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Stranded on the side of the road.


Ronnie

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Yes, from the photo the later one has larger blocks, possible as a result of then breaking off. That said I recall one car having a bent shutter ring but was able to straighten it on a jig.

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I drove my Reatta about 75 miles today and it ran fine so I'm starting to get some confidence that I did a good enough job on getting the clearance right on the CPS. Still got my fingers crossed that the crankshaft bolt is tight enough. I let it sit for a few days before driving much to give the blue Loctite time to set up so it's probably OK.

 

My Hagerty insurance is up for renewal this month. I'll be paying the extra $25 it will cost to go from 20 miles free towing to 100 miles. That's only about #2 extra per month. I never gave much thought to how much free towing mileage I had until I was sitting on the side of the road for 5-1/2 hours last Sunday evening, and found out 4 additional miles over my 20 mile limit would have cost me $49 out of my pocket. I've thought about it a lot since then. 🙂 

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My Farmers insurance policy covered me for a 120 mile round trip when I broke down. 

Glad you got it fixed, but I have to ask... was that 25 trips circles around town [3 miles]?lol

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8 hours ago, Ronnie said:

I drove my Reatta about 75 miles today and it ran fine so I'm starting to get some confidence that I did a good enough job on getting the clearance right on the CPS. Still got my fingers crossed that the crankshaft bolt is tight enough. I let it sit for a few days before driving much to give the blue Loctite time to set up so it's probably OK.

🙂 

My son has a pretty stout air powered impact, and we installed the bolt the first time using the blue threadlocker and tightened on the #2 setting of the impact. When he went to remove for our second repair, the impact hammered for several seconds before the bolt would budge, and the impact runs at full power when in reverse, rated at 450lb/ft, so I wouldn't worry👍

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After I swapped my Crank sensor in I hammered the Balancer bolt with my Ryobi [300 lbs] and then went over to Kendalls and he checked my work and said I was good. No thread locker though...

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5 hours ago, DAVES89 said:

I have to ask... was that 25 trips circles around town [3 miles]?lol

You were probably joking but that's really what I did.  I only drove on four-lane roads that were less than 20 miles from my house and had wide shoulders so it would be easy to get off the road. I intend to do that again today just to build my confidence that the problem is gone for good. I'm starting to get paranoid. I looked at my records and it has only been a little over 150 miles since the fuel pump went out. I guess it's just my turn to have problems after being free of major problems for so many years. I knew the fuel pump and CPS were due to go out but it was still a surprise when the CPS went out so abruptly in such a bad location.

 

My daughter told me yesterday that I must be a good troubleshooter. I told her the CPS had probably gone bad before we coasted to a stop on the side of the road. The engine sputtering and sounding like it was spitting back through the intake was a dead giveaway that it was a timing issue. I didn't mention it to her, but in the back of my mind I was hoping it wasn't the timing chain or worse. It's hard to predict what's going to happen next on a 34 year old engine.

 

 

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Have faith Ronnie! These are great cars with great engines. Remember when I had that engine rebuilt and Kendall had to replace those bolts for the timing gear? The very next day was a 22o mile round trip for business. Same with the Black after I [and 2seater] figured out my timing issue and realized I had a loose crank sensor.

Besides in all our years on these forums there has never been a timing chain/gear issue. That would be the last of my issues.

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3 minutes ago, DAVES89 said:

Have faith Ronnie! These are great cars with great engines. Remember when I had that engine rebuilt and Kendall had to replace those bolts for the timing gear? The very next day was a 22o mile round trip for business. Same with the Black after I [and 2seater] figured out my timing issue and realized I had a loose crank sensor.

Besides in all our years on these forums there has never been a timing chain/gear issue. That would be the last of my issues.

Yeah, you've had your share of problems, but you drive yours a lot more than I do mine.  I guess I've been pretty lucky so far.

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I got 265,000 miles on the Red before the engine swap and it was still a good runner. The only reason I did it was that I wasn't getting any younger and I want the Red to be my "forever" car. Kendall was willing to do it, 2seater knew how to get me a few more horses and as they say the rest is history.

Now I am sitting on an original 312,000 mile Reatta except for new paint, dash, inner door panels, carpet, sunroof, engine, transmission, rack & pinion, wheels, ball joints, tie rods, struts, strut mounts, radiator, condenser, Headlight switch, CRT, IPC, Headlight Relay Harness, antenna, seats.

Oops for got shift knob and shifter panel, mirror and window switches. And who could forget, relays, accumulator ball, pressure switch, pump and motor, cam sensor, Coil pack/ignition module, MAF sensor. [I think I'm done now.]

 Other then that, yes all original...   

Edited by DAVES89
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I drove my Reatta another 60 miles around home today so I'm satisfied that it ready to drive anywhere. After reading several posts about people having a problem with the sensor getting loose in the bracket I'm going to check the torque on that pinch bolt in the bracket the next time I have the car jacked up - probably will be this fall when I change the oil... but who knows? - the way my luck is going something else may give a problem that causes me to jack it up before then.

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 Well Ronnie,

 Looks like I have the same issue as you. I'm on the side of the road with no spark. I swapped out the ignition module coil pack as well as the relay on the fire wall. 

There is plenty of gas as I tried the Schroeder valve and gas went all the way up to the hood liner.

 I think I have a failed crank sensor.

 Tow truck is coming and I will let you know what I find.

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I hate to hear that Dave. I hope you are off the road and in a safe location.

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I was 24 miles from home by my GPS. I called a wrecker and had them on stand by while I waited for Bob to show up with a spark tester. He shows up, we connect it to the #6 coil and I turn the key and it starts! So I never turned the car off, disconnected the tester and plugged the spark plug wire back onto the coil terminal, thanked him for coming and drove home.

 The car is now in the garage and I am taking my wife's car to O'reilly's to pick one up [no back stock]. Who would have guessed that the car would "heal itself" just long enough for me to get home?

Should be back on the road tomorrow...

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You were 24 miles away from home? That is exactly how far I was from home when mine quit. I'm starting to see a pattern and it's scary. You weren't near a corn field were you? 🙂 

 

You need to carry a spark tester in the trunk. I had one and it came in handy. 

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Maybe I should give yours back Dave? There’s a backstory there but Ronnie’s advice is sound👍

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Yes it was 24 miles.

 I was just crossing a bridge [ a small low one used for a flowage] when the car dies. I was able to coast to the other side and pulled to right a bit and parked. I was lucky as there was a little more shoulder [paved] then what one would normally have on the highway so it was in a safe place protected by the guard rail which also allowed me a place to sit while I waited for Bob. It was Highway 54 about 2 miles west of New London [for 2seater].

 I think if I had a spark tester [I'll carry one now] I would have plainly seen that I had no spark and would have called the wrecker right away and never gave the car time to "cool" off [about 1 hour]. I will say honestly that I never would have expected that car to fire. Its almost like it said "I want to see the river so we will stop until I'm ready to go".

 Right now it is backed into the garage so the passenger side is close to my workbench as that is where all the magic will happen. I started and turned off the car 4 times in my driveway and it fired up every time. Makes me wonder why it failed, but out it goes as I can't run the risk with the miles I drive. 

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A lot of people have needed to change their CPS lately. I'm planning to do a how-to guide on changing the CPS. I will probably use a YouTube video for changing the CPS on a 3800, and then add some Reatta specific details. It would be nice to have some photos of the best way to adjust the CPS so it has the proper clearance. I have a few of how I did it with a business card but someone might have a better way of doing it.

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17 minutes ago, DAVES89 said:

Yes it was 24 miles.

 I was just crossing a bridge [ a small low one used for a flowage] when the car dies. I was able to coast to the other side and pulled to right a bit and parked. I was lucky as there was a little more shoulder [paved] then what one would normally have on the highway so it was in a safe place protected by the guard rail which also allowed me a place to sit while I waited for Bob.

That is even more weird. I was just about to cross a bridge when mine quit. Below is the best photo I have that shows where we were. The road was just starting to get wider for the entrance to the bridge when it quit and we coasted to a stop here. As you can see, the driveway next to the car is where we put out lawn chairs to make sure we were in a safe spot. That driveway was the entrance to the huge cornfield i keep referring to. We were really in a good spot, other than the fact it was a mile and a half in either direction to civilization and dark as a cave after sundown. 🙂 We were there so long the emergency flashers ran the battery down so low the starter wouldn't work the next day.

 

cps failure.jpg

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There is definitely a Twilight Zone sense going on here, and you're really creeping me out with this "corn field" stuff!!  I'm kinda glad I live far away from you guys...

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Okay I'm done. I bought a Standard crank sensor and used the original factory bracket. As long as I was doing this I thought I might as well swap out the balancer as well. I had a new GM one so why not. The new one came with a 15/16" bolt which I had a socket for. The original one with the car was somewhere around 28mm [not quite an exact fit but it worked]. I also did the breaker bar trick. Tried twice by myself and it didn't work so I had my wife come and "bump" the starter. She had no idea what that was and held the key "on" that not only did the starter break the bolt loose it started removing the bolt. When I tried to remove the balancer it wouldn't just slide off so I laid on my back and held the balancer in a 3 and 9 position and rocked it off. When I got close to getting it off I put the bolt back on about 2 turns as a "stop" so the balancer wouldn't just fly off and maybe heart me or damage something.

 The sensor was pretty beat up and filled with oil sludge so I was glad I swapped it out.

I left of the shock and supporting hardware as my thoughts were "34 year old shock how good can it be". Besides makes it really easy for serpentine belt replacement.

Thoughts on that?

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