DaveT

My soon to be retired 90 loyale had the front cat burnout. (Long story as to why). In the front cat I found only a piece of the core just about the ID of the exit pipe. Evidence of it lodged in the exit pipe sideways. Lots of crumbs in the second cat, partially blocking the core. The last mile of the trip home before I found this, it ran horribly. No power. Probably something like 1/4 throttle would seem ok. Part of the trip was up a big hill, and I ended up in first gear (3AT) to keep moving. Temp guage higher than normal. Took the exhaust apart, used a big screwdriver and removed the obstructions. (read cores & pieces) Runs fine now. Seems slightly better power wise than my 92 with functioning cats.

Sounds like you are talkinmg about plastiguage. http://www.plastigauge.co.uk/

I found it possible to get the heads bolted on with one twisted - say up at the front, and the other twisted down at the front. Makes the intake just about impossible to seal up. I found snugging the intake - not super tight, just enough to keep things aligned - while snugging the heads helped to keep everything aligned. Once the heads are not loose enough to move, loosen the intake, tourque the heads.

Back in my younger crazier days. I had a 76 4WD 4spd wagon. On the rural roads back & forth to work, I would usually be at about 10 over the speed limit at like 40MPH. And surprisingly often, some @#$ would be glued to my bumper. A quick downshift from 4th to 3rd dropped about 10MPH really quick. Results: At least once, I got someone to lock u'm up. If the tailgater stayed there, it was 90% a young woman. If the tailgater zipped around me, 90% it was a guy. Once, miles later, down the road, I saw the guy apparently writing down my tag number. - never heard anything about it. NOTE - I do not recomend this practice! I just find a safe place to pull over & let them by.

I use the lower ball joint pinch bolt removal method. The first time I work on that part of any car, I clean out the rust and use never sieze on all the bolts, holes, socket & ball joint. No problem the next time. The only bolts I found never sieze to cause me trouble with were the 4 that hold the brake rotor onto the hub- when I tourqued them to spec., they stretched, never getting to the correct foot lbs.

I bought our 86 with a bad compressor. Someone had wired the controls so that hte compressor was *always* on with any setting on the HVAC controls. I got a used one, put it on, pulled a vacuume on the system, then charged. (back then you could buy R12 in any parts store). It worked for years. The car got totaled before its time. Replacing the dryer is a good idea if the system has been in disrepair for a long time.

I thought of doing that a few years ago!! I got the o-ring cord from: MSCdirect.com I just haven't had to re-assemble the engine yet.

I only manage about 21MPG. 65 on the highway, 5 over other speed limits. Heavy on the gas, but I do roll to stops. 4 different EA82 AT 4x4 wagons, 1 carbed, 3 SPFI.

I made the hitches (I have one on each car) about 15 years ago. They are so far away I would have needed a big piece of box tubing and brackets to go up.... My 76 had a weird hitch that bolted to the bumper, with a tab that also went up to the floor of the wagon. Really not very secure, especially because the bumper on a 76 is not very strong. I knew that wasn't good enough, so when we got the newer car, I went from there. I knew if I put a lot of bolts into the sheet metal, I would get enough strength by spreading the load to a lot of area. I am thinking of doing a test to see how strong this hitch is once I get my "new" car ready to run.

Here are some pics of the hitch I made: http://users.adelphia.net/~davidtief/hitch.html

I have had the no start - click only - problem a few times. Once due to a loosend contact in the wiring harness. The other 2 major origins have been: 1. One of the contacts inside the starter erodes from the arcing at each start until the disc on the solenoid doesn't touch. 2. The disc gets dirty from the arcing. Either of these failures begins as an intermittant no crank, or turn the key and a split second later crank. As time goes by, it gets more and more frequent. I have a few starters that I made new contacts for, still working. Recently had to clean a couple. Actually, thinking about it, the starters are pretty darned reliable. In my 15+ years with these cars, I have never bought a starter. Only made a few contacts and cleaned the disc.

Unhook the E-brake cable, if it is connected. One side of the caliper is held to the pad guide frames with a bolt with a 14mm bolt head. Remove the bolt, the frame will swing the pads out of the caliper. To get the piston back in, it needs to be turned clockwise. I made a tool to do this from a piece of 1" square steel tube about 2' long. Cut the tool end to fit in the notches in the pistonm. Find a big (like 3/4") bolt that fits in the tube for a swivel on the opposite end. I put a glove between me and the bolt head, and lean against it to keep the tool engaged with the piston. Turn the tube with a 1" open end wrench. It is a fine thread, so it takes a while. DO NOT hit the piston, or use more force than you can apply by leaning / pushing on the bar.

Well, you can have some lighting fun... On my 78, I modified the lamp mounts to put in 4 of the high/low headlights. The aftermarket kind that use 55/60W halogen H4 bulbs. Made a relay box and a panel on the dash. I could have "normal" lights, 4 low beam pattern all on, all 4 high beam on, ALL 8 filaments on. and several other combos. The high / low switch chose between 2 settings. 460watts of light plus the 55 W fog lights was pretty impressive. It really didn't matter if some one was coming toward you with their high beams on... I made a harness - the stock one could not do this. All of the high current was controlled by relays. The alternator was stock, except I mounted a set of heavy duty rectifier diodes in another box, outside of the alternator because the internal ones kept blowing out. I have thought of upgrading one of my Loyales with a remake of that system, just one of the too many projects...

I wouldn't use it without the bypass, and the other filters, and no changes. And, of course, no excessive leaks or burning. I did the math years ago, (could dig it up again) but under those conditions, Amsoil is cheaper than 3000 mile changes. I do not miss changing oil. I have no experience with turbos, but I have had no ill effects with any of the 4 non-turbo GLs / Loyales I have / had, and run with it. That must have been a bad tranny or wrong oil. When I had my 76 & 78 Subies, they shifted much better (especially in cold weather) with the synthetic gear lube. The shifter moved as easily at 0 degrees as middle of summer. I occasionally towed 1000lbs with those cars. The 76 had almost 250Kmiles when the body rotted in half. The only reason I stopped driving it. The 3spd ATs in the GLs & Loyales all shift better when cold with the synthetic ATF. I ocasionally tow with them, also. The only tranny repairs have been vacume modulators. I Changed the ATF at about 100K miles. The GL / Loyale experience is based on 3 cars, over 100K miles on each car, by me or my wife. None were driven lightly.

I have never had a RHS belt break. I have been running GLs & Loyales for about 16 years. I figure the extra load of oil pump and the extra length must have something to do with the longer belt failing. One time the gear idler bearing seized & took out the belt. I rebulid the idlers. The gear one is a standard ball bearing - except I had the local bearing house get me high temperature grease with contact seals. For the tensioners, I made up standoffs on a lathe and used the flat braket part from a set of dead ones. Now I remove a bolt, bress on a new bearing. And the pully from the dead one. Same deal with the grease and seals. They are standard bearings also.

The highest I converted had 60-80K miles. No change in consumption or leaks in any I put Amsoil in. After some number of hours at high temperatures, the seals get hard and leak. Never saw any crud built up where it owould help a seal. The hard crispy rubber scrapes the shaft shiny. One of the engines I put synthetic in was pretty gunky, it cleaned the gunk out.. Not sure, as it was a long time ago, but maybe a year or so when I took it apart for some other reason, it was all clean inside.

I did that a few times when I first tried Amsoil. I use it in all my cars & equipment. My 90 Loyale got Amsoil 100% synthetic 10W-40, bypass filter, and their air and oil filters at 15K miles, 2 years old. I ran that engine for at least 150K miles, changed / cleaned filters 1/year. Added oil as needed, never changed. Pulled it apart to replace all of the seals & gaskets due to oil leaks. Crank and connecting rod bearings, wrist pins all still in factory spec. Factory hone marks still visible on cylinder walls. It has less wear than the other 2 I resealed. They had more miles when I got them & converted them.

This sound worng. About 1/2 a turn of the flywheel from the TDC -10 0 10 marks are 3 lines |||. The center one should line up with the pointer on the housing. The cam shaft hole should be lined up with the notch in the cover. Tension the first belt. Turn the engine w/ wrench 1 revolution, line up on the center mark. Set the 2nd timing pully to line up hole & notch. Tension 2nd belt. If it is correct, you can feel each cylender compression as you wrench the crankshaft. It should hit the compression every 90 degrees.

Another little tip I discovered: After you have the belts on, timing double checked - Start & run for 10 seconds or so. Or roll it by wrench something annoying like 10 turns. The belts will walk into position where they will run. Invariably, retensioning will be required. Once, I had one that wanted to run up against the side of one of the flanges on the crank pully. Took it off, flipped it, and it ran in a much better position.

My "new" 87 has under 88K. Baby to me. All my others (90,92) are in the 180K area.

Yes, it is the center mark that you want to use.

Back when I was younger and a little crazier, I hauled a 12V 1000AH lead acid battery set from Vermont to Connecticut in my 76 1400cc 4spd 4WD wagon. Each cell weighed about 150Lbs for a total of about 900lbs. It handled pretty wierd - big delay in steering wheel input to actual change of direction on the highway... I made it, no problems.

That will keep water / dirt out if it is at higher pressure than the housing. It won't keep the grease in. The spring should not be exposed to the outside environment. All of the wheel bearing seals I have seen have the extra flap mentioned previously also. The spring goes toward the grease, the extra lip helps keep out dirt.

Yes, there should be a sleeve between the bolt and the rubber.

I'll guess that the shaft hadn't pulled all the way in, then it moved with use / temperature cycles. I found a front CV shaft on a recently acquired car that way - didn't look wrong from the outside, but then I noticed a gap between the inner seal and the CVJ.