Originally posted by JohnWPB: The Fiero store has them for $27, she just happened to have an orphaned single line in the stock room. The shipping is $15 for standard shipping. 2 day shipping would be $28! I LOVE the Fiero Store, and am so happy they are around, but what gives with the shipping charges!
Very sorry for the confusion, she didn't know that the brake line could ship in a padded flat rate Priority envelope (2-3 day service) for $7.25. If you would like to call us back, we will be happy to give you the lower rate.
Very sorry for the confusion, she didn't know that the brake line could ship in a padded flat rate Priority envelope (2-3 day service) for $7.25. If you would like to call us back, we will be happy to give you the lower rate.
Thank you or explaining. I have a new brake line now, and no longer need one. I will definitely use the Fiero Store in the future when I need something!
So now I have Grand AM calipers on all 4 corners, 4 new brake lines, my 3rd master cylinder (Latest is a brand new S-10 master cylinder) new brake pads all around, and a new brake booster. After replacing the line We bled, and bled, and bled, and bled the lines on all 4 corners, no air bubbles at all... Guess what! CRAPPY BRAKES! I swear to God I just want to drive this car at 100 MPH into a solid brick wall. I have replaced each and every component that there is in the entire braking system, other than the hard lines, that are in excellent condition.
I took it for a test drive around the neighbor hood. Got up to around 35 MPH and slammed the brakes on as hard as I could press with my foot, pulling up on the steering wheel for leverage. The car came to a gradual stop. About 3/4 of the way down with the pedal, the pedal "bumped", and and then continued to the floor.
It is honest to God, beyond my comprehension how one car can fight each and everything over and over and over again. Someone tell me, that if their brakes were weak, and they found a small hole in the line, that once repaired, it would fix the problem. That is the way things work. Not in this case. Same with the booster, everyone said it could be bad so I replaced it with an S-10 booster. Again, same with the master cylinder (replaced 3 times now) I had put 4 new Fiero calipers on all 4 corners when my right rear locked up a year and a half ago. Still the brakes were bad. I then swapped the front calipers to Grand AM, still not better, I have now replaced the rear with Grad AM and still the same crap. Over the course of time I have probably spent over $100 on brake fluid alone.
The only purpose of this post is to be helpful in the long run...
**Fieros are 30+ years old, so they will have lots of issues to track down. **Many of the parts you will purchase for the Fiero and most of the common engine swaps will have been sitting on a shelf somewhere for a decade or two, so every new part should be assumed bad, not assumed good (you saw this first hand with your ignition control module). **Even though you go through a process (like bleeding brakes) 10 times and are not seeing air bubbles at the calipers, doesn't mean you have all the air out, it just means you are not seeing it at those locations. For example, if you didn't bench bleed the master cylinder before installing it, there could be air trapped inside the plunger of the master that will not be evacuated through normal on-car brake bleeding techniques. Also if you didn't crack the lines and bleed before and after the combination valve, air could be trapped there as well. Both of these situations would have no air bubbles at the calipers, but still air in the system, and have spongy brake pedal feel. You are only done with the process once you verify that the process fixed the symptom and passed the verification check.
The best way to navigate through these issues is with proper troubleshooting methods and techniques, not throwing parts at it that may or may not be good.
You have an issue with your brake system. It could be the booster, master cylinder, combination valve, brake lines, brake line connectors, brake hoses, calipers, or leaks (fluid leaks or pulling air back into the system on brake release)... Assume everything is bad until it has passed the verification test. Do not assume it is good simply because you replaced a part or did something to it.
Here is an online troubleshooting guide that is pretty detailed and covers most items. Brakes while simple in theory, are very complicated systems where everything needs to be right to function properly. http://www.classicperform.c...rakeTroubleshoot.htm
Chime in on brake thing, how did you bleed all 4 brake lines? There is an order that should be followed also if the lines are new it is a pain in the a ass. I bleed my new clutch line with a vacuum bleeder and even after it had no bubbles still had an air pocket stuck. Took several attempts before it finally released. Stay positive.
I picked up the $10.00 syringe, as this seemed much more efficient than pushing the piston in the MC repeatedly while stabilizing the MC itself (Of all the tools I do have, a vise is not one of them).
No change at all in the brakes. I guess I will replace the front Grand AM brakes with the fresh shiny new red ones, paint up the old ones to match, and install them in the rear and see what happens.
So what exactly did you do with the syringe to bleed the master? You don't necessarily need a vice to do it, when I was back in college I needed to put a new master on my truck and I vice gripped it to a railing, got some strange looks, but it worked. Or bolt it on the car without the lines hooked up and have someone pressing the brake pedal.
Sorry for the delay in responding to messages here. I have been really busy with planning the Daytona show for the end of this month. So busy, I have not really done anything to my car. I have been designing graphics, and making shirts for the show. I have made around 30 shirts so far from designing the graphics, using a dye cutter to create the transfers, and heat pressing them onto the shirts. I have about 30 hours into these shirts already!
Here is a small sample of the shirts I have made so far:
Anyhow, I just wanted to post here to say thanks for the ideas and trouble shooting tips. I will get to following those hopefully here soon.
As far as bleeding the MC, I bench bled it following the instructions in this video:
[This message has been edited by JohnWPB (edited 03-07-2018).]
The Daytona show was this past weekend, and we had a great time! MANY thanks to the Fiero Store, Black Top Racing and Russ88Ttop for donating raffle and door prizes! Please support them in the same way they help to support the Fiero community!
I do not know why I did not think of this earlier...... I had etched some glasses and beer mugs with the Fiero logo to give out at the show. Just today while at work, i thought to myself, I could etch my sunroof glass! I just installed a new OEM glass from Pro Source a few days before the Daytona Show.
It is a pretty straight forward process, make a stencil, and apply the etching cream, and let it sit. I think it came out pretty good. It is just another one of those little touches to help customize / personalize the car.
[This message has been edited by JohnWPB (edited 03-29-2018).]
John: thanks for the link to your thread. i can feel your frustration from years of effort. i had an issue with the fuel pump filter in the gas tank. Took me forever to figure it out, and now that she is running well, i think that i will put the swap on hold and just enjoy the car. i will however, continue to read 3800 swap threads to learn as much as i can before i begin, when my current Iron Duke wears out. blessings jon
------------------ I'm the original owner of a white ' 84 2M4 purchased Dec 10, 1983 from Pontiac. Always garaged, no rust, 4-wheel drifts are fun!
Wow! Has it really been over 2 years since posting here! unreal......
Anyhow, the car has pretty much sat for that entire time. I had grown so frustrated with everything I just had to step away and ge other things in life in order and spend time on more important things.
That said, I am back at it again.
When I parked the car, I was starting to have transmission problems. When put in drive it was in 3rd gear. I got around this for a week or so before parking it again, by manually shifting the automatic transmission. Just a couple weeks ago, I began to try to get the car ready to take to Carlisle. I put in a new battery, and had 4 new tires put on. I took it to the transmission shop. When they hooked up to the OBDII, they could get no reading from the transmission at all. Almost like the equipment was not plugged in, and called me the next day asking me to come get it. They explained that it appeared the ECM was not able to command the transmisssion, and suggesting some specialty (AKA $$$$$$$) shop to trace the connections problems. That is when I said enough is enough. I have replaced everything else on the car 2 to 3 times at this point, so why not the wiring harness?
EVERYTHING up to this point seems to be with communication with sensors, issues with the wrong version (NA / SC) Series II Throttle body. Glitches in connections, MAF versions, and on and on. I am going all in, and replacing the entire wiring harness, and switching over to a Northstar Throttle Body as well.
I put out a call on FB for suggestions, and Danny McIlmoyle's name kept coming up. I contacted him, and he is working on my new wiring harness as I type this. He is reprogramming new ECM with all my current information, and setting it up for a Northstar throttle body and MAF. In a week or so I should be receiving a new wiring harness, MAF sensor, and the Northstar Throttle body from him, The adapter plate from ZZP performance that I ordered 10 minutes ago should be here in a few days. It is the Northstar to Series III Generation 5 adapter meant to work on the M90 Supercharger.
With any luck (Yea Right!!!! LOL) The transmission will shift normally, as it COULD be a communication problem from ECM to transmission due to faulty wiring. If not, it's probably going to be another $1,000 or so to take it to the transmission shop again.
This is where the car sits as of now parked out in the open for 3 years. The paint job that I got royally screwed over on from MAACO got far worse, like I thought that was even possible. It has started to blister and bubble, and crack in some places. Just about all of it has solvent popped, so it feels like running your hand over 100 grit sandpaper. If you buff those tiny bubbles out, it leaves white spots behind.
This was the car when I parked it 3 years ago:
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And here it is as of a week ago LOTS of work to try and get her back in shape for Carlisle.
[This message has been edited by JohnWPB (edited 05-09-2021).]
I applaud it all except that steering wheel bothers me i would use a restored stock gt wheel or a drilled out sparco that fitted without hub. Hubs are aweful in a fiero as two inches closer means elbows out.
[This message has been edited by Australian (edited 05-15-2021).]
I applaud it all except that steering wheel bothers me i would use a restored stock gt wheel or a drilled out sparco that fitted without hub. Hubs are aweful in a fiero as two inches closer means elbows out.
That blue cloth in the center was meant to be temporary. Behind that cloth is a piece of dense foam that I am going to apply body filler to. I will sand it all perfectly smooth and shape it, and inlay a Fiero logo in the center. It will then be painted a gloss gray to match the rest of the steering wheel. (Think of how the Solstice steering wheel looks) I just have not gotten around to finishing it, as I have spent time and effort on TRYING to get it to run right, as well as being a project on the back burner, as it is functional for now LOL I went with the TA steering wheel, as the controls will interface to the in dash tablet I will be installing.
[This message has been edited by JohnWPB (edited 05-15-2021).]
Hi John, Do the steering wheel controls work and if so what are they controlling? Do you plan on hooking them up too your android head unit? How will you interface them with the non stock stereo? What happened to the hp tablet? Have a good day
Hi John, Do the steering wheel controls work and if so what are they controlling? Do you plan on hooking them up too your android head unit? How will you interface them with the non stock stereo? What happened to the hp tablet? Have a good day
They are not working as of yet, I need one last piece, a clockspring to get them to work. The buttons will control the android tablet I will be installing in the center console radio cluster area.
This is what the tablet I installed in my Cadillac's screen looks like. Of course for the Fiero one, I will remove the A/C controls along the bottom of the screen.
This is what it looks like in the dash. (My Cadillac is a 2010 and didn't have the option of having a screen there. It was just a large radio cluster for the most part before installing the tablet.)
I know the Cadillac is newer and has can=bus ,is that how you interfaced the ac controls? I been away from the car pc scene for awhile and want to put steering wheel controls in a non obd 2 vehicle. I don't want to side track your thread with stuff that doesn't apply to fieros.
I know the Cadillac is newer and has can=bus ,is that how you interfaced the ac controls? I been away from the car pc scene for awhile and want to put steering wheel controls in a non obd 2 vehicle. I don't want to side track your thread with stuff that doesn't apply to fieros.
I Cheated with he Cadillac It is a prebuilt system that pretty much plugs right into the existing harness and controls everything. They make them for many different cars, as well as a generic one
With the Fiero, no options like this exist. For the steering wheel controls, I am using an RCJoycon controller that plugs into the USB on my tablet. I luckily have OBDII as that was a nice side effect of the 3800 engine swap.
The front end software you can install on ANY tablet. It is fantastic even without OBD controls. Port the audio out of the headphone jack, and into your sound system, and you are good to go. Google Maps, Amazon, Spotifi and I think Pandora music integration ect. With CarLauncher's Pro version, (I think its like $5) you can customize the screens with pretty much anything you want, widgets, information such as current track, artist album art ect. You can check out the free version with limited customizability.
so the wiring harness came from Danny in Canada yesterday afternoon. It was accompanied by a programmed ECM, North Star Throttle body, and the MAF.
THE TB was a bit grungy, but nothing a little cleaning, light sanding, etching primer, paint to match the rest of the accessories and finally fuel resistant clear coat.
Before:
After making it pretty: Ok,
[This message has been edited by JohnWPB (edited 05-30-2021).]
They are not working as of yet, I need one last piece, a clockspring to get them to work. The buttons will control the android tablet I will be installing in the center console radio cluster area.
This is what the tablet I installed in my Cadillac's screen looks like. Of course for the Fiero one, I will remove the A/C controls along the bottom of the screen.
This is what it looks like in the dash. (My Cadillac is a 2010 and didn't have the option of having a screen there. It was just a large radio cluster for the most part before installing the tablet.)
I bought one of those 10.2 inch androids for my rx300. Been eyeing it out in fiero dash before i install it.
So, got the wiring harness installed in the Fiero today. Fired it up, and it ran perfectly...... for 2 seconds. Started it again, 2 seconds and it dies. Tried multiple times, fanning the throttle, reving it and every single time, it dies at 2 seconds.
I plugged in the old computer, and it runs, just badly, as it was designed for s whole different setup. It turns out that the computer does not have the VATS turned off in its tune. This is Vehicle Anti Theft System. Danny is programming another ECM, and sending it my way.
LOTS of work to try and get her back in shape for Carlisle.
It is a prebuilt system that pretty much plugs right into the existing harness and controls everything. They make them for 
Ok,
