Those are fwd wheels. If you zoom in you can see 225-60-16
Those are fwd wheels. If you zoom in you can see 225-60-16
Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:Those are fwd wheels. If you zoom in you can see 225-60-16
Glad you noticed, I was seriously considering a long drive this evening.
Looks like the part of the RA order with the belt may take a while, so I ran out and picked up the cheapest serpentine belt I could find locally. Tossed it on this morning before work. Closed the hood, then remembered my phone was on the core support. Turns out there is enough room between the core support and underside of the hood for it to survive, thankfully.
Fired up the car, and the squeak was gone. Inspected the old belt and didn't see anything obvious. My best guess is during one of the multiple times I had the belt off, I must have gotten some oil or greasy crud on part of it, and it was slipping when it got to one of the accessories that was giving it more resistance than the others.
Prior budget: $1564.18
$15.99 - Generic parts store serpentine belt that will probably be replaced later.
Current Budget: $1580.17
In reply to eastsideTim :
At least it's a cheap and easy fix!
In reply to wae :
Yup, at this point, it’s down to the power steering leak as a critical thing to fix, at least if we trailer. I’ll want to make sure the ignition is good to go if I drive the car down.
Tires ordered. Went with the Riken Raptors. I know they're going to give up a lot on the autocross, but I'm not exactly expecting a B-body to dominate the cones anyway.
Took the car on a drive to warm it up, then pulled into the garage to see about using the camera to find the leak again. It was pretty blurry, and while trying to position it, I ended up hitting my hand against the exhaust manifold. Thank goodness for burn gel. I'll wait til the car cools off, and try again, probably tomorrow, and just hope the leak source is visible even when the engine is not running. If I can't find it, I'll plan on replacing the o-ring again, and maybe the reservoir hose, as I'm not really sure if there is anything else in that area that could be leaking.
Also may wander back to the junkyard to grab an ignition module, and to pull a spare tire from the Caprice, which I wish I'd thought of doing last week.
After a couple of days in the garage, there is a small puddle of power steering fluid under the car. Leak is definitely a lot better, but after extensive looking around I still cannot isolate the source. I don't think it is leaking at the high pressure connection. There is a chance the reservoir hose is leaking. The high pressure line is pressed against the pump in one spot, where there may be more fluid than elsewhere, but it may just be residual fluid that is trapped and can't run off. There is also a chance the high pressure or return line could be leaking right before they turn to go across the front of the engine. wae's camera was nice, but it just wasn't enough to figure it out. I may order one myself to keep around, though, seems like a very handy diagnostic tool. I'll also try to get the car back up on jackstands tomorrow, so I can look at it again from below. Tires are on their way, too, so I'll need to pull the wheels soon.
Before the sun went down, I went through a couple of rounds of cleaning the air filters. They are way better than they had been, but I think they need at least another round of cleaning before being re-oiled.
Leaks can be a real pain to track down.
solfly said:Leaks can be a real pain to track down.
Yeah. Its getting to the point where it is small enough I am no longer worried about oiling down the track or anything, but I'd still rather fix it, just in case it could get worse in the next month.
New camera was nicer for looking around in the engine compartment, and helped a little, but getting under the car helped more, I think. There appeared to be a drip ready to fall from the high pressure fitting at the back of the ps pump. Pulled it apart again, and even though I lost the o-ring when it all came apart, it looked like it was damaged. Replaced it with a new one, although I coated it in petroleum jelly this time. Hoping that protected it better while it was being seated. Also noticed a hose clamp for the reservoir hose was a little loose, so tightened it up. Doubt there was a leak there, but better to play it safe. Will see soon if all of this has helped.
Barring any more emergencies, I'll try to head out to the junkyard to pick up a spare tire and ignition module tomorrow. I checked with the module on the Impala, and of all things, it needs a 7/32" socket to remove it.
In reply to eastsideTim :
I thought they were 7mm hex? The LT's are a mix of SAE on any legacy fasteners plus Metric on anything "modern" like Opti. IIRC, YMMV, etc. totally going by memory and that has gotten me into trouble before.
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to eastsideTim :
I thought they were 7mm hex? The LT's are a mix of SAE on any legacy fasteners plus Metric on anything "modern" like Opti. IIRC, YMMV, etc. totally going by memory and that has gotten me into trouble before.
I thought it should be metric, too, but 5mm was too small, and 6mm was too big. It’s possible it was a 5.5mm, but I don’t have one of those sockets. I would think anything that bolts to the cylinder head of a LT1 should be metric.
Hit two junkyards today, and completely struck out. First place, the Camaro Z28 I'd hoped to yank an ignition module from had no engine. The decent condition Caprice wheels/tires were still there, because they were held on by a wheel lock that can't be defeated by just hammering an impact socket onto it. Second yard had an 89 Caprice with three bad tires, and one good tire. The wheel with the good tire was bent, like it had only one lugnut on and had been dropped to the ground. Wandered a bit more, and found two S10 ZR2s with 8.5" rear axles. Both of them were on the ground, so no way to pull them. They'd have been too wide for my S10 project, but would have brought a pretty decent profit if I could have snagged them.
Is anyone from this way coming your way? I can put together a decent tire and a 5x5 steelie for you to have a spare
Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:Is anyone from this way coming your way? I can put together a decent tire and a 5x5 steelie for you to have a spare
Maybe Pete. I think there is a rallyx coming up this weekend. I don’t know if he’d have space, though. Got something in the 215/75, 205/75, 225/70 range? I think that’d be around the right height on a 15” wheel. I would greatly appreciate it.
I don't know that the timing works out, but I'll be giving Evan a bunch of your stuff on Saturday at the rallyx.
I think i have a solid 225-70 i can toss on a pickup wheel.
pete is sick, says not coming down
Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:I think i have a solid 225-70 i can toss on a pickup wheel.
pete is sick, says not coming down
Will have to see how to get it down here. Maybe I’ll be up for a road trip myself in the next few weeks if there’s no other way to get it here. Let me know what I’ll owe you!
Nothing. If you're road tripping bring my stuff from wae 
. I may have some not faded headlights if yours are. I gave away just about all the other impala parts
Tires are loaded up, and ready to be mounted and balanced tomorrow morning. The 5, while smaller than my old Grand Caravan, still has enough room, but just barely:
Power steering is still a bit of a mystery right now. I can tell that some fluid has dripped onto the cat litter where the puddle had been, but using the camera, there doesn't appear to be any drops under the high pressure fitting, and the top of the AC compressor is dry from when I cleaned it off when I last swapped the o-ring. Maybe it's just a bit of residual fluid. If not, and the fitting stays dry, I think I'll give in and just replace all the lines at once, and hope that does the trick. Been avoiding that because I am afraid of trying to loosen them up at the steering box, and I'd like a bit more room in the budget.
Hoping to have it back on the ground tomorrow or Wednesday, to do some more test driving. Really need to get some miles on it, especially if there is a chance it'll be driven to the challenge.
In reply to eastsideTim :
If you really need to grab those Caprice wheels/tires I can run my wheel lock adapter set up to you at some point...
Ashyukun (Robert) said:In reply to eastsideTim :
If you really need to grab those Caprice wheels/tires I can run my wheel lock adapter set up to you at some point...
Thanks, but I should be good to go with Patrick’s help. I’m trying not to be a wheel hoarder, so I just want to grab a single wheel/tire as a spare for now.
eastsideTim said:I’m trying not to be a wheel hoarder...
Oh, you can try.
How's that working out for you? ;)
How's it going - would love to roll by and check her out as you are in the neighborhood. I'm deep into an ls2 with a rocker needle bearing failure this week.
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