pyromanic

Yea! Breaker bars with a cheater pipe! Thats the way. But I'm a big guy (read too fat) 6'2", 235lb, and have to watch out that I don't pull the threads right off the axle! It can be done easily if ya get to reefing on the cheater. Pyro

That is a slick set up. But it would be too hard to get the whole thing in and out for me. I often need the whole flat space for bales of hay/straw, lumber, landscape materials, who knows. When I'm not needing to haul bulky materials I just keep plastic milk crates handy. Can use one or eight, or any number inbetween. They'r durable, don't tip over, and work as orginizers when needed. Can't answer your question though regarding availibility of those big orginizers for our older cars. It almost looks like that one would fit? Or could it be trimed down? Prolly not. Heck, I'm no help. Have a nice day!! Pyromanic

Yea, it's easy to miss that the outer one is slightly cupped. I was so lucky when I started messing with Soobs, in that I didn't even know about that, did my first bit of front end work, then before I even drove the car, saw it mentioned in a post. Took both castle nuts off, and sure enough, one of them was backwards. Lucky me. Pyro

Heres something silly for ya, that probably wont help at all. I did the 5 sp swap a few months ago, with no problems. Drive the car every day. And I don't even know what a "kickdown solenoid" is. Theres cables to it? I'd bet somebody that knows more about these AT's than me chime in here to help you out, but just in case, what is this thing and where? Maybe I can help. Pyro

Archemitis's statement got me thinking about those "Power Punch" oil displays I used to see sitting on parts counters. Y'all know the ones? Two pieces of plexiglass or lexan with a stack of meshing nylon gears stacked up between them, with a little hand crank that got the whole thing moving inside. You could spin the gears and watch the stuff climb. Looked kinda cool. Always wondered how different regular dino 90 weight would of behaved in one of those, if different at all. Pyro

Sender for gauge is in manifold. Fan and thermoswitch work, yup around 215. The clutch fan never let it get that hot. Makes me kind of nervous. I'm considering getting an adustable thermoswitch. The outfit that made the fan, (can't remember the name, flex---something) make one that has a probe for the rad. Don't know if a setup like that is worth a crap or not. I now have two electric fans, so think I'll wire one into after market adustable probe, one into the stock thermalswitch, and have indicator lights for both, and and a bypass switch for one. I just hate to see it running up to 215 cause I'm not used to it. Guess it's not harmfull? On a side note, i was suprised to discover that I can actually feel (seat of the pants) a slight increase in torque with out the mechanical fan. Nice! PYro

I have just installed an aftermaket electric fan to replace the ditched clutch fan in my newly byb lifted 85 wagon. Thought I would re-establish funtionality of the thermoswitch. At what temp do these switches engage? My rad is low miles and weather is cool, so car is running cool. I can watch the full sweep gauge show the therostat onening and closing. (sweet!) Fan never comes on, though I have not climed any grades. Engine is running no hotter than 190 at this time. I also have the stock electric fan wired to a toggle. I've read in the old posts that some guys rarely have the thermo-switched fan come on. Just in hot weather sitting in traffic. Oh, and I have no air condidtioning. Pyro

I have not done this myself, but have read that your on the right track in jacking the engine up a bit. Have your tried retorqing those phillips head screws? It took me a while to figure out that I COULD get the right extra long phillips up throug the holes in the cross member to tighten even the back screws. Angle was a little of untill I got a jack under there. That helped. Got rid of the majority of leaks. On a side not, I remember not long ago, youd given up on that wagon. Got her running right yet? No luck selling her? Good luck with it, whatever you decide Pyro

Thanks for the input. From my reading as many old posts as I can find (many many on this), I think that the DFV has a slightly smaller throat. Theres some conflicting information if you read it all. Hard to sort it all out. I think I'm going to go ahead and get a DGAV and try it, unless somebody tells me it's impossible to get it to work. Pyro

So I'm considering making a deal on Weber DGV5a 32/36. This would be for my lifted 85 wagon, 5sp DR. with power steering. Is this a suitible carb for my car? I think that is a manual choke? Any good metal smith can make an adapter plate, correct? Havn't I read somewhere that power steering creates issues? Can it be done? How? Is this a suitable carb for my car? It probably neads rebuilt. Whats ballpark fair market value? Thanks, Pyro

Uh, what fan are you refering to? The 85,86, and 87 fans I'm looking at don't appear to be made in such a way that the blades could be flipped over. They are plastic and cupped to fit over the motor. Or am I missing something? Pyro

But the electrics are so darn noisy, can't hear the engine properly. I don't like that. Also that clutch fan is darn reliable it seems to me. I agree that the clutch fan is a PIA to remove. Descisions. Mmmm. Pyro

So while thinking about ditching the clutch fan and installing this electric one out of one of donor cars, I realized that these fans can either suck or blow depending on how they are wired. I've never seen one run in the car as factory installation, so I don't know which way they are supposed to go. Suck or blow? As I think about it, seems like if they were wired to suck, then they would be working WITH the air flow as the car was moving forward. If wired to blow, seems like the fan would just be fighting the air being forced through the radiator by the cars forward motion. So hows it supposed to be, or does it matter? But then maybe I think too much.

Well I've read a bunch of threads here about a performance gain obtained from converting from clutch fan to electric. I'm wondering if that is theory or fact? And is it noticeable gain? Pyro

Ok, only have about 65 miles on this 3"x3" PK lifted wagon. Everything seems just fine, in fact better than fine! But one thing I don't know what to do about is it that the centrifigal clutch fan wants to hit the wiring harness at the bottom of the radiator. There was enough slack in the harness to take some plastic locking ties and pull it back against the front of the engine, but that seems like only a tempory solution to a permenant problem. It looks like there is almost (but probably not quite) enough slack in the harness down there to re route it up above the rad. but don't really think that will work. What other solutions to this have been used? Thanks Pyro

Yup I'd bet that would be horrible. These high desert Eastern Oregon Soobs, lots of them have Zero rust. All three of mine, no rust at all. I was also fortunate that much engine work had been done before I bought it with a shot auto trans. So for both the tranny swap and the lift install, no grease or oil! She was clean underneath. Couldn't believe my good luck, rarely do I get to work on a clean car! Pyro

Whew! It's done! That wasn't as bad as I had feared. Took me two days, working alone. Pulled the boat out of the boat shed so to have shade, and cover from thunder storms. From all the reading I did before PK's lift kit got here, I figured It might be tough for a novice, but do-able. Then when I unpacked it, I got pretty scared. Parts not really ID'd for crap, pretty skimpy instructions. But what the heck, had to go for it. Yupper, lining things up in front is probably the toughest part. Untill ya get things going. Then it gets easier. And for what goes where, it does become self explanatory as you go, but ya got to stop and think. I did indeed strip one hole and bolt. Had to drill and tap. Rear was easier, but jeeze, some of those pieces do not go where the diagram shows. Period. Well, just in one spot. But since it's physically impossible for them to fit like the diagram, again, just had to stop and look and think. It became obvious. And wow! What a difference! I love sitting up higher! Handles better too, but I suppose thats because I replaced the old worn out strutts and coil-overs with not used up ones. Like where the shifter sits lower too. Now just need my 15 inch rims from Shady, tires, Weber, (or figure out the FI swap, and I'm set. Pyro

An ancient debate, covers or no. There's pages of reading on it right here in the archives. I don't like them, don't use them. Pyro

The answer to your question depends on a few things. How attached to the idea of having a Soob are you for example. Also your level of skill, determination and guts. Youve been asked what color the fluid is. Also does it smell burnt is good to know. Either way, really, I would change the fluid if you havn't. If you have the determination, time, and place to work, you might consider doing a swap to 5 sp manual. I did it with my 85, took me a few days, but then I'm disabled. Fellers of normal health do it in a couple, once they have all the parts and pieces lined up. If you consider a swap, 5sp man's can be had at junkyards for maybe 75 or 100 bucks. But thats always a gamble. CCR sells reman ones for 550, which is how I would go. I guess it all depends on how much you want one of these cars. Remember that many feel that the auto trans in theses cars are not worthy of repair. Opinions will vary. When I bought my 85 with auto, I went through the exact same thing. Checked the same issues you did, then tore it out and threw it away. I love my 5 sp dual range. Lifted the front with a byb 3 inch yesterday. Will try to finish the rear today. Owning and driving a 20 year old car is kind of a hobby. Or maybe a lifstyle would be a better way to put it. Kind of like old Harley Davidsons. It would be way cheaper and less time consuming to ride rice, but no where near as much fun! Good luck! Pyro

Hey guys, when I towed my last part car home, (87 gl wagon), I noticed that the ride was fantastic compared to my driver 85 wagon. My driver feels all mushy and bouncy, lots of old caked on oil on all the shocks. When I examined the shocks on the 87 they are clean, no leaks. Is there any reason why I cant just swap out the the whole units when I install my lift? (which is here now) The 87s are not adjustable like the 85s, but I don't really care about that. I think they are a direct fit is that right? Thanks Pyro

I took my 85 wagon in for alignment after rebuilding the front end a few weeks ago, and was suprised to see the dude checking around in the rear. I didn't know squat about the rear. What he said is this: For the 85, there is no alighnment adjustment "built in", but he was checking to see if anybody had installed the "allignment Kit". Then he game me some NAPA part numbers. Turned out there had been no rear kit installed, so he could do nothing about the tiny bit of misalighnment that thye laser alignment machine found in the rear. He also said that the rear misalignment was so small as to not cause any but slightest premature tire wear. I have no idea if he was jerking me around or not, but it seemed like not. Car drives nice now. If any body wants the info, I can dig up those NAPA numbers. Pyro

Free bump dude. My carb still works, but for how long?

Since I want to know about this also here is a Free bump---

My zip is 97739, However----- Did I hear that you have ties in Culver Oregon? I'm not but 45 minutes south of Culver, so wondering------------well, if you make trips there of something, maybe---- Hey, I know it's a long shot, but thought I'd ask. Pyro

Dude, sorry to hear your having such a hard time! Sounds like your gonna stop and take a needed breath. Now, the clutch did what exactly after not even a miles worth of driving? And what did you find before that when you pulled it back out? Yea, sometimes it's best to walk a way for a while. When things are going in a string of bad for me, I tend to get too pixxed off and tend to want to destroy things. (but then I'm a nut, I trust you have better control over yourself) Actually it sounds like your close to your objective. Which I take is a decent running street car. Probably not a good idea to make any descisions (like dynamite) when your way frustrated. Good luck, Pyro