Hola senors and senoritas. Found a gem, but have some Q's before I buy it.

[Lindenmooch]

Hail! My name is Tony. I love the look of these cars. They seem so happy and eager, like a puppy racing around your ankles. Always said I'd get one some day. Well I found a 1989 carb'd 5 speed for sale. Guy only wants 500 Drakes for it, and it runs/drives alright. It hesitates when you floor it, but will rev up ok when you just massage the throttle. I could swear I heard the unmistakable crunching sound of the axles tearing themselves apart....but I could be wrong. However, for lolz....how much do new axles cost? And it's leaking a good bit of oil out of the valve cover gasket...and maybe other places too?


Can you guys tell me if these cars are notorious for any certain issues I should be aware of? I'm still going to buy the car regardless...I would just like to know what to fix/replace first. I'm probably going to buy a few cans of Seafoam for the cylinders/fuel system/oil system/trans.



Also....didn't update my profile yet. I'm from Pottsville, PA. 25 years old, working as an apprentice mechanic for a small used car dealership.

-Mooch.

[perucho]

Rebuild half shafts at NAPA used to be $45 plus core not long ago. Replacing the VC gasket is very inexpensive too.

[wybnrml]

Welcome! Sounds like it is a LX model since it has a 5 speed transmission, unless it's been replaced.

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

My suggestion would be to hold out for fuel-injected if you can. I've spent several years trying to cure "stumbling" on my pristine silver WA 88LX, including paying a carb shop to overhaul my carb and to install a completely new ignition system, only to have them say basically "That's the best we can do." It continues to stumble and gets at most 215 miles on a tank (about 25mpg). It's lethargic even at moderate RPMs, and I have to back down to 3rd gear for the slightest hill.

For comparison, I have another 88 where I've done absolutely NOTHING to it except change the oil, and it consistently gets 39city (with jackrabbit starts at every light) and about 50 highway (mountainous in AK) all the time, despite only being a 4-speed.

When I get a chance, I'm going to transplant a FI'd engine (and fuel tank and wiring) into the 88LX, since I don't know what else I can do. BTW, the motor was completely overhauled (incl new cam, pistons, valves) less than 50,000 miles ago.

You might get lucky with a carb'd Festy, but my opinion would be to go FI.

[bhazard]

Theres some talk on here about swapping a Weber carb on that really wakes the carb motors up and gets rid of a lot of the mess that the emissions ridden carb cars have under the hood.

[GenevaDirt]

price sounds good....I would not be afraid of the carb. As far as the oil...valve cover, seals on both ends of the engine...oil pan gasket. Axles can be had pretty cheap like perucho said....about 50 to 60 bucks.

[FestYboy]

the hesitation can be either from the accel pump in the carb not pushing fuel or from the dizzy not getting a proper vac signal or the vac solenoid/diaphram failure at the dizzy. i'd check those first.

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

FestYboy,

If my stumbling problem were the accel pump not working, how would that explain the lousy fuel mileage. I would think I would get better, not worse, mileage.