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Lots of progress on Izzystiva the past few days.
Izzystiva is the car I picked up in Houston for my friend, Izzy.
Removed front seats. They are from another car and the seatbelt buckles do not work with Festiva seat belts. I am going to find the stock seatbelt buckles.
Cleaned rearend. Spare tire well was full of nasty stuff that made lots of bubbles when I hosed it out. Removed and started painting bumpers and grille. Cut busted coolant hose on back of intake manifold to remove it when everything dries. It was too swollen to move the clamp. Rewired radio and got rid of dashboard fan switch. I don't intend to be mean to my friend, but a manually switched fan is too complicated for her. Diagnosed a bad fan relay as the culprit why a previous owner changed fans and wired a switch. Found out neither key that came with the car works on the ignition so it is now locked. Getting a key cut soon. All of my Festiva keys and my Dodge truck key operate the driver's side door, however. The car is 280,000 miles, though. Engine runs great with a little smoke when its been sitting. A/C is still R12 and blows cold. Driver's side front wheel has vertical play- assuming bad wheel bearing. Droning noise when driving as well. CV axle boots are non existent but I'll leave those alone until the axles fail which should be awhile. Steering rack has lots of play and noise. Not sure if inner or outer tie rods but can't check until I get keys to unlock the ignition and steering column. I've rigged a domelight to work with doors open. I have three Festiva domes, but none work properly so I just moved some of the contacts to work when the doors have ground. I have yet to find a working junkyard dome light. My Festiva still has an Aspire dome light mounted crooked to line up with the ground screw. Izzystiva has lots of oil and gunk on the underside of the engine. I wiped it down to try to locate any new leaks. We'll see how that goes. Reverse lights stay on, so I'm thinking reverse switch. Have to locate and diagnose. Found original shifter knob inside the brake light hole. Soaked shifter knob and cleaned it. Replaced shifter bushings with a couple I had in stock. I can now find third gear. That thing was REALLY sloppy. The shifter linkage rivet at the transmission end was replaced with a bolt by a previous owner so that will make replacing those bushings much easier when I get around to that. The clutch in this car is VERY grippy. I didn't stall it, but it grabs once you let it out, no slipping at all.
I have a very very long list of parts to find at a junkard for this car. For example, it needs visors, hatch strut, spare tire cover and carpeting, the vinyl on the back of the rear seat, headlight bulb lock ring, various interior screws (a previous owner never put any hardware back), fan relay, and A/C relay (maybe, the blower is intermittent), wiper stalk and module (replaced by an unknown one and has only one working speed), driver's side autobelt, and can't remember what else.
This car will keep me busy for awhile....
Izzystiva is the car I picked up in Houston for my friend, Izzy.
Removed front seats. They are from another car and the seatbelt buckles do not work with Festiva seat belts. I am going to find the stock seatbelt buckles.
Cleaned rearend. Spare tire well was full of nasty stuff that made lots of bubbles when I hosed it out. Removed and started painting bumpers and grille. Cut busted coolant hose on back of intake manifold to remove it when everything dries. It was too swollen to move the clamp. Rewired radio and got rid of dashboard fan switch. I don't intend to be mean to my friend, but a manually switched fan is too complicated for her. Diagnosed a bad fan relay as the culprit why a previous owner changed fans and wired a switch. Found out neither key that came with the car works on the ignition so it is now locked. Getting a key cut soon. All of my Festiva keys and my Dodge truck key operate the driver's side door, however. The car is 280,000 miles, though. Engine runs great with a little smoke when its been sitting. A/C is still R12 and blows cold. Driver's side front wheel has vertical play- assuming bad wheel bearing. Droning noise when driving as well. CV axle boots are non existent but I'll leave those alone until the axles fail which should be awhile. Steering rack has lots of play and noise. Not sure if inner or outer tie rods but can't check until I get keys to unlock the ignition and steering column. I've rigged a domelight to work with doors open. I have three Festiva domes, but none work properly so I just moved some of the contacts to work when the doors have ground. I have yet to find a working junkyard dome light. My Festiva still has an Aspire dome light mounted crooked to line up with the ground screw. Izzystiva has lots of oil and gunk on the underside of the engine. I wiped it down to try to locate any new leaks. We'll see how that goes. Reverse lights stay on, so I'm thinking reverse switch. Have to locate and diagnose. Found original shifter knob inside the brake light hole. Soaked shifter knob and cleaned it. Replaced shifter bushings with a couple I had in stock. I can now find third gear. That thing was REALLY sloppy. The shifter linkage rivet at the transmission end was replaced with a bolt by a previous owner so that will make replacing those bushings much easier when I get around to that. The clutch in this car is VERY grippy. I didn't stall it, but it grabs once you let it out, no slipping at all.
I have a very very long list of parts to find at a junkard for this car. For example, it needs visors, hatch strut, spare tire cover and carpeting, the vinyl on the back of the rear seat, headlight bulb lock ring, various interior screws (a previous owner never put any hardware back), fan relay, and A/C relay (maybe, the blower is intermittent), wiper stalk and module (replaced by an unknown one and has only one working speed), driver's side autobelt, and can't remember what else.
This car will keep me busy for awhile....
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