jimustanguitar

as you may remember, i recently hit a deer going 65 and broke my windshield. i removed the windshield yesterday so that i can install a new one, but noticed that quite a bit of glass fell into the defroster vent ontop of the dash. i was wondering which piece to remove to gain access to this glass and take it out of the defroster. can i disassamble the heater box, or is there some better way to get the glass that fell down inside?

i have a rear windshield that is less than 1 year old in my reatta, and a broken windshield that is the same age, do you think that i could remove them with a wire? if i make my own from a guitar string, can i power it so that it heats up?

i was wondering what spoilers other people hav installed on their reattas? i'm not talking about a huge ugly japaneese dragon kind of spoiler, just a sleek factory style, perhaps from another car? i was going to order a new one from a nissan sentra, and wasn't sure if this had been done or not. thanks

has anyone ever made a rear feck or center console or door panels out of fiberglass? any pictures? i was going to make door panels to fit better speakers, but was torn between painting them or stretching vinyl over them, so i was just wondering if anyone else had dabbled with making panels for them.

i found a website selling alternators for reattas, and it said that the factory one was rated at 108 amps, so i was going to go with the iceberg alternator kit that upgrades the internals to 140 amps for just over $100. I thought i would need a lot more power because i am installing two gigantic audio power amps that are fused at 150 amps, but the manufacturer says that the average current draw is only 15 amps, and that is the number to budget for when getting an alternator, i'm going to have a deep cycle battery and a batcap also, so i should be fine. thanks for the help.

I was adding some accessories with some current draw and was going to get my alternator re-wound at a local electrical shop for $1/amp, so I was wondering what the factory output rating of the reatta's alternator was so that I can add about 50 amps to it when i get it re-wound.

buy the relocation kit from jc-whitney and mount the filter somewhere that is easier to get to, and you can use whatever filter you want if the threads are right, you might take the kit to the parts store before you install it to check the threads on what you think will fit, you can also buy the dual filter relocation kit and just put in two filters. Another cool add on is the fram "ez drain" it is a valve that you install instead of your drain plug and it drains your oil when you thread a fitting onto it with a little hose so that you can aim where the oil is going and you don't need any tools. It has a little protective cap that goes over it when you aren't draining the oil to keep dirt off of the threads and also as a failsafe for the valve. I have changed my oil with no tools in 2 or 3 minutes without having to even lift up the car, it is very nice to have both of these add ons, and I haven't had problems with either, it just takes you an oil change or two to remember the new oil capacity with the tubing from the relocation kit in the system.

I have used the blade from my pocket-knife protected on both sides by tuff cardboard that is thin like a posterboard or the backing from a blisterpack. There is no good way to go about this, good luck.

What year is your Reatta? My '90 had the quick release tabs on it instead of threads. Whenever I have done them, I have never worried about the fuel pressure, I have never had it spray me or anything. There is always about a half of a cup that drains out, but if you don't have your arm up there while it is dripping, it is not a problem. What I have done in the past with the threaded types of fuel filters... since you are replacing the filter anyway, I always put vice-grips on it and then I just worry about using the wrench to turn the threads on the line that stays on the car. Another useful thing to do is clamp the vicegrips on the filter to the car so that they don't try and spin with the rest of the assembly and possibly break off something else. Good luck with the job though, I have spent a couple hours trying to break free the threads on a filter or two, the worst of which was in an olds at a sears parking lot out of town, but you shouldn't have that kind of bad luck, let us know how it goes.

I was driving home on monday morning around 4:30 AM and was going 65mph on I80 outside of Chicago... It had been storming all night, but wasn't much rain, just a nice lightning show. At mile marker 140 the lightning flashed burning the image of a deer as if it were standing infront of my car with its shoulder right infront of my drivers side pop-up headlight, like 6 inches infront of it. In the elapsed time of the lightning flash, I saw the deer infront of me, saw it lift up in the air, and smash into my windshield, then it was all done. If seriously happened that quick. After slowing down to a stop and walking around my car once, I realized that the deer had ripped out my drivers side headlight, then smashed into my windshield infront of the passengers side. The deer hit the windshield hard enough to bend the roofline where it attaches. After towing the vehicle home (over 170 miles) I actually found chunks of meat inside of my car (ones that you would pay a couple dollars for at the grociery store) and shattered chunks of bone with marrow all over them. The tow truck guy asked if my passenger died, but it was all just deer parts. I had glass inside of all my pockets and blood splattered on all my windows with glass shards glued to them, but I did not get any guts on me or glass shards in my eyes, every other inch of that car is coated, but I got out without a scratch or even messy clothes. At 65 miles per hour, things don't just randomly happen like that, it wasn't a stupid mistake or a statistical chance. God saved me. He saved my car too except for the windshield and the headlight, besides straightening my roofline (it needed body work anyway) all of the other panels on the car are fine, the deer didn't even touch my hood. Anyway... enough about the accident, I need a windshield for a '90 reatta hardtop. I already bought two from speedway (this is actually the 4th windshield that I will have seen in this reatta since I have owned it) but I was not thrilled with the price or that the first one I ordered came broken from shipping, so I was looking for other options. Let me know what they are if any. Thanks, and hopefully everyone else is as wiley as I have been recently.

is this "TCC" the torque converter lockup mechanism that GM's are plagued with? What's the deal with them, I have never seen an early 90's GM without this unplugged, were there ever re-calls?

I am attempting to fix my digital dash board and have decided to replace all of the transistors and semiconductors that have heatsinks under them. I have been slaving over an interchange manual and several online cross references, but have not been able to locate any replacement parts for this application. I was wondering if anyone knew who these semiconductors were made by in 1990 whel delco was building these guage clusters. Any information would be helpful... thank you.

i changed my oil pan gasket, and in doing so found that the float on my oil level sensor was brittle and broken. There did not seem to be any reason that you couldn't change the sensor without dropping the pan. The sensor is just threaded into the pan, so as long as you wouldn't drain your oil out of the hole, you would be fine.

I posted a few days ago that my transmission had a little rumble when re-engaging from a coast... I got afew responses about the possability of cv joints, and another about how the same problem was happening to someone else, but they didn't know what it was either... I was a little low on fluid, so I dropped in some seafoam brand "trans-tune" and after about a mile and a half of driving, the rumble didn't return again. I am assuming that the shudder was caused by deteriorated fluid or something of the like... I am still planning on changing the fluid and filter. Thanks for your help.

I am going to change the filter in my 1990 Reatta's transmission. I checked alldata, and it said that the pan capacity is 6 quarts, but the overhaul capacity is either 8 or 11 depending on whether I have the 4t60 or the 4t60-E. I will drain the torque converter if I can access it easily... What is the difference between the two tranny's, how do I know which I have, and to swap my filter, how many quarts should I buy.

it could b e from the cv joints, b ut usually when they go bad, you feel a rumble the whole time that you are accellerating or maintaining speed, they also act up when turning... usually cv joints make noise before you can feel the vibrations from them. my problem is the opposite, i can feel the vibrations and not hear a noise... i am convinced that i have something fishy in my transmission, but who knows... i'll swap out the tranny filter and let you know what happens then. thanks

you replaced the coils that do what the ignition module tells them to... it sounds like the ignition module is not telling the coils what to do correctly. try replacing the module, and it should work for you. good luck.

Lately while driving my reatta, a '90, it seems that under normal driving conditions when I am coasting for example and wish to begin accellerating again, a moment after I put a little pressure on the gas pedal, and a moment before the car gets up and goes, there is a rumble that I can feel. It isn't very audible, but I can feel it through the seat, steering wheel, and through the gas pedal. The first few times that this happened, I thought that it was the infamous rear brake rumble because the first few times that I noticed it, I had used the brakes before trying to accelerate again. I have since observed that if I just let up on the gas a little bit, the rumble happens when the transmission re-engages from the coast. Is this a bad lockup mechanism in the torque converter, or a sticky valve in the hydraulic circuits of the transmission? I have not changed the transmission filter since owning the car (about 15k miles ago... less than a year). I was going to try that first, but wondered if there is a common problem like this that happens to the 4t60. Thanks for any info that you can give me. I know that other GM's have problems with the torque converters, but all of the ones that I have seen were all on smaller engines that probably had different transmissions. Thanks again.

Isn't the hood badge different sizes? I thought that the one on the car that I drove by was smaller than mine. Who knows though?

I was driving 2 days ago and spotted a red Reatta, looked to be pre-'90 but who knows... And about 20 mins later on the same road, I was passed by the same car that I had passed earlier. My reatta is a grey 1990 with a black drivers fender and headlight, and fresh primer everywhere else. Is the driver of the red car on the forum??

Whenever I am driving around 70mph, my headlights seem to bounce up and down a little bit. It seems like only the passenger's side one does it, but when I got out at the rest stop and checked, they both were able to jiggle about an inch or so up and down even though they were turned on and should be locked in the up position. Is there supposed to be some kind of rubber bumper or something that keeps the lights from moving after they raise, or is some other thing gone bad that I can fix? Is this just something that Reattas do and I'll have to live with? Whenever this happens, the drivers around me think that I am trying to flash them and they usually don't seem to like it very much. Thanks for any info that you can provide.

My door squeeks. I have tried lubricating it multiple times with WD-40 and simaler can based lubricants, but after a few weeks, maybe 2 or 3, the noise returns. Should I try a different type of grease, or will I be plagued with this for the rest of my life? A thought... I just replaced a broken driver's side fender that previously didn't have a splash shield, it is possible that either the hinges rusted because of this and/or that my grease just got washed away each time. The weird thing is though, I still have a squeek even though I have oiled the door hinge since replacing this splash shield. Any thoughts?

I live in a fairly wooded area in northern Indiana, where the trees like to gift us with millions of seeds each and every year, lucky for me, about 85% of these millions end up ontop of my car. The other joy of living in this state is that when it rains like it does all the time, the seed pods keep falling, and when I try to use my wipers, they smear seeds across my windshield until I get out and clean them off. I know exactly what the problem is... the metal covering across the bottom of the windshield traps some of the leaves and seeds, and my wipers park half way ontop of this piece of metal, so right where the gap is between the wiper blade and where the glass starts is where the seeds collect, and they end up stuck under my wipers. I first thought, "Hey, I'll just move the wiper arms one or two teeth on the gear so that they 'park' lower, completely on the piece of metal" after coming up with this thought, I noticed that my wiper blades are too high to fit between the cowl and the hood, so if I moved them down a tooth, they would ram into the edge of my hood. Right now, I am using the Rain-X brand silicone blades, do the amco's fit under the hood? Does anyone know where the blades parked from the factory? After I find a blade that fits under my hood, should I move the arms a tooth of two, or are they parked exactly where they are supposed to.

I was wondering if it is possible to recalibrate my 90's ext temp sensor, it is usually around 6 degrees too high. Does this have anything to do with its placement? Is the sensor located somewhere that it bakes in the sun and can't cool off or something? This isn't a big problem for me or anything, I just figured that with all of the computer controls in this car that there might be room for user adjustment. Thanks for your input.

I only remember the spring, I didn't see a piston on the end of it... It might just be in there still, but I think I'm going to get the replacement from the parts store from the L engine. Thanks