Project #2 77 Astre Safari wagon

[patrick1151]

I swear I am going to crush this car, I really really am, I may have spun another bearing yesterday. Something is causing a horrendous racket, it isnt a knock but the noise seems to be coming from the bottom end. I guess I am catching the grayhound home Monday and then driving back to where this car is parked with my tools. Maybe its just the waterpump and?

[rocketride]

I had what I thought was a bottom end knock on a car one time that turned out to be a loose flex plate bolt.

Jon

[Len]

Well ?? what did you find ?
Len

[patrick1151]

I have had a chance to pull the flexplate cover yet, but that may be the culprit. The noise has stopped for now and I may it home fine.

[patrick1151]

Well it turned out it was a flex plate-torque converter bolt. The bolt was pretty badly chewed up but the teeth on the flexplate looked ok. I do have a bit of a tranny fluid leak out of the though so maybe the seal is leaking. Tore the exhaust+Intake manifolds off this weekend and replaced the gaskets as I had a severe exhaust leak there. I stripped a carb stud putting it back together though so the carb has to come back off. It runs ok right now unless you hit the gas hard, then it chokes and tries to die. Over 600 miles on it now since I put it on the road, hopefully it will finally be a reliable driver.

[patrick1151]

Well after another nearly $300 in the last 3 weeks, this wagon is running pretty decently. New water pump, intake/exhaust maifold gaskets and some carb work done. It actually goes up a hill without being floored!! Anyways hopefully I can concentrate on my v8 Sunbird for a couple of weeks as there is a big show locally the 24-26th I want to be in. Big changes coming for that car if I am brave enough. Then I will be using some anti rust primer on this wagon hoping to improve its looks. I had it at the local show+shine tonight and even though it was the ugly duckling there with the current blue hood, it received lots of interest. Up to 800 miles since May 27 so hopefully this car will finally be a decent driver.

[patrick1151]

I just turned over 77000 miles on this car today and I am finally enjoying this car. It looks kinda odd with primer all over the place and a blue hood, but that is going to change soon. I have to return the yellow paint I got to have them work on the color. It supposedly is the correct paint number wise but it isnt very close. The hood is being painted flat black. I am doing the paint by hand for now, hopefully a new paint job will happen down the road.

[patrick1151]

Well here we go again looks like it will be engine time again by this summer, just turned over 82000 miles on the body. The 2.5 I installed last spring had a fair number of miles on it and its getting pretty rough. When its cold it sounds like its developing a rod knock and the top end is very noisy. Also it appears I may have an oil leak on the side of the head where there shouldnt be a source I replaced the valve cover gasket today and will know pretty quickly if the oil was leaking down from that or not. Last tank of gas with snow tires on and the colder weather I got 17 miles to gallon but with todays gas prices thats not good enough. I have had some discussions on a 2.5 out of a s10 and I was sort of offered a rusty Monza with a good 3.8+th350. It would also supply the power brake parts for that upgrade. There is not much else worth anything on that car except for maybe some black interior pieces. And of course I was wondering why I was getting a draft coming from somewhere around my feet. So I ripped what was left of the old carpet on the drivers side out of her today and found I need some floor board repairs on the drivers side. An area about 6x4 inches is going to need a patch pretty quickly. I dont see any other bad areas in the floorboards so i guess its not too bad. I will post some pictures in the next couple of days.

[patrick1151]

Well here we go again looks like it will be engine time again by this summer, just turned over 82000 miles on the body. The 2.5 I installed last spring had a fair number of miles on it and its getting pretty rough. When its cold it sounds like its developing a rod knock and the top end is very noisy. Also it appears I may have an oil leak on the side of the head where there shouldnt be a source I replaced the valve cover gasket today and will know pretty quickly if the oil was leaking down from that or not. Last tank of gas with snow tires on and the colder weather I got 17 miles to gallon but with todays gas prices thats not good enough. I have had some discussions on a 2.5 out of a s10 and I was sort of offered a rusty Monza with a good 3.8+th350. It would also supply the power brake parts for that upgrade. There is not much else worth anything on that car except for maybe some black interior pieces. And of course I was wondering why I was getting a draft coming from somewhere around my feet. So I ripped what was left of the old carpet on the drivers side out of her today and found I need some floor board repairs on the drivers side. An area about 6x4 inches is going to need a patch pretty quickly. I dont see any other bad areas in the floorboards so i guess its not too bad. I will post some pictures in the next couple of days.

[patrick1151]

Well here we go again looks like it will be engine time again by this summer, just turned over 82000 miles on the body. The 2.5 I installed last spring had a fair number of miles on it and its getting pretty rough. When its cold it sounds like its developing a rod knock and the top end is very noisy. Also it appears I may have an oil leak on the side of the head where there shouldnt be a source. I replaced the valve cover gasket today and will know pretty quickly if the oil was leaking down from that or not. Last tank of gas with snow tires on and the colder weather I got 17 miles to gallon but with todays gas prices thats not good enough. I have had some discussions on a 2.5 out of a s10 and I was sort of offered a rusty Monza with a good 3.8+th350. It would also supply the power brake parts for that upgrade. There is not much else worth anything on that car except for maybe some black interior pieces. And of course I was wondering why I was getting a draft coming from somewhere around my feet. So I ripped what was left of the old carpet on the drivers side out of her today and found I need some floor board repairs on the drivers side. An area about 6x4 inches is going to need a patch pretty quickly. I dont see any other bad areas in the floorboards so i guess its not too bad. I will post some pictures in the next couple of days.

[patrick1151]

wow tripple last post interesting??