My new 1988 T/A

[DynoDave]

One the line side, yes, a line wrench. An open end for the filter side. Ran up to Home Depot and got a 13/16" Husky that will do the job (I hope). Work went quickly (mercifully). Sadly, a coworker I had a question for was online also. I'll head out to the shop after 10pm to try and get that filter off.

Forgot to mention....the Koni bump discs showed up today.

Also, I heard back from the trailer manufacturer today. She got a clean bill of health, except for a few non-working LED lights, which I knew about. They will be replacing those, greasing the wheel bearings, and replacing the break-away cable, and she'll be good to go.

[MP81]

I missed the line about an hour left of work to do at 8PM...you just need to say:

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I did work a couple hours extra on Monday, but that was because I got up an hour early...then drove to CAMI (Ingersoll, ON - about 2:15 each way), was there for 2 1/2 hours. Thankfully the border was an absolute breeze each way (I literally was the only car at the border going there), but man that was a lot of driving, a lot of time on my feet at a massive plant, and then the drive back...and then hopped back on to look at all the emails I missed while I was checking out parts at the plant and meeting people for the first time that I've talked to for a year or two constantly now.

And then I had a beer pairing.

I'm still tired from it.

[DynoDave]

As Sammy said a few years back....Crazy Times.



I've never been up to that plant. Sounds like a long days for sure. I was pretty wiped out last Saturday evening after running the trailer over to Three Rivers and back. Looks like I"ll be doing it again this weekend too.

Wheels are ready! Hope to take a long lunch and pick those up today.

Once again revised, Amazon now says the filters were delivered to the post office yesterday. So I'll try to slide by there on my way out of town to get the wheels.

[MP81]

Ooh yeah, that's a long haul, especially with a trailer.

Nice day to take a very long lunch, considering the hours you've been working...

[DynoDave]

Some parts arrived at the post office yesterday. But I did not have time to run out and get them. Perhaps today at lunch.

I wanted to spend some time in the garage last night, but after taking care of some Pontiac club business, I just didn't have the time. And I was too tired to work late as I sometimes do.

I did pick up the wheels the other day. Still had them in the van, so I got those unloaded last night before dark.

And after those compressed air filters showed up, I did attach one to the impact and take the passenger side strut off, along with the strut bearing. Hope to get out there tonight for a little more work on the car.

Also, the trailer is done. Picking it up tomorrow.

[MP81]

Does your post office...not deliver??

[DynoDave]

Sort of.

We are a corner lot. Face street A and have an address for street A, driveway(s) on street B. When we moved here, they delivered our mail to a box at the end of my driveway, along with the mail to boxes for two other houses (all 3 on the same post), and a 4th for a house across the street further down the lot on my side of the street. Went along this way for several years, and as far as I can tell, was that way from when the house was built in 1979.

Then we got a new postmaster. He started examining the routes, looking for ways to "improve" things. He decided that since my house faced street A, that my mailbox should be on street A. Now, street A is a busy road, with a 40mph speed limit (where folks usually travel at 45-50mph), no curbs, and a dirt shoulder. Street B was at that time a dirt street through a residential neighborhood, speed limit 25, but most drove slower because of the generally poor dirt surface. So rather than picking up my mail at the end of my driveway, he'd like me to walk twice as far across my front yard to get to the edge of this busy road to get my mail, winter snows, rain and all.

I wouldn't do it. The mailman delivering to all the other boxes on my lot said he'd be happy to continue to deliver my mail to my box (on street B), but it wasn't his call. I went in and met with that postmaster, and he wouldn't budge. So, ever since then (25 years or so I guess) I've had a P.O. Box at the post office. It's not exactly a "win" for me, as I have to drive in to town once or twice a week to get my mail (which I don't mind actually...has a Mayberry feel to it!), and of course I have to pay for the P.O. Box. But, at least my wife and kids are not hiking across the yard to get to that box in a less safe location.

Friday was not a good car day. While talking to my brother about the refinished wheels, was leaning on the stack of them, describing them to him, and happened to have my readers on. All kinds of pinholes in the powder coat finish. They will have to go back to be redone. And knowing (now) how he did the finish the first time, I have no idea how he's going to do that. That's going to be a fun conversation.

Greatly discouraged, I decided to press on with the strut install. Removed the factory strut without issue. Pulled the factory strut cover/shield off the upper part, and no bump stop inside. Walked to the other side and peaked up the skirt of that strut, and no bump stop there either. This might not otherwise alarm me, except I had spoken with Koni about the little nylon discs, which they called a bump plate. They said they were to give the factory bump stops, which I would move over to the Koni strut, a place to land on the Koni strut body. Waited a week for those, have them, and now no bump stops. Also problematic is the Koni is a touch fatter than the factory strut, making those shields a much closer fit to the body, likely to chafe and rub, of not get caught up and shattered. Also, my factory shield on the passenger side has a small crack in it.

So Koni "thinks" I have bump stops in the shield, which is why they supply the plate. My factory struts and shields have no bump stop. So what to do? Waiting until Monday to call them again.

The forums are no help. Some folks run with out the shield, but I've seen at least one person say they reused them.

There's an astonishing lack of info on the web. Koni's install instructions that I've been able to find are sparse in detail. No YouTube vids that are definitive. One good video with Koni's on a 3rd gen, and he reused the shields. Another putting stock replacement struts on, and he didn't use them.

I found a pdf of instructions on a BMW forum, so not an exact match, but they contain the specific instruction from Koni not to reinstall a cracked shield, but to get a new one. Not an option for the 3rd gen.

There's a strut, plate, washer and nut. And I can't figure out how to install them (not exactly, but that's how it feels). Very frustrating.

I did find that Ground Control, who has their own strut design that would preclude the use of the factory shield, sells bump stops seperately. So I may also talk to them and add those.

Again frustrated on the day, I thought I'd tackle something simple and change that fuel filter. When initially cracked loose, very little fuel came out, so I thought this was going to be easy. Completely loosened but didn't remove the line from the outlet of the filter (engine side), and the fuel starts flowing out at a pretty good clip. No problem, I have gloves on, a pan inside of a tray, I'll just wait it out, thinking it's the fuel from the engine side of the line coming out. But it kept coming. Finally the little light in my head came on, and it occurred to me that it was coming out of/through the filter, from the tank side. I fully removed the line, and indeed, it is coming through the filter, siphoning the (full) fuel tank. So with my hands and wrenches bathed in gasoline, I reassembled the thing and walked away. When your brain is shut down to the point that you can't change a fuel filter, it's time to call it a night. I'll have to get back under there and get just as soaked in fuel doing the change on the fly, but this time I'll be ready.

The bracket for the fuel filter was starting to get pretty rusty, and would slow the process of swapping the lines to the new filter, so I removed it (it can be removed and reinstalled with the lines in place) to get it blasted. Lost my blast cabinet in the fire, so I'll have to find someone that has a cabinet I can borrow for a few minutes. I have a friend who has one, but he's out of state for the winter.

[MP81]

A) The post office situation sounds like some absolute bullshit. There's always some *******, who has zero experience with the actual operation in question, who has "great" ideas on how to streamline things that typically do precisely the opposite

B) Days like that suck. I'm really surprised the powdercoat finish is that bad - typically powdercoat is pretty straightforward and doesn't have a ton of margin for error. If it comes to it, I highly recommend QC Coatings over in Shelby Township.

As far as the struts...that's quite a conundrum. Are you sure the boot covers themselves don't have a bump-stop in them? I can't imagine this is something uncommon on such a popular platform...somebody has to have experience with these on a third gen.

[DynoDave]

We'll see what the guy has to say about the wheels. I'm not inclined to spend more money on these things.

I'll make some calls tomorrow, to Koni, then to Ground Control. We'll get it figured out. And no, the factory shields do not have a bump stop at the top of them. That was the first thing I checked. And no signs there are were any. There are bump stops on the control arm, so I'm thinking this design of strut did not use them. I've saved some old FWD car struts shields to put on these Koni struts (potentially), and they have stops in them. But they are too small around I think, and would drag on the body. They are of a bellows design, so I could secure them to the body and make them work, but that's like Plan D.

I did have a better day out there though. Took my fuel bath and got the filter changed over. Still need to get the bracket blasted and repainted, but glad to have the fuel system sealed up under the car.

As I had planned (on my calendar) to have the suspension and brakes done this past week, I thought I'd jump on the brakes today. Went around to each bleeder screw (which I hit with Blaster a few weeks ago), and to my surprise, I got all of them open. Went to my tool box to get the length of vacuum hose I've used for brake bleeding for decades, but it's not there. Didn't come back with the tools after they were cleaned post-fire. So off to AutoZone to buy a few feet of hose. Bought the wrong size, so I made that trip twice. Also picked up a large bottle of DOT 4 fluid, and a few other odds and ends. Wanted new bleed screw caps, but they don't stock them. They are ordered and will be in tomorrow.

I can't have caffeine after 6pm, or I'm up all night. I needed a cup around 3pm to get through creating some work documents while I watched a bit of the NASCAR race. Forgot to finish it, so I slammed it down just before dinner (about 6:30), then had two glasses of tea with dinner. Bad call.

I wanted to start by removing the old fluid from the reservoir, rather than pushing it through the system. Went to the peg board where I keep two dollar store turkey basters, one for brake fluid, and one for power steering fluid. Neither is there, didn't make it back from the cleaners after the fire. So at 9pm I'm in the Jeep headed to Meijer to buy a turkey baster. Had my "U.S.S. The Sullivans" green t-shirt on for St. Patricks day, so I stopped off at Sullivan's Public House for a Guinness. Then home a little after 10pm.

I started by removing this old high performance brown fluid from the reservoir.

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Cleaned it all out, (there was a layer of "silt" in the reservoir after the dark fluid was removed) including with a splash of brake clean, and down inside the "bores" that lead from the reservoir into the master cylinder itself.

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Crack open the new fluid and pour some in, and I get black flakes floating in the fluid. So I had to empty it again, clean it again,and try again. Took 4 or 5 tries before I could refill those chambers of the reservoir without getting things floating in the new fluid. After all that, I got the longest run to the right rear bleed. Nice clean fluid there now. It was a little after midnight before I turned the lights out.

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Should have stayed out there and worked. With the late caffeine intake, I'm still awake. Alarm goes off at 5:30...just changed that to 7am. So I'll be dragging a bit tomorrow I suspect.

[MP81]

Yeah - if you have physical bumpstops on the control arms then I suspect there is no real need to have them on the struts - which would be why Koni didn't include those discs, since the factory struts also don't have them. When I did the Konis on the Mustang, the stockers did have all that stuff, so it was easy to put the Koni disc, factory bumpstop and factory boot on. What keeps the factory boots on yours from falling down the strut body?

That's a literal miracle that all four bleeders came off without issue. When I did all the brakes on the Cav I ended up breaking all four (over the course of two "events") bleeders and ended up putting new calipers and wheel cylinders on (at two separate times(. But I also installed speed bleeders when I did the calipers and then when I did the wheel cylinders, and those were absolutely magic.

I really need to change the fluid in the Cobalt, but I dread breaking those bleeders loose. And in all honesty, I really need a brake upgrade anyway, and haven't decided at all what route I want to take. The brake fluid is gross, though, and very squishy,

Yeah, that's one of those nights where you might as well stay up and work, because there is nothing worse than laying there awake trying to sleep but not. I typically don't have anything other than decaf after ~7PM on work nights for that reason, though I did have the last cup of regular coffee at 8PM yesterday...but I had also had other beverages and cooked St. Patty's dinner, so it didn't cause me to have any trouble falling asleep after 11.

[DynoDave]

There's a step in the shaft that is part of the surface the strut bearing rotates/steers from, and it sits at the bottom of that step.

Koni pictures the strut on their website with those discs, washer and nut. Is that a stock photo, or my exact package? I don't know. I bought mine used, and it came with one deformed bump plate. I called and asked, and they sent me two more. But who knows. If the wear pattern on the shaft is any indicator, it never gets anywhere near fully compressed.

WFH may have helped save the day. I have MAV TV on in the background. An episode of "Hemmings Vault" (little 15 minute segments....probably produced for YouTube or something similar...they play two episodes to fill a half hour) is on called "IROC rehab". By luck, they were installing Koni struts, and he showed the steps of building it up on the bench, no bump stop added, and they reused the factory shield. So there's one vote for doing it that way. I may start cleaning mine up tonight and get a repair started on that crack.....melt and fill the plastic, and skim coat with JB weld?

You don't drive the Cobalt in winter anymore, right? So it's not sitting on winter tires right now? If it is (or even if it isn't), when you swap tires hit those bleeders with some penetrating oil, and give it some weeks to work. I think I shot all 4 of mine twice, a week or more apart. My car is "rust free" as in no holes rotted in the floors, but brake and fuel line ends and nuts are rusty, axle, suspension, calipers are rusty, etc. You've seen the pictures. Pretty great shape for 35 years old, but far from concourse or showroom. Very pleased that they all broke loose, to say the least.

[MP81]

Wow, that's lucky indeed - yeah, I think JB weld itself might actually be useable to fix the boot - it's not like it sees a whole lot of load or anything. It's kinda just...there.

And correct, Cobalt does not see winter driving. Currently sitting on the steelies with all-seasons that absolutely should not be driven on. Yeah, it would be something I'd want to spray down for a long time before chancing them. But then I go back to just wanting to upgrade - 10" discs and drums out back look comical behind the 18s.

[DynoDave]

Tire/wheels change sounds like a great opportunity to soak those bleeders and let them sit while you decide to upgrade or not.



After the reservoir was clean and refilled, I moved to the passenger rear corner. Crack the bleeder open and the old fluid flows right out. Gravity bled until the fluid runs clear. Closed it up. I kept the reservoir full, never allowing it to run dry. So far, so good.

This afternoon I moved to the driver's side rear. Same routine....master cylinder full, lid loose, crack the bleeder open....and nothing. Opened it more, and nothing. Removed the bleeder. It's open, not plugged or corroded internally at all. No fluid. I reinstalled the bleeder, and with it loose, used a hand vacuum pump to try and pull fluid through. Nothing.

OK, so we have a collapsed hard line or hose from the body to the axle I'm thinking. But, if it was the hose, I would not have gotten any fluid from the passenger side. The hard line from the M/C to that hose at the axle must also be open. So I'm looking at the hard line from the distribution block on the axle to the wheel cylinder. Expecting to find it crushed by a jack or similarly damaged, I visually look at ever inch. No signs of damage. I run my hand over the whole length of it. Nothing.

I pulled the drum, just to take a peak. It's had rear brake service before (1 owner before me, about 52k miles on it when I bought it, 64k now). But all looks good. (There was brake dust in the drum, indicating that at some point since those shoes were installed, the brakes on that corner did work).

While I was lucky with the bleeders, looking at the lines, I'm not optimistic that there will be a repeat performance. I'm letting things dry (I washed out the drum and system components with brake clean), then I'll reassemble the thing, and try pushing fluid out with the pedal. I do not expect a different result.

So I'm down to removing and inspecting the 18-24" hard line on the driver side of the axle. Does this seem right to you? Am I missing something somewhere that I should check before I (likely) destroy that line to check it?

[MP81]

I still have a fair amount of life left on the (Hawk HPS) pads, so just going with the nine year old (sealed) can of ATE Typ 200 may be the right move at this point in time. If those bleeders crack loose.

That is really strange...I would have expected the vehicle to exhibit some pull during braking if the driver's side rear brake wasn't doing anything of interest, but then again, very minimal bias is given to rear drums so, maybe not.

But I do think your logic is sound, as strange as it still is to me. You have the flex line from the body to the rear end, and then the tee and hard lines to either wheel cylinder, correct? Obviously the flex line is fine since you got fluid out the other side, and one half of the tee is as well because of that...but it should be obvious that the driver side hard line is of issue - it should be rusty or crushed/pinched or something...it could also be the wheel cylinder is seized/blocked, but I'd still think you would get fluid out the bleeder...

[DynoDave]

Happy Anniversary to my T/A. Bought it 10 years ago today.

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After a couple of days of soaking Blaster, the nut came loose from the wheel cylinder and spun freely on the pipe, so no damage to the pipe, which is good. Sort of a long thread on that connection, so it didn't happen right away like with the bleeder, but as soon as it was loose enough, fluid came out. So it appears the issue is with the wheel cylinder itself. I'm going to have to disassemble the old one to see what happened. Stopping at the parts store at lunch to get a pair of wheel cylinders ordered, and a pair of seals for the backs of the rotor on the front, so I can clean and repack those bearings.