The New Life of the 3800 "Formula"

[Fierofool]

I still have a box of standoff clips used for mounting neon tubes if you want to install an inverter to power the transformer.  Thing is, those things are illegal to display while driving.  You could tell a cop that you forgot to turn off the shop light when you replaced the spark plugs. 

[GTRS Fiero]

Most of them would probably fall for that.

[GTRS Fiero]

What do you know? It works! But who wants to carry a 10 pound transformer in their car, just to power an engine light?
It looks white in this picture, but it's actually purple.
(Powered by 12 KiloVolt neon sign transformer.)

It looks purple, to me.

[TopNotch]

Today I put in a new radio, in a new radio mount, and a keyless entry system.

The mount is from Maptech Enterprises, formerly known as "HuMount". I had them put the "Fiero" under the radio, to raise the radio up and make room under it for the keyless entry receiver. And since the radio rests on the keyless receiver, not all the weight is on the skeleton.
It says "RIVER" on the radio because I was listening to 97.1 "The River" (classic rock).

[GTRS Fiero]

Nice.  Mine has Fiero on top.

Here, 97.1 is something else entirely.

[TopNotch]

My no-power-steering belt routing, seen below, did not work. I now have a WCF delete pulley and more standard routing. The belt is different from stock, because the delete pulley is smaller than the power steering pump pulley.
The belt slipped off the tensioner pulley, and got chewed up by the cooling vanes on the alternator. Fortunately, this happened when I started the car to go somewhere, not while I was driving.


Stock routing:

[Fierofool]

So, a 3800 water pump runs counterclockwise.  Everything else is clockwise.  Driving it on the trial run? 

[TopNotch]

So, a 3800 water pump runs counterclockwise.  Everything else is clockwise.  Driving it on the trial run?

The water pump runs counterclockwise. I'm planning to take the car on the trial run. i have a little running around tomorrow, and if nothing bad happens to the belt, I'll the car on the run.

[TopNotch]

If you've read the post about the trial run, you know my 'new" car has a leaking transmission. The output shaft seal on the passenger side leaks -- badly during hard curves. So I ordered new ones for each side. They came today, and I found out why the passenger side is more likely to leak than the driver side. The driver side seal is a dual seal, while the passenger side is a single seal. I have no idea why they are different.
For now, I put some AT205 Re-Seal in the transmission, since I don't know when I'll change the seal.

[GTRS Fiero]

Still planning on taking it on RFTH?

[TopNotch]

Still planning on taking it on RFTH?

Yes. The brakes are thoroughly flushed out, so hopefully they will be OK. I removed all the bleeder screws and replaced them with Speed Bleeder screws for one man bleeding. I used a turkey baster remove all of the old fluid from the master and filled it with fresh fluid. Then I bled all wheels starting with the driver side rear, which is the farthest one from the master. I bled enough to flush the lines and the wheel cylinder on each wheel.

[TopNotch]

Today I installed a new transmission output shaft seal on the passenger (leaking) side. The job turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. I undid the two side supports, the trailing arm (this is an 88) and the rear sway bar from the knuckle, so that i could swing it out, with the axle, from the transmission. The hardest part was removing the old seal. Fortunately, I have a nice slide hammer that made that possible.

I also have a fixture for the slide hammer shaft for installing the new seal. You can't just hit the seal with a hammer -- you could damage it.

However, I didn't have a perfectly straight shot to the transmission with the shaft, so I had to use the installer off the shaft. But I got it installed perfectly
In undoing the suspension, I found that the infamous 1988 "long bolt" was not very tight. That could explain a slight bit of squirrelly handling I've noticed. So when I re-assembled things, I made sure it was tight. And while I had the rear of the car off the ground, I tightened the other side as well.
Now I'm ready to do some curves without slinging transmission fluid onto the exhaust.

[GTRS Fiero]

The tri-link bushings are all good, right?

[TopNotch]

All bushings are in very good condition. I have no idea of the actual mileage on this car, since the original duke instruments were replaced, but it doesn't seem like a lot.

[GTRS Fiero]

Lucky you.  I thought mine were good, but not so much.