I passed so many damn power steering pumps in my life of junkyard crawling, and now that I need one, I can't find one. I did find a weird '86 Firebird though. He had a/c put into the car, the heater/evap box on the firewall was definately NOT original. It was squarish, with a 1/2" thick gasket between the box and firewall, and a "something, Texas" sticker on it. The compressor was long and thin, and they bolted some kind of special pulley onto the crank pulley to spin the compressor. The condensor was non-stock, and the accumulator was on the driver's side.

It had no third brake light, but it was an '86 hatch lid. There was no upholstery where the 6x9's were, and no "notches" for the cardboard to slide in to. The guy cut 5.25" holes into the plastic, and had mounted speakers, and ran his own wires. To top it off, the car had leather seats! (leather with no a/c, ouch?) And the p/s pump was a single pulley, which meant I couldn't use it.

But I did take it's bumper (and blinkers) for $20, it's in good shape, with a little nick in it that I can use urethane bumper filler for. I might go back for the fenders this weekend- $30 takes them both! My fenders are in decent condition, but I did have to put some small patches of Bondo on my driver's side. Hm, decisions, decisions.

But I still need a p/s pump! Damn!

 

$30 bucks for both fenders, sounds good to me!

 

The copressor you saw, I've seen before too, I saw it on a green 1992 Camaro at a ford dealer for sale. I think it's a R-134a custom conversion for our cars using the compressor from some other rear wheel drive car from 1993. Probley the R-134a compressor used on the 1993-1994 Camaros.

 

Ryan, really? Thanks for the tip! I'll try to remember to bring my digital camera to the junkyard if I go this weekend... And yeah, $30 is very hard to pass up. Hell, I could always put them on, and put my fenders in the garage somewhere. The hood on that car isn't that bad, either... it's got one rust spot, but.. hm.. geez I'm going to wind up buying the whole car!

 

hows your hood compared to the one in the boneyard? If the one in the boneyard is better an at a reasonable price, i say go for it! You need to get your car lookin purty again

 

I still don't need mine. may/may not ned a pulley change. Will even be in the DC area this august. Might even be taking a new job in Northern VA

 

I didnt know some of our cars had more than one pulley on the ps pump ? ...I just have one

 

I got the plastic for my car like you discribed It is from a car that does not have the rear speakers and both my engings have single p/s pump pullys.

 

"Ryan, really?" Yes really, it was the weirdest thing I ever saw, they had it hooked up with 2 belts that went to the water pump, the rest of the assceries were run by the sypenten belt, I think the camaro had a 305 in it. Please do take a picture!!! I'll never forget seeing that camaro because the whole engine bay was covered in sand as if the guy lived down a dirt road so I figured it was something custom that the guy did but if you have seen it too I wonder where or who made the brackets.

 

Does that mean I can help with your swap &Turbo project ????

 

hey tom I think my parts engine has the two pully setup if It is do you want it?

 

Wayne, it's because you have an 87-up 2.8 (and 3.1), that's the year that GM started using the serpentine belts. 82-84 uses v-groove belts in the pulleys, 85-86 uses pulleys with a mix of v-groove (a/c and power steering) and a ripped serpentine belt (alternator).

Bluerocket, do you know if your car came with a "radio delete" option or something? And I did find a power steering pump yesterday, but thanks anyway, I appreciate it!

I also found the famous "rare" heater-only firewall box!! Now I can totally remove all the air conditioning crap from my engine bay!!! Something I didn't expect: The heater-only blower box is metal, not like the heater/a-c evaporator box, which is some kind of fiberglass. Not that I mind- it'll be easy to paint!

And I did get the fenders. And I feel like an ***... took the first fender off, found some rust on the bottom, below the side marker light- but it's on the bottom of the fender, where the fender faces the road, so you can't see it at all unless you look "under" the car. So I lay the first fender carefully on a cardboard box. I get the second fender off, and have nowhere to put it. This was the same car that I took the front bumper cover off of, so I tried to "hang" the passenger fender on the now-exposed steel bumper.

I walk two feet away- CRASH! The fender fell off, and landed on the ground. Of course the ground had those large chunks of rocks on it (each rock the size of my fist, but jagged)- so I put three dings in the fender. Dammit!

Good thing I got the fenders when I did... I was underneath, unbolting the last fender's lower brace from the car, when I realized something- the air dam was gone! It was there Friday! I had unbolted it from the front, where it bolts to the bottom of the front bumper cover. All the bolts were cleanly taken out, and missing. I bet someone went back Saturday afternoon or today (Sunday) and said "Sht! Someone took the fenders!" Haha, usually, that's me saying that.

 

no it was my friends 85 camaro that had no back speakers. It was a option to get the back speackers til I think 86. so if there was no porforance sound decal on the dash then it did not have the dash and I need a heater only core for my car two damn you are lucky

 

You just had to mess up the fenders didn't cha! j/k man...

how hard is it to find those heater only boxes? Does anyone make a aftermarket box? It would make swaping in a 4th Gen dash soooooo much easier.....

 

It must've been an option in '86, too, because this was an '86 car, strange! I didn't get a chance to take pics, I was going to yesterday, but was too covered in grease and trans fluid to pick up the camera. (That, and the fact that the yard was closing!)

Only someone as slick as me could ding fenders up that quickly! Good news is, the dings aren't bad, I might try to work 'em out with a hammer & dolly & file, to try to avoid using filler. Even if I did have to use filler, it wouldn't be a large amount, so it'd be okay.

And yeah, it was amazing that I found that heater box. (It was in a different yard.) Even stranger, these were the only TWO non-ac f-bodies I've ever seen! (The "strange" no-option '86 that had a/c added to it, and the Camaro I pulled the box from.) I've been crawling yards since '95! Weird. But yeah the boxes are rare. I don't think anyone makes an aftermarket box, thirdgen.org would be jumping all over it. (Possible money-making idea?) Someone on the tech board, I want to say Mark Shields, had their brother turn their heater/ac firewall box into a heater-only box with a piece of aluminum. Didn't look too bad. I'm sure you could find it with a search... the message was from last week, on the general tech board.

Why would it make the 4th gen dash easier? Oh, wait, this isn't the box that's inside the car. It's the box in the engine compartment that bolts to the firewall; the blower motor sticks out of it.

 

thanks tom, i'll do some more research...

I thought you were talking about the heater core! The 4th Gen HVAC controls won't work on our cars, so I want to drop the AC (rarely use it) and only hook up the heater (cuase thats necessary in the winter over here on the east coast!)

Custom ducting is obviously necessary, but making it only a heater system with make the swap easier!

 

Thats wierd because I have a 90 rs 305 with out ac in my yard but it is bieing fixed for a friend he bought it all smashed in the frount. It needs a all new nose and fenders + a hood. Trying to talk him into afermarket hood