ChrisWhewell

Vexatious. I love it, it was worth reading just for that word. Now, you'll get to hear the other squeals which that one was concealing :)

Thanks, didn't know this info. The model in the upper-right in the pics sure looks a lot like a 95-99 Riviera

To each their own. I did the same on my 98 Riv, came out dead nuts in spec on the machine. Pretty much, caster isn't going to be an issue. So you're left with camber and toe. Straighten the steering wheel, and just look at each wheel, separately from above, and together from the front from 20 feet away. For camber you need a buddy to tighten the bolts while you hold it where it needs to be. Toe is just a twist of the tie rod ends. This isn't rocket science.

The question that hit my mind was, "who is the mastermind among this bunch?" I'd say, its the one who is smiling the least.

lol, I have a good eye. I laid 1000's of square feet of tile on floors and walls, built my workshop also without ever snapping a chalk line. Same with wheel alignments, just look at the d&rn thing !! that's all anyone else is going to do, look at it. Its like Chevy Chase's character in Caddyshack told the kid about golfing, "be the ball" heh-heh

I took it to the shop for an alignment. When I did the struts, I "eyeballed" it in. the results of the alignment machine were that everything was dead nuts, except the toe on the left front, off 2 degrees. cost me 89 bucks to have the dude twist the inner tie rod arm a couple rotations.

Hi, a couple years ago I was buying something from Rock Auto, and they were having a close-out special on shims for rear wheel alignment. So I bought a bunch of them, they were super cheap. Also got a camber bolt kit for the front. But..... I saw a lot of posts about how the rear alignment isn't adjustable. And I'm wondering about the camber bolt kit... I mean, the parts say on their packaging they're for Reatta.... but I've seen contradicting info. I guess I'm just wondering if anyone's ever used shims on the rear wheel alignment, or the camber bolt kit on the front. Camber bolt kit is Moog K6378.

:) Yes, after I was done. :)

Okee dokey, I drove the car and turned right, and it got louder so assumed it was left bearing. Changed left bearing, it helped a little but noise still there. Removed right frnt wheel bearing and yep, its shot, pretty bad. So after this morning I'll have two new wheel bearings, struts are < 1 yr old, brakes are fresh. Should be good to go for a little while. Front bearings are easy, I had them off the car in like 15 minutes.

5/16 too loose, 3/8 too large. I guess its a 9 mm. Time to head to the parts store, cost a few bucks, plus 45 minutes, ugh, maybe I can get some beer and make the trip more worthwhile

Yep, Dave. I got it down to the 3 bolts holding the wheel bearing on, looks like a hex. Manual doesn't say what size, I have one that's kinda tight..... but a little loose

Thank you thank you thank you all. I think I'll just change both front wheel bearings. If for no other reason than..... "Why not?" :)

Howdy, I'm wondering what the symptoms of a bad front wheel bearing might be. At present, I have a clicking sound when slowing or travelling <20 mph, and when I put it in neutral, the clicking remains. Turning the wheel doesn't affect the clicking. Front end however, does "groan" at only certain positions of the steering wheel, when travelling 60 mph. I changed the right side driveshaft about a year ago incl. CV joint. maybe its a cheap one and wore out ? or, maybe its a wheel bearing ? 90k miles on the car. If I raise the front end and wiggle the wheel, if the wheel bearing is bad, will I be able to tell pretty easily ?? thanks a bunch !!

aye. MIne was the hose on the modulator, replaced it and now all is quiet. Replaced the remaining ones also. thanks Daves89, I should have known / knew, I guess I been lonely , hahahaha. In any event, all good. Thanks for the reply, much appreciated !!

Thank you sir, will do.

Lately, my transmission in the 90 is making a clunk when shifting from gear 2 to 1. I hope its an easy issue, trans has 90k on it, I changed fluid and filter at 70k, am wondering maybe a vacuum hose is off ?

Wow, thanks !!

I like the body style. Second, the visibility afforded by the rear window with respect to what is normally a "blind spot" is great for safety. The biggest negative for me is that the engine is missing about 50 ft lbs. of Tq, and there's no easy upgrades to perf.

Woo-hoo, after 3 years, I finally pulled the thermostat, yep, its been stuck open from Day 1. Its nice to have a little warm air blowing in the wintertime :) Edit: Let me add.... when I went to put the gooseneck (a.k.a. "coolant outlet housing") back on with the new t-stat in the manifold, the gooseneck would not seat fully, about 1/8" gap. Thinking, sometimes these things need help, I used a wooden rod and tried to whack it down with a hammer. Ever so gently that is, I have the "touch" and know about how hard one can hit these things w/o inflicting harm. After several attempts, I decided to pull the new T-stat out and just try seating the gooseneck on the manif. without the t-stat present. Yep, it went right in, all the way, fully. The issue was a little rubber o-ring or seal, etc., on the gooseneck itself, where it interfaces with the t-stat. I removed that rubber, installed the t-stat. and voila, was a happy camper. Drove 80 miles and no leaks, its like the gentlemen said, that single bolt that holds the housing only needs be tightened "snug" and if the o-ring is doing its job, you have no worries. So, I suggest checking re-install that the housing goes onto the manif. easily, if it doesn't, the interference might be the o-ring that's internal to the gooseneck

in the video below you can see at 2:08 mins, the dude has got a 3-angle cut, but you also see the ridge or "wall" I mentioned. I wouldn't do a valve job this way, rather, I do each cut manually, start with the throat cut, then the top cut, then the 46* seal cut last. Otherwise with these machines I believe way too much material is un-necessarily removed, lowering compression and detrimental to flow, the idea for me was to remove as little material as possble but still be in spec. Yea, I used a dremel to remove the "wall" after I made the 3 cuts on each - easy to slip and ding your nice new seat surface, so must have a very steady hand and lots of patience. Its actually borderline insanity, but the transition from the cc to the seat on my heads is smooth as a baby's cheeks. I think low lift flow is "where its at" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5nTXDIgWaM Edit: in my opinion his seats are too deep. And cutting the seats is only the beginning. Next comes bluing up the valve and inserting it into the guide and rotating it back and forth a few degrees as you press it against the seat. Then, remove and look at where the contact is on the face of the valve. If its not in the right location along the face, then its back to grinding. Most shops won't do this, it takes too much time. Typically have to re-do each seat a couple times to get it perfect. The exhaust side is especially important, if the seating surface isn't at least about 040, I thin k there's a good chance of some valve burnage opportunitie, which means a sad day in the future. Remember, all the heat transfer from that hot exh valve only occurs intermittently, that's super important since even one bad exh seal surface means pulling the head. In fact, on my truck that's why I had to pull the heads, some shop didn't do it right and the valve sunk. Replaced it with a vortec heads :) Those are some of the best. The LT1 gen II were tricky because of intake port wall thin ness issues. On these Reatta's I'd be happy with just going to a bigger valve, that does alot in itself. Edit #6 - sorry, this aaca website got an upgrade beginning of this year and I can't post photos using my Mac. I tried my windows 7 box but that won't work either. These computer folk are always upgrading, but things don't seem to get any better, same as gov. Ppl should learn to be happy with what they have, instead of trying to go after things they don't, so said Glen Campbell :)

The equipment isn't that expensive from https://www.newaymfg.com/ You can cut the seats manually, as I did on three sets of V8 heads. A V6 would take a lot less time. Doing them manually lets you get every seat - perfect - , the important part is to make sure the width of the seat is the correct width on the valve, and also at the right location on the valve. I used a jeweler's eyepiece and a bunch of prussian blue and it took me a long time but was worth it. I learned everything I know from David Vizard. 3-angle cuts and I used stock performance valves having backcuts and undercut stems. The best opportunitie for gains in low lift flow are around the circumference of the seat where it blends with the cc, there is usually about a 0.3-0.5 mm "wall" there. I didn't measure flow, but was pleased with the results, it improved the vette alot, and my old truck is a torque monster. I can't imagine anyone could have done a better job on all of them. Vizard used to have hisstuff available on the web 15 years ago, real high tech physics but clearly explained why most ppl who "port" make mistakes, but I'd like to think by now places like Elliotts and others have it down. Cool stuff.

oh, and add some beads of weld to the cc's, kick up compression to about 9.5 - 10, and run premium fuel. All I really want is about 230 ft lbs of Tq, that would really make me smile and I think totally do-able, provided I can find some cyl. head that is friendly. I have all the tools to do the valve job, so that's no problem. Can even put in new bronze guides and use 8mm stems, so valve choice isn't limited. Contemplated going to a slightly higher rocker ratio, but they seem scarce and expensive. ugh, need to do more internet "research" :(

thanks for the photo of the cc. wow, there isn't much room in there. The second posting in the link below seems to imply that 1.8" intake valves from an SII engine would go in.... It would be nice if I could just grab some GN heads and slap them on the Reatta, but I suspect that won't work. It would be nice if there were some V6 heads that would bolt right on, which would accommodate 1.94's !!! but that is probably asking too much :) 1.5's on the exhaust side would probably be plenty https://www.gmforum.com/performance-brainstorming-tuning-96/swapping-series-ii-heads-onto-ev6-ln3-si-tall-deck-shortblok-215348/page3/

anybody know off the top of their head, what the largest intake valve size the combustion chambers will accommodate ? I tried looking it up but can't find anything

$65, includes shipping in the continental USA.