My L67 swap from LesabreT.com

My 2.4" pulley is here! It will just have to sit on my desk for a while I guess though lol.


Now I just have to get an axle. Cardone Select for a '95 Bonneville SSEi sound right?

I finally have a new passenger axle on the way, and a Magnaflow glasspack to act as a resonator. The exhaust does not sound bad as it is, and I've had it the entire time I've owned the car, but the rasp just needs to go away. I'm done with it, even if it means quieting the entire system down a bit.

Dad was nice enough to get this car out of storage for me today since it was warm and sunny, and put it in my garage. He said the axle really is shot, it's making a ton of noise and feels funny. I wanted to drive it a bit before I had to work on it, but I guess I can't if I want to make it back home under it's own power lol. I'm going to get to work on it as soon as dad's GS is done. Just waiting on an exhaust hanger from the dealer...

So I got some work done on the T-type today! I didn't really expect to do anything, but I made progress on little things. The first thing was to get rid of these stupid looking pipe fittings that I used for the PCV bypass that Karma made me. The Napa near me happens to have the right type of fittings I was after, so I picked them up today and installed them.

Old:



New! I'm still not positive if I like them, but I had to do something.



After that i decided to check and see what was up with the very very minor coolant leak I had under the supercharger snout. I was pretty certain it was coming from the metal pipe that goes to a heater core hose from the LIM. As it turns out, and I did not remember this, there is actually bolt securing this pipe to the LIM AND to the alternator bracket. I was missing the bolt on the LIM. I just happened to have one off of my old LIM so that's fixed, hopefully the coolant doesn't leak anymore.

Then I got ambitious and decided to swap on my new 2.4" supercharger pulley! There is no exaggeration as to how much easier these keyed pulleys are than the press fit M90 pulleys. I had to keep the blower from spinning so I got an old piece of belt and wedged it into an oil filter wrench. Worked great! The pulley nut came right off.


This 3 - jaw puller worked great. Had it off in less than a minute.


I was able to slide the new pulley on most of the way by hand and use the nut to push it the rest of the way. Everything lined up great, and I still have plenty of belt wrap. (Not that dropping a 10th of an inch is much as far as a belt goes) I made up for a lot of the slack 2 years ago when I put on a bigger tensioner pulley.


Almost ready for another season! Just the axle, rear sway bar, and oil change left to do.


Speaking of that, here's the new axle. Just holding it and checking it out it appears to be much better built than the ones I put on there.

Another update. I spent most of the last 2 days working on this car, but not by choice. Sort of.

I had all day yesterday and today, so I decided to tackle the passenger axle and get it done.


It couldn't be as easy as removing the hub and sliding it out. No. I had to end up taking off the sway bar link, tie rod, and disconnecting the strut from the knuckle to get it out. Not cool, not fun.


So, the old one came out easily enough for an axle, and the new one went it good. So I thought. I went to test drive it, I got to the top of my hill (next to my driveway, luckily) and I heard POP and I had no gears. The axle popped out. I was able to coast back down the hill and partially into my 400 foot driveway. Dad was able to help me push it back to an area in the driveway I could take it apart again and see what was up. Thought I popped it back in again and was going to back it up the hill, and nope. Nothing. At this point I thought it was the differential.

My uncle came over and pulled the car back up the hill to the garage and we pushed it to the lift. I took it apart AGAIN and found that the axle actually did have to go in another 3/4" somehow. I tried as carefully as I could to pound it in without ripping the boot (rags, block of wood) but to no avail. The axle went in and locked, but the boot ripped. I had 1 1/4" industrial electrical tape and wrapped the boot as best I could.

This morning, I put it back together AGAIN and drove it around the garage parking lot and my driveway doing hard turns and other maneuvers to try and make the axle pop out, just in case. Each time I stopped the car and checked it, everything was good and in place. I decided to take it on the road and go get my sway bar links from Advance for the rear sway bar. The engine is just like I remember it, the trans modulator needed some adjustment, but everything seemed ok except it needs an alignment pretty bad lol. I thought I got the strut back to where it was but I guess not.

Hopefully we'll have Spring and Summer soon and I can drive it harder in better weather, dry roads, etc. So, from all this going on, I'm pretty sore lol.

So, since it was still early in the day today, I got work on the other bits I wanted to do. First, the resonator, which is just a big Magnaflow glasspack. The idea was to eliminate the raspiness of the mid-RPM range on this engine.
This is the straight section of pipe I had available to install the resonator. I held it up, made 2 marks to cut, and sliced and diced.




The new resonator slid right on to the old pipe, and clamped down great.


Slid the back section in and clamped it, and done!


I dont have any videos of it yet, but it sounds pretty much exactly like my head thought it would. No rasp at any RPM, and it barely lowered the volume if at all. It still growls like I like it but now sounds more wholesome, and less hollow. Love it.


I only have this picture, but dad also helped me get the new rear sway bar on. Went from a 17mm to a 21mm! Should be a big improvement. I got Moog urethane bushing with the link hardware, and I modified some Energy Suspension urethane bushings. I know it's not a good test, but just trying to move it and shake it while it's on the car, it will NOT budge. I'm hoping this makes as big of an improvement as I think it will.

Damn, that sucks about the axle. When doing the wheel bearing I try not to take the axle out of the transmission. It's usually very very hard to get out!
I usually undo the lower strut bolts and tip the knuckle down to get the end of the outer CV out. You do need an alignment afterwards, but on our cars I've never been able to get the bearing out without getting the outer CV joint out of the way first. Maybe the LeSabre makes it a little easier.

I do have to take the hub off to get the axle all the way out, and disconnect the strut or ball joint. Luckily, because this was a swap, my hubs and axles were new so they aren't rusted together like most cars haha. The hub was stuck in the spindle a little but the axle slid right out.

Anywho, disaster stuck this morning on the way to work. I smelled something burning when I parked at work and poked around before I went inside. Turns out I must have ripped the inner boot of the new axle after all when I installed it. Grease slung everywhere and the boot was collapsed and all messed up. After doing some research and talking with Scott, i realized I was partially an idiot and was not tapping the axle correctly or in the correct area to install it. I must have ripped it while tapping it in. Fine.

New axle on the way. Take 3.

I got home fine and nothing felt funny yet but it obviously will not last long. That's the least amount of time a part has ever lasted me lol...40 miles. Just like everything else, this mistake turned into a learning experience.

Otherwise, damn this car is quick. I always forget that and scare myself lol. Feels like a normal car until about 2,500 RPM, then after that, forget it. Wheelspin, torque steer, a lot of fuss and bother and Im going 70 mph before I know it.

Andrew, you MUST see this video. I thought of you after watching it. She takes a 1987 Lesabre T-Type out on a closed track, and I must say, it makes the Grand National look like a Porsche 911 with all of the body roll. Best of all, it features one of my dream Buicks, the 2.0L turbo Skyhawk Sport Hatch. They're simply impossible to find anymore.

next time when u go to slap one of dem axels in loosen both of the retainer clips on the boots so u can extend or stretch it out. Alot of times they come compressed as mine did on the rivi they even told me this after I complained that it was to short for the car but in the end they did send me the wrong one but I learned that they come compressed and you just haft to loosen the boot seal clips a little bit so u can get some air in there as u stretch it to length. I also had a problem with the damn thing poppin out so I spread the c clip out a bit on the input shaft dont go crazy just a little bit. Oh ya nice car I bet it really scoots along.

Haha that's funny you sent that video Jordon...my dad just sent it to me yesterday morning.

Yeah the Lesabre T was a huge improvement in handling over the GN/T-type in stock form. You can make the G-bodies handle pretty well with the right equipment as you know. The H-body platform, even more so! The sway bars and braces I have on my Lesabre are huge and I have almost no body roll. Compared to mine, the Lesabre in the video looks like a Cadillac .

As small as they are, I really would love a manual trans Skyhawk T-type. I've only ever seen one for sale, and that was 2 years ago. Very quick little cars.

It's funny you mention the C-clips, sloshua...I have about 3 extras just in case of that very situation lol.

Changed the spark plugs today. I have to do it once a year, like clockwork with the Autolite 104's. The tips of the spark plugs always seem to oxidize just enough to make the car run a little rough. The engine/PCM just needs to have nice shiny plugs .

I'm sure the higher level of boost and fuel have something to do with it. My Riviera is the same way, and my Bonneville was as well. AL104's, every Spring.

What are you gapping at?
Also with the hot little m62, you might want to give 103's a try. I've had good success with them.

I just gapped these at .55. I was doing .60 before. I haven't driven it yet since changing them, just fired it up.

cool. 55 will work fine, you can also try 50 or 45. Sometimes counter-intuitively a modded 3800 will need a tighter gap. different engines, different mods, different beasts.

I haven't bought the new spark plugs for my Riv yet. Maybe I'll get a set of 103's and stick these ones in the Riv. Thanks man!

The 97 is probably just about right on 104s.  Just the mods and heat variables make the lesabre to perhaps prefer some 103s. (unless what you ment was swap the 104s to the 97 and 103 in the lesabre. if that's the case, then carry on. )

Well I'm sure 103's wont hurt. I think that's what I'll do - get 103's for the Lesabre and put the 104's I just installed into the Riv instead, since they're new.

nice to have compatible car eh? I swear all I need is for the motorcycle to take the same plugs as the cars and I'd be set. Bit of a size difference though...

Haha yeah it's convenient. My favorite part about having both Series engines is it's like having a completely different car (I know, it IS a different car) every time I switch. Both engines are so different from each other. Both of mine are pretty heavily modded now but they still have similar qualities as when stock.

"a modded m62 scream with a 2.4" pulley is both intoxicating and obnoxious." and I love it...

Haha...so accurate. I scare people or turn people's heads constantly.

It was a busy few days with the Lesabre. First thing was I got it all waxed up nice and touched up some paint chips. Looks the same as it always does!


Then this. I decided to do a drain-and-clean and changed the trans filter. After my first axle incident the end of one of them got sheared by the differential and the pieces had to go somewhere. I managed to pick most of them out at the time but I was sure some little pieces of axle were hanging around.


I really REALLY hate doing this, and this is the 7th time I've done a trans drain on a 4T60/65. I hate it every time.


So what do you think? Not too bad at all for 130,000 miles! I was happy to see very little clutch material. I did find what I expected though...some tiny tiny shards of axle. Most were in the filter once I pried it open, so I'm confident there's nothing left to cause any problems.


The fluid looks brand new.


So I looked up and saw this. The accumulator assembly. Someone more knowledgable with 4T60's please tell me, if possible, why a shift kit like a 4T65 can't be installed? All I see is the side pan has to be removed for the 4T60 to do a proper shift kit for it. This looks identical (on the outside) between the two. I remember reading somewhere that the 'spacers' you'd have to use have a bigger inside diameter, but so what? Can't it still be fashioned the same way as the 4T65?



So I buttoned that all up and yadda yadda and all was well, shifts the same (pretty good and quick). This morning I got up early to go to my cousin's shop and get an alignment done with their new Hunter alignment system.


The driver's side wheel camber was -2.6 degrees, and -1.4 degrees toe. Passenger side wasn't far off. All is well, and the steering wheel is straight now!

Next thing is Sunday the 31st. Flashlight Drags! Haha. Going against my dad in his 04 GS we just built. They hold 1/8th mile drag races (not timed) at an old airport for fun. I've never been there, but it's supposed to be a good time. I do not expect to do well lol. Like I've said 100 times before, this car WILL NOT get traction under 20 MPH.

You can pull out the accumulator and put in some shims/springs for first and second. It's really hard to find any info on it though, so whatever you do find could you post it back here?

I figured that's all it was...same as the 4T65. I believe the spacers are just a different inside diameter. I'll have to find the article I read....

There used to be thread somewhere on modding the 60e accumulator. .5" was a magic number iirc, but its been ages. I'll see if i can dredge it up again. But yes, it can be done.

Was it on gmforum? I haven't been on there since the site was sold...

GMForum sounds right. I think I saw the link for it on PontiacBonnevilleClub.com but I can't remember where I saw it.

found it:
http://www.gmforum.com/performance-137/making-installing-shift-kit-4t60-e-transmission-287906/
I was right. .5" long for one of the shims. I love it when I'm right, it never gets old.