Seafoam65

Nick, I'm sorry that the noise is still there, but changing the rear wheel bearings and seals was probably a wise move in the long run. I must say I'm not surprised that the bearings didn't fix it, because I've never had a creaking noise with each revolution of the wheel be caused by a wheel bearing. In my experience, wheel bearings make a constant drone or humming noise getting louder the faster you go. I will list for you the things I've seen in the last 40 years that caused a noise like you describe.... 1) loose lug nuts or holes wallowed out in the wheel not allowing the wheel to be tightly clamped on the hub.2) brake drum out of round causing a noise every revolution when the shoes hit the high spot 3)brake backing plate bent causing it to hit the drum in one spot every revolution. 4) brake shoes and hardware either missing parts, having broken parts or incorrectly assembled. 5)u-joints on drive shaft bad or carrier bearing bad. 6)bent axle 7)hub cap noise 8) frozen parking brake cable not fully releasing. If it's none of these 8 things then we are in the Twilight Zone, and Rod Serling is smoking a cigarette in the back seat of your Riviera. Good luck and keep us posted..... Winston

It would be obvious if you had worn out hinges, you would feel and see the slop when you lifted up on the rear of the door. Open the door and loosen the upper hinge bolts at the body and jack up on the bottom of the rear end of the door with a floor jack padded with carpet and you should be able to move the upper hinge forward enough to solve your problem. After that is done you can loosen the bolts at the hinge to door attachments and move the door in and out.

Clark's Corvair Parts sells the standard 65 door panels as well as seat cover sets and wood kits.

Please don't tell me your friend threw away all the parts he took off the car trying to rig it up to get it out of his hair! If he is your friend like you claim, he will pull that wrong motor back out, sell it to someone else to recoop what he sold it to you for, then reinstall the correct parts that he removed like the sensors and computer. If he threw them away, he needs to go to a wrecking yard and purchase what he lost off of your car. At that point you are back where you were before he got involved. Until he does these things he is NOT your friend but instead an unfortunate acquaintance at best and a criminal at the worst. And oh by the way, if he does those things he still owes you the labor he charged you for installation of the wrong engine. For less than 4K you could have had a professional shop install a rebuilt Jasper engine with a three year nationwide warranty. You have my condolences.

Wow, I wish I lived a little closer to you guys.....sounds like a lot of fun! I know Ed would keep me entertained!

You say the sensors that were wrong have been changed......you say it runs great most of the time....specifically what type of problem are you having now.....give me a symptom. Oh wait...... I just got off the phone with the wrecking yard that I use and he said that you can't use an older than 98 engine in a 98....they are not compatible with other components in the car. The solution is to get a correct used engine from a wrecking yard or a rebuilt engine from Jasper and do the whole job over, putting the original parts back on that were removed. As I said, your friend owes you a lot of money for what he did to your car. If he doesn't pay you to get you back where you were when he entered the picture, he is not your friend, he is your enemy. If he won't pay, you would only be suing your enemy, which is OK in my book. If you insist on giving your friend a free ride to screw you over, then you will need to spend another 4K or call Cars for Kids and have them tow it off. I'm in the car repair business, and if I screwed somebody over like that, I would gladly pay whatever it cost to rectify the situation...your friend should do the same. I don't know you and I am not your friend but I wouldn't treat you like that....I would take responsibility and man up and do the right thing. Wow, do I sound like Dr Phil?

Wow, what a post! You are joking right? I say this since you signed up to the forum four years ago on April Fools day and this is your first post, plus your name has Ha Ha in it, plus how could you pour antifreeze into the crankcase by accident when you know it requires motor oil! Am I on Candid Camera? Is your real last name perhaps Funt? OK, just for laughs I'll play along like this is a legitimate post......Hello McFly!......your friend owes you another Riviera like the one he ruined with his total incompetence. It is not your problem.....it is your friend's. Get a lawyer and sue his pants off....he doesn't have a leg to stand on. After you receive your legal settlement including extra money for mental anguish, go out and buy a 98 Riviera that runs.....and let a MECHANIC check your oil in the future!

Open the driver's door and grab the bottom of the door on the rear end of the door and try to lift it up. If you get movement of the door upward(free play), the hinge bushings are worn out. If you only have slight up and down movement when lifting up the door at the back, you could probably get by for a few years by just adjusting the upper hinge forward on the body to compensate for the sag. If you have a lot of movement, you need to unbolt the door from the hinges, then remove the hinges from the car for repair. Be sure to use tape or a scribe mark to show where the hinges were on the body so you can put them on in the same place when reassembling. You should be able to unbolt them from the body with the fender on the car and the door removed. There are special wrenches that are made for this job that makes the job a lot easier, but I've always been able to remove GM door hinges of this era without them. Good luck! I believe there are people who advertise in Hemmings who can rebuild your hinges for you. As far as how the hinges adjust, if the early Riviera is like other GM cars of the sixties, which I assume it is, the door will adjust in and out by loosening the bolts that attach the hinge to the door. Up and down adjustments are accomplished by loosening the bolts that bolt the hinges to the body. You can adjust the door hinges with the door on the car, but you must obviously remove the door if you are going to remove the hinges for repair. If you have to remove the door, if you have power windows or power door locks, you will have to disassemble the door first to get the wiring harness removed from the door, assuming there isn't a quick disconnect for the harness in the kick panel area of the interior. I've never seen a GM car with a quick disconnect for these wires, but Rivieras were different in some areas so I suppose it could be possible they provided one. Personally I've always stayed away from old cars with power accessories in the door, as I like to be able to remove the door in ten minutes if I want to. One reason I bought my particular 65 is that is has the deluxe interior with crank windows!

Interesting, but not nearly as breathtaking as a perfect stock restoration would have been. The 67 Riviera is one of those designs that you can't improve on.....any changes will be for the worst.

The last time I saw a 70 Riviera that nice was back in 1970! Beautiful car!

Heater cores are funny.......the original heater core on my 69 GTO failed in 1973, I changed it out and the one I installed is still going strong 41 years later.....4 years vs. 41 years....go figure!

Tom, I know mine are original because I got the entire history on the car by talking to the man who owned it for 45 years.

Yes, the hideaways on a 65 are a PITA. They should have used vacuum actuators.....my 69 GTO has vacuum hideaways and I've never had a problem with them in 44 years of ownership. An even better setup would have been a pivot arm where the motor pivot is located with a return spring to keep them closed, and a cable like a parking brake cable to pull the pivot the other way to open them, with a ratchet to keep them open till you release the handle, just like the pull handle on a parking brake. As a matter of fact, I've been thinking about doing just that, utilizing my parking brake cable and parking brake pedal. I never use the parking brake anyway, and I could have a cable made to go from the parking brake pedal directly to the pivot on the headlight motor. If I took the gear out of the motor, the pivot should free wheel back and forth. Then I could install a return spring on the back side of the pivot to close them and voila........headlight doors that are guaranteed to operate till hell freezes over! As a matter of fact the hideaway headlight doors on a 69 Opel GT had a setup like that with mechanical linkage with a spring loaded pull handle. The 37 cord also had mechanical linkage on the hideaway doors.

Buddy, the easiest check to do is to unplug the two wire connector at the motor and using a test light, probe the wiring harness end of the connector and you should have one wire with voltage with the headlights on, and the other wire with voltage when the lights are turned off. If you have juice at each wire at the appropriate time, that would indicate the motor has a problem. Be sure to do the test with the ignition turned on.

My car, which will be 50 years old in February, still has it's original non leaking heater core. My mileage on the car is currently 56,000 miles. Has anyone else seen one go this far without leaking? By the way, the car still has it's original 50 year old radiator that still looks new inside and never has leaked, along with it's fifty year old radiator cap that still holds pressure and looks great. Obviously the man who owned the car for 45 years was extremely anal about changing out the coolant regularly to avoid corrosion. Anybody like to take bets on how much longer these parts can go without a leak? By the way, I do carry the necessary tools and parts to bypass the heater core in the trunk at all times! Regarding my heater core, I feel like the guy who jumped off the empire state building and announced to people in the window at each floor as he passed that he was doing just great!

Thanks everyone for the help. I removed the nut/washer assemblies, detailed and reinstalled them without any drama, another item off the check list!

Perfect indeed......it looks awesome!

Thanks Ed, I'll wait for you to check and make sure it's OK to remove them.

On my 1965 Riviera, when you open the door and look at the inside area of the door in front of the vent window assy, there is a screw or bolt with a very large washer on it. I would like to remove these(one on each door) for detailing and reinstall them. If I remove them will something fall out inside the door creating a disaster requiring removal of the outer skin or can they be removed and installed without any consequence? Thanks, Winston

You didn't say whether or not you have removed the wheel bearing dust cap, cotter pin, nut and retainer washer from the hub. The drum comes off hub and all. If you have done that and it won't come off you have a lip worn onto the outer edge of the drum braking surface and it is catching on the shoes.

The symptom you are describing indicates a fuel delivery problem. The start up then die means the car starts up on residual fuel then dies when the fuel runs out. If your 87 has a factory theft system, that could be malfunctioning and killing the fuel pump. Also the fuel pump or fuel pump relay could be malfunctioning. You will need to check the fuel pressure when it won't run to see what it reads compared to the specification using a fuel system pressure checking tool. If the car starts up and stays running if you hold the throttle down, you have an idle air control valve problem.

What makes all this lots of fun is if your car is like mine, all the colored stripes on the hoses have worn off and you are looking at black spaghetti. When I bought my car, several hoses had split on the end and fallen off but they were close enough to where they were plugged in that I was able to guess where they went and guessed right. All it takes is for one hose to fall off on any of the hoses and it will blow out the defrost on A/C.

I drove back from a car show today, about a 30 minute drive, and when I removed the ignition key on my Riviera it was very very warm. I touched my fingers to the face of the ignition lock and it felt like it was almost hot enough to burn my fingers if I held them on there. I did have the A/C on next to high blower with the controls on vent. Anybody have this problem and what did you find....bad switch? burned connector on back of switch? There is no burning smell, just lots of heat on the ignition lock. It would seem odd that I would have a problem on the ignition switch at 56,000 miles.

Thank you Ed and Jan for all the great info......looks like I've got another future project to take care of. What is the correct finish on the spring?

UH OH.........looks like my car is missing the jack hold down spring......I hadn't known about that...and I hadn't noticed anything on the trunk floor to hook the spring to....no protrusions in that area.....what say ye ED?