Thanks again, yes, if I had paid $1500, or even $2000, I dont think I would feel so bad about all the **** that keeps going wrong on it, I would have expected that. Live and learn I guess.

 

thats life sometimes. after reading up on these cars i found that i also over paid.

but its all good. when its running good its FUN. i used mine for a DD for almost a year with no real problems. its in the shop now going turbo

fyi.. it was a basket case w/o a moter when i got it. just keep at it when you get it sorted out you will be glad you did.

 

do what i did, and teach yourself bodywork and paint! i bodyworked my car and painted it myself for about $600 total. the shops were quoting me about $3500 for it. i found that i really like painting too!


just stick with it, and soon you'll be one of us!

 

Hey Dave,

I pulled the fuel filter and it looked fine. I blew threw and the gas that came out the other side flowed very easily and was clean looking. My car has not done it again so wonder what it was and when its going to act up again? What should I check next?

Also, what should it idle at? Mine seems to go from 500 to 700 from day to day. Slightly rough idle.

Here is a pic of the car I took today. Thanks again for your help.

[IMG][/IMG]

 

Anyone got a pic of the fuel pump? I was looking around under there today and did not see it I dont think. I did see a little silver thing the tubes were going into near the filter, and another similar looking thing back near the gas tank.


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[IMG][/IMG]

 

hey man if u need some body parts let me know. i have 2 fb's im getting rid of. let me know i live in hubert and my wife just bougth me an 87 fc n/a in rel nice condition.

 

i also got engine parts

 

Thanks, Ill certainly keep you in mind.

 

Dude, that car looks great.

I paid $1200 for a running piece of junk, and another dead piece of junk.

Yea, you over paid, but if you like the car, just pick one thing at a time to fix and go at it. I know my car wont be anywhere near done for at least another year, and ive got 100x more issues than the small sweat youve got.

Drop the fuel tank, flush it out, clean it best you can, replace the fuel filters, replace all the rubber fuel lines and see how it goes.

 

Thanks man, but the pic is really deceiving. Its got dead paint all across the top, hood, rear, as well as small dents in every quarter panel, doors, piece between lights, crowl, etc.


Do you think that is my problem if the gas coming out of the filter is nice and clean? Filter not obstructed at all.

What should it idle? What are the parts in the pics?

Thanks

 

look like filters to me, but im not an expert by any means.

for a 25 year old car, that one looks damn good. Paint jobs are nothing, minor dents/dings arent anything to compain about.

The car will die if the filter is partially obstructed, cant get enough fuel flow. Might be enough for 2.5k rpm, but not 3k if you get what im saying. If the obstruction cleared, then all would be good until it happened again. My car did this from time to time, i actually had to keep a couple spare universal filters and a pair of pliars in the car for such an event. Wouldnt hurt to clean out the tank, its pretty easy to do.

Mine is an 85 GSL and it looks like poo compaired to yours. It also smokes like a chimney on startup, and is a pain to hot start. Needs a rebuild for sure.

 

Mine is an 85 GSL and it looks like poo compaired to yours. It also smokes like a chimney on startup, and is a pain to hot start. Needs a rebuild for sure.

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And Your complaining about how yours looks. I just got this 85 GS for 300.00 only got about 12 hours and 200.00 into so far but it's running ok Drained and flushed the fuel tank new filters fluids plugs and wires. loud as heck has multiple hole in the exhaust that need fixed new tires (dry rot) and a month of sundays to get all the barn dust out of it. It's all fun me and my son are having a good time with it.

 

Rob, the idle should be 750rpm all the time. car looks amazing!!! the cadmium plating is still on the check and cut valve!!!!!!!!! i love the tornado silver metallic paint color!!!

ok, as far as business is concerned, what maitenance items other than the fuel filter, belts, and water pump have you replaced? the fuel pump is located to its own special plate ahead of the axle on the left side. its hidden due to the plate being installed as a safeguard against road hazzards.

you did good. your car may have been prived a little high, but it appears very clean underneath. here's a pic of how a lot of the 7's in OH look. pic of a 7 i just finished parting today:

 

parting out eh? nice ^^

 

Thanks Dave, the pic really does hide the body/paint flaws but I understand I should expect that with an 84. It does **** me off though that the add stated no dents, lol, that was just a lie and with the rain that day, I just did not take the time to look it over as I should have. I was determined to get that color with the grey interior so my judgement was off anyway.

Yes, I was thinking the fuel pump was behind that shield but did not try to remove it. As far as maint., I have done the belts, fuel filter, water pump as you stated. I also did the beehive o-rings, oil, rear axle oil, antifreeze, cap and rotor. I have taken the ignitors off and cleaned the connections in hopes of fixing a jumpy tach, Ill find out today. It still does not work in the mornings at 55 degrees, but will as it warms up. I also, cleaned up the connections to the coils. Replaced the upper and lower rad hoses as well as the heater hoses when doing the oil cooler. I think that is all I have done to the engine.

It does idle around 750 sometimes, but not all the time. I have not replaced the wires or plugs yet. I did see your post about Napa having the NKG wires so I may try to get by there this weekend and replace them. What size spark plug socket do you need for our plugs? The one I have is too big.

Yes, I am in better shape than your pic, I have not seen but a tiny bit of rust on the car near the rad cover, underneath, it looks pretty good.


Thank you, Rob

 

Rob, the spark plug socket i use is a 13/16". i only use NGK BR8EQ-14 plugs and only NGK wires. i'm picky like that. i once had a sticky tach. never fully figured it out. when it was cold (enough to frost the windows) it would stick. if i slapped the dash above the cluster it would unstick here and there, finally completely unsticking and working normally, making me believe that the tach itself was the cluprit. i ended up selling the car so i never did figure it out but i would say the tach itself was to blame.

in addition to replacing your plugs and wires, you may want to look into rebuilding your carb. i can walk you through that if you have any questions. a clean carb makes a BIG differnce in the way the engine idles. tornado silver (color code K8) and gray interior is a scarce as hens teeth color combo! great job on finding that!

 

i only part 7's if they are too far gone. the car i parted in the above pic looked like this when i got it and was too far gone due to the rust and the cut trans tunnel. the front end of it will live on in the car in the second set of pics:



this car however is worth saving and i am in the process (slow proceess) of repairing it:

 

Thanks man, your making me feel better about paying too much for it. I will love this car if I can get it to the point of something not needing to be fixed every week.

I plan on changing the plugs and wires, I think its original wires still on it, this weekend. I searched Autozone, Advance and Napa for the NGK wires and none of them showed up. Did you get your wire set from Napa? I plan to call to see if they have them in stock or if I can order them.

The carb looks real clean from what I can see, but I have no idea about the jets and stuff. I did run a couple cans of seafoam thru the gas and poured a little down the carb after I got it.

Once I do this, what should I plan to do next in order to keep it from breaking down on me, what is likely to go wrong next in your opinion? Fuel pump, ignitors, coils, etc?

EDIT: Autozone can order them for me so thats what I will do on the NGK wires and plugs. Sure cant hurt replacing original wires after 25 years.

 

i order my NGK wires from napa. tha NGK part umber for them is RC-ZE97A. the NGK stock number is 8172. as far as maitneance items are concerned, i would reccomend replacing all of the coolant hoses, cleaning your grounds, keeping up on the filter and oil changes, and replacing the diff and trans oil. if the fuel pump is bad its bad..usually no inbetween.

 

Thanks, yes, the ze97a's is what I asked for, along with the plugs you suggested.

This is probably a stupid ? but where are all of my grounds? I did try to clean up the coil grounds, where are the others?

Yes, I have done the rear diff, and will get the trans oil also, maybe even this weekend on that to. Im thinking that maybe my problem the other day was related to the clutch not engaging. I read on another thread where the guy was describing what sounds like what happened to me and stated this was the problem. Again, what happened was when I tried to go to 4th, let off the clutch and the car would not accerlerate. Tried 5th, same thing, went back down to 3rd and it was fine. I know some others are saying that its the fuel pump and the car not having enough gas to go above ex. (3000 rpm's), but when you go to 4th, the rpm's actually go down. When I down shifted to 3rd, the rpm's actually went higher. What do you think? It has not done it again, so Im not going to dwell on it, but just wanted to the thinking bout stuff in case it does it again in the future.

btw...looks like you have a nice set up to work on the 7's. Man I wish you lived closer to NC, I would become your best buddy.

 

Rob, glad to hear you got the parts ordered! you problem could be related to a fuel problem..perhaps something intermittent..if it happens again we can try and test some things. a couple good grounds to clean are easy to get to. first one is if you follow the negative cable down to the left strut tower. you'll see a couple there. and clean the connection that the negative cable has with the trans. you may also want to check the rear harness ground. its located on the hatch release under the rearmost carpet/plastic finishing piece. under where your hatch light is.

the setup i have at my inlaws place where the pics were taken is an 80x100 workshop. it can accomidate five cars. i really dont do much work out there as much as use it for parts/car storage. i dont have many tool out there and its much eaiser to work out of the small garage at my house.

 

Ill clean them, appreciate it.

 

You didnt pay enough for a 25yo car that doesnt need constant attention.

If you want that, go buy a Camry.

 

After messing with this cars for few years I learned that the old and tired fuel system is the first thing to take care of.First the fuel tank comes out gets clean-up,change hoses,fuel filter and rebuild the nikki.After that,drive it like I stole it,that will let me know if that fuel pump can keep up with the 4 barrels open.Ido understad how you feel about the seller and the car but its your car now and once you get it to run properly you wont want to drive that thing in your avatar anymore

 

lol, thanks for the input Hec. That 81Z is my kids daily driver. Somehow he got into the 80's music and cars. I think that is better than the wrap or grunge type music many kids are into today.

I agree about the fuel system, I just dont think I have the skill to drop the tank and clean it up. I have just never done that before and do not know what Im doing, which makes simple tasks seem hard. As I said before, I did get the o-rings and water pump changed out, so Im learning.

When I get the extra money, I may try to find a rad shop around here that could do that for me. I hope the fact that it looks good underneath means that the gas tank inside is also still in good shape. Do you think that is correct?