Back in Black

New hub is in, and it was a straightforward job. I kind of like the way the hub is bolted in from the back for some reason. Either way, the hardest part was getting those hub bolts back in, but all went well.

Getting the old hub out was fun...half of it tore apart and stayed in the spindle and i had to do minor surgery to remove the stuck half. But anyway, i plugged in the new hub and the TC and ABS lights shut right off! Sweet.

I couldnt test drive for real yet, but everything felt and looked good on the way down the garage driveway to the house garage.

Well, a little bit of an update on the car. The last week or so the car has been giving me some slight fits. It starts ok cold but sometimes has trouble firing (cranks fine) when it's warm. It stalled on me one time last month while backing into my garage. I'm suspecting crank sensor, but I'll check fuel pressure tomorrow to see how that is doing.

Same thing happened with my '95 Riviera, so we'll see!

Well, what do you know. The fuel pressure is a little questionable. It primes to 50 PSI then immediately drops to zero. Car idles at 42-45 PSI and drops to zero as soon as the key is turned off.

Fuel pressure regulator? Could it be that easy?

EDIT: Did a bit more reading and realized I forgot to test the pressure with the regulator vacuum line off. I will test that tomorrow.

Ok so so I did the regulator test and the fuel pressure raises from 42 up to 48 psi when I take the vacuum line off. I think I can write the regulator off as good, correct? They're not known to fail much.

So I'm down to 2 things: Leaky injector, or bad check valve in the fuel pump assembly.

Any easy way to test for a leaky or stuck injector? I kind of think it's not an injector as they were cleaned and rebuilt just a couple years ago.

So today was a new adventure. On the way to work was fine, but on the way home I couldn't get over 6 PSI of boost without knocking like crazy. It was sustained knock, not blips either. The temperature did drop significantly in today's forecast (73F down from an average of 87F) so I'm going to attribute it to that. I don't drive the car AS MUCH in the summer because of all our other cars we drive during nice weather so I'll see what happens next time I drive it.

Z-type wrote:

So today was a new adventure. On the way to work was fine, but on the way home I couldn't get over 6 PSI of boost without knocking like crazy. It was sustained knock, not blips either. The temperature did drop significantly in today's forecast (73F down from an average of 87F) so I'm going to attribute it to that. I don't drive the car AS MUCH in the summer because of all our other cars we drive during nice weather so I'll see what happens next time I drive it.

Cold weather would allow for more boost. Your fueling problem might be the culprit. It's possible that some of it is starting to bleed off into the tank while the car I running resulting in lower than normal fuel pressure.

That's just a guess. I highly doubt colder weather is the cause. My Riv always turned into a rocket ship when the temps/humidity dropped.....

After I was thinking about it more last night, I came to the same conclusion. That's really the only other thing that would do that, considering the car runs perfect otherwise. Guess it's time to look at pump options!

Z-type wrote:

After I was thinking about it more last night, I came to the same conclusion. That's really the only other thing that would do that, considering the car runs perfect otherwise. Guess it's time to look at pump options!

Suggest a Bosch or a Carter, dep on availability, or a ACDelco universal rebuild kit (a Delco parts place with a good counterman can sell you just the pump rebuild kit, costs about 1/3 of a new pump IIRC.  RockAuto may have the rebuild kits too but I have not looked in a while.

I only replaced my pump once.  Counterman at the dealer said I probably would not have to again if I kept 1/4 tank or more of gas, the pump depends on contact with the gas in the tank for cooling. Go figure....

Thanks Albert! I had no idea there were rebuild kits for these pumps.

I may still end up getting an entire new sending unit/pump and doing the re-wire upgrade. I'm going to try to have the parts for this weekend.

Z-type wrote:

I may still end up getting an entire new sending unit/pump and doing the re-wire upgrade. I'm going to try to have the parts for this weekend.

I just grabbed the AEM E85 pump that Charlie and Psycho have. Works pretty good but if you get down to an 1/8th of a tank the car will sputter on hard acceleration. Might be my fault or it might be the pumps, I don't know.

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t10875p45-rusty-fuel-tank-tab-repair#186150

As referenced above, I change out my entire sending unit and just driving to and from work today I realized my pump must have been slowly dying over the last few months. I got a lot of power back and the throttle is more responsive....and I didn't even realize those things were diminishing.

Cool! The only thing now is since my battery was disconnected for about 24 hours my programming is all confused and sorting itself out. I miss my firmer shifts...hopefully they come back tomorrow.

Next project coming soon...

Hey everyone...I've been away for a while, mostly just away from the internet. I've gone on vacation and have been working on our Skyhawk (lots of new problems cropped up on that car) and various other cars performing maintenance.

I just had to stop by and rant for a sec. 'Old' Riviera problems lol. Nothing surprising.

My master cylinder started to go so I parked the car last week so it wouldn't get worse and borrowed other cars to get around when it was raining. Dad and I got the new master cylinder swapped and bled without much trouble and then we went to bleed the brakes. Tried loosening the first rear bleeder screw and it breaks. Done for the night. My parking brake doesn't work either so I'm just caving and getting new calipers and having a very trusted friend swap the new ones on and make everything right again. Old Riv problems, nothing upsetting though. 102,000 miles so, normal stuff!

The good news is, my fuel pump has been working great and no leaks at the sending unit seal. I was going to start on another project on the Riv but I've been messing with too many other things. Hint - custom spoiler.

custom spoiler, sounds cool

Z-type wrote:

Hint - custom spoiler.

Do a spoiler that integrates into the trunk lid. All merged in, and then use a linear actuator so it pops out and up at speed.

Z-type wrote:

Hey everyone...I've been away for a while, mostly just away from the internet. I've gone on vacation and have been working on our Skyhawk (lots of new problems cropped up on that car) and various other cars performing maintenance.

I just had to stop by and rant for a sec. 'Old' Riviera problems lol. Nothing surprising.

My master cylinder started to go so I parked the car last week so it wouldn't get worse and borrowed other cars to get around when it was raining. Dad and I got the new master cylinder swapped and bled without much trouble and then we went to bleed the brakes. Tried loosening the first rear bleeder screw and it breaks. Done for the night. My parking brake doesn't work either so I'm just caving and getting new calipers and having a very trusted friend swap the new ones on and make everything right again. Old Riv problems, nothing upsetting though. 102,000 miles so, normal stuff!

The good news is, my fuel pump has been working great and no leaks at the sending unit seal. I was going to start on another project on the Riv but I've been messing with too many other things. Hint - custom spoiler.

Hey Andrew - read your post and I thought you'd want to know that on my Riviera (now about 320K miles) I've overhauled the brakes every ~150K miles. Overhauled means all new soft lines, a rebuilt MC, new ebrake cables (this was a pain and actually only the linkages had any issues at all), replace calipers and rotors (ATE rotors WILL last that long with Raybestos or Bendix ceramic pads), and at appx 200,000 miles I replaced the hard lines from the ABS back with plastic coated ones (I wanted but could not readily get CuNiFer when I had time & Help to do the job). I obtained but did not replace the vac chamber (it did not leak down).

So at the age of your black Riv I'd look at the brake lines and e-brake cable. Real hard and critically.

Albertj

Karma wrote:

Z-type wrote:

Hint - custom spoiler.

Do a spoiler that integrates into the trunk lid. All merged in, and then use a linear actuator so it pops out and up at speed.  

maybe get parts off a junked Crossfire?

Haha..the spoiler will be integrated but certainly not a 'pop-up' . Also, I make it a personal rule that no Chrysler or Ford parts touch my cars. I'm going to do this spoiler exactly:

I haven't found anything like this searching the web that I can build off of. Nothing is close, as the edge of the Riv's trunk lid is surprisingly wide.



Albert, thank you for the run down of your maintenance. My parking brake no longer functions at the calipers, but the cable seems to be in great shape. That's one of the reasons I'm replacing the calipers. Luckily, when I bought the car a few years ago one brake line blew when I was loading it onto the trailer to come home. It was just one small section that was rusted but I had all of the lines replaced at the same time with the CuNiFer compound lines and they still look brand new to this day.

I have a feeling my mechanic is going to be replacing the rubber lines today, at least in the rear wheels where he is working. They don't look bad but they are 18 years old.

Well, Albert, you were right about checking out the system as a whole. I would have had the car back Wednesday evening but little problem after little problem presented itself. Mostly age-related.

My mechanic couldn't get all the air out of the system to begin with, then realized the master cylinder wasn't bled all the way like I thought. No big deal. Then he found the front rubber hoses were dry rotted. Replaced those. Then whoever did the brake lines had kinked part of the left rear line right at the rubber hose connection. Fixed that.

Then, the left rear rubber line collapsed and wouldn't let any fluid out of the caliper, so the caliper would take about 20 seconds to let go all the way. That new rubber line should arrive tomorrow and hopefully I can pick up the freakin car on the way home from work.

Also, now I apparently have top notch Napa rear rotors and pads lol. Cool. I don't have the money for this right now. At least my car will stop better than ever.

Not long after buying all new rubber brake hoses for front and rear calipers due to visible cracking I ended up buying the stainless steel lines from ZZP and have been happy with the breaking power since then. I should mention that I also replaced all the rotors and pads with EBC parts.

This change, to EBC rotors, pads and SS lines made all the difference in the world. Much firmer break pedal and much shorter stopping distance.

Since the initial install of EBC rotors and pads, I have worn them out and replaced with another set of their products. I got the same amount of miles I would expect from any product and the price was the same as the most expensive, best grade, of Warner Rotors from my local auto parts store.
They carried a long warranty period but I chose to stick with the EBC's.

If I would have known ahead of time id be replacing all these parts I definitely would have done the stainless lines. Maybe at 200,000 miles haha.

Well, its one thing after another. I have a bad proportioning valve to the left rear wheel (wont let pressure in or out) and the metal structure underneath the radiator is rotted out.

When my car turned 100,000 miles it started falling apart lol. I have too much into it to get rid of it so I will continue on. Anyone have a clean rad support under-structure....?.....

Z-type wrote:

Well, Albert, you were right about checking out the system as a whole. I would have had the car back Wednesday evening but little problem after little problem presented itself. Mostly age-related.

My mechanic couldn't get all the air out of the system to begin with, then realized the master cylinder wasn't bled all the way like I thought. No big deal. Then he found the front rubber hoses were dry rotted. Replaced those. Then whoever did the brake lines had kinked part of the left rear line right at the rubber hose connection. Fixed that.

Then, the left rear rubber line collapsed and wouldn't let any fluid out of the caliper, so the caliper would take about 20 seconds to let go all the way. That new rubber line should arrive tomorrow and hopefully I can pick up the freakin car on the way home from work.

Also, now I apparently have top notch Napa rear rotors and pads lol. Cool. I don't have the money for this right now. At least my car will stop better than ever.

Brakes are THE MOST IMPORTANT system on the car, it's irresponsible to pilot two tons of fun without the ability to stop it quickly.

Z-type wrote:

Well, Albert, you were right about checking out the system as a whole. I would have had the car back Wednesday evening but little problem after little problem presented itself. Mostly age-related.

My mechanic couldn't get all the air out of the system to begin with, then realized the master cylinder wasn't bled all the way like I thought. No big deal. Then he found the front rubber hoses were dry rotted. Replaced those. Then whoever did the brake lines had kinked part of the left rear line right at the rubber hose connection. Fixed that.

Then, the left rear rubber line collapsed and wouldn't let any fluid out of the caliper, so the caliper would take about 20 seconds to let go all the way. That new rubber line should arrive tomorrow and hopefully I can pick up the freakin car on the way home from work.

Also, now I apparently have top notch Napa rear rotors and pads lol. Cool. I don't have the money for this right now. At least my car will stop better than ever.

Brakes are THE MOST IMPORTANT system on the car, it's irresponsible to pilot two tons of fun without the ability to stop it quickly.

I agree!

My mechanic just called me. The proportioning valve arrived today and he got that line bled and everything is perfect. Now I have:

New front calipers (from 3 years ago)
New brake lines (3 years ago)
New Rear calipers
New rear rotors and pads
New parking brake cables
New master cylinder
New driver's side proportioning valve.

I may grab a spare valve in case this proves to be an issue in the future. I already have a hundred thousand spare parts for our cars. I am also considering just getting new front pads and rotors too once I get paid.

Z-type wrote:

considering just getting new front pads and rotors too once I get paid.

*coughFBODYcough*

Lol again, if I would have had enough prior notice I would have done it.

I know it's hard to make brakes 'too good', but I don't feel like my car is fast enough to consider even F body's. Though the rotor and pad choices would be nice...