Rag_v2

Hey guru, I drove past your place today on my way into town from Kittitas. I saw your car out of the corner of my eye. It was hard to miss with the front fenders off, etc. I'm excited to see how this project pans out!

Get one of those old, floor mount highbeam button switches that were common on older vehicles. Easy to click on/off with your foot (hidden under the carpet) and no one sees your hands doing anything out of the ordinary.

I'll keep that in mind. Do you take potatoes?

Will do. How accessible are the water pumps?

I hope the alternator didn't get hosed down. I hate antifreeze. It trashes everything. I don't have the cash for another alternator.

I appreciate the input. I definitely going to replace all of the hoses.

Thanks Patrick. I'll be sure to check any and all hoses. I certainly don't want a repeat of this morning.

Yeah I'll dig out my compression tester when I go home this weekend. If everything looks good, I might even give it a tuneup while I'm in there.

I live in a house with no garage and no possibility for one. I will tell you from personal experience, it sucks like no other! It's so bad that it is actually depressing! Knowing that as long as I live in this house, I'll never have a garage is painful! At the very least, buy a house that doesn't have a garage, but has the room to add one later. If you like to do more with a car than wash, wax and top off the wiper fluid, get a garage or a place with potential for one!

I won't sweat it then. I worry so much about the head gaskets. I'll check the coolant hoses, pulleys and belts. Hopefully it's nothing too major.

It was much higher than I've ever seen it before, but it was still a few needle widths from the red. Then again, how well would it read if there's no coolant?

I didn't see any broken belt, but I'm sure they could stand to be changed anyway. I figured they had to at least be slipping for my voltage to drop the way it did. The only problem is why would it slip that bad?

Ok, here's the background. 1987 GL wagon, 230,000 miles, 5spd. While driving over Snoqualmie pass this morning, I noticed my windshield wipers slow down considerably. I look at my dash in horror as I see my voltage at ~ 10 volts. Scanning the dash, I see my temp gauge creeping up towards the H. There was no where to pull over and no exit I could take. I was forced to go a few more miles until I could get to the next freeway offramp. I shut the car down right away and saw plenty of steam rise from under the hood as I came to a stop. I popped the hood and found the source of the steam to be from somewhere under/behind the power steering reservoir. Tow truck came and got me and long story short I'm at work with my other car. I don't know what I'm going to do now. I hope my head gaskets aren't trashed. I don't even know where to start.

Mine has been starting up right away, but makes a ton of (lifter?) noise. I just did an oil change too. I put in 10w-30, I meant to put in 5w-30. I did mind until the cold air hit. Runs great, just noisy for the first 15 minutes.

Thanks for the info General. Is there a preferred place to buy these parts from? I don't want overpriced garbage parts.