Greetings,
My son and I recently rescued a one-owner '85 GS. It will be his first car so we are sorting out it's needs before he gets his license.

So far we have serviced the brakes and rebuilt the carb. Compression is good and the engine starts easily whether hot or cold. Idle is a problem so we are now looking to unravel the mysteries of the vacuum operated stuff and the composition of the intake manifold with its many pieces.

- Mike O.

 

Welcome to forum. Post some photos of your find

 

Here is a photo the day we picked it up (son's face obscured per his request).

 

Sweet ride

 

The car has good bones. No rust. No collision damage. Interior is great. Paint and wheels need cosmetics.

It runs good. Once we get the idle sorted we'll start on the A/C. It will be hot here in AZ soon.

 

looks very good welcome

 

Of course like any car wakened from a long slumber this one is manifesting problems. Yesterday it was the instrument pod and fuel pump. Voltmeter, fuel and temp all stopped working about the time the fuel pump stopped.

 

The instrument pod problems were resolved by removing the pod, re-soldering all components the cleaning the contact pads for all the gauges. Once installed again all the gauges now work. Fuel level is a sender problem but the gauge is OK.

 

Also, thanks for the welcome(s).

 

I would definitely love to see a build thread on this car in the 1st gen section!! Did the original owner let the car sit for a period of time?

 

Yes. The original owner did let it sit for a while. She bought it new and as the years went by she was unable to steer the vehicle (no PS on this one). She later gave it to a grandchild that couldn't learn to drive with a manual transmission. It then sat for more than two years. We picked it up and brought it home.

The fuel gage was sorted by a rebuild of the sender. The insulating bushings had been defeated by creeping corrosion. Removal, cleaning, and re-soldering of the connections fixed it.

After sorting some electrical and fuel delivery problems associated with being parked outside for two years the carb was next. Two attempts to get the Nikki clean and working. Second attempt resulted in smooth running and idling. The intake manifold gasket and coolant seals were changed while it was apart. Everything was cleaned and reassembled. Currently all vacuum ancillaries are disconnected. We may remove some of the carb emissions stuff and retain only the vacuum systems necessary for timing, AC and the pump to circulate air around the catalytic converter.

We also rebuilt the idler arm. The Moog part was unavailable so I bored the housing and turned MDS nylon bushings to fit. Works a treat now.

Next is front caliper seals then on to the suspension bushings.

That is a quick update. I'll move future updates to the appropriate area.