Maint. blues

[v7guy]

Needed to get it inspected and the bent tie rod is no good. Then I bought the parts and replaced them and I get the SES for the thermostat being no good. That donky dong thermostat is one of the most retarded things I've ever seen. At least it's warm the next couple days.

[JCrayton99]

Got inspected yesterday, drove 300 miles, P0128. Just bought a new thermostat. Forgot to get coolant.

Is there an online resource for the manual? Mine got destroyed when I changed my tranny fluid last.....
If not, type and quantity for coolant system?

[JCrayton99]

3.5 gallons of dexcool sound right? And its a 50/50 mix if it isnt already diluted?

[bartonmd]

Also, get DISTILLED water in gallons! NOT TAP WATER!

Mike

[plaen]

Walked out today and saw a puddle under the tb, appears to be leaking transmission fluid out of the transmission/transfer case joint. Not looking forward to dropping the tc. My list keeps growing, lol, front diff seals, front left axle, a little more trimming for the tires, pulling the front disco for maint, the front tc output seal appears to be leaking, and now this new leak...

[JCrayton99]

always!

[navigator]

Paul, just remember that maintenance beats payments!

[plaen]

Paul, just remember that maintenance beats payments!

I agree, little maintenance items is way less than a 3-400 payment, I just have to set aside time and stop modding my 07, lol, all the parts except the gasket for the tc are sitting in the back of it waiting to be installed.

[navigator]

Seals are a real pain because in most cases they are cheap parts that take hours to change.

[plaen]

Seals are a real pain because in most cases they are cheap parts that take hours to change.

Pretty much, with mine, I pulled the driveshafts, disconnected all the harnesses on the tc, grabbed the trans jack and started unbolting the tc from the trans, reached up to find the top 3, moved the trans vent tube out of the way and almost too a faceful of fluid. Good news is I found where the fluid is coming from, bad news, I monitored the temps for a 30 min drive on the highway, and with the convertor locked up most of the time, I hit 230f, which caused the trans to start puking more fluid, albeit nothing big, maybe a tablespoon or 2 worth of fluid. So, next plan is installing a cooler, have one on order, but probably won't be here by the weekend.

This weekend, going to pull the pan, valve body, a fluid flush, install a transgo shift kit, pinless forward/1-2/3-4 accumulators, and a Corvette servo on the 07.

[Trail X]

Sounds like a fun weekend Paul. Make sure you take some pictures of the trans installs. I'd like to see what you do.

(one point of advice on the transgo kit - make sure you have a GOOD set of single-purpose snap ring pliers... I have a multi-head snap ring plier, and it just didn't want to work for me. Took me an hour to replace the dang snap ring. Just not enough room to maneuver the multi-head in the tight space you're given)

I had these:

[navigator]

James, I have a set pretty much like that and they flex too much to get much done.

[djthumper]

I have a similar set as well. I don't have a problem of flexing too much but the single purpose ones generally are slimmer.

[Trail X]

It has worked fine in the past, but the space to work in is REALLY tight on that one particular snap ring in the trans - plus, you're working above your head and gravity is working against you.

[plaen]

It has worked fine in the past, but the space to work in is REALLY tight on that one particular snap ring in the trans - plus, you're working above your head and gravity is working against you.

Looking at videos and some pictures, it looks like you'd need 4 hands to get it back in there, along with some crazy positioning to get it back in. The opening looks to be only like an inch in diameter, with the case being right next to it.

[Trail X]

And the gear shifter right there too, that's what I kept running into.

I ended up having to use the 'slightly bent' snap ring plier head. I bitched up the bore to the outside of the snap ring groove pretty well with my numerous attempts, but I eventually got it all in there. That portion of bore isn't really critical anyhow.

[NC_IslandRunner]

Throttle body cleaned this morning.

Before




After



Idle was smoother almost instantly!

[plaen]

And the gear shifter right there too, that's what I kept running into.

I ended up having to use the 'slightly bent' snap ring plier head. I bitched up the bore to the outside of the snap ring groove pretty well with my numerous attempts, but I eventually got it all in there. That portion of bore isn't really critical anyhow.

It would seem they changed the design, I had a 2x2" area to work in, and it was less than an inch from the pan mounting area. I also picked up a 11 piece snap ring set from harbor freight. I found using a long screw driver in the mouth, works well, just don't use one covered in dex 6, its not very tasty stuff...

Although, I did get it installed, I didn't take many pictures. However, a few things I had problems with, first, my 1-2 shift is almost nonexistant, in the sense, it slams it into 2nd and triggers stabilitrac at only 1/4 throttle, full, belt squeals, and its just like taking a hammer to the back of the head. And, apparently also a vb update 12/06, meaning I had the wrong plate. I did end up taking a 3 hour break to empty 7 boxes of .45 acp with some friends, overall, only a 2-3 hour job taking your time.

So, after all that, and having 50 bucks in fluid I'm trying to figure out how to get it out cleanly to reuse it, and pretty much being undriveable, except using 2nd to start off the line, the 07 is down for the count. And ill be making the 20mi trek to work on 35's till I can get the right plate in, should be awesome at $4/gal. When I drop the pan, I'll snap tons of pictures, since I'll be going over all of the instructions again to make sure I didn't bork them up too horribly bad.

Along with putting in the trans cooler in the 02 tomorrow after work since that'll be the dd for the week, should make for another fun filled week

[v7guy]

I used those multi headed snap ring pliers for about half of my T56 rebuild... Then I went out a bought a few one piece pliers to replace them. They were pretty frustrating to use to be honest.

Paul- so you had the wrong valve body pattern when you installed the shift kit?

[Opeth]

For those who have done tune ups, are you guys replacing the COP boot for the spark plugs? I've had a COP Engine before in my cavalier but it was converted back to wires and run off a MSD II because I was boosted. I have no desire to tackle that chore again, so do these boots need to be changed like plug wires or it doesn't really matter? I'm not a fan of COP, so I guess it is newish to me.