| At times you succeed in
everything you do, and sometimes all ends up in the trash bin, like for
me lately. While the Buick was jacked up for the EFI return line
build, I though it was a perfect chance to fix several things under the
car: 1. Fix the leak in the right rear airbag or airline 2. Fix the leak in the Air Lift Easy Street valve block 3. Swap a new brake master cylinder 4. Rebuild the water pump 5. Fix the vibration, supposedly coming from the driveshaft 6. Fix the coolant leak in the underseat heater |
 1. The Air Lift sleeves were installed back in 2002 when the project was in this state. Now it turned out to be impossible to access the airline fittings and mounting nuts from between the frame and body. Quess I'll have to live with the fact that the right rear airbag must be filled every time I start the car for the first time of the day. 2. The Air Lift valve block leaked from the factory. I disassembled it and found an O-ring that was misaligned. Even though I fixed it, there's still a slight leak. How do I know it's in the block? By plugging all ports, pressurizing it and submerging in a water bucket, watching bubbles come out between valve block halves. Talk about quality? 3. Purchased a brand new brake master cylinder, made by Raybestos. While bench-bleeding it, brake fluid immediately started seeping out of the pushrod end. Took it apart and found the rearmost O-ring broken! Talk about quality? |
 4. The water pump was rebuilt initially, and worked fine in 2004-2005 while I drove a few thousand miles. The car was parked until 2009, and I discovered a black streak coming out of the pump after the initial runs in 2009. The pump worked fine, and made no sound. When I removed the pulley, I discovered the substance had come out of the bearing, not from the seal, and it was tacky like syryp. This still remains a mystery. Maybe the belt tension damaged the bearing over the years, so it cooked the grease out? Anyway, I rebuilt the pump again with an AC rebuild kit from 1953. How do I know? Because the parts were wrapped in a page from a comics book, dated 1953. There's a parts shop in Helsinki that is run in the family since 1942, and they still have some real treasures in their inventory. Ten years ago, they had tens of brand new Stromberg AAV-267 carbs, but later someone purchased the whole lot and sold to Sweden! |
 The driveshaft on the left is the closest match I could
find in a junkyard ten years ago, and is an unknown GM unit. I
mated it to a used TH-400 slip yoke, which has the same spline count as
a Super-T10 yoke. Naturally I installed new U-joints, too.
Nevertheless, I have suffered from a bad vibration starting at around
50 mph, and haven't found the culprit. I assumed it's the
driveshaft , as the pitch of vibration is higher than what it would be
if it came from tire imbalance.The junkyard find was never balanced, but it was also a bit short - the slip yoke extended too far out of the transmission - about 2 inches. I decided to order a custom-made driveshaft from Strange. Only there was a communication breakdown. I gave the measurement from the end of the transmission tailshaft to the center of rear yoke eye. When I got the driveshaft, it was almost 4" longer than my original! The measurement I gave was interpreted to be from eye to eye! Well, I had the new driveshaft shortened and balanced by a local shop. The slip yoke, now only extending 1" from the trans, is also a lot longer, providing a better support. Next summer will show if the vibration is gone. Below: the original heater core started leaking coolant, so I had it re-cored by a local shop. They had some trouble finding a suitable core type, but succeeded. And trust me, in Finland you need a heater!  |