ok so this isnt about my trans am..well sorta, but oh well. i took my 66 nova to square tire, they told me they could do the tires but not the alignment because my front end components we worn out. so i spent 2 weeks and 900$ to upgrade everything.. i went back today, got the tires, and they came out and said they couldnt do the alignment because thier specs dont go back that far.. only to 71. i just thought it was worthless. what happened to the days when they just made the wheels straight, not just used prewritten specs. GAY...., oh and my 83 trans am makes a weird knocking type noise only in drive while giving it gas, and not in neutral reving it up or in neutral going down the road.. any ideas?

 

HAha, sucks about the alignment thing...

As for the knocking i would suspect spark knock... How old is the gas? possibly some rotten gas....

 

ive been driving it for a work car for the past month, put several tanks of gas in it. it didnt start making that noise untill i took a short drive to the next town, about 15 miles away.. then a few days later, the coolant ran out and it over heated, i immediatley thought of a blown head gasket, but the new coolant hasnt went down at all, and like i said, only makes it in drive while gasing it......no other time..

 

Whats the timing set at? Could be too much advance and your getting spark knock...

 

Knocking noise, overheating....... Sounds ominous. I'd suggest getting someone local who you trust to look at it pretty quickly.

 

Alignment shops tell everyone the same thing. They dont make their money on alignments, they make money on selling you new parts.
Somebody should be able to get you specs for a '66 Nova and you can tell them the specs you want them to align it.

As for that weird knocking noise, check your flexplate and torque converter bolts.

 

yea i found the specs for my alignment, but they said that it has to be in their computer already... liars.. anyways.. that knocking noise, its gotten a little worse. its louder, it wont let the engine rev freely, and it makes the car jerk when im giving it gas to speed up, normal driving. when at wot it knocks hard and jerks hard.. and wotn rev up...very easily

 

Yep. If they're using the same Hunter alignment equipment that 90% (if not more) of shops use, it's really easy to type in custom specs.

 

Man, I wouldn't want dumbasses that give you replies like that to align my car anyways! I got a good suggestion for ya. Don't walk away from that shop, RUN from it! If they have to rely on the "computer" to tell them what specs they need, they obviously got a crash course in learning how to use the alignment rack and really don't know anything. I went through this with a couple of shops until a buddy of mine referred me to a guy who really knows his stuff. He disregarded the "factory" alignment specs for an Iroc, which always causes the outside edge of the tires to wear out, and used custom specs to align it the same way he does the corvettes since they have the same wear problem with factory specs. Now I don't have to replace my nice expensive tires until they wear out evenly all the way across the tread. You should be able to find the proper specs for your nova in any older Motors manual or a GM chassis service manual that has your year of nova in it.