Jim

Two are for the ABS and one is for the fuel pump.

I had a similar problem with my first Reatta, long time ago. I tried several things and even took it to my Buick dealer and I and the mechanic worked on it together and couldn't come up with the solution. I had looked at the plugs at home and we both looked at the plugs again and they looked good. It turned out to be the plugs. I then took those plugs and put them into a Corsica that I was rebuilding at the time that had a couple of broken plugs from the accident and the Corsica ran fine with my old Reatta plugs. When the Reatta went into closed loop and leaned out the engine the plugs couldn't handle it.

Same and interchangable.

I have a good motor with new rollers and can be reached at jfinn@cpinternet.com Barney sells replacement bellcranks and motor rebuild kits. He can be reached at barney@texas.net

There are two things that go bad on the motors. Inside the motor gear case are some nylon rollers and these disintegrate sometimes and the other part is the bellcrank which gets worn out. The bellcrank, or actuator, is located on the shaft coming out of the motor gear box and is a piece of diecast metal about 2 inches long by 1 inch wide. Open the hood and manually turn the knob on the end of the motor about ten turns then lift the headlight assembly manually and see if the linkage/bellcrank is loose on the shaft coming out of the motor. If it is loose most likely the bellcrank is bad. It should be tight and not rotate at all on the shaft. When it wears, it starts out as a rectangle hole and then turns to a butterfly shape and then you have a round hole. You will be able to see right away if the hole is not a rectangular shape when you remove it from the output of the motor. The other part to go bad is the rollers inside the motor gear box. If the linkage is fairly tight and the motor keeps running the rollers are bad. Another way to check if the rollers are bad is if you can manually turn the motor with the knob but the bellcrank does not turn. Do this with the headlight assembly either up, down or while holding the headlight assembly and trying to stop it from opening or closing. The bellcranks are still available from GM for about $ 90 but Barney Eaton sells the replacement steel bellcrank (with instructions) for $35 including shipping. There is also a KIT that has the bellcrank, three rollers for inside the motor, and a plastic nut for the UP-STOP. The KIT is $40 including shipping. Barney can be reached at barney@texas.net Get one kit for each side.

I am assuming you are referring to the plastic elbow that is on the back end of the pump and has the flexible hose connected to it and that hose goes to the bottom of the fluid reservoir. I might have an extra but probably not. A while back someone posted that these special elbows are still available new. Search on this site and you will probably find the post. It is very important to change the brake fluid every 3 years or so and I always tell people to cut off the flexible hose about an inch down from the top of the hose on this elbow so they can drain all the fluid out of the reservoir. You can then cut the remaining piece off lenghtwise to remove it. If you try and remove the hose while it is still attached to the elbow very often you will break the elbow. There is plenty of slack in the hose to be cut off several times.

In your '89 shop manual read pages 8D-5 through 8D-7 particularity the paragraph "trouble code display on page 8D-6. History codes are a code that at one time was present but are not now. The ECM and BCM store these codes so you have a reference, telling you that at one time you had a problem but it is not now currrent. The C codes are CRTC codes. I could not find C331 but C553 is located on page 8D2-68

Craig, I couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks, Jim

I agree it is probably the IPC itself and if cleaning the contacts on the connector doesn't work I do have a good used one available. I can be reached at jfinn@cpinternet.com and please include your zip code for shipping purposes.

It is standard. Clockwise to tighten. They are very tight. One good way to get it to break loose is to remove the small black cover on the flywheel and clamp some vise grips to the flywheel. When the flywheel rotates the vise grips will stop it at the edge of the block.

The Reatta division will have a table at the host hotel and we will be selling logo items.

I mostly have Buick Reattas and parts but I also have a '38 Olds coupe I would like to sell. The car is in original condition and unrestored. Needs everything but is 99% complete. I can be reached at jfinn@cpinternet.com but will be away from home and no email access between 7/12 and 7/14. I will be at Iola.

I talked to the same person and while we were talking I went on line and I see NAPA has rear struts and the P/N is the same as your Monroe number.

I am sure that is why the thread was zapped but just because someone has a different opinion, the opinions shouldn't be censored. Isn't that one of the freedoms this country was based on? As I said, the thread didn't have anything to do with Reattas, except maybe our cars are sources of polution, but unless a thread gets nasty it should be left alone.

I agree! Sometimes the posts get off topic but unless someone is being nasty I think the posts should be allowed to continue without someone with maybe too much power simply deleting them.

If the pressure switch is good the other thing I am seeing more and more lately is the pump motors are getting bad. This is from age but I think more the cause of the motor getting bad is they are running more than they should. A weak accumulator causes the motor to run almost everytime you step on the pedal because the "reserve" is not there. With a new accumulator you have a reserve of a couple of applications of the brake pedal before the pump runs but with a weak one the pump runs more often. If the red and yellow lights are on and and won't go off, with the key on try tapping on the motor with a metallic object. This will jar the motor enough so the probably bad brushes make contact and the motor will start.

Ron, Since you have an '88 you do not have the mount problem that Jim had. The '88s do not have the small shock absorber in front of the harmonic balancer like the '89-91s. The one on Ebay should work on your car with no problems.

I have found the most common problem with these symptoms is the pressure switch. It is located just above the pump motor in front of the accumulator. Remove the connector on the pressure switch and look inside for any signs of brake fluid near the pins. Even one very small drop means the switch is leaking. I have a good one if you need one. I can be reached at jfinn@cpinternet.com

The most common item to go bad in the '88-89 Reattas is the CRT/touch screen. The touch screen and the associated circuit board on the side of the unit are a somewhat separate function of the CRT but they do work together which is why your screen and buttons are functioning correctly but the screen is not lighting up. The CRT unit has gone bad. I have several Reatta parts cars and do have a good tested working CRT/touch screen. I can be reached at jfinn@cpinternet.com

I made up a harness a while back so I could test radios and CD players on my bench. I also have tested them in cars that had factory players. A couple of things I noticed in testing them is the player has to be laying flat or almost flat. Even a slight angle and the CD might not play. Another thing and it even says this in the shop manual is if the CD goes in and after some seconds go by it ejects the CD and says "error" you might want to warm up the CD and try again.

It is a pretty big job wiring in a CD player in a Reatta that did not originally have one but if you have a shop manual you can figure it out. My estimation is you have about a 95% chance the CD player is no good.. I too have bought many of them from Rivieras and big Oldsmobiles and I have on my shelf about 25 non working ones. Before you go to the trouble of wiring it in, check it somehow to make sure it plays.

Last week it never got above 65 degrees so maybe Barney was giving me a sampling. We have that stupid Lake Superior and when the wind is out of the east it can be 90 all around here and 55 degrees and foggy in Duluth. Hey------television isn't so bad, I can catch up on reruns of Walker Texas Ranger. Not only that, in every bar in the area on any night of the week you can find a free game of Texas Holdem. It's free to play but you can win "bar bucks" and sometimes cash. I have been playing too much lately and recently after taking two first,two seconds and a third in 7 times I was thinking of giving up my day job, selling Reatta parts, and becoming a professional poker player. If the heat gets shut off watch for my face on the WPT or PPT on the tube.

Sure, next time someone wants some bell cranks I will tell them to buy new ones instead of your reproductions. Of course they will have to pay about 5 times more for new GM ones. I see your post was very close in time and you were probably composing while I was posting. Actually these coolers do go bad quite often especially in northern climates because they are right out front and have very little paint on them. The salt in winter gets them pretty fast. I would estimate about 70% of the coolers on the parts cars I have had have been rusted to the point I would not want to resell them. I do have some nice ones though and they are not available anymore from GM.

It is sort of common for those coolers to rust out. I have several Reatta parts cars and have a nice rust free cooler available. I can be reached at jfinn@cpinternet.com

Thanks Robert for the endorsement. I have to agree though that the ground is a big factor. The solenoid grounds through the two bolts that hold it to the trunk lid and if they are not tight you might have a bad ground. I recently sent one to a person and he said it was intermittent so I sent him another one but I always test my parts before I send them out so I suspect it was simply a bad ground and the first one was OK. The solenoid and the bolt and trunk lid are all painted in this area so it is easy to have a bad ground.