Project Franken-Riviera -1964 Buick Riviera-

[TheSilverBuick]

Bummer on the trans fluid and hope the wife gets better. This is why it's a hobby, it's not priority number 1.

[DanStokes]

Best of luck for the Bride. I HATE it when ME's not well - I can deal with my health stuff but hers kills me. Spoil her rotten. The Riv will prove to be very patient and will wait for you (like my 'Stang).

Dan

[Bamfster]

No need to be in a rush, cars can and will wait.

Gonna hit another 'yard later this week as long as its nice weather wise so I'll check on the harness for you.....

[SuperBuickGuy]

Bummer on the trans fluid and hope the wife gets better. This is why it's a hobby, it's not priority number 1.

x2

[Bob Holmes]

Let me add my condolences on the leaking car, and the encouragement offered both on the health of your wife (family comes first), and the fact that the car can always come later.

PhD...man that's fantastic. My dad managed to get one with a wife and four kids. But its a ball buster. Best of luck to you, it'll be worth it when you come out the other side.

[CTX-SLPR]

Thanks to all of ya'll who have expressed the joy and the simpathy for my wife. I hope I didn't give the impression that I was angry about the idea of loosing working on the car because of her. I do what I can with the time I've got left after taking care of everyone and the house.

I got a chance to look at the position of the tranny leak and it's definately coming from the back end of the pan where it drips. Since it was dark and I was just putting a catch pan under it, all I did was feel the drain plug to see if it was wet (it wasn't) and look at the spot on the concrete to see where it dripped from. I think the extension housing is leaking. I put a new gasket on it when I replaced the speedo gears, maybe I should just pull the gasket and run it dry. Thoughts?

[CTX-SLPR]

UPDATE!
Finally got some time to work on the Riviera.
Pulled the trans pan, driveshaft, and almost everything that bolts to the outside of the trans to replace gaskets and O-rings. The dipstick O-ring was rock hard and smashed flat, the speedo housing was definately leaking past the O-ring, the modulator was just nasty though so close to the pan rail and under the cooler fittings who knows if it was leaking, and there weren't any O-rings at all on the kickdown connector. I had O-rings for everything but the kickdown so I'll pick those up this week.
I pulled the extension housing and replaced it's gasket with some spray copper on both sides. and replaced the govenor cover gasket as well which was in pretty sorry shape.
I bought the shaft seal but don't have the tool to pull it. Going to check the parts stores when I look for O-rings and pick up more fluid. Worst case I think I'll just put the new one in on top of the oil one.

I'm going to scrap the CATs off of my old truck and the one off of my Lincoln LS and get a piece of aluminum to machine the filter adapter out of in 2wks to solve the oil leak. Hopefully I get enough money off of the CATs to buy a new set of speakers for the Lincoln since the fronts are blown and buy a set of wheel spacers and brake pads to start fabbing up the disc brake parts.

Feels good to be working on the Riv again. Still need to take of stuff on the Lincoln but it doesn't have the luxury of sitting in pieces for weeks so I'll hold off till I have a whole day to work on it.

[CTX-SLPR]

Well the gaskets are replaced and the pan is back on. I put 6qts of ATF in it to see if anything leaks. I also tach welded the B&M drain plug to the inside of the pan so I could actually tighten it down without it spinning. Also replaced the plastic washer with a copper one and gooped it good with blue RTV.
Also pulled the radiator and grill off so I can start pulling the timing cover off to check for the rattling sound on start up and fix the leaking oil filter adapter. If all goes well I might be able to try to hit a cruise next weekend but I'm not holding my breath.

[Bob Holmes]

Nice to see this back. Thanks for the update.

[CTX-SLPR]

No leaks of the ATF sort. I think I might have reused the "reusable" cork oilpan gasket too many times since it seems like it's slowly dribbling oil out the back and down the flexplate cover. Definately motor oil not ATF spot on the cardboard and it was a drop or 2. When I get the time to relocate the engine I'm definately making a new pan regardless if this one fits or not.

Got the front cover off after realizing that I had to pin the flexplate, which means I have to pull the cover, which means I have to pull the crossover pipe. That was annoying but got it done. No marks on the back of the oil pump cover to be the cause of the rattle (sometimes a double roller chain can hit the backing plate) and I didn't go any farther in looking into the cause. I did find I'm missing a screw that holds the flexplate cover on so that might be rattling but I was pretty sure the sound was from the front cover area. Sometime this week I'll get the gasket scrapped down and the pieces cleaned up to be ready to reinstall after I do more digging for the rattle and machine the new filter adapter plate. Got the wife nominally onboard with getting it ready for the local cruise next Saturday, even talked about loading the 2yr old and her in another car and all 3 of us going but that might be more than she can handle. We'll see.

Feels real good to be working and getting stuff done after quite a few months!

[mlcraven]

Just did a start-to-finish review of this thread..man, what an ambitious project! Glad to see you've managed to get back to it. Presumably wife and family are doing well and you'll be able to have some play time to yourself in coming months. Great car, your Riv, truly one of a kind with the replacement power.

[CTX-SLPR]

I've been largely idle since the last time I posted after the birth of our second child. Tried to fire it up for my dad who's never heard it after I fixed the oil pressure problem and the charging system was going nuts! I tried pulling all the lights out and a lot of the original fuses but that didn't help. Pulled the power wire to the new stuff and still got problems. I pulled the dash and then left it for months as I had other things to do like wheels and tires, new valve cover gaskets, belt, hoses, rear brake calipers on my daily driver Lincoln LS and a lot of conflict in what I wanted to be doing with the car.

I made a decision for the new year that started with deciding that I'm going to be building an LSR car and that the Riviera was stepping back from being a serious pro-touring car to more of a cruiser that I can enjoy soon. I also decided that my attempt to integrate the body electronics from the donor 98 Grand Prix GTP was a doomed effort and I was going to scrap all the electronics which was probably causing me most of my electrical problems in the first place.

Last night I pulled the power connector from the underhood fuse and relay center and pulled the grounds off of the relays that I have running the switched hot-run and switched hot-run/start. I'll probably leave the relays under the dash since they will be good power points for something else in the future but I'm going to be pulling the BCM and it's associated rats next of wires out of the car at some point. Just got to leave the wires for the OBDII port, fuel pump, and any AC or transmission wires that run into the main cabin. I could probably make do without the AC but I'll probably splice into the AC clutch command off of the HVAC head so the ECM will up the idle and turn on the fan.

Going to be on a crusade soon to free up garage space and any parts I have laying around that don't fit in the new vision for the car. The big hanging question is what to do with my collection of brake parts and that I want to make as my final plan for the Riviera. I have F-body calipers, R32 Skyline GTR calipers, C10 HD discs, and a full set of C6 rotors. Not to mention a set of Riviera control front control arms, spindles, backing plates, and wheel hubs... I had been planning on extending the control arms out to use C5/6 spindles and improve my camber curve and add caster. I guess I still could but the cost of C5/6 spindles is not cheap if they aren't wornout and I'd still have to buy lots of swedged tubing, clevis rod ends, and ball joint cups.

I'll probably sell the R32 stuff, shelf the rotors since I got them for $40 with pads, and make a set of front discs out of the C10 HD rotors and the F-body calipers. Already have the Astro wheels to make that work, just need to do up brackets.

[Bob Holmes]

Find the simpliest, most cost effective, quickest way to get it disc brakes...and move on.

[milner351]

Find the simpliest, most cost effective, quickest way to get it disc brakes...and move on.

YES

Remember - don't let perfect get in the way of done.

I applaud your decision to ditch the body control module and all it's gremlins as well - KISS - and get it done.
We love the build - but eventually - if there's no driving - you loose the drive.

[Dan Barlow]

Funny I was just wondering about this car when you posted about you going to do a LSR car. I didn't want to ask in case you gave up,and I'm in no position to throw stones. Good to hear you still have it. Sounds like a better plan. Carry on and thanks for the update.