Machiner 55

I no longer have my '88 only two '89's and a '90. I've changed the mount shown as #20 on both of my '89's. And possibly my '88. I changed out the transmission on that one and can't believe I didn't change the mounts also. It was a long time ago so I don't remember exactly. Advance Auto lists that mount (#20 in post #5) as part number 2691 and is still available. I don't know what the difference is between PN 2943 and PN2691 because they look identicle to me. Where did the PN of 2943 come from anyway? Here's a link to AdvanceAuto's page so you can have a look yourself. John F.

Ron, Personally, I just want to be able to splice in the connector sent to me by Dave so that I can use the Brake Pressure Switch I bought from Ebay. It appears that the switch itself is the same as what is in our Reattas but the connector body and pin outs are different as are the color codes on the wires comming out of the connector when compared to the wires on our harnesses. I'd probably splice it in in such a way that the original connector would remain so that I'd be able to use what ever switch is available at the time. John F.

Kevin, Apologies for taking so long to get back to this but It appears that at this stage of my life that's just how things are going to be, going forward. There's an ebb and flow to my energy/interest levels and the demands of my Kat are stripping away valuable time. (there is some truth to some parts of what was said. Just not sure which parts) Anyway... Here are some photos. I hope they are something you can use. If not let me know. John F.

Nittany, Any of your local FLAPS shoud carry them just as you said, as a Dorman HELP item. It's what I've used as a replacement and works just fine. Even used one as a replacement check valve for the windshield washer. Just plugged the one on the side and was good to go. Recently recieved the correct check valve for the washer and will swap it out next chance I get. Getting back to you CC prob. Yah, the one from the "HELP" rack will work just fine. John F.

Nic, Any codes? John F.

Brett, Yes and no. The plastic piece I cut out was a piece of cake because I used one ot those high-speed ossillating tools. If you or anyone else does this , you need to take care to avoid hitting the wire bundles behind the plastic being removed. As careful as I was, I stil managed to cut into three of the wires which needed spliced together again. I used crimp on connectors becacuse it's what I had on hand and the wires were such that I could pull very little slack from them so as to move them more out in the open so to work on them easier. Just don't cut them and it'll be on less thing you've got to do when it comes time to reassemble everything. (also, I hope you've disconnected the battery from the system before starting this little project. If you haven't, do it now. The metal bracket was a bit more involved in it's removal. I have to say here that I can't say that the vertical component of the bracket assembly absolutely needed to be removed to gain access or to give necessary room to work. It seemed like a good idea at the time but I can't remember if it needed to be done. I't may have been possible to just bend it out of the way and that might have been good enough. I took it out anyway and it seemed to work out OK that way too. It's just that the vertical component is spot welded to the horizontal section which remains in place. There are three small spot welds that hold it on and I used an air chistle to break through them. The attached photos show where it was and how it came out. You will notice in one of the pics that there's what looks like a screw holding the horizontal piece to the vertical section. That was how I put them back together at reassembly. If I were to do it this way again, I would have drilled the hole for the screw(s) prior to breaking the welds so that during reassembly, the parts would have gone back together exactly as they were before I started tearing into it. As it is, I was able to get it close but ther was some trial and error fitting it in the proper place which took time and agravation to get it right. Simpley drilling the hole first would have eliminated the guess work. I hope this answeres your question. Everything goes back together the way it came out except a screw was used instead of a weld on the metal bracket. The plastic section went back in without any attempt to stitch the cut seam back together. There were enough original screws and their placement made for the piece to be held secure without any type of glueing or heat stiching the cut seam. I started this project on Monday morning of this week and finished late Friday evening. I was on vacation from work and didn't have anything major call me away from the project. Just piddley things like running the usual errands, stopping for leasurly lunch, Bathroom and dinner breaks. Sometimes I'd come in and check out the Forums or just sit and think about how I was going to proceed onto the next step. Since I'd never replaced one of these arms before and it seemed that of those who had did it by removing the entire dash assembly. I was blazing a new trail into uncharted territory and waned to try to do it in such a way that the path could be followed again as a viable option to pulling the dash. Let me say this... pulling the dash out would have made things easier in that once one had gotten to the arm, all of the work from there on out would have been done with ease of access and performed from a more comfortable sitting position. The time to do the job may have been comparible, although Im not too sure by how much. If I were to do it again it would have gone much faster because I know now what does and doesn't need to be removed and I wouldn't have taken any of the items off that were required to be removed if one were in fact removing the dash. Grill vents and dashpanel as well as glove box etc. The one major consideration I think everyone needs to consider is the brittle nature of these 25 year old plastic dashboards. If one were to start out with one in good to perfect condition, one would have to think long and hard as to whether to perform this job at all if the dash has to come out or consider an alternative method to removing the dash. Well, the alternative method worked for me but I've got over 4 decades of wrenching behind me and a fairly well equiped garage to work in as well as a fairly good assortment of tools I've come across over the years. Especially the odd and unusual items that aren't usually kept in the home Mechanics toolbox. The kind of thing that a guy like myself will run across while walking the tool isle. You know... the item that grabs your attention, you handle it for a bit and put it back in the bin because you think to yourself... "naw, I'll never need that..." or "I can't see paying that for something that's gonna just sit on the shelf collecting dust...." Well... I buy those things and sometimes when the situation arises that makes me think "Hey, I have just the tool for that!" Then the search is on to find where the H*ll i put the D*mned thing. Point being that, first and formost, I'll tackle some project just for the challenge of if. The other being that I probably have a tool stashed around somewhere that 'll finally be able to justify having bought the sucker. So now, everyone out there has an option as to how to tackle the project. There is a third one that hasn't been discussed fully. That would be just saying to H*ll with thearing up the dash and doing all that crawling around and just fashion a stick that can be jammed into the center dash vent to push the door into the position that allows the air flow to vent through the Dash vents instead of the Defroster vents. Need to defrost the windshield? Just pull out the stick!. Might could even glue a magnet to the end of the stick to make sure the door moves the way it should. ANyway... It's getting late again and it's back to Work tomorrow @ six am. Gotta go get some rest. I'll try to compose a general set of steps involved in performing this task. And get some pictures in orde so that I don't have to type so many words. Maykes me Brame herts. I'll post them over at the ROJ where the Lions share of this thread already exists. John F.

Brett, Yah, me too but... it is what it is. I'm kinda beat tonight. I'll try to answer you tomorrow. John F.

I... for one... disagree. About alot of things. To be honest, almost everything... except for these recent posts . John F.

Flacko, If you are interested in Allantes, there's one for sale here locally. Currently, all I know about it is that it's red and they want about three grand for it I could get the seller info. and details if you'd like. John F.

Brett, You've probably heard the saying "Read'em and weep." Well... Read the posts in this link . There are six pages but it will be time well spent. If you weep, believe me when I tell you no one will think less of you. Especially me. John F.

Pat's Can't speak to AZ antennas but most here try to keep the cars close to factory. You can do that by contacting Barney Eaton. He rebuilds them and makes them almost better than new. I think you'd be happier with the way the original looks on the car and you won't have to fool around with a mis-mash of wires. His would be plug and play. Just my 2 cents. John F.

T. John, What Type/Brand of filter? John F.

Photos connected to prior post.

Warning! This post has some pseudo-cussing interspersed throughout. This language may be too strong for some viewers. I recently had a problem like this. I was replacing a leaking fuel tank on a recently acquired Reatta and decided to replace everything, working or not, because I didnt want to have to drop the tank again anytime soon, if ever. So, I replaced the fuel pump, slipper filter and the Pulsator. This was the first car I've owned that had a Pulsator on it. I'd thought about just using the piece of tubing supplied with the fuel pump in place of the Pulsator but, since the car came with one on the sending unit, I figured I might just as well replace it with a new one as well. I found a replacement Pulsator on Ebay ( Sorry Ron, should have gotten it from TRS. Believe me, I really shoulda.). It was a Carter brand unit, not an AC Delco or some other. I reassembled everything and remounted the tank. I checked the pressure at the fuel rail. Perfecto! Fourty to fourty-five PSI! I drove it around for a few days before parking it back in the garage so as to practically rebuild the entire front end (exaggeration but only slightly). Replaced both right and left CV axles and wheel bearings (the LH bearing and RH half-shaft were shot), new output shaft seals, Tx filter and severely leaking dipstick tube grommet, new oil pan gasket, sway bar links and bushings, reaction rod bushings, etc., etc. Too many items to mention. Anyway... About a week later, it was time to take it out to have an alignment done. But the car wouldn't start. It would turn over and sputter like it kinda wanted to start but it wouldn't stay running. At least not at first. I'd have to jockey the gas pedal to keep it running and after it warmed up, it would stay running, but just barely. I was able to get it to the shop for the alignment but I'm sure the guy performing the work was just a bit miffed that the car would die on him every time he went to move it. Once I got it home, happier than all get-out that all the rattling, squeaking and banging noises from the front end were gone (having gotten rid of all the rattling, squeaking and banging noises from the rear end the week before (another story altogether)) but still extremely disturbed over the fact that the car ran perfectly before parking it for a week to work on the front end, and now it wasn't. Now what the H*ll could cause that??!! Typically, any problem one has can be attributed to the last thing worked on. Nothing I did on the front end would have any effect on drivability, would it? And there couldn't be anything wrong with the fuel system as it was perfect when I parked it, right? Just to be sure, I checked the fuel pressure anyway. You know, just to rule it out so I could concentrate on finding the real problem. The result of the fuel pressure check, you ask? 20 PSI. (See attached photo) Twenty PSI. TWENTY PSI !!! That's two, followed by a zero, Pounds per Square Inch! How the Bloody-L could that possibly be???!!! My first thought and course of action was to check the pressure at the inlet to the fuel filter, thinking that some crap got into it during the tank replacement process. I fashioned a fitting to connect the fuel gauge to the plastic fuel line/filter coupler. Added power to the green fuel-prime connector and got... you guessed it. 20 P. S. I. So... the problem is………. In the Freaking fuel tank!!! The following week (it took me a week to gather the mojo and get it to flow) I dropped the fuel tank. What did I find, you ask. Well, I'm glad you asked because what I found was the Freaking PULSATOR blew out on its side (see attached photo in next post. ( Had to keep it a surprise.)) There was nothing wrong with the old one. I just changed it out, like I did with the fuel pump, as a preemptive measure. Here I am now dropping the tank again to find this! What the H*ll! So… I did what I should have done the first time. Say to H*ll with the freaking Pulsator and install the small section of tubing to eliminate the Pulsator altogether. Honestly, I can’t tell the difference in the sound of the pump when it’s running with or without the Pulsator in place. As mentioned in another post, the new pumps are of the turbine variety and run quiet anyway. You may ask yourself what caused the Pulsator to fail the way it did (I know I did). It is my belief that it was manufactured prior to, the now common practice of, adding ethanol to the gasoline. The seller may or may not have known this. Maybe he was just trying to clear out some old stock. Who knows? But it appears to me that the non-metal part swelled and pulled free of the metal shell thereby allowing fuel to leak back into the tank causing the pressure to drop to TWENTY PSI. Moral of this story? If you replace the fuel pump and it comes with that little section of tubing, use it in place of the Pulsator and save yourself a whole lotta grief. John F. OK... I see now that the photo actually shows 19 psi. It was 20 when I went to grab the camera. That's how I remember it and that's the story I'm sticking to, so... just think 19 psi everywhere it references 20 psi. That way it'll jive with the pic and that will save me a bunch more editing.

You migh check on Ebay. I thought I saw some repair sections with the quick connect fittings for sale as well as longer sections of replacement tubing. John F.

It seems to me that you followed the proper procedure.

Yes, Someone can explain this better but "limp home mode" works just as well and No, you won't be stranded, the engine just doesn't perform as it should and may experience stalling issues. CG, I've often wondered the same thing with regard to the magnet holder. But engineers usually do what seems like a dumb thing for a very good reason. What reason could that be? Well, the "proper" procedure for replacing the magnet would require removing the timing cover. While it's off, it would be a really good time to check the condition of the sprockets, slop in the chain and the condition of the tensioner. Otherwise that stuff would never get looked at until possibly the chain or tensioner broke. Then you're sitting on the side of the road in the desert in 100 degree heat a hundred miles from nowhere wondering what that grinding noise was just before the engine stopped. I'm probably wrong (usually am) but it's the best thought on the subject I can come up with at the moment. John F.

Richard, Wait to see how Padgett makes out then take it to him to work on it. He's retired now you know. He should have plenty of time on his hands for a project like this. The alternative is to have your mechanic do it. It'll probably run about a grand. At least that's what I was quoted some time ago. They wanted to pull the engine to do it. At least far enough out to get the firewall-side plugs replaced. Or, you could do what I and my son did and pull it ourselves to replace the plugs with Brass ones. Tha attached photos show the rear freeze plugs removed from an engine from a 1990 Bonniville with 65k miles. Note the corosion on the radius of the cup. My guess is that the correct ratio of coolant and water was not correct at some point in its short life. Maybe even straight water for some time. Anyway... If you aren't able to sleep at night worrying about whether they should be changed or not, get them changed. You'll sleep better and the cost won't bother you so much. I'd rather worry about how to pay for it than to wait till I have to get towed in and have the local crack-head wrench on it. Better that you pick where, when and who works on it. My 2 cents. John F

R, The chain FLAPS carry replacement stainless steel boot bands that don't require any special tools. They are called "Speedy-Boot" universal clamp kit. Buy two sets to save yourself a trip due to the learning curve. In a pinch, Tywraps can be used. Use the ones approved for exterior applications and never worry about them breaking. John F.

Kevin, Yes, I can/will do that. It'll probably be a couple of days after receiving the connector before I get around to it but I'll get it done. John F.

Dave, Thank you for your time and effort. It was a really nice day here in the "Vale of Paradise". Hope your weather there was just as nice during your hunt. John F.

OK, I just made it out of the bathroom, I've been in there most of the last 9 hours. My Wife is a kruel taskmaster let me tell you. If I had to hire me to do this work, I wouldn't be able to afford me. Kingsley, Kevin, Dave et.al. I'm providing a link to the Ebay listing for the switch I purchased. There are six pages of compatibility charts to peruse. One can print out a list and take it to a salvage yard as a guide to which cars will (should) have the connector. (You can also use that compatibility thingy to plug your make and model of vehicle to see if the part will work for your application.) John F.

Dave, I say skip the certs. That connector is WAY more important. Seriously though, no need to hurry. John F.

Kevin, You are correct in that the correlation assumption could cause unforseen issues but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Hopefully the color coding on the wiring is the same between the models and that will clear up the matter. Dave, Email sent. John F.

Caddy, I agree with Dave. The primary suspect is the flexible brake line hose. They look OK on the outside but swell on the inside and cause the issue you discribe. John F.