This is a quiestion I have been pondering for a while.....I have a red top optima and a AC delco alternator. Belts also new as well. My battery cables are origanal as far as I can tell. The connectors have gotten corroded a few times and I clean them off. Do you think that if I put on new cables*postive and negative* and since everything else is faily new, that it would boost the electrical to the battery thus increasing my voltage output. At crank up its 14.3 but after driving for a while its around 13.7 and at night time with all my lights and my upgraded foglights and the radio and it was 13.1 idling in drive at 700 RPMs.....If I put my foot on the gas and brake it goes back up....but if i had my underbody neons on, it wouldve gone down to 12.9 to 13.0.....I also read that if I had underdrive pullys such as the March 3 piece system would make it go down even lower! So do you think that the new cables would help or not?

2nd I don't think PeteK gets on here as much but I wanna no if the tranny guy was lieing when he rebuilt my transmission about the clutch pack he said theres 9 disc in there....Is that right or not? Before was 6? Also, is it bad to shift my automatic? I like feeling it shift. Another thing, when I put it in netural the idle rises to abotu 800 RPMs when I put it back in drive....it jerks HARD and goes back down to normal idle. It has always done that since the day I got it until now and theres plenty of fresh fluid as well.......Is it normal? On my 90 that I had 3 years ago, I don't remember it doing that. I wanna remember seeing on CF a while back......that the later models had a cushion so it wouldnt thud. Is that why my car hits drive so hard?

How do I get the bulbs out of my digidash? Can I get them at Napa or something?....I can't pull them out, I am scmared I will break it because the tachometer side has no bulbs they are all burned out. Other side is nice and bright though.

On the drivers side, where the door handle is, I asked Theangelofdeath and he said there is a piece of plastic or nylon where the screws go into, my screws won't hold in, so I figured it must have gotten moved over. I bought the door handle savers from ecklers for 20 dollars. Passenger side works excellent but I still cant get the screws in the drivers side. how do I find the peice of plastic or if Its broken, how do I fix the problem?

How do I reinforce the middle part of the spoiler on my car. It hangs so loosely. The side pieces are tight but theres only the middle section it bolts into. Me and my dad were trying to figure out because it wiggles and scrapes all the time adn I have lost a couple and I don't feel like paying 50 dollars for another one, even though I must say, the car runs cooler while driving with the spoiler peice back on than before without.

Has anyone ever heard of this. Sounds strange but true. I had a CD player/system put in my car a while back and it kept skipping radio and CD....thought it was teh alternator. No. Then it went away. Then it came back....We took it to a specialist in radios and he said, your radio shoulda had a shield to protect it from the waves from the distributor.....he stuffed tinfoil thickly behind the CD player and around the distributor under the hood. Fixed it. Then it started back. Tin foil mustve moved. We then made a shield out of aluminum foil and it fixed it. I talked about this on another forum and on CF and someone said the earlier models WERE suppose to have a shield. True? Stereo shop could not figure it out.....

Thats all I wanted to ask. I was typing this all in one big paragraph but I remembered bogus said to use the Enter Key
so here it is all nice and spaced out.

I am so proud. <sniff>

let's see...

Battery cables: Your numbers are not that far off. But I have noticed that corrosion can creap up the wire... and anything like that will increase resistance. Increased resistance = lost energy. So it would not hurt, considering the age, to get new cables.

Transmission: I can't help you with the transmission questions, perhaps Casey can. Pete comes back from time to time. I think he will start hanging out more now that traffic is increasing.

Bulbs: To get to the bulbs, you have to first remove the digi-dash. It's not hard... just a lot of screws around the edges... and it does take time. The bulbs themselves are simply twist in plastic fittings. Very simple. The bulbs... hm... I think you can get them, but I can't remember the code for them off hand.

Door: This is easy. GM sells these little nylon inserts that act has nuts. They are the right part with the right fit. They come in bags of like 20 or so.

Spoiler: It is time for a new one... once they collapse, they are toast. I would consider one of those big mouth intakes... I am gonna get one.

Radio: Explain skipped? These cars did not come with any shielding. That is an old school fix. HEI wasn't as prone to this problem as the the old points and condenser distributors were. I would make damned sure the ground is right. Any whining coming from the speakers? What brand is the head unit?

If you need parts, call Chris May at Superior Chevy, 1.800.728.8267. He will get you any GM part at a great price. Tell him you are a member of C4 Guru...

So, I just put the screw thru the nylon insert? or? what do I ask?.....the spoiler IS NEW! Its loose though. As far as I can see its all screwed in. I didnt do it my dad did but we both say it is missing something....Big mouth air dam? Kinda expensive tahts why i am gooing to buy zaks screen for a short while to help keep it clean and neat under there until i can get a big mouth and hopefully delete the middle section and give it a clean look.


The skipped is like what im saying, the song has cut outs, like when you bleep something no sound....no whining....The shop has had it there four times and believe it or not, they say its fixed and we say no its not and take it back and they say its fine YEA WHILE IDLING but when you drive it comes in and out. Head unit? I have a kenwood 600 watt amp 2 12" sony xplodes in a box, 2 4X9s in the wheel well 2 4 alphines in the doors and then the CD player is kenwood as well.......All new wiring....Weird huh? It still does it a little when I hit a bump but then goes away almsot instnatly....wish I had a cam corder to post on here so you guys could see what I mean.... running straight off the battery or idling its perfect! Just when you hit the accelerorator SOMETIMES and when you hit a bump......

Hey I need to add one thing that just miracolously happened a bit ago while i left. I took my car out for a cruise and rolling thru a stoplight I dropped the gas and it shifted hard....over at CF a while back, I had to replace my fuel pump and Da mail man sent me an email becuse I told him and we pmd abotu it how my gauge for gas was STUCK at full. Tonight when I floored it. It dropped down to near empty which I am sure it is because it only had 5 dollars worth of gas in it!!! Is this not crazy? My dad said when he was replacing it that he thought it got stuck and couldnt get it back in. I hope this means its fine and I don't want the fuel pump to get starved when I am driving thru a intersection and stall out!! Any thoughts?

Never mind. Put 10 more dollars in it and it went back up to full and wont come down....No fuel pump starvation though....One good thing. Stupid gauge.

B1ack86,you crack me up,You remind me of my son,he was never afraid or shy to ask questions.
Even if it was something that no one else would have ask about,That's a good thing,sometimes I wish that I was a little more loose lipped.
Keep pluggin away buddy. :thumbleft:

Um...I wanted to know....

If it was real low it possibly could have starved. Wonder if he sdidnt tweak the sending unit when he put it back in

Quote:

My mechanic has been to busy to work with it. How do you reset it. I think it's the floater that is not sitting in the right position. Apparently, it may take a few tries to get it to set right. It was accurate before this.

I would say your charging system is fine. The voltage figures you post are good. When you start the car the alternator is full fielded or close to it. Thats why you see the 14.3 volts. The 13.1 volts is good with the accesories on. The reason the volts go up when you hit the brake is because the bulbs being lit call for more demand from the alternator....if its doing its job, the volts go up. The underbody lighting is a draw on the charging system that was never intended to be there. Your loss of 2 tenths of a volt isnt bad considering that. And remember, a fully charged battery is technically 12.7volts....I think youre ok.

Getting new cables wont hurt anything per say, but I dont believe you will see more than a tenth of a volt, maybe 2 increase. If your car is starting with no problem and the battery is holding its charge, then I'd say your fine.
just my .02

If I were you, I'd work on the fuel float myself. It is easy, comes out through the fuel door. If you take it out (need to twist it around a little as it comes out through the hole) gently, then hold it up and push the float up to full you might see what it is hanging up on. It could be sticking on something in the tank but usually not.

Also, I'd post a separate question about the tranny with "tranny question for PeteK" in the subject line to make sure PeteK sees it. I know you won't hurt your tranny by shifting it manually, as long as you don't overrev the engine. Also, don't downshift at a high rpm to let the engine help slow the car down, that is hard on the tranny. I think your hard shift into drive is pretty normal, depending on how hard. Pete will be able to give you better answers, you could also PM him.

Your alternator and battery is fine, no worries there. If you continue to add electrical accessories to your car and the voltage gets too low at idle with everything on you will need to try and find a higher output alternator. You could try to find a smaller pulley to spin your alternator a little faster, but don't overdo it as rpm's kill our alternators.

I installed an alpine head unit with all new wiring and have never had the radio problem you speak of so I can't help you there.

Quote:

Black86. As far as your dash bulbs, if you get them from a dealer or other local supplier they will charge you about $28 bucks each for them.

I got mine through:

http://www.zip-products.com/Zip/asset ... l/homepage.asp?URLCheck=1

Seems like they were $10 bucks each if I remember correctly.

Thanks for keeping the thread alive guys but I have everything settled up as far as I can go.

I did talk to petek awhile back about the tranny quietsions and all is fine there.

I have checked the charging system and DID replace the battery cables. It did not improve anything but it's something that should be good for a long time.

I did get the digidash bulbs put in recently.

I got a new spoiler awhile back and that fixed it. It is much nicer looking and does not hang loosely.

The only thing left is the stereo system which *I* quit messing with, the hell with the shop that installed it. Dad is wiring a filter for the battery to see if that helps or not. So no more threads on that unless I find something useful to add. I got a little upset a few days ago.

Oh yea, gas gauge issue. I had a email sent to me with instructions on how to reset it and am going to tinker with it myself. It shouldn't be hard. Just trial and error and lots of time!

I would like to thank everyone for there input and keeping this thread alive. I do owe a big thanks to bogus for putting up with me.

Also a big thanks to Central for helping me with the digibulbs the other day.

Next on the list is the Led taillights which I did make a separate thread on. With the pics I have seen of them, they should blind the tailgaters at night.