'95 Z26 Problems

[jsyearwood]

Alrighty, so this is going to be a long story...

Head gasket blew a year ago, got the engine swapped. When I first picked the car up and drove home, I instantly noticed the steering wheel had to be held somewhat to the right in order to go straight, also there was this bad clunk when turning the wheel.

The car was/is still rough idling, I start the car, it revs to about 1500 - 2000 and once I shift to Reverse, it stops reving instantly. A note: the voltage meter is at about 3/4 to the top as opposed to 1/2....

You folks helped me figure out the Strut Mounts were bad, so I got them replaced, my mechanic also noted the left ball joint was bad, and my brakes were missing peices etc. So he fixed all of that. He also sent the car for an alignment, as it needed one due to holding it to the right to drive straight, flushed the fuel injectors and ran some fuel injector fluid, as well as cleaning the Throttle body to help with the start in the mornings.

So I take the car home, about a week later, the car is out of alignment again, and the start is still rough in the mornings, and it's still reving to about 1500 - 2000 RPM until I shift from Park to Reverse.

Take it back, he says it needs another alignment, my windshield is cracked thanks to Toronto's roads, so he replaces that yadda yada.

Anyway, here we are now, fuel filter was seizing up, forgot to mention that earlier, so it was running rough at about 80 KM/H and 100 KM/H until you gave it more gas. So now I can feel my tires are crap, but also the idle is still bad, start up is a lot better in the mornings, but the alignment and steering are still off.

Now I'm finding myself holding the wheel to the LEFT instead of the RIGHT to simply head straight, but the steering is weird, I'm finding myself playing with the steering a bit to get it going straight. The steering also feels a little rough, I mean when I am making a lane change, there is some resistance, not much, but a little vibration of sorts as I turn.

Starting to think this is the Rack, any takers?

Sorry if this seems like a little rant with a confused story, I'm very tired right now and had some to drink (not too much though =) ).

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I'm tired of taking this car in and out of the shop almost every week for the past month now. I need SOLID answers and I know you have them!!

[JeffD]

there is really nothing you can do about the alignment, as far as getting them do do it again, they don't know what you did to it. if you are not doing the work yourself, take the car to the shop to have your front end checked out, it's about all you can do. don't do an alignment until you know that everything is right up front. you have new strut mounts and a new ball joint, check the other ball joint and tie rod ends.
once everything is right, have a alignment done, but ask for a printout of the before and after measurements that way you know that they didn't just "set the toe and let it go". usually on the print outs it will show if something is still out of place.
I don't think it's a rack problem. you would have no power steering if it were that.
I think your steering resistance is because of your bad alignment.
if your motor swap came from a salvage yard it probably needs a O2 sensor. they like to fog the engines with oil before they store them. that oil when burned coats the o2 sensor and makes it read wrong. try replacing that.
could be the Idle air control valve too, I'd look for vacuum leaks too, get some carburetor cleaner and with the engine running lightly spray around your intake, and around the intake manifold. be listening for differences in the way the car runs, it'll either die out or rev up, either way means that there is air getting in where it shouldn't.

[jsyearwood]

Thanks for the response!

Engine came from my dad's 95, he's getting a 3800 put in.

Good tips, I took the car back and spent 1K on replacing the strut towers and tie rod ends, got an alignment and it was off worse than before.

Taking the car back in and as well, my guy checked out the revving problem and figured out it was the Throttle Body dying in gear 2 or 3, can't remember. Gonna get that replaced and get the car realigned. Hopefully everything checks out this time..I'll let you know.

BTW, the guy doing the alignment had the car up on the lift and he was using hand tools underneath the car, I didn't really see a machine hooked up to the lift, was there supposed to be or was he actually doing an alignment by hand??

[heavywoody]

How does a throttle body go bad?

Take some carb cleaner and spray it into the throttle body w/ the car running, manually adjusting the throttle to keep the car from dying.

Might want to take the IAC valve out and clean the pintle/spring as well... or just replace it.