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Topics - kjhansen

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1
General Buick Tech / Shifter button hard to push
« on: October 12 2023, 08:14:34 AM »
My TR has the floor shifter, as most do. The flexible rubber boot on the shift cable broke at the mounting bracket on the side of the transmission, so the shifter just slid loosely back and forth without changing gears. I did a tied it back onto the bracket with wire so I had reverse, neutral and drive, but didn't want to spend a lot of time adjusting my temporary repair (very bad back, very painful crawling under a car) so I had the cable replaced. Now the button on the side of the shift "T" handle is very hard to push in. Rather than just start tearing things apart I thought I'd ask what could be causing this. If I can fix it from the inside of the car I'd rather do that than take it back to the friend who helped fix it.
Keith

2
General Buick Tech / A/C problems
« on: July 21 2023, 06:47:47 PM »
Where is the POA valve located in the 87 TR? I think mine is malfunctioning or clogged.

3
General Buick Tech / DS Exhaust Header Gasket Replacement
« on: July 06 2023, 05:30:50 PM »
I have a very noisy exhaust leak coming from the driver's side header. Examination with a mirror didn't show any rusted out holes or broken welds in the header. The gasket did appear to be coming apart under the pipe nearest the firewall. Anybody done this (with the engine in the car)? Any instructions? For example, do you have to move the AC compressor to get enough clearance to pull the header away from the engine? Can you reach the lower bolt nearest the firewall from up on top or do you have to jack up the car and get underneath? Can you move the header far enough away from the head to clear the studs without disconnecting it from the collector to do so?

4
For Sale/Trade/Want To Buy / WTB: Good short block
« on: June 15 2023, 10:59:07 AM »
For a 1987 Turbo Regal of course. Needs to be able to handle about 25 pounds of boost.
Keith

5
General Buick Tech / Under hood plate
« on: June 08 2023, 02:10:13 PM »
On the top of the radiator support, just to the right of the fan warning decal, are a series of hole. Looks like something was riveted there. Matching holes are also on the underside of the hood. See pictures. Any ideas what could have been there?

6
Car Stereo and Electronics / Replacement automatic power antenna
« on: February 22 2023, 05:26:47 PM »
I ordered a replacement power antenna assembly off the internet. I didn't order the steel replacement cable from Kirban because I don't want to mess with grinding out rivets and all. I'm not so worried about reliability as the car doesn't get driven much. Just want to pull the old one and install the new one.  However, it won't be that simple (of course). The new on doesn't have the three wire connector for the power etc. coming from the relay, but it has three wires, red (power), black (ground) and green (unidentified). It does come with a coaxial cable extender because the attached coax is too short, so that's good. But it doesn't come with any wiring instructions. Anybody know if this will work for our cars and if so which wires connect to our white, green and gray wires?
Keith

7
General Buick Tech / Alternator fix
« on: September 28 2022, 07:26:42 PM »
Anybody recognize this alternator?  It's on my car and it's making a bad-bearing noise.  Can't order a bearing if I don't know what alternator I have. I can't find any part number or anything but a stenciled-in-white-paint number 001 on it.  Of course I haven't taken it off yet, so it might have a number hidden on it somewhere.
Keith

8
General Buick Tech / LED headlights
« on: May 13 2022, 07:24:53 AM »
Just a note for those of you looking to upgrade your stock, old headlights.  This isn't an ad.  I just did this and really recommend it.  I did some research on YouTube before I got the Philips LED-HL lights. They weren't "the best" but they were highly rated and cheaper than "the best."  H4656LED for low beams, H4651LED for high beams.  They are plug and play and make a huge difference.  Not cheap, but less than many other options.  I got them from Amazon, and chose the sellers selling for less option for three of them.  One I had to buy at full price, because I bought up the cheap ones.  Full price was $124.35 each. Maybe there will be more offered for less soon.  The ones selling for less were perfectly good.  In one case the box was damaged, in the other two cases the sellers didn't want them, no reason given. We have Amazon Prime, so no shipping.  The cheaper ones were as low as $78 each. Easy installation, no extra wiring or trimming of plugs or anything .  They fit right into the headlight buckets and they throw a normal pattern, i.e., they are not "projectors" that just throw light in big circles.  The difference in light output is amazing.  I just had to recommend these lights.
Keith

9
The subject line about covers it, but here's the backstory. The clutch on the A/C compressor locked up.  I disconnected the pressure switch so i wouldn't accidently turn the A/C on while driving (not that I would, but just to be careful) and drove the car fine for a couple of weeks (good mechanics around here are booked out a couple of weeks). Took it to the mechanic and he disconnected the battery then removed the compressor and replaced it, reconnected the battery, then went to start it up to recharge the system and it wouldn't start. I'm not at the shop, as the shop is now closed and I just got his voice mail.  Does anything come to mind?  Like, could he have bumped and disconnected or broken a sensor? I've used this shop many times before and they are honest, competent and friendly--in fact, my daughter's neighbors.  They have an excellent reputation.  So I know they're not trying to scam me. I need to have the car running before Saturday. I've printed out the no-start article from here, but thought I'd see if anybody had any ideas.
Keith 

10
General Buick Tech / Stripped threads in turbo bolt hole
« on: February 09 2022, 10:27:49 AM »
The saga continues.  For those who don't remember, which is probably everybody, I ordered a new downpipe from RJC because my wastegate was corroded shut.  Paid someone to, as it turned out, not put it in. He couldn't get it to fit.  But when taking the old downpipe off, he broke some bolts.  He used a drill and an easy-out to remove the broken bolt(s) and put in studs on all the holes.  One of the holes, however, stripped the threads (top left hole). I don't want to take the car back to him, because he'll probably make it worse. I don't want to take the downpipe back off because it was a pain to get it back on.  I don't want to just force a coarse thread bolt in because that's unpredictable--if it goes in crooked I'm screwed.  I looked up fixing it with a helicoil, but that looks like I'd have to remove the downpipe and then remove the turbo.  Any thoughts? 

11
General Buick Tech / mystery parts
« on: December 18 2021, 11:07:06 PM »
The guy who sold me my Regal sent along boxes of extra parts, including mufflers, exhaust manifolds, and lots of miscellaneous things.  I don't even know what some of them are, as they are unlabeled.  In fact I don't even know if they are car parts.  Hmm.  So here's a couple to start with.  See pictures.
Keith

12
General Buick Tech / Another oil leak
« on: December 18 2021, 04:16:57 PM »
So I fixed the leak from the passenger side valve cover gasket.  But the car is still leaking oil.  I got the oil leak detection kit, but it's not much help, other than the fact that I don't see oil coming out from under that valve cover.  The leak appears to be coming from somewhere above the front brace that connects the frame rails in front of the deep part of the oil pan.  I tried to take a picture through the yellow glasses and with the UV flashlight aimed at the dyed oil, but that didn't work out so well--mostly because I didn't have enough hands and also probably due to the limitations of the telephone camera.  I've attached it anyway.  The bright yellow is the general area of the leak.  It isn't a very good representation as the actual bright yellow is much smaller and mostly on the vertical back of the crossmember.  Any thoughts?
Keith

13
General Buick Tech / TPS TEC
« on: December 04 2021, 05:16:48 PM »
Steve, in a previous message I said I had a TPS TEC (came on the car) and you said it's better to take it off.  I quote:

"take the tps.tec off.  It does nothing but it could screw up something.  As long as the tps is set between .36-.46, it should not affect the idle once the engine has been shut off and restarted.  Floating around while running will make it feel different, however.

The tps/tec was sold in a day before people understood how the ecm fuels the engine.  It was a totally meaningless product but people did not know that then."

I've been meaning to take it off but haven't yet.  It has wires running from the plug that goes into the TPS that are the same colors as the wires running INTO the TPS plug (see picture).  Do I just cut the wires that go to the TPC TEC or do I need to find a stock TPS plug as this one is obviously modified for the TPS TEC.   

14
General Buick Tech / Passenger side valve cover replacement
« on: December 01 2021, 04:04:30 PM »
OK, so I started the procedure using instructions that include removing the heater hoses from the heater core and the intake manifold.  There are a couple of bolts that hold it to the intake manifold.  This creates room next to the valve cover so you can roll it out towards the intake manifold.  But it's easier said than done. Both heater hoses that came from the heater core and attach to the metal tubes that run next to the manifold were stuck to the heater core tubes.  Took forever to remove them--the rubber seemed melted to the tubing.  The first bolt holding the tubes to the manifold came out easy.  The second one is a 1" black nut that runs the bottom metal tube into the water pump(?).  See the picture.  That nut does NOT want to move.  I have a fairly long 1" open end wrench I put on it and the nut won't budge.  I tapped the wrench with a sledgehammer and it appears to be just rounding the edges of the nut, so I quit.  Is there a trick to this?  Is it reverse thread or something? 
Keith

15
General Buick Tech / Broken inside door handle, driver's side, 1987 TR
« on: September 08 2021, 03:32:10 PM »
Snapped right off.  It's just pot metal and has 34 years or wear on it, probably a lot of them in the sun, so I can understand that.  Anyway, couple of questions.  Pictures in the on-line parts stores make it look like this is the same handle, whether it's on the right hand side or the left hand side.  They are readily available, but they don't call them "driver's side" or "passenger's side," they call them right and left.  Right or left side from the front of the car, or sitting in the car?  Any experience with these?  I guess I can just take off both door panels and check, but I'm old and lazy.

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