Leaderboard

Did you have a question about helping you fix your problem or just wanting to rant?

I recently took my’ 88 to Cars and Coffee Columbia,SC. I like these because they start at 7:30 am and break up around 10. Hot and humid here all summer long, thankfully my AC is working well !

I drove my Reatta for a while this morning before the temperature got up so high. Before I got home I was driving with the windows down and the AC on but it finally got too hot for that to. I wanted to go to a little car show but it's just too damn hot for that. It's been in the 90s, which isn't unusual for TN, but even by our standards the the humidity is off the charts. Doing anything outside is like walking around in hot bath water. I'm already looking forward to the fall of the year.

Thanks.

The headlight control module is only for opening and closing of the headlight doors. It has no control over the lights coming on. I assume your doors open as they should? Your problem might be a broken wire at the headlight connector. It is a common problem since the wires are constantly being twisted by the doors opening and closing. I've had it happen myself. The lights are connected together by a common wire. If I remember correctly, if a wire at one of the connectors breaks it can knock out the light on both sides.

Yeah, red/tan was by far the most popular color combination. Your car looks good. The wheels in the photo you posted look a lot like some 17" Mustang GT wheels I tried to put on my Reatta. They were just too big with the tires on them and I didn't want to buy new tires so I sold them.

I think so. The photo is the end view of the one that broke and the wear point appears to be pretty much all in the area between the bushings.

If you SEARCH on the subject it has been done many times, on touchscreen and non. The operating system is the same and the touchscreen has zero control over the engine control, the ECM does that. The touchscreen is a display only for engine data, plus some temporary overrides available, same as non touch. All the same sensors are employed, including the MAF output frequency, so it is all compatible, the only exception is the loss of EGR control. Some chip programming is required, but any Series I bolts in and hooks up.

I believe that 2seater is attempting that as I type this...

Looks as though we have twin Reattas. Mine is also red with tan interior. The wheels on it pictured are 17" Falkens I was able to install via wheel adaptors due to having a smaller bolt pattern. I got the wheels and those ridiculous rubber bands for tires for free and have since been changed out to a proper sized sidewall tire.

There doesn't seem to be a shortage of front struts either on Rock Auto, eBay, or Amazon. Might want to check those vendors out.

I got my electric bill yesterday. $256. Highest one I've got in 18 years of living here. It has been record setting heat here the last few weeks. If my power went off I guess I would sleep in the back of my Equinox with the AC on. 🙂

Jim Finn has been selling Reatta parts for years. reattaS60@gmail.com

That's great news. I'm sure he will get lots of business if he is willing to supply the parts parts for rebuilding the strut or sell a rebuilt rear strut. If you have more information it would be appreciated.

Check in with either Jim Finn or Eastcoast Reatta Parts (Marck Barker) for your parts.

Have not taken either the '00 Eldorado or the '91 Reatta out this past week to any cruise-ins due to the Northeast heat wave. Temps consistently above 90* and tomorrow (Sunday) the heat index is supposed to hit 105*. It may sound like I'm complaining but anything is better than snow. Lawn looks like burnt hay.

I wonder if there might be another approach to solving the rear strut problem. The strut serves two purposes. Keep the rear wheel in vertical alignment as the wheel goes up and down, and control the ride of the car by dampening the rear control arm as it moves up and down. I don't remember anyone saying they had to change rear struts because the rear wheels were out of alignment. Isn't the primary reason the rear struts usually get changed because they lose their ability to properly control the the rear wheel causing a rough ride? In other words, the struts lose their internal dampening ability because the piston seals and valves go bad when they are worn out. Maybe we should find a way to ADD a standard shock absorber between the control arm and the strut tower as a damper to give a smooth ride without removing the old strut. I have been laying under my Reatta looking at the rear suspension and it looks like it might be possible to do that without a lot of fabrication. Similar to the way the shock is mounted in the photo below. The coil spring shown in the photo isn't needed on our Reattas because we have the transverse leaf spring that holds the weight of the car.

If you collect my postings I probably already have. Over 20k on AACA alone before powers that be decided they did not like what I was saying.

I totally agree, Ronnie! You've obviously had plenty of real world experience. I've done basic maintenance, brake shoes/pads, oil/filter changes, ect. but never something so in depth and especially on a braking system so uncommon. Thanks again and I hope I'll be successful this time and can stop whining about it.

However you remove the material on the inside of the the clamp needs to be done in a uniform fashion that keeps the surfaces flat. It would be easy to get it uneven with a grinder. A grinder might work OK if you follow up with a file or electric sander to keep the mating surfaces of the clamp flat. I would try clamping it up in my vice and file it with a coarse file to remove material quickly. then follow up with a smooth file if needed to get it flat. Do that on both of the mating surfaces until you get the hole tight enough to hold the tubing so it doesn't slip as you put the flare on the tubing. It might not take much so go slowly. It's easier to remove metal than it is to put it back on. 🙂

Thanks for your help, Ronnie. I just reviewed the instructions and yes, it says to use a drill to deburr the inside and to "chamfer" the outside but without any explanation. Now that I understand the process, I'll give it another go and hope it works. Also, your suggestion to grind a little off of the inside of the clamp couldn't hurt either. Possibly mine has a little too much chrome plating on it? I've been stuck with this problem for weeks now, wasting time when I could have had the braking system working properly, very frustrating to be hung up with such a simple problem. Thanks again!

The high beams on my '88 Reatta quit working. Both sealed beams are operable, as are all fuses and relays. The steering column stalk switch is also operable, but in panic of losing all illumination the first time in the dead of night now dangling due to my afterward anger. These cars are plagued with electrical problems due to technology GM used the public in place of a R & D dept. There's a reason they abandoned the touch screen by 1990 and returned to traditional knobs and switches. That thing is a collision just waiting to occur