Ridz' Projects

I decided to start a thread of all of my future projects for my Riv. Today i bought new valve cover gaskets and grommets and replaced the front gasket and grommets for now.
Starting picture


Next i took off the cover and cleaned up the surface of the head and i cleaned the valve cover. The old gasket was orange and was broken. The left two rocker arms seemed a bit darker than the others, but overall it was pretty clean for 223,000 miles.


I noticed that the old gasket laid flush with the plastic and didn't protrude at all to touch the surface of the head to make a seal.


Next up on the list is spark plugs and wires. I already bought the AL 605's today. Just need to buy the wires. I also have a SES light that i need to check and take care of. That will have to wait until i can take it to my brother's school to use their scanner. I also need to save up some money to buy the sway bar end links from AA. I've been on a tight budget lately being in college and not being able to work very much.

Good luck getting at the rear plugs and gasket; let us know how you reach those.

I will have to take some pictures

Okay so today i tried to scan my car, but with no luck. First i tried to scan it using a Snap On scanner at the high school that my step-dad works at. After setting everything up and getting the right connecter and chip it told me that it could not read the module. So i went to napa and they told me that they didn't have a scanner for obd 1. I then went to O'reilly's and they had an Innova obd 1 and 2 scanner that i used with the obd 2 connector. It told me that it could not read the module as well! What is going on? My service engine light is coming on at random times and it makes an acoustic like noise in the engine bay when it does. Today my car died on my drive way(I was lucky it was there). It started right back up and had no check engine light. I've used the snap on tool at my step-dad's school before with success. What is going on?

Check the fuse to see if any thing is blown. What does the car do when light is on?

The only difference that i notice when the light is on is that i hear a noise that almost sound acoustic or like it has an exhaust leak. It either comes on when i start it or it comes on after a big thud from the transmission.

One thing you can try is to jump out pins 5 and 6, and turn the ignition on. The CEL will illuminate and flash the codes like an OBD 1 system. code 12 (one long, then 2 short), then any codes in numerical order, then code 12 again.

Pins 5 and 6 are on the wider end of the 16 pin OBD Data link (wider end facing up)

Thanks Larry, I actually attempted to do that last night, do you know if it will work with the 16 pin? perhaps i didn't have the right pins or the paper clip in all of the way.

RidzRiv wrote:

Thanks Larry, I actually attempted to do that last night, do you know if it will work with the 16 pin? perhaps i didn't have the right pins or the paper clip in all of the way.

I have a Haynes book for computer codes. In it are the following illustrations. Hope it works for you. It may not, but thought I would mention it.

Well i tried it again Larry , and just couldn't get anything to pop up. Thanks for your help!

Maybe the ECM is the problem.

God i hope not.

Okay so today i changed my spark plugs. I went with the copper autolite 605's.

Here's what i used for my series 1.


To reach the rear plugs on the series 1 i found it much easier to drive the car onto ramps.


It's best to reach around the dowpipe to get at the rear plugs



Gotta be careful with the plugs. I managed to break the porcelain on one of the old ones


Oh and i guess my dog has good taste in cars.

For the gap I chose to have it just close enough to where the 60 wouldn't fit, but the 50 would fit easily. I figure the plugs will gap out a bit over the next few months.

Okay so to update my projects i have changed both the front and rear transmission mounts, but my engine still slams when put into reverse just as hard as it did. That kind of confuses me. Does that mean that i have my vacuum modulator on my transmission set up wrong? I am also ordering an addco 419 rear sway bar tonight!

also i have attempted to scan my car again at oreilly's with no luck. I am actually worried that i messed something up with my computer trying to do the paper clip trick. The scanner would turn on once i connect it to the car, so it must get some connection, but it always says that it can't connect or something like that.

Slamming into reverse would indicate your modulator is setup too harsh. If its adjustable, back the screw out a half turn or so.

Okay, i just tried adjusting it. I even tried turning it out three full turns, and the slamming was still just as bad. ?

This leads me to think that maybe i have a vacuum leak somewhere. I have changed every line that i have seen including the ones on the air compressor, but there are two possibilities. one would be the possible leak in the Vacuum tank, and the other could be on my air compressor. I replaced all of the lines, but one nipple that one of the lines goes too is completely filled with some hard white matter.
This is an older picture of before i changed the lines, but you can see how the gray box is filled with some weird stuff.

vacumn tank? I did not know the 95 had one?where is it?

It is the black box on the firewall. That weird thing that only the 95's have! I don't know if a vacuum leak there would have any effect on anything but the cruise control though, which also works well.

oh yeah..I personally think youre better of getting rid of the oem air ride.Those monroes sound fine.less hastle to deal with,less weight.

I could set my monroe's up to pump up myself, could a vacuum leak at the air compressor have any affect at the engine or transmission though? I honestly have no clue.

No.it runs itself.but its alot of extra weight.that little fu...n compressor is a little porker. honestly,imo,if youre not loading and unloading the trunk frequently, the auto air is a small luxury I found I could live without.I have not missed it once since switching to Bilsteins.

The funny thing is my dad always had the fuse for the compressor out because he didn't like it!(he was the original owner of my riv)

Its a great feature if you cart around alot of stuff,in and out of the trunck.That kind of scenario.When i had it i liked it.But the cost of repair and complexity of the system put me off when it came time to replace one of the shocks.
my current set up ,bilsteins and CCS springs doesnt sag at all even with 80lbs of tools in the trunk

It was very inexpensive to get the monroe shocks that worked with the existing compressor. I got both shocks and a new set of wires for about 50 bucks online. Now if a vacuum leak exists i'm pretty sure it would have to come from my vacuum tank.