I finally solved my problem with my car with the help from this site which is great. It was the alternator so I went to buy an alternator for my 85 Camaro which originally came with the optional 78 amp. The store only listed a 63 amp for my car but when he checked a 84 Camaro it showed a 78 amp. Also when he crossed the numbers on my old one it matched to the one for a 84 camaro. Does anyone else experience this when buying parts because this is not the first time I went through this.

 

Yea, I did. Turned out my 86 305 was replaced with an 87 305, and all accesories that went with it.

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Rob
'86 TA 305 TPI
Gutted MAF, Ported Plenum
TB Bypass, Home made Cold Air Intake,
Edelbrock T.E.S.

 

I had that problem when i was replacing my EGR valve. If i remember correctly I could only fit/replace an 87 Firebird's EGR valve with my 88 Firebird's original EGR valve.

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Shouldn't bother putting this but hey what the heck:
1988 Maui Blue Firebird 305 TBI stock (w/ 190,000+ miles and still running strong )

 

I've had the same problem. My car is an 84, but the starter that came out of it goes in an 83. It maybe that the only 84 starter the store had was manufactured faulty (gear would hit the fly wheel no matter how many shims you put in), but we had no way to tell. After doing some research we found that the 83 was correct, and it works fine, where the 84 starter did NOT. 84 starter's body was a little smaller than the 83 according to what I found.

 

Don't be surprized if you find the same situation at the dealer parts counter. Now all options, production changes, and variants are found in the parts lookup databases.

If you realize that there were actually two different IROCs/TAs in 1985, some mid-year changes in '86, and some confusion among aftermarketers on '88 and '89 cars, you'll understand why it is important to match the parts at the counter whenever you can. It's even worse with Fieros since there were three designs of 1984 Fiero - DOH!

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Later,
Vader
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"I'm'a do Things My Way - It's My way or the Highway."
Adobe Acrobat Reader

 

I was starting to think maybe my car was made on a Friday and some workers at the plant had some fun with it.