What Did You Do to Your A-Body Today?

[gbb]

93 Century wagon - Just finished replacing fuel pump. Did this just a year and a half ago. Put in a Carquest brand, other one was a Spectra. Hope this lasts a whole lot longer.

[Century7667]

Yeah, can't find any here in the Chicago land area either. Wish I could though. I have been using Sta-Bil in my fuel as I don't drive her much and I keep her topped off.

Drive to Wisconson; closer to you than me! Lots of good gas there!

Ken T.

[Century7667]

93 Century wagon - Just finished replacing fuel pump. Did this just a year and a half ago. Put in a Carquest brand, other one was a Spectra. Hope this lasts a whole lot longer.

Do you know who they source their pumps from?

Ken T.

[CorvairGeek]

93 Century wagon - Just finished replacing fuel pump. Did this just a year and a half ago. Put in a Carquest brand, other one was a Spectra. Hope this lasts a whole lot longer.

I'm baffled by these aftermarket failures and short lifespan, at least in GM and Ford. It doesn't seem like there is really all that much to these pumps, and I really don't like changing the pump without an access hole.
I did note that my replacement Delphi pump did have "Delphi" and other info laser etched in the body of the pump. At least it is marked different than the others that probably come out of the same plant in Mexico!

[Keiths1976]

Sometimes I feel this was done on purpose to retire the older cars into the junk yard and people would buy all shiny new cars and spend more money . Goes with all the parts out there notice good parts are not easy to come by and all have to use China crap cause the original parts made in USA are ghost towns and new developments now . Or some older gentleman sells them at car meets i ran across a guy selling 6000 ste tail lights new in a box for 300 and the grill was 250 . For the 94-6 line up of a -bodies are easy to find but the 93 and under 3300 I haven't seen in a few months in the junk yard . Ok my rant is over carry on lol have a good Sunday everyone

[gbb]

I agree with all of you, don't know what your getting. Next time, and there will be a next time, I am going to try a external fp.

[Century7667]

I'm baffled by these aftermarket failures and short lifespan, at least in GM and Ford. It doesn't seem like there is really all that much to these pumps, and I really don't like changing the pump without an access hole.
I did note that my replacement Delphi pump did have "Delphi" and other info laser etched in the body of the pump. At least it is marked different than the others that probably come out of the same plant in Mexico!

The S10 with the 2.2 is notorious for fuel pump issues (150,000 miles and then no guarantees). Based on discussions over there: AC Delco, Delphi or Bosch. No luck with any of the other bands.

Ken T.

[Century7667]

I agree with all of you, don't know what your getting. Next time, and there will be a next time, I am going to try a external fp.

It's not easy to figure out, but if you do your homework....maybe, just maybe, you might get your answer. I was investigating coils a while back, and was able to determine that the Standard premium coil and the GM professional coil were the same.....except for the color of the plastic. There's just a huge range of pricing (from $9 for "Ultra-Power" to $40-$41 for either a AC Delco OEM or AC Delco Professional with the OEM slighly more expensive). If one were to expect the $9 coil to be all that and a bag of chips....I dunno. I'm betting you get what you pay for. Now if one buys the OEM or the AC Delco Professional for $40 and they dont' last we definitely have a problem. But, if one gets the coil by Standard, it's only $30 and looks like the exact same coil, but not the same pic. What I got when I ordered the thing was a blue one. Time will tell if it lasts. Maybe mine will fail and I can lament it all. Spectra was $11 BTW.

Ken T.

[Keiths1976]

I replaced my old girls front brake hoses . Figures she’s a 95 old enough to be changed and updated . Now I have one front wheel bearing going to change since the passenger decided to not wanting to play nicely for 22 years old an 171k . So I have the drivers to do but the backs are holdin strong with no play/noise . Now the glory fun times is getting new front tires this next couple weeks . My GT version of the Buick century sedan and my driving cornering style time to put on fresh rubber .

[Century7667]

I killed a brand new battery in my '95 by letting sit for 10 months....

Ken T.

[Skip]

Ken, have you looked into one of those C-Tek battery chargers/maintainers. I absolutely love mine. When I'm not using the old Century I just hook that sucker up and it keeps the battery charged til spring without doing any damage like over charging and it maintains the battery. Every spring I wind up with a like new battery. Just a thought. Jay Leno just loves em and has on every car he owns, and if it's good enough for Jay, it's good enough for me.

[CorvairGeek]

Got the new Hankook tires installed on the '96 yesterday as well as got the interior right windshield pillar trim and weather stripping from the right front door of a 68K mile '92 Century Custom for our '92 Century Special. Our '92 had an interior water drip from the right front door during rain that I have never been able to stop, and the pillar trim has never fit correctly (which I had assumed was caused by the elderly P.O.supporting himself in and out at the windshield frame). I've tried to correct both to no avail, and no significant wear on the weather stripping.
As I removed our pillar trim (which goes clear back to the coat hook), I could see that it was clipped by the headliner about 3/8 of an inch farther back than it should have been, which explained why it fit so poorly at the windshield. I assembled it with the pillar trim fitting well at the windshield, which centered the plastic tabs in the mounts at the headliner. What I didn't expect was the coat hook was moved forward so far (about 3/8") that the phillips screw completely missed the mounting hole. I fooled with it a while before drilling a new hole in the roof structure. Everything fits great now.
I have to assume the car was assembled this poorly when it was new at this point. No accidents by the P.O. and no evidence of any body repairs.

[Century7667]

Ken, have you looked into one of those C-Tek battery chargers/maintainers. I absolutely love mine. When I'm not using the old Century I just hook that sucker up and it keeps the battery charged til spring without doing any damage like over charging and it maintains the battery. Every spring I wind up with a like new battery. Just a thought. Jay Leno just loves em and has on every car he owns, and if it's good enough for Jay, it's good enough for me.

The saddest of sad sadness and to my great shame, I had not one, but two battery maintainers handy, but didn't hook either up. I guess I didn't expect the car to be down for so long. I've read that if I trickle charge REAL SLOWLY at say 400 mA, with no more than 12.5v, over say about a week or two, the battery may be recovered to a chargeable state. After a charge, the de-sulfation process can be performed.

Ken T.

[Century7667]

Jerry,

Curious, do you know which plant yours was assembled at? Both of mine were assemble at the OKC plant.

Thanks,
Ken T.

[CorvairGeek]

Jerry,

Curious, do you know which plant yours was assembled at? Both of mine were assemble at the OKC plant.

Thanks,
Ken T.

Both of ours are OKC as well.
I had meant to check the VIN of this low mileage '92 Century Custom from which I have been getting parts. It has only one ash tray in the back of the front seats, while our Century Special has two. Made me think about this assembly plant more, as the pillar trim is the second thing I've found different as I have replaced plastic parts.