bled. DONE! Next fixes, finish fixing headlight switch, and then do an oil change. Replace the tires, get an alignment and replace the front bleeder screws and re-bleed the brakes! |
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| Powered by: vBGarage by magnus, trigunflame | |||
| Author | Comment | Date |
| mercdeking | Things I've done to my car since January 2008 | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | --Brought my car back from the dead! by... | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Replacing the old 10 bolt that had gone out with a 9 bolt borg warner unknown gears | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | One of the calipers from the 10 bolt which do bolt up had a broken rubber seal, hence leaking break fluid all over the place; replaced with Autozone brake caliper | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Replaced the rear brake pads as well since things were accessible, still in January 2008 | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Had the brakes bled at Brakes Plus (they didn't bleed the fronts since the bleed screws were stripped --Project for Later, brakes work ok... will fix when I get all new tires | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Have had idling issues throughout, I was thinking it was from the car sitting for so long... more repairs still in January | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Power steering pump issue, replaced that, long drawn out battle with me winning in the end but I did forget to tighten the screw which resulted in power steering loss until I fixed that... ALWAYS REMEMBER TO RETIGHTEN STUFF! Towards end of January begining of February if I recall | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | My brother convinces me to install some subwoofers, we discover electrical grimlins plus the ones I already had like low battery power, idling issues a lot better but still present | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | I buy a new Optima Yellow top Battery towards the end of January or early February; no magic solution for poor battery... discovery soon...! | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Found out that the alternator has a stripped thread, it looks tight and feels tight but it isn't... Installed new bolt with locknuts and tightened belt! | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Iddling issues seem resolved and we proceed to install the subwoofer and Amp, during installation the throttle position sensor goes haywire! | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Seems the previous owner since I had not messed with this sensor at all had overtorqued the damn screw and it gave out; replaced it with a new sensor but no go; discovered through the power of the internet that it had to be set to at least .54 volts... Took 3 days in Feb 2008 to get it set right and no more issues for a bit. | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Yesterday I decided to go buy some mirrors since my driver side power mirror sucked major balls aka it rattled plus my aftermarket racing seat (my old seat was broken, waiting for more funds to buy some 4th gen seats) makes it hard for me to look to the left for trafic; saftey hazzard that has been bugging me for a while. Decide time to take a drive to the junkyard, so on 02/06/08 I bought two yellow firebird manual mirrors for $60.00 bucks; I did not do the uninstalling from the firebird but did select them since they looked good and sturdy. Started to paint them a gloss black... | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Tried to paint the mirrors but throughout my lack of painting skills caused too many issues and redos; left them scuffed black then primered on top to hid the poor paintjob (primered mirrors less embarrasing than poor black paintjob. Installed the mirrors but during this time period while waiting for the paint to dry on my "painting attempts" I decided to fix my headlight switch. | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | 02/07/08. While removing the cluster to get to the headlight switch I found a nut for the cluster which should help in getting it back on there tight! Also, it isn't fun to get the speedo cable off! Bloody knuckles! When I did get the cluster out and moved to let the headlight switch I discovered that the headlight switch connector had burned up and onto the switch. Had bought a replacement switch and ordered a new connector from Autozone which I will install on Saturday when I get it! Also discovered why my rear defrost switch was all pushed in; it had blown something inside which caused a small electrical fire which melted the switch. Going to order a replacement from Modern Day Muscle on Feb 15th aka PayDay! | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Finished installing the primered mirrors and tucking the power mirror wires out of the way but keeping them if I ever get a chance to get some power mirrors. | 02-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Decided to start fixing my headlight switch as I was messing with my power mirrors; Yesterday, I tried to get it working and created my own harness with those damn tabs but that didn't pan out. Went to the junkyard today the 11th and got a used headlight switch connector, a used headlight switch along with a used defroster switch out of a 92 camaro in the junkyard. Rewired everything and after some false starts and not knowing that the steering wheel position plays a part in your lights! Doh! | 02-11-2008 |
| mercdeking | Anyways, now my lights work along with my defroster switch! The defroster switch is yellow though! | 02-11-2008 |
| mercdeking | 02/11/08 Also fixed my driver side high beam light which had a pigtail missing when I rear ended someone; it got scrunched and I kept forgetting to get that pigtail whenever I was at the junkyards. Anyways now all 4 lights turn on! | 02-11-2008 |
| mercdeking | Car was finally running right so I decided to change my oil since it had the same oil from the previous year and a couple of months: Changed to Penzoil 10 w40 since my car has a lot of miles and heard that 10W40 is the recommended 'dosage'. Anyways, I also found a stray plug that wasn't connected so I connected it and now my headlights don't work but all my interior lights do! Damn, might be opening up the cluster again tomorrow! | 02-12-2008 |
| mercdeking | Have been working on the light issue, created a temp harness, disconnected the old broken and hacked one, fixing 1 - 3 connectors that seem old or damaged. goimg to replace the steering column dimmer switch in case that is the problem. | 02-25-2008 |
| mercdeking | Also need to fix a damaged fusible link and weatherpack connector. | 02-25-2008 |
| mercdeking | My previous day off I pretty much fixed my car to where only my interior lights like my dome lights do not turn on and my hatch switch doesn't work; other than that things are looking good. Today since it was my next day off I went and bought some tires since my old ones were bald or sun damaged! Got me some Sumic GT 50's, supposedly sumitomo's cheap version. What was the problem from my old electrical issue? It was the column dimmer switch which was broken; it must have gotten stuck and burnt up keeping the headlight circuit from completing. Going to verify my fuses because last time my interior lgihts didn't work it was because a blown fuse! | 03-04-2008 |
| mercdeking | Next fixes, replace the bleeder screws on the front brake calipers; rebleed the brakes, by weather seals for the car and then paint the bugger. Going to remove my rear seats for the hell of it! | 03-04-2008 |
| mercdeking | Also had my wheel bearings repacked and greased on the 3rd | 03-05-2008 |
| mercdeking | Threw a code 43 today, new thing to investigate! Damn! | 03-05-2008 |
| mercdeking | Replaced my tires on my car, got me some sumic gt50's, forget the date of replacement | 05-31-2008 |
| mercdeking | Today I finished replacing my front rotors, the brake pads and the wheel bearings (inner and outer). There is such a thing as too much grease... Who'd a thunk it! | 05-31-2008 |
| mercdeking | I had an awful squeal on my car everytime I slowed down. Plus there was a distinct pull to the side when I was slowing. Now the squeal is gone and so is the pull to the side. The rotors were probably warped, I've had a few panic stops from having to slow down when screwing around... | 05-31-2008 |
| mercdeking | Heh! seems I replaced my tires on the 03/03/2008 when I had the previous work done. | 05-31-2008 |
| mercdeking | Renewing my insurance; damn! Seems I'll be staying with Prog. | 07-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | 369.00 for 6 months, damn prior accident and damn arizona's high insurance, quit stealing cars and taking them to mexico! | 07-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Just topped off my oil, was missing 2 quarts! Also topped off my radiator fluid. It was pretty low in the container but the radiator was full. | 07-23-2008 |
| mercdeking | While topping off the oil and checking it I noticed that near the passenger side valve cover I had some oil pooled. I also noticed that one of my injectors is leaking. Was wondering why I was sputtering or dying at weird times. So I went to tpi parts and got some ttop sunshades to block the sun and 2 injectors, should have just got some o ring seals but I don't think one is flowing well. Figure cheaper than shipping them off to get cleaned. Otherwise now I got spares. | 07-23-2008 |
| mercdeking | It was actually 2 injectors that were leaking, on the driver side it was barely noticeable but it was definitely leaking on the passenger side since I could feel it and smell it on my fingers when I dipped it in there. | 07-23-2008 |
| mercdeking | 112, 888 miles at last check up | 07-23-2008 |
| mercdeking | 106,XXX when bought in 04/2006 | 07-23-2008 |
| mercdeking | Poured in some fuel injector cleaner in the meantime; vacation on aug. 2nd so that should give me time to rip off the intake manifold to change the injectors, sadly, it seems my order hasn't shipped yet. So time is quickly running out before the parts get here and I go on vacation. If they arrive in time I'll be able to fix it otherwise I'll work on my grand marquis which got damaged by some drunk. It just needs me to replace the lower a arm since the ball joint got bent. Everything else looked good. | 07-24-2008 |
| mercdeking | http://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb.dll?parta~dyndetail~Z5Z5Z50000136b~Z5Z5Z5BDBHC~P249.99~~~~S2FA1CRWNG72208813821a~Z5Z5Z5~Z5Z5Z50000136b | 07-24-2008 |
| mercdeking | That's the link for my next purchase if I have money lying around; door panels. Want to get some that are preassembled with everything ready. Want to reuse as few of my original parts as possible since they are warped or too old and damaged. | 07-24-2008 |
| mercdeking | 1986 camaro door panels, k86501, these just look nice but cost 249.99 Not good but still considering that I just paid 65.00 bucks for some sunshades it's not horrible... | 07-24-2008 |
| mercdeking | Topped off transmission fluid was missing about 1/2 to a bit more of a quart. Found an unplugged emissions hose and reconnected that probably a big reason why things were really hot in there. Nothing was escaping to whereever it needed to go. | 07-26-2008 |
| mercdeking | Damn, my time is gone, I was planning to go junkyard crawling after searching for my tools. Instead as I was removing my headliner and armoralling my ttop weatherstripping to keep it in good shape, my dad turned on his truck next to my car and I heard a nasty click and clank sound. My dad thought it might be his water pump and lo and behold it was. We started at 8am when we went to checkers and bought the waterpump, 2 gallons of fluid and some gasket maker and we went back to his home to fix it. We officially finished at 1115-20am. Pretty good time for us as we got it done... So there went most of my energy since it is hot as hell out there! Damn you Arizona heat! | 07-27-2008 |
| mercdeking | Removed my headliner and exposed the blue metal underneath. Interesting thing, when I removed the headliner a sticker that attached to it read the model or part number of the t top headliner and the date of "MAY 21 1985" so my car was being setup a day before I had my 4th birthday on May 22, 1985. | 07-28-2008 |
| mercdeking | Also removed my sunvisors and found out how to tighten them. Too bad that they aren't in the best of shape so I will probably not be reusing them if I can get some replacements. I also found out that when I tried my a/c I was lying on my back I noticed that my dash console is cracked right down the middle. If I detatched all the parts, I would have a section holding my gauges and one that had the radio on down to everything next to the passenger side. | 07-28-2008 |
| mercdeking | Ok, that didn't make sense, but think about it this way. It's broken straight almost straight down the middle. The passenger side part is bigger since it took the whole a/c control and radio section. The edge of the shifter box on the driver side 'divides' the sections. | 07-28-2008 |
| mercdeking | http://www.thenewgrandprix.com/1326287.html | 07-28-2008 |
| mercdeking | Link to a place I'm considering taking my car for a paint job. Saw some of their work while not the 'greatest' it looked pretty decent. I could see some imperfections on the car. It was along the edges near the trim where it sort of shot into the molding. | 07-28-2008 |
| mercdeking | Figure I can go see the work result from my nearest maaco and earl sheib to compare. The car while mine, is still just a daily driver right now and it does have some accident damage that pretty much makes it worth a lot less and it is no longer prestine as when I bought it. But still want it to look descent but now going to concentrate on making it function well, paint it and then beef it up to drop in a 350 at some point in the future. Come on bonus! Damn, they don't seem to be coming in where I work right now with the economy in the shitter. | 07-28-2008 |
| mercdeking | Well on vacation and working on my car since saturday! I completely took apart my tpi setup to the fuel rail. Didn't mess with the intake manifold itself since it would involve removing the distributor. Not sure if I wanted to tackle that job as well! | 08-05-2008 |
| mercdeking | Cleaned up the area and with my 'refurbed' 19lb fic injector (made for ford, aka branded for ford). I was left wondering why they weren't GM 'replacement parts but everything points to the fact that they work on my car so installed away. Found several damaged o-rings and damaged pintle caps on the injectors. Well so I replaced the fuel injectors and I took a drive on Sunday and bought a replacement egr valve and installed that as well. The runners are now positioned on there and ready to be tightened down. I had to look up a lot of vacumm diagrams since I couldn't remember how mine went! Urk, I labeled some a long time ago but I moved the hoses so much it got confusing. I moved the hoses around because I also wanted to take care of the gasket leak at the valve covers. Cleaned up the edges and have come to realize that I need to replace my valve covers since the ones I have appear a little out of wack. So as soon as I get the valve covers back on there, I'll pressurize my feul system to | 08-05-2008 |
| mercdeking | On monday, 8/4 I changed my fuel filter as well. | 08-05-2008 |
| mercdeking | Just pressurized my fuel system; made a vacummy like noise, I then went to the shrader valve on the fuel line and with a piece of shop towel over it I pressed in and fuel seeped through the towel. NO fuel leaking from my injectors or my fuel filter replacement underneath so that is a go. So just need to see what my options are at checkers or autozone or the new pepboys in order to get me some new valve covers. If I reuse the old ones I'm going to end up having to change them again, it hasn't even been a year since I changed them last; ok, it probably is more than a year now that I think about it but they should last a lot longer than that. | 08-05-2008 |
| mercdeking | Also going to replace my gauge cluster and swap my current odomoter onto that one. Otherwise I think I got the stuck needle fixed on the odomoter that is currently in my car. My fuel needle fell off and I stuck it back on there. Not sure if that is cause for concern. | 08-05-2008 |
| mercdeking | Replaced my broken headlight switch with my replacement from modern day muscle. So now I just need to get the cover plate on there when I finish fixing my fog lamps! | 08-06-2008 |
| mercdeking | 113,010 Changed my fuel filter, my oil as well. And technically I also changed my radiator fluid since I drained my engine when I began my fuel injector swap. Injectors also swapped at this mileage. Valve cover gaskets also changed since I replaced my old warped valve covers with some stupidly bright chrome spectre valve covers. Couldn't find anything else with all the correct 'holes' as mine had. Wanted to keep everything the same. | 08-06-2008 |
| mercdeking | Oil change time, 08/05/08 @ 113,010 miles. Funny how I decided to park my car and do all this junk at such a nice number but it worked out that way. Swapping my speedometer into my replacement gauge cluster. Decided that my 110mile an hour gauge cluster was technically in better condition but still wanted to keep my most recent mileage which is tied to my 145mile an hour speedo, which is my replacement for my original 85 mile an hour speedo. The real mileage on my car is 114,010, I was able to bring up my mileage number by attaching a drill and a rigged up connector to spin up my 145mile an hour speedo. Got tired of spinning it up at a 1000 miles short! Lol! Still pretty accurate all considering. | 08-06-2008 |
| mercdeking | Madly eyeballing a grant steering wheel at pepboys! Damn, me wants! | 08-06-2008 |
| mercdeking | Test drove my car, had to top off the radiator fluid. Also bought a grant steering wheel, 49.99 from pepboys and the installation kit for 19.99; hey! Now instead of just shaking my fist at someone I can now honk my horn at them! Wooot! | 08-06-2008 |
| mercdeking | Was wondering why it wasn't working since I was hearing a clicking noise; then I went and inspected my horn and saw that I had left the harness disconnected. I had replaced the harness at the main connection junction a couple of months ago when i bought it off of ebay. It was in better condition than my own; just had to rewire the side marker lights since they were both really grimy and rusted/tarnished copper within the plastic fitting/connector. | 08-06-2008 |
| mercdeking | Car sounds ok, damn, fuel gauge is on the fritz and some of my other gauges work but appear to not function at their full capacity ie might be innaccurate. | 08-06-2008 |
| mercdeking | Speedometer not working and neither is the fuel gauge. So, what to do? Seems there is a gps solution, been wanting a gps unit so I can buy the software for my ipaq 111, so I got a globaltop hg 100 speedmeter. Gives a 'hud' like reading. Plus it will work with my pda so I can use my pda as a gps unit as well to find locations and such. | 08-06-2008 |
| mercdeking | Installed grant steering wheel, horn works. Put in 'new' used seats from a 94 convertible comaro. Slight tear on the driver side area. | 08-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Well I've accomplished a lot of junk on my vacation. So that was technically 40 hours worth of vacation well spent plus at least two holiday days being used! | 08-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Car has been test driven; possible issues, I thought that by redoing the whole fuel injector and putting in my new fuel filter that it would help with all the surging and stuff I was getting. Not sure but it could be the fuel regulator might be an issue or I improperly installed my emissions hosing which is causing some surge, I can't slam down on my breaks without a horrible noise being heard. I end up letting go of the gas and then reapplying which sorts things out. It's hard to describe! | 08-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Also put some seat covers on my new used camaro seats. To keep that wear spot from growing. Plus if I get in the car dirty it'll just get on the cover and not on the seat. Plus I have plans of getting the interior redone so it will all match at some far off date; probably after I replace all my rubbers which won't happen until I have the cash saved up to get my car painted; paint car and at the same time replace the rubbers! Sounds like a plan! | 08-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | --While junkyard crawling today I also got a lot of misc. parts: replacement armrests, mine are still good though, a cluster but it might not work, some connectors and faceplates for my fog light/headlight switch and one for my defroster and a defroster delete as well plus all the screws. Also got a replacement mirror for my car. | 08-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | What I've been working on; I have some fuel pressure loss; hoping it's only my fuel regulator but if it's my fuel pump then I'm screwed considering how long it will take me to fix that. | 08-23-2008 |
| mercdeking | recently, I wasn't driving my car since yesterday since my car was idling erratically and I had gotten a code 44 & then a code 43. I replaced the electronic spark control module and not sure if it fixed anything. Next code I got was the code 43 or car running lean, then I got my erratic idle which I just fixed. At my vacumm canister a hose had disconnected at the selonoid. Just used one of my few remaining hose clamps with the yellow tab to batten it down. | 08-23-2008 |
| mercdeking | Parts ordered and parts on hand: ordered a new gasket set for the runners and a holley adjsustable fuel pressure regulator. Got the gaskets for the exchange! Also bought a o2 sensor and a ignition control module; total so far! 106.00 for the gasket and regulator and 23.00 for the o2 sensor & 29.99 for the ignition control module. | 08-23-2008 |
| mercdeking | Ok, most recent junkola; see below | 08-29-2008 |
| mercdeking | 2 days ago on Wednesday my car stopped turning on; I would turn the key, the pump would prime then I would start the car, well when I clicked it to activate the starter it would make a noise and then everything went out. All power or most of it. Went to Autozone today and had my battery tested and it was ok but a little low, I told the guy my problem and he said: see below | 08-29-2008 |
| mercdeking | That it was probably a bad connection, I figured it was my starter and when I had looked underneath my car I saw that I would have to drop my exhaust y pipe in order to take the starter off I thought damn, but with his comment that it was probably a bad connection I bought a spray can of battery cleaner, a battery post brush and a new set of battery clamps/tposts adapters since my side post terminal on the positive side was stripped; and lo and behold my car now starts like a champ again. I was hopping for some good suggestions from here in the forum but no one was there to help :( Either way, Problem solved! | 08-29-2008 |
| mercdeking | Oh, also fixed my cigarete lighter, I found the wire that had been soldiered on had broken hence no power; I had gone to the junkyard and bought the original connector and I wired things up correctly again. Now when my gps unit arrives I can actually use it the way it's meant to be! | 08-29-2008 |
| mercdeking | Also used my junkyard crawl from aug 7th, to find the fusible link that was broken at the 20amp black rubber thingy at the positive side of the battery cable. I also reconnected the knock sensor which had come off underneath my car near the starter! So slowly things are coming along. | 08-29-2008 |
| mercdeking | Latest things: new hard start when cold problem 11-06-08 | 11-07-2008 |
| mercdeking | Stuff I've fixed lately, lots of wiring with my battery. Sealed with some liquid electrical tape a bunch of areas. Replaced my fan motor since it burned out and overheated. Moved and fixed a few vacuum lines that were loose. Nothing major except this new cold start problem. | 11-07-2008 |
