Jim

Ervin, I sent you a radio module Jan 26. Did you not receive it yet?

As several others have mentioned the system is pretty good but you need to always have good clean fluid in the system. Go out on the street with no one around and do a simulated panic stop from about 20 MPH. If the car stops straight ahead without a hard pedal or pulling to one side or the other your system is in good condition. If the brake fluid has not been changed in the last few years, change it and you should not have any problems. I normally have in stock good systems and the two of the three parts that go bad. These are the pressure switches, the pumps and the accumulators. I have good pressure switches, and pumps but get a new accumulator from Ronnies site. You can do some tests to determine if you need an accumulator. Here is the instructions on how to change the fluid. 1. It is HIGHLY recommended that all the fluid in the whole system be changed with new fluid to eliminate any built up moisture in the system. 2. Any time the brake hydraulic system is to be opened the brake pedal should be pumped 25 times with the key off to bleed off the 2600 pounds of pressure in the accumulator. 3. Siphon out as much of the old fluid as possible from the reservoir and refill with clean fluid to the top. Another good way is to cut the rubber hose that comes from the reservoir right where it attaches to the ABS pump and let all the fluid in the reservoir run out. Then remove the piece of hose still attached to the pump and reinstall the rubber hose. It is long enough to do this. I like to cut it rather than try and remove it because the hose sticks really hard to the plastic fitting and you might break the fitting trying to take the hose off. Doing it this way you get all the fluid out of the reservoir before putting in new clean fluid. 4. When doing the rear wheels only let out about a half of a cup and then refill the reservoir. This is to make sure you don't take out too much and get air into the system. 5. To bleed the front brakes have the key off and bleed in a conventional method. Have someone pump the pedal a few times and hold it down while the other person opens the front bleeders. 6. To bleed the rear brakes A. Turn on the key and allow the system to pressurize B. Have an assistant slightly depress the pedal and hold it. C. Open each rear bleeder, one at a time, and hold open until clear fluid comes out. (The pump and motor will do the bleeding) When you are done there are high and low marks on the reservoir and after the system pump and motor has run and the lights are out the level should be at the low mark. When you have pumped the brakes with the key off 25 times the level will be at the high mark.

I have a fuse panel at a good price. Email me at jfinn@cpinternet.com The thing is the wires on the back side are all part of the main harness and I can cut them with plenty of length but you will have to splice all those wires. Jim

Ervin, I sent you a regular email. Jim

I have not received any emails regarding this topic. Even just checked my spam filtering. Jim

99% sure all years were the same.

My guess would be the resistor on the key is not making good contact with the contacts just inside the lock cylinder. Try cleaning the key contacts or try using a different ignition key. I had one '91 that the resistor on the key was so worn that it would only work intermittently. Used the spare key and no more troubles.

I thought I would bump this up for some of our newer Reatta owners. I will even give 10% off from Feb 1 to 4.

If your system is pressurizing correctly, the red light goes out, you may have a problem with the valve body on the side of the master cylinder. The pressure switches can be bad and sometimes will not start the pump or the pump can be bad sometimes not running. I have both available. It is very common for the pressure switches to go bad. Remove the connector on the pressure switch and look inside near the five pins. If you see even the tiniest drop of brake fluid next to any of the pins your pressure switch is defective and needs to be replaced. One of the most important things a person can do with an '88-90 Reatta is change the brake fluid about every five years. Brake fluid naturally attracts moisture and in the Teves system this moisture can cause major problems in the valve body. Very often the car will stop fine but in a panic situation the car will have a hard pedal and no brakes or the car in a panic situation may pull hard to one side or the other. I do have and sell complete brake units, everything on the firewall. The following is something everyone should try for future safety sake. With the red light out go out on the street with no one around, get up to about 20 MPH and do a panic stop. The car should stop straight ahead, not pull to either side and not have a hard pedal. On my parts cars I perform this test before disassembling the car and if the car passes this test I will sell the ABS unit. If not, it gets junked. Sometimes you see these complete units on Ebay but I would never buy one from a junk yard or Ebay unless the seller has road tested the unit. Many years ago I bought a car from a fellow in NJ who experienced the same situation you are. He replaced his pads and rotors and then was driving along a two lane street, a fellow pulling a Bobcat on a trailer pulled out in front of him and he went to stop, had a hard pedal and totaled his car. Everyone with an '88-90----------If your brake fluid has not been changed in the last 5 years----------change it. 1. It is HIGHLY recommended that all the fluid in the whole system be changed with new fluid to eliminate any built up moisture in the system. 2. Any time the brake hydraulic system is to be opened the brake pedal should be pumped 25 times with the key off to bleed off the 2600 pounds of pressure in the accumulator. 3. Siphon out as much of the old fluid as possible from the reservoir and refill with clean fluid to the top. Another good way is to cut the rubber hose that comes from the reservoir right where it attaches to the ABS pump and let all the fluid in the reservoir run out. Then remove the piece of hose still attached to the pump and reinstall the rubber hose. It is long enough to do this. I like to cut it rather than try and remove it because the hose sticks really hard to the plastic fitting and you might break the fitting trying to take the hose off. Doing it this way you get all the fluid out of the reservoir before putting in new clean fluid. 4. When doing the rear wheels only let out about a half of a cup and then refill the reservoir. This is to make sure you don't take out too much and get air into the system. 5. To bleed the front brakes have the key off and bleed in a conventional method. Have someone pump the pedal a few times and hold it down while the other person opens the front bleeders. 6. To bleed the rear brakes A. Turn on the key and allow the system to pressurize B. Have an assistant slightly depress the pedal and hold it. C. Open each rear bleeder, one at a time, and hold open until clear fluid comes out. (The pump and motor will do the bleeding) When you are done there are high and low marks on the reservoir and after the system pump and motor has run and the lights are out the level should be at the low mark. When you have pumped the brakes with the key off 25 times the level will be at the high mark.

I didn't read the link but the bellcranks are only part of the headlight operation troubles. The rollers inside the gearbox portion of the motor assembly need to be replaced. Get them from Kingsley Baker hkbjr@yahoo.com or Barney Eaton barney@texas.net.

Hadn't looked at the forum for a few days and see this post is continuing. I just asked a neighbor of mine last night how cold it got here while I was gone and he said one night the temp was an actual, not windchill, -30. Ervin, I would have also like to have met you but had Kingsley's number on my cell phone but did not have yours. I will add it for next time I am in your area. Jim

Too bad you didn't list it about a month ago. My sister had been looking for a blue '89 and Ervin and Tom Selander had some leads or one for sale but she found a blue '89 in MO and will be picking it up next week. Ervin's lead was on Craigslist in CA and Tom has a VERY low mileage blue '89 for sale.

Unfortunately I am back home in Duluth where when I got off the plane at noon the temp was -6. The good news is on Feb 18th I am going back to Mazatlan where when I left on Wednesday it was in the 80s. Had a really nice time down there. Went roller blading almost every day along the 4K Malecon, good cheap food and lots of sunshine and lots of pretty girls. One especially nice time was last night I had a five hour layover in LA so I called Kinglsey and we met for dinner. A real pleasure to meet him in person.

From sunny 88 degree Maxatlan, probably your accumulator is leaking down too fast. The pump shouldn't randomly run. Go to Ronnies site and get a new accumulator.

It is one of the bolts that holds the drive motor to the brackets. You will have to remove the seat from the car to put it back in

I am doing this from memory so the numbers might be slightly off, and I know these are not the numbers Ervin is looking for, but the early '86-87 Riviera units were a VI 34 and a very elaborate unit. The later '88-89 units were a V5I and much simpler with just a CRT and one circuit board. Oddly the early units were drilled to accept the later touch screens so you can take off the wrong early screen and put on the later screen and it will work fine. When I say oddly I mean on the side of the early units there are some holes for a small module that was not used on the early units but only on the later units

Temp was a cool 72 yesterday but still went roller blading along the the ocean. Strong headwind so took quite a while going north but had a pleasant conversation with a fellow wearing a 49ers jacket and then skated the four miles back in almost record time. Pacifico Light went down pretty good after that. Jim

After very slowly working on my Corvette for the past several months I finally repainted it last week and now feel I need a vacation. Saturday evenings TV watching was so satisfying I will leave today for Mazatlan and return Jan 24. I should be able to do my emails on a limited basis with my phone.

Carole was a really nice person and always a pleasure to be in her company. Jim

Daniel, I emailed you a picture with the dimensions. Jim

Here is a picture of the bushing. It is true they get bad and sometimes so bad sometimes they will fall out. Over the years I have had about 10 requests for these pieces so in my opinion the cost of remaking them would not be financially practical. I am guessing many of the GM cars used these bushings and for sure the Toronados, Rivieras, and some small Cadillacs use these bushings so if I needed one I would go to the local U Pull It and most of the time they have the cars up on stands with the tires off. Remove the bolt and then with a pry bar get the end of the stabilizer bar out of the mounting and the rubber bushing can be pushed out of the bar.

Marck was reading his ohmmeter wrong but his information is basically correct. If you look at a '90 shop manual in section 9D-5 and look at figure 6 you will see the correct resistances. To make Marck' chart correct simply move the decimal point three places to the right. EG # 1 resistance is actually 402 ohms and # 15 is 11,800 The last I heard purchasing these blanks at a local key supplier was about $ 20 plus the cut. I didn't look to see what they go for on Ebay. I have one NOS # 9 3010 ohm uncut key that I will give away to anyone who has bought from me in the past.

I have told this story before but is always fun to retell it. I fellow I know in the Chicago area drove about 30 miles one way in that dreaded Chicago traffic to a U Pull It in Indiana and found a Reatta there. He removed quite a few of the parts and then instead of paying the regular price which we all know is quite cheap, he put the parts in a different car to save until he could ( make the 60 mile round trip in Chicago traffic ) a few days later to get a lower price. When he drove back over there to get his parts he found they had crushed the car in which he was storing his Reatta parts.

OK since this topic is going everywhere, I will add my son got in on the ground floor of bitcoins several years ago tying several of his computers together and acquiring hundreds of them at no cost to him. Sold them all when they had a low value.

Padgett, You guys are way ahead of me on the modern electronics. I usually can repair the old CRTs with my 60s electronic training but am lost with the new stuff. I do use an ASUS laptop and have an ( old ) 3G Iphone but that is it. Thank you for the Christmas card and I hope you have a very nice 2013. Jim