rrubel

The bolts for the top are a T-40 IIRC (possibly T-35). It's not unusual for the top to rattle even when tight, though - these are not the stiffest or solidly-built Vettes... Not sure about the dash rattling; there are a couple screws on top (by the defroster vent) and some on the front that also hold on the plastic trim (which can rub other pieces of trim). It's common for screws to fall out or for the mounting holes in the dash plastics to get brittle with age and break so that the pieces aren't secure.

Best solution for the rattles is to either turn up the stereo (when you get it working) or buy a louder exhaust .

[RICHR]

0Paul Ruggeri

If the steering feels hard at first and then "loosens" up as you drive, you have a problem with the rack. This is common with early C4s.

Paul

AssocRacer

Someone here at work mentioned the idea about starting it at night with the hood up and check for arcing. I'll probably do that this weekend. I've got a paper due for one of my classes on friday, so all work on the vette will have to wait for the weekend.

QuikLT4

Let's see where to begin- Sounds like you have my old 85...
BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE BUY THE HELMS MANUAL

It saved me lots of time & money on my 85!!!
1. My 85 was also a rattle trap. This was due to the extremely stiff suspension they had.
2. Hard Steering then ok- Sounds like you have "Morning sickness" only solution is replacing the rack.
3. Darty Steering- Extremely stiff suspension with wide tires, a worn steering rack & who knows what kind of wheel alignment/chamber/toe-in it has.
4. Rough Running- Could be anything from a leaking vacuum line to a bad Torque convertor solenoid switch. I spend over 100 hours tracking down my rough idle problem- WHILE USING A HELM MANUAL

Do not just start replacing parts.
If it turns out you have a bad injector & the rest are ok- Only replace the one not all of them.

jmrl98

May not sound like it applies, but test your battery & alternator. These cars need juice, and when the battery has gone south on me, the car idled like crap. I have also done the alt upgrade to a CS-144, and it has done wonders for the car. Good luck (FSM - there's an echo in here....)

AssocRacer

alrighty, took it for a ride to run it thru a touchless car wash (the thing sat under a tree for like five months, you can imagine what it looked like...however i was very surprised that it wasn't covered in bird droppings). Two issues....it died on me twice while sitting in drive, but started right up. Second, and i think i know the problem but want to confirm it, temps got up to 232 before i shut her off in the car wash. Once i started it back up and started driving, they ranged between 169 and 198, normal. I'm assuming that the radiator fan isn't working. I read somewhere that there is a switch for the fan and that it doesn't come on automatically. Is this true? If so, where's the switch. Or i read that there's an auxiliary fan switch somewhere too. More help please

AssocRacer

Oh yeah, hood open + engine running + darkness = NO ARCING

Mark_Sheehy

232 is normal, the fan doesn't even come on until it reaches 228 degrees. The next time it gets hot, around 225, open the hood. The fan should come on around 228 degrees, you will see and hear it. Then it will cool down to 220 or a little less and shut off. If it acts like this there is nothing wrong with the fan.

You might want to clean the radiator, look in the tech articles for how to do it, there is a good article there. Junk accumulates there and causes it to run hotter. You can't see where I am talking about, so you won't know if it is dirty or clogged until you take it out.

AssocRacer

I wasn't sure if the fan was not working or not. I drove it to work this morning (it was about 30* outside) and the temps while i was driving never went over 161, so i'm assuming that my fiance's dad put a 160* thermostat in it. I'll probably end up replace it with the stock thermostat. The temps did go up to like 180-185 when i get to work and let it sit for a min, but i didn't have time to let it sit long enough to see if the fans would kick in or not. But last night when i shut it down at 232* the temps were still rising.

QuikLT4

Ahhh the joys of tracing electrical problems in an 85...
The wiring system in these things can be confusing.
Each individual circuit has multiple branches with multiple sensors & multiple grounds. If any one of these grounds, sensor, switch, solonoid, or connection goes bad it can cause a ground feedback that can strangely affect a system totally unrelated. As I stated before buy the manual. Then get yourself an ohm/voltage meter. Look up how to properly test each sensor for correct operation. If all of your main sensors are operating within parameters move on to the next step- Check your grounds. Make sure all are good & constant. If that checks out- Use the manual to diagnois a bad/faulty ECM.

Following this course I found- 2 bad injectors, 1 bad temp sensor, a loose harmonic balancer, a bad door chime solenoid, & a bad Torque convertor solenoid.
If I were to completely follow the shop manual- Which I started off following that it would have said replace the ecu 3 times.
It's amazing how much one faulty ground connection can affect the running of an L98

How did this lead to finding a loose H. B.- checking one of the body grounds I saw 2 loose bolt connecting the balancer.

AssocRacer

Alrighty, noticed something new today. When the car sits in park, the idle is a little rough, and kind of erradic. It jumps up and down, and right before i got home at a stop light, something under the hood clicked (like a relay or something) and the idle jumped up to like 900 and then went back down to 550. But when sitting, the idle seems to jump between 500 and 650. Does this help at all? Sounds more like a sensor to me now...but still could be a vaccuum leak.....

rick lambert

YOU NEED to check your IAC.......they seem to be a carbon magnet on our cars.......very simple to do, however you can't buy an IAC gasket by itself, at least not that I'm aware of. So you may need to either make one or buy a TB gasket kit. Once you pull it use a little carb cleaner and a brush and clean it up. Just follow the FSMs guide to resetting it...or there maybe a Tech tip here.

AssocRacer

alrighty, one more thing to add. when i started it this morning, it idled really nice, a little high but really nice. As soon as the engine started to warm up, it when to a crappy idle again, any ideas?

amm0bob

Injectors...

AssocRacer

I guess i don't understand how it could be injectors. My thoughts are (and i'm not an idiot when it comes to cars) is that if there were injector problems, i would experience them all thru the RPM range, whereas this is ONLY at idle. Once i step on the gas, and i'm driving down the road, the car runs perfect. No loss in power, no missing, nothing.

INaband

Mine is doing this some what, going to scan it tomorrow. Im thinking coolant temp switch bad, making my car have a rich condition, and the I.A.C. needs cleaned also I would guess.

williammackean

I agree with most of that. I use GM Top End Cleaner instead of SeaFoam. It stinks worse, so it has to be better, right?

AssocRacer

Again, what does adding it to the brake booster do?

Demonic85

cleans out all the carbon deposits in the top part of your engine. Let it sit for a while to let it soak in real good, gets more out that way.

INaband

.........Well Im wrong big time, it was worn plugs, and the E.C.M. was bad, good news was the computer isn't expensive...