My '95 Caprice Classic STW, "Sally"

[DerekTheGreat]

Ah, and out come the excuses. That's akin to someone saying to a cop that they didn't stop at the stop sign because it was 3AM and no one else was on the road. Rules are the rules, my man.

[sly]

The one that counts is the registration system said it was fine and the system knows the length and width of the car. So obviously there's a little fudge room.

[Arquemann]

Went ahead to do a relatively simple task: replace the window guides on the passenger rear door.
Ended up taking over 3 hours due to 2 small rounded nuts...

On these the regulator arms move on a track mounted to the window pane, the guides that move on the track break, arms pop off and the glass can tilt and fall sideways.
The old guides have to be slid off (/new ones on) from the ends of the track, but the track is attached to the glass at both ends with nuts and bolts. And those two nuts happened to be rounded completely.
Absolutely zero space for any tools other than a smaller spanner at a time, I couldn't get those off at all.
Ended up removing all the trim, weatherstripping and guides and finally removed the entire glass pane. On the bench I was able to get to the backside with a spanner and vice grip the rounded nuts.
Needed another pair of hands to reinstall the glass to the new guides, but everything went back together pretty easily.

Well, atleast now everything is thoroughly greased and back together sturdily, all the door panel clips were broken, I had bought new ones earlier.
Regardless of the broken clips, removing the door panel was very straightforward and quick. Dunno why many on the Chevy/Impala forums claim that these door panels are a nightmare to remove... I guess we Ford folks aren't cut from the same cloth.

[gadget73]

GM used that same system in the 80s too. Works great when not broken, the glass runs up and down very smoothly but they break and they suck to replace. My boss' 89 wagon has had an inop passenger window for a couple of years because the guide broke and he doesn't feel like changing it.

[Arquemann]

Picked up a set of winter tires on steelies. The set that I got with the car had rusty eyesores for rims and the tires were Hakka 5s from 2011, loads of broken or missing studs so they wouldn't even pass inspection that's in December.
Seems like 235/75R15 is a somewhat rare size, so the used and new market is kinda small. Most used tires weren't much better than what I already have and I'm not spending 800€ for a new set that's not chineeese.

These happened to pop up for sale recently, Hakkapeliitta R2 non-studded tires, they're made in 2017, not too too old, but the tread is still soft and there's like 95% tread left, even the first (8mm) wear indicator is well visible. Would've preferred studded tires, but in the lack of better (cheap) options, these will do. We'll see how fast I wrap this thing around a tree.
They're conveniently on some 5x5 steelies, probably OEM GM, they're starting to rust a bit, but just minty for winter use. Super dirty and someone went wild with copper grease, but they should clean up well.



When I got home with those wheels, I wrestled with the driver seat for about an hour and a half. Removed the seat from the car and detached the seatback and arm rest.
Tomorrow I'm taking the seat bottom to an upholstery shop, they'll give it some more cushion. Outboard side of the seat bottom is worn flat and squashed. I don't mind sitting a bit crooked, but I don't like the seat frame poking into my ass cheek after a while in the seat.

[Arquemann]

I've asked online and called around, seems like I'm not finding anyone that'll tune the 4L60e for me. The OBD1-LT1-4L60e combo seems to be a real curveball.
Might have to just get Tunercat and try to make some sense from that and do it myself... Which is an appalling thought, looking at all the material and possible risks regarding LT1 tuning.

Anyways, you know that feeling when it's a dark evening, it's raining, and you're in your car quietly driving through town?
Like the Volvo 850, the Caprice feels nicely warm, soft and homely. The "safe and sound" feeling is sublime, not quite good as in the 850, but still just lovely. That was one thing the BMW severely lacked, it always felt cold and sterile.

[DerekTheGreat]

...the Caprice feels nicely warm, soft and homely. The "safe and sound" feeling is sublime, not quite good as in the 850, but still just lovely. That was one thing the BMW severely lacked, it always felt cold and sterile.

That's been my impression of BMW interiors in general, especially offerings from the 70's and 80's.

[Arquemann]

I got TunerPro by a recommendation, also installed flashhack and got the car's PCM file saved on my laptop.
Dunno shit about tuning or any of this, but atleast I found something that I'd call wrong:


WOT 1-2 shift at 50mph, works just barely with the gearing.
WOT 2-3 shift at 102mph! What in the actual fuck? That's probably why it won't shift to 3rd without lifting off the throttle a lot.

Then with the shift harshness... I dunno shit about line pressures and whatever affects the shift feel.
Here's the main line pressure sheet, nothing seems too out of line. It could be the shift kit that's doing all of that.


I wish I could find a totally stock file, having no luck browsing the 10-20 year old forums though...

[DerekTheGreat]

Wow, that's really neat. So you now have the ability to modify all of that? Could you just change the shift point speeds?

[Arquemann]

That's been my impression of BMW interiors in general, especially offerings from the 70's and 80's.

Eh, can't share that opinion. Seems like most modern cars from like 2005 onwards feel cold and sterile. For beemers, E39 is just about okay, E46, E60 and newer not nice anymore. Mercedes' last homely one is the W210, after that all went to shit.

Wow, that's really neat. So you now have the ability to modify all of that? Could you just change the shift point speeds?

Yeah, the Tunerpro is a pro-grade tuning software, there's a shitton of stuff not just for the trans, pretty much anything and everything powertrain related. I could tune the engine with this, I mean I would if I could but I dunno how lol.
I'm thinking for the first tryout I'll copy the shift point maps off a known stock file. Just have to bump the digits up a bit due to rear ratio differences. Also I'll copy the shift time maps off the same '95 Impala file, since mine seem really wonky.

If I get the late shifts figured out like that, I'll be learning more and try soften up the hard shifts.
At a glance, the line pressure map seems like it's stock.

[Arquemann]

I actually managed to achieve desirable results!

First time I tried modifying the MPH shift points. No effect on shifts. The seemingly insanely high shift points are actually correct. I initially though the 3rd gear went up to ~100mph, it's actually the second gear that goes so far...

Second time I reverted the shift point changes and only changed the WOT shift RPM thresholds, from 5344RPM to 5000RPM. That had the result I was looking for, it no longer jerks on WOT shift and goes straight into second gear.
The shifts are still insanely hard, but that has a different cause. And I'll hopefully fix it aswell, not necessarily with software though.

[DerekTheGreat]

How does TunerPro connect & interface with the stock PCM? Seems like once you figure that out, you can rewrite what's there? That's neat, as I know for my older TBI equipped stuff I need to burn new PROM chips every time I want to change something.

[Arquemann]

I used a program called flashhack to load the tune file from the PCM. Changes to the tune file are done in Tunerpro. Modified tune file is then overwritten to the PCM with flashhack. No chips required, even though those "tune chips" are/were available for the LT1s.

[Arquemann]

Apparently this thing has an actual performace tune on it, not just some trans meddling. VE tables, spark advance and retard tables, MAF calibration almost everything is fiddled with.
Fuckin' shiet... It complicates things.

[Arquemann]

Well, I ended up flashing a stock '95 Caprice tune to the PCM. Found it online, happened to be with the correct 2.56 gear ratio, doesn't hurt to try.
The shifts got a wee bit smoother, I'd say it requires more fiddling to call it good. I'm a bit cautious on this since those hard shift can cause traction loss, especially during the winter...

Now, I'm not 100% sure, I need to do more testing, but it seems that the jerkiness is gone. During my test drive it did not jerk or did very little during uphills and light acceleration at 80-110 kmh.
My guess is that the tune might have too aggressive spark tables at that RPM/load/TPS% -area, for E10 fuel atleast, I haven't tried putting premium in this and I won't either.
So, no wonder the slip value wasn't showing anything if the trans wasn't slipping. It seems it was just misfires causing the jerkiness.
I still want to adjust the line pressure to try and smooth out the shifts and adjust the TCC engage speed in 4th so it'd engage around 80kmh. With the stock tune it now engages at 88 kmh (55mph). 80kmh is a very common limit here.


Among other things, I fixed the passenger front window guides, removed the old speakers and a shitton of crappy speaker wiring. Why shorten wires when you can just stuff 2 meters of speaker wire between the door and moisture barrier? There were some cheapo 4" speakers and tweeters jammed in the stock speaker buckets. I installed new 4x6 (factory size) speakers in both front doors, cleaned up the wiring and installed new door panel clips.
Drivers window mechanism probably hadn't seen grease since it was made in '95. Bone dry...

Also installed a cheap 18W led work light under the rear bumper, used the old fog light wiring so I didn't have to wire anything really. The light is purely for reversing, being able to see anything at all during the dark winter is pretty handy.
Gonna figure out some aux high beams with a friend at some point, the lights on this car are absolute garbage. This two ton land whale isn't stopping too fast in the winter, so I'd like to see well atleast.
Either 3x 9" round halogens or a 55cm 180W led bar from a friend. The big round lights would fit the car better, but are way more of a hassle to mount.



Ordered a pair of the most powerful 9004 halogen bulbs off RA, aswell as some service items such as air and fuel filters.
The car is going to the shop on monday. The oil filter is in a shitty spot for my tools so they're doing an oil change. Snagged a 5l can of Genuine GM 5W30 on sale, only the best for the Chev
The oil pan is also causing the biggest oil leak, they'll tighten it a bit more if possible. They'll also check on the transmission mount and why the trans crossmember is wet, output seal is dry.


Loadsa stuff.