'96 Century general project thread

[LeftVentricle]

As I said earlier in the thread, the A-body cars and the U-body vans (up to '96) share lots of components, and a member of the A-body board found that van struts are directly compatible with the cars. He installed them on this 1984 Olympic Edition Century. According to him, they offer stiffer valving and improved handling with little to no negative effect on ride quality. So I picked up a set of Monroe 71820 Sensa-Tracs from Rock Auto. They were on sale for about $20 each. I still need to get new variable-rate springs, seats and mounts, but I will install them soon. Watch this space. I already have a van sway bar, which, even with stock suspension, improved handling immensely. I expect the struts will make it even better.

Also, I have designs of acquiring another project. The local craigslist has a 2001 Impala (3400) for $500 with a bad head gasket. If it's still available in the next week or so, I will probably pick it up. Both my wife and one of my daughters have expressed interest in learning how to tear apart an engine. I may post another thread about that car if I get it, but the procedure is more or less the same as what I documented for my wagon.

[Purple pit]

Costs less to have a pipe without the flare. That is the way things work these days. Keep on them and don't give up. Think about a lawyer. A trans rebuild is around $1,500, not sure if that still falls under small claims.

[LeftVentricle]

Double posting, but I have opened a claim with U-haul's insurance company. That's probably all I am legally allowed to disclose at this point now.

[LeftVentricle]

Bad tidings with the white wagon. A few weeks ago, the transmission started slipping very badly while driving. Within a half mile, it had gone out of gear completely. A quick under-hood inspection showed large amounts of trans fluid had leaked out, and splashed about the driver's side of the engine bay, the subframe, the inner CV, the underside of the car, and the exhaust. I got the car home, and was so angry that I just left it there on the street in front of my house. After putting it off for going on three weeks, I finally just broke down and crawled under it to find out the cause of the enormous transmission leak. Click for larger, please.



As some of you may recall, earlier in the year, I took a trip to Kansas and towed a trailer full of my mother-in-law's stuff back to Las Vegas. Naturally, I had a hitch and external transmission cooler installed by U-Haul at the same time. The image above is the meeting between the stock trans cooler line and the hose going to the external cooler. What appears to have occurred is the metal tube joining the two hoses popped out, and the trans oil pump dutifully pumped most of the fluid onto the street while I was driving. As you can see, the end of the metal tube is not flared, so the hose clamp had nothing to hang on to. What's surprising is that it lasted this long.

I brought this to the attention of the manager of the U-Haul store. He was skeptical at first when I showed him that picture, but when I removed the hose from the car and presented it to him, he was incredibly accommodating. Since he is not a mechanic, he said to take the metal bit to a shop and have it flared (I don't own a flaring tool) and bring him the receipt, and I will be recompensated. I did just that, but the flared end ended up being too large to fit back in the rubber hose. I then went to a hardware store and purchased a barbed fitting, 5/16" on each end, which solved the whole leak problem.

It took six quarts to bring the fluid back to a useable level. I have driven the car about 40 miles, including steady highway cruising, and it seems to be mostly okay. However, I believe it may have sustained some damage in this whole thing. The shift from first to second is not the same as it was before. It slips more, behaving much like the old transmission this one replaced did. I considered adding some Lucas additive this morning, but the fluid level is good, and I don't want to overfill it.

I asked the U-Haul manager what steps we would need to take if damage had occurred to my transmission. His response was that "U-Haul Legal" would then have to be involved. I think U-Haul Legal may have to be involved.

[LeftVentricle]

It is the bottom of the control arm. The A-body also does not have a rear sway bar. Addco makes one. It requires holes be drilled in the body to install it.

[robertisaar]

w-bodies are similar in that they also bolt directly to the control arm. that looks like the bottom side of the control arm though?

[Purple pit]

Wild, almost looks like a rear bar.

[LeftVentricle]

No. End brackets bolt directly to the control arms. Phone posting right now. I'll post a picture later.

EDIT: Click for larger.

[Purple pit]

Guessing that you don't have end links on these cars.

[LeftVentricle]

Not sure what is going on with the sway. Some sort of change between the years?

I don't rightly know either. You may be right. The white wagon is a '96, while the yellow sedan is a '92, and I got the bar from a '96. I don't really see GM changing the positioning of the sway bar mounting studs for no reason. I think the control arms are even shared between car and van. But no big deal. The stock one bolted back in.

[Purple pit]

Going to say that the van springs will raise the front a bit too much. The only other thing you can do with springs is have a spring shop test the stock ones. Then they can try and make some replacements or a bit stiffer springs(if later you would like to have the APV rears). The brake upgrade would be a great idea as newer cars have much better brakes and stop much shorter.

Not sure what is going on with the sway. Some sort of change between the years?

[LeftVentricle]

Installing the U-body van sway bar on my '92 sedan ended up being a bust. I spent the better part of three hours fighting it, and ended up just throwing the stock bar back in. The bar-to-control-arm brackets just would not line up with the studs on the arms. I would get one side loosely bolted on, then the other would be 3/4" off. It wasn't a problem at all when I did the swap on this white wagon. I'm left scratching my head a little here.

As for the van brakes, there is a laundry list of parts that one has to acquire. The majority of them can be bought new, but the steering knuckle, as far as I can tell, is NLA, so you have to get it from a 92-96 van at a junkyard. The brake components (pad, rotor, caliper) you buy new, specifying for the van. You can even get drilled and slotted rotors and carbon-ceramic pads if you want! Then you have to use van ball joints, tie rod ends, and rubber brake lines, since the stock car lines are about 5/8" too short. The hub must be used from the A-body car. Then it's just a matter of screwing everything together. Once you do though, you won't be able to use your stock 14" wheels anymore. You will have to move up to 15" at minimum.

According to most sources I've found, the U-body van shares its front brakes with the C, E, F, G, H, and K platform cars. Year ranges vary, but it's generally mid-90s.

Then there's the van struts. Someone over at a-body.net found that the van strut is the same physical size as the one for the car, but the damping is much stiffer, since the van that weighs something like 500 pounds more. Then you just bolt on the spring and mount from the car, and slap the whole thing back in to place. Using the van spring will raise the front of the car a bit, but I'm not sure how much.

You can also use Lumina APV cargo van rear springs if you wanna stiffen up the rear. I don't plan on doing that anytime soon though.

[Purple pit]

Was thinking that the Le Sabre strut tower bar would fit. Sounds like that is a no. On the bushings they were universal , links were on the shelf at Advance Auto and the frame to bar was from Summit(just had to find out the size in mm).

Wow 3.73 is a bit much. Looks like you have the cruise RPM about right with the 3.33.

[LeftVentricle]

I'm happy with my 3.33FDR, but kind of wish I'd gone for the 3.43FDR(oh well).

I've gone the other way, having a 3.33 re-chained to 3.73 in my old Celebrity, and I ended up not liking it. Even with the old 2.8 doing only 98 hp at the wheels, it would burnout quite easily, but my highway fuel economy suffered greatly. I went from a consistent 29-30 mpg down to 25-26, both at 65 mph. With a 3.33 and 25.5 inch tires, the engine will be spinning right at 2000 rpm at 65 mph, right in what I would consider the "sweet spot" for a 3500 with a torque cam.

Can tell you that poly bushings on the sway do help, took years to just up and do it. No regrets and just a few head smacks for not doing it sooner.

Would you happen to remember where you got poly bushings? I'm having trouble even finding regular rubber bushings for the bracket that bolts to the control arm for the '96 van bar I picked up. I can get some for the Century, but they apparently don't even exist for the Trans Sport.

Is there a strut tower bar that works from another car?

Not really. Someone over at a-body.net modified one of the C/H platform bars, but to my knowledge there isn't one specifically for the A-body.

[Purple pit]

For sure going to watching close now. Like the swap and also like small upgrades to make it a little better. It's much like the work that I've done and still have to do on my car. I'm happy with my 3.33FDR, but kind of wish I'd gone for the 3.43FDR(oh well).
Can tell you that poly bushings on the sway do help, took years to just up and do it. No regrets and just a few head smacks for not doing it sooner. Is there a strut tower bar that works from another car?