Progress Thread Getting In Over My Head: '89 Gt Hatch: End Of The Road

Well there ya go, just some good ol' badly needed maintenance.

Youve got a month or so before cruisin weather settles in, so plenty of time.
 
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I don't have a propane torch yet, so I was considering making a trip to get one, but decided to poke at that spring piece a bit more first. That control arm had a ton of dirt, rocks, etc. in it acting like cement. Chipping away at it all, I built myself a nice little dirt pile underneath, filled with rocks and pieces of the spring.

Getting to metal on the control arm, I wondered if some of those metal pieces were part of the arm, not the spring. There's definitely some chunks missing. The ball joint looks OK, but the bushings are starting to crack. Between all this, and the wife's suggestion, I pulled the trigger on two new control arms. I'll admit it; it's somewhat of the wimp way out. Maybe I'll keep the old arm around and take a torch to it when I'm feeling brave or foolish. I went ahead and got two in anticipation of finding the same thing on the passenger side.

This brings up a few questions.

First, I'm going on a business trip next week, and want to give the garage back to the wife. I haven't touched the rear springs and shocks yet. Should I wait on getting an alignment for the front end until the rear is done?

Second, I saw something odd out of the corner of my eye while poking around. I tried to get a picture, but the lighting was too bad. There's a metal line running from somewhere in the engine compartment down by the catalytic converters, where it splits into a Y. There's two ports by the cats on the manifold sides. One port is connected to one of the Y ends, but the other is disconnected, with a pretty significant gap. Anyone know what that is, and what the likely effect is of having it half-disconnected? Also, this being the exhaust, I figure a length of rubber hose to reconnect things is probably a bad idea; what's the best way to hook it back up?
 
The emmisions air pump below the alternator blows air into the cats through those ports. Most parts stores sell a repair kit for that and....its rubber, but a special green rubber hose with a couple clamps. Haven't bought one since 2006 from advance auto parts. Can't remember what its called though.
 
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Update time, just to reassure you all that I haven't decided to blow all of you off.

No, I haven't given the garage back to the wife. Got the driver's side mostly taken apart, but one of the control arm bolts appears to be frozen to the bushing sleeve. At any rate, it's not coming out. I've soaked it with PB Blaster and tried an impact wrench, alternating directions, to see if that would kick it loose. No dice. Got the torch now (MAPP gas), and a cutoff tool if it comes to that.

The real problem with the car is... the owner, specifically his job, which keeps having things go crazy. New product roll-out is in a week, and last-minute business trip scheduled for that. So, perhaps slow progress. I have been breaking my rule of driving it once a week, which makes me a bit anxious, but I'm hoping the car's next drive shows crazy ride improvements. Of course, that next drive will be to an alignment shop after all this messing with the front suspension.
 
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Update time, just to reassure you all that I haven't decided to blow all of you off.

No, I haven't given the garage back to the wife. Got the driver's side mostly taken apart, but one of the control arm bolts appears to be frozen to the bushing sleeve. At any rate, it's not coming out. I've soaked it with PB Blaster and tried an impact wrench, alternating directions, to see if that would kick it loose. No dice. Got the torch now (MAPP gas), and a cutoff tool if it comes to that.

The real problem with the car is... the owner, specifically his job, which keeps having things go crazy. New product roll-out is in a week, and last-minute business trip scheduled for that. So, perhaps slow progress. I have been breaking my rule of driving it once a week, which makes me a bit anxious, but I'm hoping the car's next drive shows crazy ride improvements. Of course, that next drive will be to an alignment shop after all this messing with the front suspension.
Put a little heat to the nut, then try breaking it free. It'll probably let loose with that. You won't have to make it glow cherry red, but get it hot enough so the corrosion will let loose. Since you're putting new ca's on it with bushings, there's not much to worry about.

If you didn't get a new set of bolts for the control arms yet, obviously it wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe you could clean up the old ones though.
 
Put a little heat to the nut, then try breaking it free. It'll probably let loose with that. You won't have to make it glow cherry red, but get it hot enough so the corrosion will let loose. Since you're putting new ca's on it with bushings, there's not much to worry about.

If you didn't get a new set of bolts for the control arms yet, obviously it wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe you could clean up the old ones though.

The nut is actually off the bolt already, but the bolt still won't come out.

The other bolt is out, and it and both nuts look to be in good shape. Obviously, there's something different about this bolt, so who knows?

As an aside, finding that replacement bolt is turning out to be difficult. Am I stuck with the dealer or online, or do you all have a favorite place to get hardware like this?
 
The nut is actually off the bolt already, but the bolt still won't come out.

The other bolt is out, and it and both nuts look to be in good shape. Obviously, there's something different about this bolt, so who knows?

As an aside, finding that replacement bolt is turning out to be difficult. Am I stuck with the dealer or online, or do you all have a favorite place to get hardware like this?
I really don't know myself, my new control arms came with replacement hardware. Have you tried the usual? (LMR, CJ Pony parts, etc...) I know they have just about any nut and bolt you could need.
Have you tried a big hammer and giving it a good wack?
 
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Put the nut back on the bolt so that no threads show if possible. Then get the biggest hammer you can manage and bang away on the nut...
 
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I have had this happen once or twice.

If you put the impact on it and the bolt spins, you can work it out. I usually find a way to work with a wrench/or pry bar. Put the impact on the bolt side, while taking the closed end of a wrench slipped on the nut side (with the nut off)

Use the impact to spin the bolt at comfortable speed while pivoting the wrench up or down depending on your orientation (think of it like a helper wrench).This will exercise the bolt out.

Once I get the head of the bolt I use either of the wrench to pry while impacting. Hope this helps
 
So after way too much time, 4 cut bolts, 1 fried angle grinder, 2 broken springs, 1 outer tie rod end, and a partridge in a pear tree... it's finally out of my garage.

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Oh, and some new lug nuts:

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Not really driveable yet; tomorrow I seek an alignment shop. But it started right up, and after playing the stall-at-idle game, ran just like it always has. And the one bump I went over gave me hope!

Sorry for the lack of updates. Between all the setbacks and work stuff, it seemed like it took forever. But I feel a lot smarter now, at least. Hopefully, the shop I take it to doesn't laugh too hard at my handiwork.
 
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I sense that y'all are in need of a good laugh at a noob's expense. Well, maybe not, but you're getting one anyway. You're welcome.

Finally got the local shop to do the alignment (booked up). Driving it there, I could hear banging under the hood with every bump, which made me nervous. Sure enough, the shop gave it back half-done, telling me that the damper was sticking up way too high in the strut tower, and it looked like it was preparing to drill new holes in my hood.

Turns out, I completely screwed up the spacers on both sides. No spacers under the CC plates, and a big ol' one on top. You'd think that the instructions would warn about this, and have you measure the length of the strut sticking up. Well, they did, and I read them, and watched the video to boot, and then proceeded to mis-measure by measuring from the wrong place. So, out with the struts, and back in with the proper spacers in the proper places. The only long-term damage seems to be to the hood insulation, which has two nice big holes in it. No apparent damage was done to the struts or the hood.

The shop had gotten the toe adjusted before giving the car back, so I felt justified in taking it out for a more extended spin. It was amazing how much better the whole car felt. With the old busted springs, I was too paranoid about bumps to even pay attention to the way it moved, and with the banging under the hood, my drive to and from the alignment shop was even more nerve-wracking. Now, with properly installed struts, the new front suspension seems to have made the whole car come alive. It feels like it wants to leap ahead at every stop. I even did an accidental small burnout at one stop sign, trying to sneak into a gap in traffic.

It's still got a ton of problems, but it was such a pleasure to drive today.
 
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Well, that's the 2nd shop down. (The first one was booked for 2 weeks.) Took one look at the caster-camber plates and didn't want to take the job. At least they were honest, didn't take any money, and referred me to someone who might be able to do the job. Now I just need to get off my butt and call...

One of the biggest hassles was the passenger door, which didn't open from the inside, which scared my wife off of riding in the car for the most part. I bought a set of door handles, then discovered that the real problem was with the power lock actuator, which had frozen. Got that out and replaced it, at which time I discovered that the REAL real problem was that the door handle was broken internally, probably from someone pulling on the handle trying to force the actuator to move. Good thing I hadn't returned the handles! Now, the door opens from the inside and outside, and also locks with the lock pins and with the power locks. All that's left is what appears to be a busted power lock switch on the passenger side. That's close enough to "victory" for now. And the wife is happier with not needing me to let her out. As a bonus, all the passenger door panel tabs are brand-new, and there are a few more screws holding both doors together than there were before. The driver door armrest doesn't shudder quite as much when I slam it shut.

In other news, ran codes again. 11 on KOEO, 11 for memory codes. 12, 44, and 94 for KOER, and 9 flashes for the cylinder balance test. That's good news, because all the codes fit with other problems I know about already. The car has idle problems, and the smog lines to the cats are disconnected. So I'm thinking I can get this thing running smooth with some attention to the IAC and by re-attaching those lines. If the 44 and 94 codes don't go away after fixing those lines, I'll pull up the surging idle checklist and start working my way through.
 
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So the IAC is replaced, with a Duralast from AutoZone. (They had it in stock.) I'm now down to just the 44 and 94 KOER codes. It now starts cold, and runs cold, but the idle problems aren't quite fixed.

It now has a tendency to get "stuck" at a high idle, especially when warm. It can start out at a fairly low RPM, though high enough to trip code 21; I've adjusted the base idle screw down to pretty much nothing, and only gotten it down to a hair under 1000 RPM, but that seems to prevent the code 21, at least. But then, as it warms up and gets going, it starts to become reluctant to drop the idle revs. If I'm running at, say, 2100 RPM in gear, and I downshift, it speeds up to whatever speed is the equivalent to 2100 RPM. I've pulled over and shut off the car, and had it start up and immediately go back to the previous idle speed. Snapping the throttle just moves the "set-point" RPM up a bit. The idle seems to start inching down if I wait for a bit, but the best way to "reset" it is to turn it off and let it sit for a while.

I thought "vacuum leak", but a vacuum gauge reports a solid 18 psi (edit: I mean inches of mercury, assuming I'm reading this Harbor Freight gauge right) at idle, measured from both the AC port and the cruise port on the vacuum tree. Disconnecting the IAC doesn't seem to do much of anything to the idle. most notably during those "stuck idle" moments.

The only thing I can come up with is that my replacement IAC is defective. I can blow through it in both directions when it's off the car. It appears to do something when I apply 12V, but the "blow-ability" doesn't seem to change at all. Does any of that sound right?

Any other hints would be useful, as well.
 
Well, never mind all that. I went back at it today, with the idea that someone before tried to get things working and messed it all up, and I should just start from scratch using the Surging Idle Checklist.

The TPS, with the idle screw pretty much all the way out, was 0.87V. Tested the voltage ramp with throttle; smooth all the way up to about 4.6V at full throttle, and then back down to 0.87V. I unplugged the IAC and started the car; it ran extremely rough for a few seconds before dying. I screwed in the base idle screw until the TPS was a little over 1V, and tried again. The idle was now rough, but largely steady. I backed off until it started loping and surging, then went back in just a bit so it idled steady. RPMs were at around 500-600 at this point. The TPS at this level was at exactly 1 volt, so I called that good.

After that, everything went well. It idled fine with the IAC plugged back in. I let it warm up; still no "stuck high" idle, even after a snap throttle. Did fine on exactly the same test drive that I did yesterday; pulled into the driveway with an idle right about 1000.

So, instead of an IAC problem, I think we'll call that the "IWW" problem: Idiot With a Wrench.

That should give me the green light on trying this last shop that can supposedly do the alignment, seeing as how I should be able to get it there OK. After that, the transmission and fuel issues become the highest-priority items, so it may be time soon to pick up a T5 rebuild kit.
 
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Third time was the charm. This shop didn't freak out that the car was old and modified. They found I hadn't tightened the lower strut bolts tight enough, but other than that had absolutely no problem. Keep in mind that shop #2 actually had the legal disclaimer in their write-up about the car not being road-worthy and they recommended I tow the car. Shop #3 even dialed in the specs for the caster-camber plates, then put the original Ford specs into their computer and measured the difference, just because they thought I might be interested in that.

So last night, I got groceries. No, it isn't an 11-second quarter-mile, but we lesser mortals have to take our victories where we can. The crazy thing is that the car was almost normal; after not running all day, I just hopped in, started it up, and drove off. No warm-up session, no easing off the driveway trying to avoid the soul-destroying crunch at the end, nothing. I even put the groceries in the hatch, which un-latched like it should and latched like it should; no groceries littering the roads on the way home. Amazing! :rlaugh: Although I do have to confess that the groceries had lost their neat stacking arrangement by the time I got home.

If I'm ambitious, this weekend might be time to drop the tank again. I'm still leaking from what looks to be the vapor line when the tank is full. I went ahead and bought a new vapor valve and grommet; I believe the rubber from the grommet is likely the culprit, and figure the other new part can't hurt. The vapor line itself is probably the only other possible cause, but that's easier to replace without waiting on shipping.

Also, I need to figure out what's up with the sending unit. The gas gauge readings seem to have some correlation with the actual gas level. I'm hoping that this isn't related to an actual problem with the tank; I've read sad stories of detached tank baffles causing trouble. So far, the fuel pump has held up, and there's no weird knocking when making turns or anything like that.

Oh, yeah, one other thing that happened for the first time yesterday: I got an offer to buy my car on the spot by a random stranger. :O_o: No one ever did that to me when I was driving a minivan...
 
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So I got ambitious:
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Now for the problems. The baffle in the tank is detached, and the sending unit tests bad; its resistance is nice and smooth until about 50 ohms, at which point it starts jumping around before settling at anything from an open circuit to single-digits. This fits well with the vague relationship with reality that the gauge would show; sometimes it would sit at a semi-rational place and go down gradually, and other times it would peg the gauge one way or the other or sit at some odd place and not move.

I've read about all kinds of fun those baffles supposedly cause. Often, when it would act like it was running low on fuel, I'd be on an incline or mid-turn, which fits what other people have said. It's not like the tank is a prize anyway; it's pretty rusty, and looks like it was once the home of a wasp family. LMR has a kit that includes the tank, sending units, both lock rings, and the grommet; that sounds to me like the best option. A local Mustang salvage person had a complete tank in good condition on Craigslist a while back, though, so I'll check that first.

Other than that, I think my vapor valve was bad. It still leaked from the top of the tank even after replacing the grommet the first time, so it had to be something up there leaking. The vapor valve seal seemed in pretty good shape, and there was gas in the vapor line that ran out when I disconnected it. My leak problems were all related to having a full tank, not from running it, and I don't see any signs of leaks from the fuel lines, so I'm going with a bad valve seal as the likely culprit. I've got a new valve and seal already, bought in the hopes that I'd be able to fix the rest without parts, so I shouldn't have to wait on that, at least.

The most annoying thing for me is that the car is dead for now, and my wife isn't keen on losing her garage space again. Oh, well; them's the breaks. Maybe I'll finish with the rear shocks and struts while I'm waiting, and possibly put in the replacement horns.
 
New tank installed. Got a complete tank with sending unit and fuel pump for $50, in much better shape rust-wise that my old one. When I was cleaning the old one, I saw suspicious bubbles around the lock rings when I had a fan running for ventilation, so I'm pretty sure even replacing the vapor valve stuff wouldn't have quite solved the leak/fumes problem.

As of now, it's got only the third complete fill-up I've ever done, and the only one that's stayed in the car for any length of time. No leaks, no fumes. And when I was refilling the tank a dribble at a time, the gas gauge gave totally plausible readings.

The guy who sold me the tank also sold me a driver's side fender liner. Most of the rust problems in this car, I think, are due to this being missing. It's a little late, but at least it will help slow down the decay, and protect what fixes I do make. Like the horn fix:

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I think one of the horns fell out of the car during previous work, and I didn't even recognize what it was. With new high and low horns, everything is properly loud again.

The list of serious annoyances is getting shorter:
  • transmission rebuild and squeak diagnosis
  • rear shocks and springs, to match the front
  • smog system fixes (codes 44/94, disconnected hose)
  • re-adjust or otherwise deal with the rear brakes
  • figure out what to do with the battery hold-down
That brings me closer to stage 2 of this rebuild: figuring out what to do about the structural rust. I've had some people make suggestions, but no one who knows what they're doing has actually seen the problems yet. It seems like the worst-case scenario will be to cut off the whole front clip and weld in a new one from a donor. Someone knows a guy who can do the job for around $800 labor; that's to pull everything out of the engine bay, do the cut-n-weld, and put everything back. Cost for the donor clip looks to be about $150 or so. Welding in patches to the current clip may not be all that less expensive, so I'm considering it anyway. But I've got some more talking to do, and at some point I need to show some people what the rust looks like to get some non-speculative answers.
 
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There is a frame rail repair kit out there and fender apron repair kits. We'd like to see pics though. LateModelRestoration.com is a great source for both of these.

I was going to repair a previous car I owned but opted to find a rust free donor.
 
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