rocketraider

You wouldn't think stuff for 77-90 GM B cars would be that hard to find, but I just went thru the same thing trying to find an idler arm for the Custom Cruiser. Think the shop finally found one thru CarQuest. I had to have it too- cracked up on ice back in December and though there was no body damage except for a busted bumper filler, the front suspension took a beating on the right side when I went thru the ditch and off thru that field. And they called me Griswold all day at work... from when the Family Truckster crashed thru the barricade and went flying across the desert <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />.

The W35 spoiler isn't listed separately in the parts book 1972 optional equipment list, and in the parts book itself is listed as: spoiler, lid (plastic), 1970-72 F85 2 drs except convertible. That's not saying you couldn't have had the dealer install one if you had wanted it bad enough. I've always figured aerodynamics had something to do with it not being offered on the ragtop. The downforce and turbulence it created (believe it or not it wasn't just for looks) would have put a lot of stress on the flimsy fabric top and frame, as well as the open body structure.

Shooo- I think I'd try to find another switch pad and splice it in. You can get one from about any late 60s/early 70s GM car with the switch on the door panel, and a lot of B-body cars had power windows by that time. Are the hook terminals OK or are they bent up pretty bad? Should be shaped like a ?. Here's the order and colors for the master switch wires. This is out of the 1972 FB manual, but the 73,74 and 76 are the same so 71 and 75 should also be the same. GM used this PW color coding for many years. Red/white stripe is the feed and goes to the short post that is in the centerline of the switch. The long one is a locator and retaining pin. Left front door window: brown is "down", dark blue is "up". Right front door window: brown/white stripe is "down", dark blue/white stripe is "up". Left rear quarter window: purple is "down", dark green is "up". Right rear quarter window: purple/white stripe is "down", dark green/white stripe is "up". Switch order in the terminal pad is LF-RF-LR-RR. The feed post should be between the LF and RF window switches. If you need to replace motors in front doors, the FB manual has a template for drilling holes in the door structure to access the motor mounting screws without taking the whole regulator out of the door. The quarter windows have to remove the regulator from the car, and is a job I tend to farm out to a glass shop. I don't trust those counterbalance springs to not cut my arms off. PM me with a your mailing address and I'll send you a copy of the template and instructions. I don't have a scanner, shame too because the template is large enough it would scan good.

Yup. Just soak it until it's reasonably clean inside. Don't know if all the goo will ever come out, but if it's clean, the engine can breathe easier. I've seen those brackets engine color and black. I think this will be one of those "whatever the assembly plant was doing that particular day" things. Olds was known to attach brackets, manifolds etc before engines were painted.

Don't worry about it. That's what the forum is for. We won't let you get totally rude, crude and socially unacceptable! If the bumper isn't totally trashed, you should be able to have it rechromed. The 78 t/l bezels may be a little harder to find in nice shape as GM used poor quality chrome plating those years. I rarely see any used ones without nasty pitting. Have you tried searching e-bay for these things? I got NOS bumpers and other chrome potmetal for my 74 Hurst off the electronic auction. If you have no luck finding NOS (new old stock) try to find chrome from southwestern US as it's usually pretty nice. And there's always the Oldsmobile Club of America National Meet swap meet. This year in Cincinnati OH, July 9-12. Good to see a young guy interested in Olds. There's also a lot of G-body traffic on www.oldspower.com .

Scott, neither the 59 shop manual nor my 1974 edition parts books address the PCV valve. The farthest back the parts book lists is 1961. I'm thinking this valve may be part of a California emissions retrofit kit. Some years the carburetor throttle body has a threaded vacuum port at the back. I've seen 1962 394 with a PCV valve threaded into that, and the other end connected via hose to the RH valve cover where the road draft tube would normally be on that year. You may be able to plumb the valve into the road draft tube port using a grommet or elbow of some description. While you have the crankcase vent canister accessible, I'd clean that thing out good. Hopefully you can unbolt it. Tried to clean one on a Chevy one time and the thing was pressed in, which you can imagine what getting it out was like with 35 years of sludge and varnish holding it in.

I'm sure most of you collect automotive literature as well as cars. What are some of the neat and interesting pieces y'all have? I recently got a set of 1951-1964 HydraMatic parts requisition sheets with exploded drawings of these transmissions and every part # required to service them. It also includes the 2-speed 1964 version of Jetaway. Also got a 1966-76 Oldsmobile "Styled Wheel Discs" binder with photos and application for each wheel treatment Olds offered those years. Never knew such a thing existed so it was a given that I would have it. Whatch'all got? <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Is this an Automatic Temperature Control car or regular A/C?

None personally, but I know a couple people who do. In "Love Field" you can see a 2-tone green 1955 Oldsmobile sedan owned by a Mid Atlantic Olds Club member from Durham NC, and in "Crazy People" the red 1954 Chevy ragtop is a local car that got tore all to hell during filming in Chatham VA. Even though the film company paid for all repairs, sez the owner, "Never again". The Buick Club of Minnesota got film credits for supplying Buicks for "Crossing the Bridge" in which a 1965 Electra sedan was central to the plot.

Thought it did... The two wires to the window motor are both hot wires, controlled by the window switch. You have a 12v source to the switch (the red/white stripe wire), then the switch directs it to the "up" or "down" motor winding. The motor grounds to the door structure thru its frame. So when you actuate the switch for "up", voltage travels thru the switch to the "up" winding and likewise for "down".

The power window and seat stuff is in the Fisher Body manual. If none of the windows work: First check the power accessory feed circuit breaker. It's at the top left of the fuse block, labeled "ACCSY-PWR RLY" and if it's bad, you can find one at a parts store. It's a 40 amp breaker and plugs in same as a fuse. This circuit is fed straight from the battery via the junction block on the firewall and is hot all the time. Next- check the "DIR SIG BACKUP" fuse at the fuse block. The ignition relay trigger is thru this fuse. The pink wire to the relay plugs into a terminal just to the left of this fuse. If it's unplugged windows won't work. This terminal and fuse are hot only with ignition switch "ON". Next check the ignition relay located behind the left kick panel. Three wires- check with relay plugged into harness. Orange/black stripe is the power feed from the circuit breaker and should be hot at all times. Red/white stripe is the relay output to the power window switches. Turn ignition switch on and check for voltage here with test light. If no voltage, then go to>>> Pink or tan is the trigger from the ignition switch. With switch on, there should be voltage here. If test light lights, ignition relay is bad. If it doesn't light, check fuse or plug as described above, or there's a break in the wiring somewhere between fuse block and relay. If relay is bad, you may have to find one in a junkyard. There should also be a junction block behind the left kickpanel that all the power accessory circuits (P window, P seats, P top) plug into. Power window circuit feed wire may have come loose here. If individual windows don't work, check the motor by running a 12v jumper to each terminal on the motor. Motor grounds to the door structure and the motor terminals are for up and down windings in the motor. You may find it will work one direction and not in the other. Check the switches by checking for voltage at the center post of the wiring pad (red/white stripe wire). The jumper across to each output wire. If motor works, switch is bad. If no voltage at red/white wire, there's a wiring or power feed problem. I've often found broken wires in the rubber conduit from door to body. If you have to replace motors, there's a neat trick for that too that will save you having to take all the regulator and linkage loose. If you have to replace motors, we'll go over that in a separate post.

Folks, this is a NICE car that deserves someone who appreciates 60s luxury. If I didn't have so many already...

I recommend Fusick or the other Olds-exclusive vendors over YO. These are the guys who are laying out the cash, effort and research to bring correct Olds repop parts to market. Support them. Not to mention YO's customer support is not what it was a few years back. Fusick's August 2002 Cutlass catalog lists 1970 455 cables in stock at $39 for the (+) cable and $45 for the (-), with correct OE type terminals.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">a cheap no-name radial</div></div> My experience is that most of these "no-name radials" you mention are made by the big tire companies. I have Regul Questas on my wagon, at 40k miles they're about half wore out and drive and handle well, and they're a midline tire made by... Uniroyal/Goodrich. The Ninety Eight also has them. Why buy the highest line tires for a car on which they'll dry rot before they wear out, when the lower-priced tire is made by the same company to the same standards? I have Mastercrafts on my 64 Starfire, made by Cooper Tire who have been around for ages. Correct size and whitewall, around $300 for a set of 5. You wanna know which brand of tire I've had more trouble with than any other? <span style="font-weight: bold">GOODYEAR.</span> Between the tire problems and the lousy customer service, I just won't even consider them anymore.

Personally, unless I was going for a 1000-point restoration or had to deal with emissions inspection, I'd leave it off and bypass the system totally. If you can get the switch cheap, you might want to get it just to have. But then I've seen the solenoid switches on the intake go for ludicrous money. What it does is delay vacuum advance to the distributor until the transmission is in high gear. This supposedly reduced emissions but also hurt performance compared to having full-time vacuum advance. I think we've visited the TCS on this site before, but if you're not completely sure about bypassing it or putting it back, we can walk you thru it again.

The only thing that comes to mind is an underdash street rod a/c unit like Vintage Air sells. Possible they might have a kit for the GM truck. Maybe it's the part of the world I live in, but I can't remember seeing a non-factory air vehicle for at least 20 years. Even the company work trucks have it now.

Do you need the water valve itself or the temperature switch ("thermal relay") that threads into it for a Tempmatic car? They're serviced separately. Most replacement water valves I've seen have provision for the switch. All the switch does is signal the programmer and blower relay when the coolant temp is 120 degrees or higher. The valve itself is vacuum operated. If you need to get the blower running, just jumper across the switch plug terminals until you can find the correct part. It's a shortcut and smacks of rigging, I know, but if you need the blower it'll work till you can do better.

Remove the cover plate under the steering column (4 screws). Then you can see the shift pointer attaching screw and the adjustment slot it moves in on the steering column. Put the selector lever in N or D, loosen the pointer screw, move the pointer in the slot to align with whichever position you're using as reference, then tighten the screw. Run shifter thru all ranges to check alignment and readjust if needed. You have to remove the plastic lower dash panels to get at almost anything behind them. The LH is fairly simple, take the steering column cover plate off and then 4 or 5 screws on the panel itself if I remember right, but the RH can get involved as it goes from steering column to right door. I had all that mess out of a 73 Delta ragtop I owned several years ago and seems like it consumed the better part of a morning. Same dash. Can't help ya on the fuse block. Maybe taking the LH lower panel out will make it easier to get back there.

Yah- we were worried about ya. Didn't want to hear that you'd survived the desert only to go down in a chopper crash. Stay stateside as long as you can.

Bump to top. Has anyone heard anything from him? Wayne Burgess?

They'll bolt on, just the ports are a little larger. I don't know about using a Toro manifold in an A-body. Seems like it would exit real close to the firewall and get into shift linkage clearance problems.

Henry, this may be different between the assembly plants. Harry Patterson's Omega Red 73 Delta ragtop built in Lansing has XX in the paint code.

Morning paper said a Blackhawk chopper with 13 aboard went down at Ft Drum Tuesday. Pat, are you alright?

Could also have had a Turbo 375 which was a little lighter duty unit than the 400, but was found mostly as a HD option behind 350 engines. You have a good transmission. They're almost impossible to destroy. Trouble is, a 400 has been obsolete for over 15 years now so it's almost as bad to get one done right as a Slim Jim. Younger tranny guys esp don't seem to understand them. But then they're used to working on electronic transmissions and transaxles.

Take it to the dealer! <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Yup, the motor mount has to come off. Take the PS pump loose from the block, then you can get the hidden motor mount bolts off and replace the belt. You'll need a floor jack or some other means of supporting the engine while you do this. A buddy just did this job on a 2000 Bonneville. This guy has an auto tech school degree and all kinds of ASE patches and manages an Advance Auto, so he understands car, but he sez if he had it to do over, it would go to the dealer. Local Buick dealer puts two men on this job for four hours. Makes ya wonder what the GM wunderkinden were thinking, don't it? Of course, I've wondered about that for the last twenty years...