Mine has a 3 inch with a mix of thuren/synergy and pure. I have pure performance resi shocks. I swapped to 3.73s w my 37s. It's perfect w my manual trans.

 

Just got the call, my car is done at the dyno shop. They were able to get the car tuned and I am looking forward to driving it now. I have a cruise this Saturday that I really wanted to take the family to in the GTA. This is will be my boy's first time riding in the car.
It also sounds like the shop had a few issues to contend with on my car, but since I hadn't driven the car much for a shake down run, I'm not surprised.
They also had some issues with the dyno, so they only got horsepower and not torque. It made 10 psi at 5500rpm, The pulley was supposed to be for 15 psi on a stock motor.

 

Nice! Enjoy that first cruise. Take few pics for us.

 

So I am still having issues with my gauges and I have decided that I am not going to try and troubleshoot anymore. I am going to go with the speedhut gauges. Debating on going GPS or programmable for the speedo, but I am going to go for a "stock" appearance. I also need to work on the audio and get some tunes going for the cruises.

 

Had a couple other 3rd gens park next to me.

Overall the car show/cruise was good. Cruising at 70mph (per gps) I was turning 1600 rpms with the 6spd. That got me thinking that I could go to 4.11s and not lose much cruising. The only gauges that currently work are my tach and fuel gauge.

 

I am running an autometer GPS speedo and its pretty slick. It has a small magnetic receiver that I have sitting in the middle of my dash pad that looks stock. It only goes haywire in tunnels and the occasional flip out on the highway if you go under a bunch of bridges at once. It is super handy especially if you want to play with rear gears (although I suppose its simple with modern ECM's).

 

I like that idea, since I am contemplating changing gears. I won't have to worry about messing with anything in the T56 to compensate for that. They aren't that much more expensive than the programmable speedo.

 

Since I picked up my new wheels, I haven't been enthused with the 4th gen rear axle. I am not a fan of the rear tires sticking out, even with the factory GTA wheels they stuck out. I have been scouring the junk yards and FB marketplace. I looked at a few axles, but they were really rusty and not something I wanted to try and fool with. I went and picked this axle up for $80 bucks. it wasn't to bad, but the downside was the posi left the chat room. Granted the stock 10 bolt is not the strongest, but I wanted to stay more towards stock. I could have done a 9" or 8.8 but the cost was significantly higher. I am looking at 3.90 gears and a track loc, maybe ugprade to 28 spline aftermarket axles. I am going to install my brakes from my 4th gen axle and call it a day.

 

On my downtime I search fb marketplace for random wants and I've been on the search for a spoiler since picking up this project. Obviously I would like a Hawks reproduction, but $800 is not in the current budget. While waiting the other day I was searching and came across an add for parting out of a 93' Trans Am. I saw the spoiler messaged the guy and $60 later, I have a 93 TA spoiler. I've never done fiberglass, but I've done a little body work and I'm not against learning. I have been searching TGO for more information on the 4th gen spoiler, but a lot of the pictures are gone.

 

Still waiting on my spoiler to get redone - going on 2 months. Every time I contact the body shop its the same response. "It's going into the paint booth this week, I'll have it done Friday"... So I either wait or I pick it up, maybe eventually it will get painted..


I decided to take my GTA to the Woodbine Applefest car show. I went with my cousin just for fun. I had no spoiler, my rear decklid is primered and looks terrible. So I was shocked when I heard my name called for 2nd place and the class that I was in was huge 1986 - 2003 modified. My boys share the trophy in their rooms.

 

Well after 8 months I was finally able to get my spoiler back. The body shop felt bad for stringing me along for so long they didn't charge me. The color is off and it will have to get it redone.. but by someone else. I dropped off my axle finally to get rebuilt with some 3.73 gears and a new posi. I picked up some paint from the local autobody paint store and tried my hand at redoing my rear decklid. I still need to wet sand and buff it, but I am happy with how it turned out, the color is a little off but not terribly noticeable.

 

I set the spoiler on and backed the car out of the garage to see how it would look. Overall I am happy with how it looks.

 

Update, so the engine has developed a vibration from off idle to 5500 rpms. no noise, I pulled the plugs and they all look good, decided to go ahead and pull the motor and get it rebalanced. I am going to swap out the 22 year old harmonic balancer once I figure out what crank is in it whether it is externally or internally balanced. PO doesn't have any info on the motor parts used, so I figure this will be a great opportunity to actually know what is in the motor, cam specs, rods and pistons. I have a list of items that I wanted to do and pulling the drivetrain is the best way to clean up the engine bay and repaint it.

 

I have been working on the car some more, decided not to pull the engine yet due to time constraints and other life obligations. I was doing a lot of reading and found out dual sync distributors will cause the issues I am dealing with. While Holley had their IRS sale I ordered a new distributor, cap and rotor. I will try the cap and rotor first, and if that doesn't fix it, a whole new distributor hopefully will fix the vibration. It feels like a miss at higher rpms.

starting to tear down and inspect/clean up

I also had been dealing with a gas smell in the garage coming from the car, knowing that the fuel lines needed to be replaced due to some changes. I opened the garage one day and noticed a spot on the floor, I watched the fuel drip out from the shield. Upon inspecting my fuel tank either rusted out or developed a pin hole, either way a new tank was needed. I opted for a 4th gen tank since maybe some day I might swap to a 6.0.

I ordered -6AN and PTFE lines along with several parts from Racetronix to get the pump wired up. I am running 10 gauge from the pump to the relay that I have mounted close to frame rail. I utilized the 2000 Trans AM fuel filter as well.

 

The car lived it's life in a rural community so it saw gravel roads often, I hated how much rust the front suspension had. Along with needing new ball joints and general cleaning I decided to pull the front suspension to clean things up.


After much debate I decided to waste some of my bonus on some shiny parts instead of spending hours cleaning and sanding. I know the factory k-member is stronger, but I opted for more room and I've always wanted to go to a tubular k-member.



I was surprised how quick it was to rebuild the front end. I need to order new brake lines, and get those installed then I will have the front finished up.

 

That certainly solves the rusty front suspension parts! Looks good.