Last Indian

Nathan, I agree 100%! All should enjoy their own choices in how they choose their car to be! As I said, when I wrote it was informational, it wasn’t directive or assertive. The thought behind giving that information was because it seems some of your perceptions of certain suspension mechanics seem a little conflicting, and I apologize if my perception is off. As a example, you keep mentioning firming up the ride and handling response, which to me makes me think you relate the two as one in the same or interrelated! If you do, and I am not saying you are, they are not! Springs, shock/struts and certain bushings affect the ride, as do certain structural materials like the frame, a “99” had a steel frame I believe the “05” has an aluminum one. This all affects the ride, I.E. hard, soft or in between. The center of gravity, the roll center, sway bars, end links and certain bushings affect handling, Yaw and the like! You can have a relatively standard OEM ride and still have a car that handles/corners at the level of a sports car! If your choice is a OEM car, I applaud you! That is just as difficult to maintain as a modified car, sometimes harder! I just what to make sure we are speaking the same terminology.

Hey I didn’t know Frosty stood for frosted flake !

Yup! It does! Also at this point, the NACA duct that comes from the Kaminari add on, which overlays the OEM cover I plan to enhance the ducts and make them functional. That whole area on the lower side of the cover/Kaminari add on & the splitter become a low pressure area. Which in turn should become ideal for even a better Ram Air! How was Golling?

Well it’s one of those things you can’t put your finger on, at least not yet! Not till I get into it. I have a basic plan, but it will develop into a concept as I get into it a little further. The gist is, while, again I can’t put my finger on all of it there’s just something lacking in the current front cover/Kaminari add on piece & the splitter. The splitter I know! It just looks incomplete, lacking, just kind of hanging in space. That I’ve already started to address, see pics! One of the things I did recently, while not necessarily obvious, without comparing photos. Is I cut down the center stanchion as well as the end stanchions, you can’t see those very easily. This helps to tuck the splitter up tighter to the cover bottom. You can kind of tell when you look at the pictures with the add on piece vs the picture the says current. The front cover/Kaminari piece I have yet to completely conceptualize yet, but it will be different than the other, especially the side Naca ducts. Current splitter look is below.

Well, picked up my new front cover from my favorite GM dealer! Great guy I’ve dealt with them for 34 years and have always gotten me what I needed, even in a few cases where it was the last part in North America that was sitting at a dealership in Pureto Rico, literally!

Well I get it from, well you know, shhhhh, but for you not sure. One of your GM shops might have it. Otherwise it would have to be a chemical supplier or possibly a dry cleaner. It actually is a fairly safe solvent. Obviously you should always wear the proper PPE, but TS doesn’t deposit in the liver like most other high end aromatics.

Just as a informational source, sway bars, as you know make a huge difference in handling, but the real weak link in the 6th & 7th generation GP’s were the links! Without the right configuration for the front end links, there is only about a 40% impact on handling! The front links are to tall & too small in bolt diameter! The rear links are just plain abominable! They have less then a 20% impact on handling! Take a look at the bar diameter and than look at the end link rod diameter! Yes, the poly bushings will make a vast improvement in the performance of both bars, but only when you change the end links! With the stock links the improvement is negligible. The good news is those improvements really have very little impact on ride quality! AKA soft vs stiff. Likewise the upper motor mounts in poly is good! They help control engine rotation and using poly makes that even more effective, which in turn helps deliver more of the available torque to the wheels via the transaxle. The lower engine mount and transmission mount on the other hand really don’t. They are for dampening, thus they simple transmit more resonance frequency to the frame structure, causing more of a uncomfortable underlying vibration. Yes you will feel it in the wheel, but its not feedback, its just structural resonation, not power or handling feedback. You need to be happy with the ride you create, but the KYB AGX is a better, far different strut than the Gr2. If you set the ride control to the softest setting they ride quite well, but if I remember right have a larger shaft than the Gr2 and definitely larger than the OEM strut and the AGX are just a different mechanical design than the Gr2. That shaft is the only upper connection of the entire front suspension. The smaller that shaft the less stable the entire wheel assemble is and the more flex there is in that assembly. So even strut tower braces can’t help that! Likewise the lower control arm/Aarm is a weak link at the bottom because of the ineffective, illogical vertical front bushing which is one step away from worthless, IMO. This coupled with a smaller than necessary strut shaft account for most of the reason for torque steer in these cars.

Sorry to hear about the mess buddy! I don’t know what year the Camaro gear box is, but if it’s from 2000 on up it is most likely metric. If that is true, and I know it’s too late, but for future reference, they make adaptors that would have allowed you to use the hose you had. For the fluid cleanup, if you can get your hands on Textile Spirits, that and a stiff brush will remove the oil. Textile Spirits liquifies oil and then evaporates very quickly taking the oil molecules with it. It will also clean the concrete and make it even whiter, but once the dirt re-enters the concrete, over time, it will look normal again. I would then follow up with JustA’s Dawn soap, the blue one. If you can’t get Textile Spirits you can use lacquer thinner, but be careful if you use that. Textile Spirits doesn’t burn very easily, but obviously thinner does! Thinner also doesn’t liquify oil and evaporate as well as Textile Spirits!

Nice adds! Look good! Did you do anything with the sway bar links or sway bar bushings? Any work to the front lower Aarm? Struts? Just wondered?

Well here we go again! This OCD thing is starting to get a little much I know! That said i’m JustA not happy withe the front cover/splitter mod. It’s lacking that punch I was looking for. So guess what I’ll be doing this winter? Right a new front cover, a new front Kaminari lower cover add-on plus additional mods to both pieces and a additional add/change to the front splitter. The front splitter will be different on the finishing ends. Instead of ending 3/4 of the way to the wheel well opening it will finish at the wheel well with an outer wing.

Welcome Nathan! Nice assemblage of GPs. The 3800 had/has a lot more potential than most understood. As did many of GMs FWDs in general. If you’re looking for info or just general ideas to peruse, you will enjoy the site.

Nothing wrong with Notallthere’s fix. Still in all my years of racing and street use the cheapest fix, that also makes removal a breeze is this. Get 316 SS hex head bolts the correct length needed for your application and 316 SS lock washers. Torque them properly and they’ll never move. Because of the chrome/nickel percentage content, they expand and contract properly without loosing memory. Plus when you need to remove them they come right out since they don’t gaul in cast steel, cast iron or aluminum.

You’ll love the Rock Hall, you might consider visiting the Crawford Auto/Aviation Museum as well!

Looks great! The “97”-“03” seats were/are nice seats.

I didn’t notice the N.E. Ohio. Obviously from the area around Cleveland! I know the M.D. Garage by Boston Mills. 2000 GP seat are a good choice 😁! Neutral/tan I hope!

Welcome fellow Buckeye!

You better ! On the other hand I’m just

Hey! You know your stuff is nothing to “Crow” about either!

Guess it’s good I didn’t say, Something seems a fowl! 😜

Welcome! Clearly your love is for the birds! 😁

As you know the squealing is from the belt. You might consider changing, in the down season, the pulleys to wider deeper groove pulleys as they use a wider belt. Because of this they carry more load, which is what’s needed due to the resistance being incurred. Also consider using a good synthetic fluid for the power steering.

That’s what I would do! The housing may be cracked at one of the bracket bolts or the O’ring seal at the pump to housing may have failed. That said it’s doubtful that it’s the gear box and if it was it would be the pinion lip seal. Which should have shown up as a regular drip leak.

Ok, so if I step through this as best I can. The pump wasn’t running in general? Sitting it lost most of the fluid? And this was after you changed the belt? I would inspect/ look at the power steering pump/housing & the hose connections at the housing. Check the housing for a crack, on the bottom or around the hose connection fittings & around the face area were the pump inserts into the housing. The steering box and hose connections at the box would only empty the pump when it was running as a rule.

Wasn’t there an obvious drip point relative to the puddle?