SuspiciousPizza

For functional and tough parts my go-to is Armadillo by Ninjaflex. It's a very high hardness TPU so it acts like a normal rigid polymer but it has a very high bond strength between layers. It takes some tweaking to get your settings dialed in and may require dual-extrusion or a multi material unit when you print support material. Since it bonds so well to itself, getting supports off without cutting and sanding tools isn't easy. The best overall bed adhesive that works with almost all polymers, that I've found, is normal white school glue spread with a damp paper towel (3 quarter-sized dollops spread thin). Once that dries, lay a layer of Magigoo PC bed adhesive over that. That coating will last 3-10 prints before you wash it off with dish soap and reapply. I've wanted to print a cup holder. Right now I'm just using a cardboard drink carrier I got from a coffee place on my passenger side floor board.

It was a terminal connection issue coming from the driver's door to the dash harness. The hatch still only works as manual. That's less annoying than manually locking and unlocking doors from the inside so I'll leave it for now. That breaking noise I heard I believe was a locking rod disconnecting from its socket. One on the driver side was only semi-connected.

I had to unjam the cassette ejection mechanism last night. After I plugged the cassette player back in, the rear wiper switch illuminated for the first time in my ownership. There's some weird electrical gremlins going on here. So maybe the door lock issue is some sort of electrical issue. I'll break out the FSM and multimeter this weekend and check out what's going on. Oh I wish it's actually a mechanical issue, those make so much more sense than those invisible electrons.

The power locks use a switch in the driver door that tells the other locks when to lock or unlock. So the drivers door lock is manual and controls all the other locks with that master switch "actuator" (there's actually no motor in it). I opened the switch and checked the internal contacts. Everything is operating as it should. No cracked solder joints or excessive corrosion. It's nice to be able to open components. When I was looking in the FSM, allegedly there is a power lock actuator on the rear cargo door (the car is a wagon/estate). If so, it's never operated as a power lock in my ownership and doesn't trigger the door lock light. I've always used it as a manual lock. Perhaps the actuators are ran in series and when one goes bad, the rest don't work (like old school Christmas lights). The locks don't make any noise. They operate as manual locks and the 3 doors other than the driver door and rear cargo door trigger the door lock light.

'89 GL wagon Last winter we had a cold snap and some component of my power lock system froze. When I unlocked the car in the morning, I heard something break inside the door and my power locks stopped working since. The locks still work as manual locks. The door lock light on the dash recognizes every lock except the driver door. So I took all the driver door lock components out and nothing seems broken. The plastic pieces are intact and the mechanism functions smoothly. I replaced the door lock actuator (unknown condition of the actuator, I didn't pull the part myself) and nothing. No difference. *Edit: I just checked the terminals of the driver door actuator and it's operating as it should. Fuse is fine, I really don't think it's an electrical issue. Possibly electromechanical. Any ideas? :]

The head bolts are reusable. Unless they have stretched or are damaged in some way. These bolts are an odd size. M11. Not exactly an easily accessible off-the-shelf part. Some modern Chevy's have similarly sized head bolts but I believe there isn't any modern production of these head bolts. If you do need some, search locally for a used engine. That way you get a lot of extra parts for a decent price.

Checked my oil level tonight and I've lost about 1/3 to 1/2 qt in 1400 miles. I do have an oil leak from somewhere. Could have something to do with my jittery oil pressure. Since I do oil and filter changes every 3,000 miles I'm not worried about the leak but I'll keep an eye on my oil level. I did update the PCV hose routing with one of those factory PCV kits (p/n 11813AA010) so maybe that'll help reduce oil consumption. Other than that I've been having no issues even in the cold and snow. The engine does still have a miss when cold.

It was a code 34. I inspected the wiring harness terminals to the EGR solenoid and they were corroded. I replaced the terminals and no more CEL. Note to self, if an issue is intermittent check the wiring and terminals.

CEL is back. So I'd bet the ECU wasn't the issue. At least not the main issue. I had to get to work and I didn't have time to pull the code and poke around with my multimeter. My guess is it's another code 35. I'll post back after work to confirm. It ran fine but I noticed a high idle, around 1500 rpm as well as a fluttering vacuum. Nothing major but more flutter than "normal". If the purge valve sticks open, does that mean that excess vapors are entering the intake? If so that'd explain the high idle. Too much fuel. Can the purge valve have issues with sticking open yet still test okay with a multimeter? Does the ECU know when the valve is open based off its resistance? If so maybe the valve is testing okay, but is having issues with sticking open which throws the CEL. My new valve will be here early next week so hopefully this solves the issue. If it's not the valve and not the ECU, then I just have to do some harness work. I like harness work, I can do it inside in my sweats rather than out in the cold freezing my hands off. :]

That's a great question. I'll have to do a compression test when I go to my buddy's to use his shop. Our work schedules and other plans makes it difficult to find the time to meet up. It seems to be running better with the new ECU. Not perfect but I trust it for driving to work and back. Which is all I need the car for. I noticed it'll stumble after I start it when it's hot. Say I get to my destination, after I start it to leave, it'll stumble at idle after the first deceleration. For instance when I get to the first stop light. Once I take off, it seems to be okay after that. All fluids are at appropriate levels, oil pressure while slightly jittery is healthy, temps are okay, vacuum is okay when the engine isn't stumbling.

I would not be surprised if my rings were bad. That'd explain why my vacuum flutters on start up then quickly subsides within a minute. The throttle body I'm using is a junk yard unit so no clue if the previous owners tried to adjust the mixture. There is still a fuel smell to the exhaust. It's so weird because it went away after fixing the code 34, then it came back. At least now it's running without throwing a CEL or codes.

I went to inspect the purge solenoid. 24.5ohms resistance. Hmm the valve is good. Maybe there's an intermittent connection. Tested the engine harness. Continuity checks okay. Tested the harness between the ECU and the engine. Continuity checks okay. Maybe it's the ECU. I swapped in a different ECU. No more CEL and now the RPM's drop gradually versus with the other ECU they'd drop rapidly when the engine got to temp. Maybe it was an ECU issue? I'll see how this one does.

Yep I spoke too soon. Went to start my car this morning before work and I got a CEL. Double bugger. Code 35, purge solenoid. So I'll be doing some tests tonight after work to see what's going on. If I need to, I'll be replacing the solenoid with the same model I used for my EGR solenoid replacement. AISIN VST-026. Boy have the price of those jumped since I last bought one! Nearly double the price.

I don't want to speak too soon but I believe I've fixed the issue. As I was going over the vacuum hoses and trying to hone in my timing I got a check engine light. Code 34 EGR solenoid. Bugger! On my other engine I was using a Toyota EGR solenoid. I used a "good" OEM solenoid on this setup. Well turns out that solenoid wasn't good. I swapped my trusty Toyota valve back in and it runs like a top. Vacuum at idle is strong and steady between 20-21 inHG. No more fuel smell. I'll do some city driving tomorrow to test it out. It likes to act up most with frequent starts and stops or rapid deceleration to a stop. :]

It'd definitely be a labor of love that's for sure. Even to cover costs, to just break even. Say a panel costs $60 not including mold cost. If someone's only willing to pay $50 to buy an unfinished panel. Then the numbers don't work. I'd have no issue making the panels and selling them for no profit. Just knowing I'm keeping cars in the community alive is worth it. But selling at a loss, that's difficult especially with the time investment. Again these are all ideas and I haven't moved forward with it but I have easy access to all the materials necessary to do so. Maybe if I'm ever in need of a body panel I'll make a small batch and go from there. I'd also love to draw up and 3D print NLA trim pieces. But I cannot afford design software at the moment. $2.5k/year for software... I have some opinions about that price and an orifice in mind they can shove it in.