>A friend has offered me a 1994 pontiac gran am for 300.00
>it is a good car. however he says the fuel pump is bad.
>are the fuel pumps located in the gas tank now or somewhere
>along the frame rail ?

>sonofadocker

Looks like it is in the tank.   You can get just the pump for around
$100 or the entire sending unit assembly for around $250.  Not a fun
job but not all that hard to do.

                Steve B.

The thing about the flush is that it removes a lot of crap from the system,
but you can’t remove all the crap.  And sometimes what it winds up doing is
moving a lot of the crap around.

If you do it on an old transmission that has not been properly maintained,
often it will remove varnish and plugs of gunk from a place where they are
doing no harm to someplace where it does harm.

If you flush or change the fluid on a regular schedule like the manual says,
you’ll be fine.  If you wait 100,000 miles before you change the fluid, don’t
do the flush.
–scott
—
"C’est un Nagra.  C’est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

news:1170520701.006248.145530@l53g2000cwa.googlegroups.com…

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -

> My mechanic convinced me to do a full transmission service on my
> Corolla 2001 with 80K miles. I know some places flush transmission
> under pressure with special machine which is much better then just
> drain and replace transmission fluid. My mechanic does not have this
> machine, however he charged me $110 for changing transmission fluid,
> gasket and filter. I called other shops that have this special machine
> and they quote at least $175 for fluid, gasket and filter. My first
> question is if it is really necessary or highly desirable to flush
> transmission with specialized machine vs. just draining and replacing
> fluid. Second question is if replacing gasket and filter is also
> necessary. Finally last question is how often I need to replace
> transmission fluid and how often I also need to replace filter and
> gasket. Is there anything else in transmission service that I also
> need to do?

>My mechanic convinced me to do a full transmission service on my
>Corolla 2001 with 80K miles. I know some places flush transmission
>under pressure with special machine which is much better then just
>drain and replace transmission fluid. My mechanic does not have this
>machine, however he charged me $110 for changing transmission fluid,
>gasket and filter. I called other shops that have this special machine
>and they quote at least $175 for fluid, gasket and filter. My first
>question is if it is really necessary or highly desirable to flush
>transmission with specialized machine vs. just draining and replacing
>fluid. Second question is if replacing gasket and filter is also
>necessary. Finally last question is how often I need to replace
>transmission fluid and how often I also need to replace filter and
>gasket. Is there anything else in transmission service that I also
>need to do?

You will probably get a lot of opinions on this one and here’s mine…

I would much rather have it done the way your mechanic did it.  As the
transmission wears over time the wear material is deposited in the pan
or caught by the filter.  A lot of those power flush jobs don’t remove
and clean the pan or change the filter.  I would rather have the clean
pan and new filter with as much new fluid as I could get than having
all the crud stirred up by the flushing machine and not cleaned out.

Check your owners manual for the replacement schedule.  Use the severe
service schedule even if you don’t think you fit that one.

                  Steve B.

news:1170520701.006248.145530@l53g2000cwa.googlegroups.com…
 My first
>1.  question is if it is really necessary or highly desirable to flush
> transmission with specialized machine vs. just draining and replacing
> fluid.

2.  Second question is if replacing gasket and filter is also
> necessary.

3. Finally last question is how often I need to replace

> transmission fluid and how often I also need to replace filter and
> gasket. Is there anything else in transmission service that I also
> need to do?

(1) For most applications, flushing the entire transmission is not required.
Some have said that it can even damage the transmission, but I rather doubt
that
is likely to happen.

(2) Replacing the filter is highly recommended.  You also replace the gasket
unless you have a car that has a reusable gasket.

(3)You service the transmission as recommended by the manufacturer, so look
in your owners manual.  Regardless of the manual, I normally do it at least
at 30,000-
50,000 miles, and yes, you should replace the filter every time.  Gasket
same as above.

(3) This is normally all that is needed.  Some cars have transmissions with
internal
adjustments on the bands.  I do not think yours is of this type, but havent
researched it.
Some cars also have external linkage adjustments, but you dont normally have
to
touch these unless the linkages have been damaged or have wandered out of
adjustment.
Dont know what your car has.

news:28033-45C523A5-48@storefull-3254.bay.webtv.net…

> I guess my 1978 Dodge van is cold natured.In cold weather,the way I
> crank it up is to press the gas pedal to the floor twice and switch on
> the ignition,it won’t start the first time or second time,but on the
> third try it always cranks up.When it does crank it runs kind of raggity
> untill the engine warms up.If I sit there and let it warm up for about
> five minutes and then shut it off and wait a few more minutes and then
> crank it up again,it cranks right up and runs ok.I know it needs a new
> choke spring,but new choke springs have been unavailable for years.I
> probally should install a manual choke on there.
> cuhulin

The choke needs to be working properly and properly adjusted for best
cold weather starting.  When you press the pedal to the floor twice, you
are giving it a little extra shot of gas via the accelerator pump.

A manual choke conversion is normally pretty easy.

Seems that I have seen some electric conversions too, but never used one,
and havent owned a carbureted car in years.

>> How old is this Lumina and does it have fuel injection or a carb (some
>> very early ones did actually use a Rochester E2SE 2-barrel carb with
>> electronic mixture control)?

>A carbureted LUMINA? Nope. Don’t think so. The very early Cavalier and
>Citation were carb’d, but not a Lumina.

Steve,

  You’re partially right – I was thinking 1982-84 vintage, which is of
course the Celebrity, not the Lumina.

  That’s what I get for trying to reply to posts at 3 in the morning.

Bill

A carbureted LUMINA? Nope. Don’t think so. The very early Cavalier and
Citation were carb’d, but not a Lumina.

But a ’78 Dodge van is carbureted and therein lies the difference. That
behavior is perfectly normal for a carbureted car… but when an EFI car
like the OP’s Lumina does anything but start right up with your feet
flat on the floor, it indicates a problem developing.

Probably a leaky fuel injector allowing fuel to "pool" in the intake
plumbing, necessitating a lot of air flow through the open throttle to
clear it out.

>>My question is am I doing long term damage to the engine by blissfully
>>ignoring this, since I know the "trick" to get it started when
>>necessary?

Tends to wash oil off the cylinder walls accelerating wear, and also
probably means its idling too rich (if its a leaky injector or
injectors). But nothing immediately harmful.