TECH TIPS

Technical tips, advice and shared Information.........That's what this page is all about. This is only a very small part of the tips that appear in each issue of the member magazine.

There are also more tech tips and member recommended repair shops in the Members Only area and our TECHNICAL STAFF is prepared to answer your technical questions. See contact information in the Members Only area.

A complete copy of all the Technical Sections, topics, questions and answers published in the World from 1998 to 2007. Available on CD-Rom only for PC or Mac in pdf format. It sells for $ 10 plus $5 S&H and is indexed by subject for easy reference and contains articles, topics, questions and answers.  It  is available in the club store.

More items in the tech section of the club Message Board at
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  Order Tracker Repair Manual 1986-98 (Chiltons)
Order Tracker Repair Manual 1986-96 (Haynes)
Order Prizm Repair Manual 1985-92 (Haynes) Order Prizm Repair Manual 1985-93 (Chiltons)
Order Storm Repair Manual 1990-93 (Haynes) Order Metro Repair Manual 1985-94 (Haynes)
Order Blazer Repair Manual 1967-92 (Haynes) Order Blazer Repair Manual 1988-98 (Haynes)
Order Blazer Repair Manual 1969-82 (Chiltons) Order Blazer Repair Manual 1983-95 (Chiltons)
Order Cavalier Repair Manual 1995-98 (Haynes) Order Cavalier Repair Manual 1982-96 (Chiltons)

Questions and Answers

Questions and answers and upkeep and performance hints are provided for information and advice purposes. No liability either express or implied is assumed by reliance on the information presented either by the writers or the CC. Some of the questions and answers are from the Internet and interactive bulletin boards.

Also be sure to see our club message board for more immediate answers at board.chevyclub.com .

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HEADLIGHTS
by Charles B. Andes

I have been thinking of this for a while, and finally took action.

When switching on headlights, 'high' beams the 'low' beams go off and sometimes I switch back and forth to see the whole road.

Now, I have the setup that has both high and low beams on when in high setting, and low beams only in low setting. It is great. I can see near and far in high, and don't bother anyone in low.

On my Tracker, which is ground control, I used the Radio Shack diode,

PN276-1185, a diode bridge good for 25 Amps at 50 volts. On the ground side the bulbs, the cathode (+) goes to the high beam control and the anode (AC) goes to the low beam control. (The other three diodes are unused.

Usually, the headlights are hot voltage controlled, just put the diode in the other way. This part is heat sinked and easily mounted with a #8 screw to a metal part. In some cases, you may have to increase the fuse a little also, 15 A to 20A.

Another benefit, if a high beam bulb burns out, you will still have a light on that side. Much safer and the cops will go on by. Could take this one step further and turn on the fog lamps also. I suggest turn on the low beams first, then go to high so that you limit the surge current instead of turning all 4 lamps on at once.

STORM HEADLIGHTS
by Gordon Wilson

I just had to replace a burnt out seal beam on my sister-in-laws 92-Geo Storm GSi. I priced the seal beam at a local auto supply place. The low beam is $42.00 Canadian. I would assume the price in the USA is as outrageous there as it is here. So to try and beat the system I thought I would share my tech tip. The original seal beam is a Sylvania H4351.

The lamp and plastic holder is bonded to the glass so you have to replace the whole headlamp. Carefully remove the plastic bulb holder from the glass lens. You can do this with a small grinder (Dremel) or a coarse file. Once you have removed the plastic and the bulb, clean up the old sealant from the opening in the lens. Now go down to your local parts store and purchase a GE 9006 HB4 replacement bulb and a small tube of high heat silicon sealant. Apply plenty of sealant around the base of the new lamp holder and bed the bulb and holder into the lens. Let dry over night and reinstall your new low beam headlight. The total cost was about $12.00 (that's $4 or$ 5 US) Hope this tip can save you some bucks.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q: I am replacing the head gasket on a 90 Geo Metro 1.0 L engine. My Haynes manual only gives the torque specs for the head bolts. I would like to use the method that measures the rotation of the bolts. If you could give me those specs I sure would appreciate it. Thanks.
    Judson Royle

A: I know the procedure you are talking about - where you tighten to a lower # of torque, then turn the bolts 30-45-90 degrees in stages to get proper bolt stretch.
Medium duty and up diesel engines often use this procedure as it is a more accurate way of getting proper torque on the head bolts.
I have not seen this spec or procedure printed for a Geo engine.
    Dave Logan


Q: I have a 1989 GEO Metro that burns an excessive amount of oil. The car only has around 120000 miles on it. It began to smoke excessively after the head was replaced. We tested the compression on each of the cylinders
and they seemed to be fine. So we put another low miles head on the engine, but it still smokes and hardly has any power. Do you know of any similar experiences, or know what the problem is?
    Christopher Sneed

A: It is quite common for an engine to begin burning oil or having excessive crank case pressure after the cylinder head is replaced or reworked on a high mileage engine. By the way, only 120,000 miles is considered high mileage for that and most other gasoline engines. The increase in compression developed once the valves are renewed usually causes the pressure to pass the worn piston rings into the crankcase. This in turn leads to oil consumption.
    Kevin Mouton


Q: When I took my 1994 Geo Prizm in for service at 55,000 miles, the garage mechanic told me that my front brake pads had "plenty of wear" left. At 72,000 miles a dealer mechanic looked at them and told me the pads have about 50 percent wear left. I drive about 20,000 miles per year of which 15,000 are highway miles. Still, how can this be?
    Tom Noonan

A: The Prizm is not known for going through brakes, but yours sounds a bit above average. There could be a number of factors. First your are probably a good driver. You anticipate stops and allow the car to coast down. The Prizm is a light car so bringing it to a stop doesn't take much wear. Finally, three fourths of the time, or 54,000 of your 72,000 miles, your car is cruising and not wearing the brake linings. That leaves 18,000 miles of stop-and-go driving and most cars' brakes go at least this long under the same conditions. If you feel like replacing them, there are plenty of places that will separate you from your money.
Bob Weber

MORE LIGHT FOR TRACKER
by Charles Andes

At night were you ever driving in a very dark place, no street lights, no moon, cloudy, whatever; and found that you needed more from the headlights?

Here is a way to get the low beams to be on whenever high beams are illuminated.
Use the Radio Shack relay 275-226 ($6). Wire the coil to the high beam circuit, so the relay closes the contacts whenever the high beams are selected. Then wire the contacts to turn on the low beams. Makes quite a difference, no extra bulbs to buy and locate.

LOUDER HORN
by Charles Andes

Do you 'get no respect' when you blow your horn? A little 'beep' does little to warn or signal anyone else. Convert to a 12 wheeler horn - TOOT!

Try JC Whitney horn replacement, 12 volt 120dB ($10 ea), 13-3190 and 13-3191 dual tone (one high, one low). and use the 30 Amp relay from Radio Shack 275-226($6) to control them. Whitney's relay is 3 terminal, which does not allow separate coil and contacts on the relay.

Connect the wires from the stock horn to the relay coil. Watch polarization. Provide a new 30 amp circuit for all three horns. On my Tracker, there was an empty fuse location on the fuse box under the hood. Wire that to one of the contacts, and a horn +12 drive wire to each horn.

I also like to have the ground wire go to each horn, from a terminal strip (like house wiring).