Okay, got my 89 rs this weekend. drove down four hours to get it. We were told she only needed a jump. Okay, so we get there and me and my genius, for just in case reasons, brought a little tool box with me. this proved to be very wise in my case. We got into town on saturday morning at about 1 or 2 am. went to jump her, no go. woke up later in the morning (slept three hours) and jumped right on her. first we went and took the battery to get tested/charged while we were doing that we were looking at the car alarm and the neutral safety switch. alarm was okay, switch not so much. so we went back to get the battery and got one of those bitches while we were there. swap them out, no difference. at this point we notice the shifter was a little bent and I'm thinking that it was causing the switch to not reach right. okay, so we hardwired it and cut out the safety switch. we then proceed to try starting the car. wha lah, she goes sounds mean as hell and we're excited. Now we get her running and we let her idle up for a bit and get back in a groove (she was sitting for at least 5 months), shut her off and proceed to make a more permanent solution by just slapping those two wires together. we then try to start her, and nothing. the starter solenoid is also going out so we can't even be sure that what was wrong was wrong on that front either. so we swap out the starter, which had a lifetime warranty on it so no biggie, and remember little tool box no tools. we get her done in about an hour or two and she fires right off. okay, we break the lock off the gas cap and my buddy heads a couple blocks away with her to fuel up. ten minutes later I get a call. "she's acting like she has a dead battery bro". sure enough, she did. so, now that it's 8 30 ish on a saturday night, we know that she's purely running off the battery. today when we go back out to her we're going to have that swapped out and I'm just praying that will do the trick. anything else I should be on the look out for?

 

Okay, so she's home. ran the whole way on only the battery. battery juiced out once and had to switch to another one. my question is what should I be looking for that would cause a problem like that. no alternator feed, even though we put a third one on yesterday?

 

how do your cables look?

 

Hey, if your in corning, I could come by and give you a hand. I am in chico, not too far away. I would love to check out your car.

I would check all your grounds and make sure there aren't any cut wires. make sure the clip going to the alternator has a good connection too. Sometimes then connector gets all corroded.

 

You're more than welcome to swing by anytime. barely made it home last night and I sure am tired!

 

congrats! reminds me of so many similar adventures of my own.

 

Yeah, it was crazy. I hope I didn't over charge my battery today.

 

So, I think I left my regular set of keys in Salinas (four hours away). This means that I will be needing to drive the maro' to work until I can fix the problem. it's no big drive, maybe 7 minutes each way so I'm not afraid really. but, I just wanted to check with everyone and make sure that the battery will be okay. I throw it on the charger when I get home(starting with today).

 

Okay, I don't know what exactly did the trick but since I was able to put it on jack stands and actually fit under the girl, I somehow got it to where the alternator is putting out around 14.2ish. The battery is kinda low anyways from all the running around on just the battery for so long, but When she runs I think she's juicing up decently. I think there still may be a small short somewhere though. When I turn on the blinkers the needle always wavers just a tad and I was just thinking that could be a problem down the line. My fan works, my battery charges, I can even drive at night now. Unfortunately for me though, my eyes didn't see that huge dip tonight until it was too late. haha. Well, now that I fulfilled my side of the bargain with my wife (making the charging problem go away) I can go ahead and give her a full tuneup this month. I hope that the random no starts in the afternoon will be gone as well. My new problem is an apparent low oil pressure reading. I don't have a mech. pressure gauge so I can't exactly just look at it on a whim. I may swap out the oil filter and pray for the best since it's the run of the mill cheapy fram unit. Also, are there any suggestions on some low priced struts? How much should I expect to pay for each tire? Why do I drink so much iced tea? It was so easy it seemed to just sit under that car in my driveway, I swear I could have a tea party down there(see earlier reference).

 

UPDATE: I'm going to pull the motor tonight and hopefully get a 350 set down in there. It was originally going to be used on my berlinetta but since I've gotten this one, I've opted for using it as a parts car. I am curious with a few questions though. first off, it's going to be from a 1991 roadmaster. Is there a difference with the transmissions? if there is, should I swap them before installing the motor? I have the ECM from the buick as well, should I just swap the PROM? or the whole unit? Any other help would be appreciated.