Help!!!! My 1982 Olds Regancy has an issue

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Update on my 82 Olds Regancy

The carb was rebuilt along with the electronic choke and now she purrs like a kitten, the carb had gotten all gunked up.

In response to some of the questions here, the 307 in her has 147300 miles it had a 307 long block put in her new in 1999, the car is a one owner i am the second owner and she is in good shape for a 1982.

In response to Spankomatic yes the check engin light does come on and stay on, i was told it is a bad O2 sensor, i will be having that replaced too.

As far as some other things in it, she has the THM-2004R transmission which was kept up religiously, i have all the service records on the car.

And to variflexpghpa it is the 98 Regency edition, and yes i do wish it was the Regency Brougham, with the electro luminescent opera lamps, that emitted the luxurious blue glow.

I absolutely love driving this car, it has style, class, and character, and is what a luxury car should be, not to mention lavish 80's elegance. I think the worst mistake GM made was 1) downsizing the 98 and making it front wheel drive, GM did have a love affair with FWD, and 2) Getting rid of Oldsmobile altogether. That is why i cherish this car and plan on keeping her running as long as possible.
 
In response to swestoys

When she finally warmed up she would still idle erratically especially when at a stop light, i would find my self holding the brake and the accelerator just to keep her from stalling.
 
Very glad to hear she's up and running like her old self!

It's funny, the '86+ downsized GM's look downright puny by comparison to today's big Camrys and Avalons. I use to dismiss the H-bodies until I drove an '88 Olds 88 regularly. Excellent power to weight ratio, comfortable velour interior, 30+MPG and I tip my hat to the engineers for giving it a big car ride. That FWD could really pull it through the snow too (but not quite as well as my old '85 Biarritz). I still see them around, neglected, covered in salt, and when I do, I make it a point to peek at the odometer. 200k, 300k is not unusual.

They're a terrific buy for the money which makes them attractive as a disposable vehicle. Without the collectable cache of their larger RWD elders, in a couple years they'll all be gone.
 
cadman

Why do you say that in a couple of years they'll all be gone. I hope your not talking about the late 70's early 80's RWD GM cars, or do you mean the 86+ FWD H-Bodies, GM cars, if that is the case for RWD C-Body GM's they will have to kill me to get it out of my hands cause i aint letting it go with out a fight.
 
Once a car is over 20 years old it starts getting hard to find quality parts and the expertise to install them unless the car is well served by specialty shops. For that reason it's a lot easier to find parts for an old Corvette than for a big Olds or Buick of the same year. There are plenty of 'Vette enthusiasts willing to spend money on their cars, but not so many owners of big sedans. It has nothing to do with the intrinsic quality or usefulness of the car and everything to do with the marketplace.

Expertise for carburetted engines is also getting to be in short supply: I know of one independant repair shop owner who will work on carburetted cars so long as the carburettor rebuilder he uses is in business, but once he's gone the repair shop owner has decided old cars with carbs just aren't worth the trouble. His younger mechanics aren't very familiar with them, they don't interface well with the computer diagnostic machines used for more modern cars, and they can be difficult to smog.

I rarely see any rear-drive big GM sedans aside from '90s Chevys and Cadillacs, and even those are getting scarce. A couple of months ago I saw a ratty but running Olds 98 coupe from the mid '70s - the last of the real ocean liners - and I was reminded of how scarce they are today. Caddies of the era are the most common, but that just makes the big Olds and Buicks rarer and therefore more fun to spot.
 
something I got off of a friend of ours

A unique trick I got off of a friend of ours who runs a wrecker service-with the breather off, when-if it floods very badly, rev the engine up and then take your hands and smother it down by placing them over the carburetor, a few times-this forces it to suck gas and drugs through the carburetor-works especially if the needle valve gets stuck.
 
Be careful Tbolt . . .

I'd think twice about putting my hands over the intake of a running engine, in particular one with carburettors, as they'll be right in the flame path of a backfire. Backfires don't happen often but when they do there can be a lot of force as the flame exits the top of the carb. I've seen it wreck air cleaners and airflow meters (the latter on injected engines of course) and it wouldn't do your hands any good at all. For the same reason don't ever look down the intake of a running engine.

Regarding spelling, both carburetor and carburettor are correct. I've seen both spellings used for years. Here's a neat little link about Webers, my favorite carbs, but it explains some basic theory too.

 
I guess for me it has not been difficult at all to find mechanical parts for my 1978 Grand Marquis as it has the same drive train components as all other Ford full-size cars and pickups of the same time frame could have had. Even parts like the headlight switch were still on the shelf at the local Auto Zone.
I do all the repair work myself except for the brakes and the local brake shop has never had trouble finding the parts.
However cosmetic parts like taillight lenses do seem very, very hard to find.
Carburettor is certainly correct, it is the more common British spelling and pronunciation. I would never ever place my hands over the carburetor air intake...have seen too many backfires up through the carb.
 
Cory is correct - the first gen H body cars will be memories of the past in regards to them being daily drivers. Besides the very few Bonneville SSE's and Buick BLT's - those cars really do not have a following for the up and coming collectors. Within the next 5 years what is left out there will be no more. I saw no less than 5 of them for sale in a local swap sheet just last week; all selling for under 700 dollars. What was the major catch? Slipping transmissions.

We are fortunate that the 1977 through 1996 B body GM cars all use the same mechanicals - brakes, suspension pieces, shocks, body mounts, any part that is considered a wear part is fairly easy to come by. The 1971 through 1976 B and C body GM cars were the start of brand sharing parts but there are still quite a few specifics even between models in the same brand. Go back from 1965 through 1970 - good luck. Every brand at that time had very specific parts and almost nothing was inter matched between brands. As an example - you can't take a set of front wheel discs from a 1969 LeSabre and put then on a 1969 deVille.

Ben
 
Very good points! Seems like all the H's suffer from tranny problems - I bought a mint '90 Olds 98 with 62k, always dealer serviced, 3 yrs ago for my daughter, great ride and luxury, but the tranny started slipping at 70k. The rwd's are bulletproof - we had a '77 LeSabre, '77 Olds 88, '78 Electras - all went 200k+ wit no problems. Now we have a REALLY rare rwd - a 1980 Dodge St. Regis with 56K old lady miles - that 318 can't be beat! Like old appliances, they don't build cars like they used to!!
 
It's sad that GM just forgot how to make really reliable automatic transmissions by the '80s. I remember in the late '80s, when many people were spending lots of money replacing late model GM transmissions (and many swore they would never buy another GM car after that), a good friend lucked into a very nice '66 Toronado. It had about 100,000 one family miles and had been well maintained, but was over 20 years old even then. One evening five guys went to dinner in the Toro, with none of us being little guys. On the way back my friend nailed it coming off a freeway transition ramp. There was no traffic and that tranny snapped into second at about 55 then held it until well over 90 - I was watching the speedo - and then made a crisp, no slip shift into third at close to 100 mph. That Olds 425 Rocket V8 really put out a lot of torque too! My friend later calculated it was pulling well over 5000 pounds of car and people. An impressive performance for an old car, and one that really reminded me of how GM was forgetting the innovation and reliability of its best years.
 
I love My Olds AKA Queen Elisabeth

The ride in her cannot be matched, not to mention the respect i get while driving down the road, these people in these modern ricers think twice before pulling out in front of a 4000 LB Oldsmobile, i just love the look on their faces when they try to pull out and notice it is a tank barreling down the road at 50 MPH. I was on my way to Chattanooga last night in her with 5 other friends, i set the cruise at 75 MPH and she glided down I 75 with ease, and i must say that the TN Vally is very hilly especially the Cleveland Chattanooga portion, she climbed the hills on the Interstate like no one's business, that 307 is a great engine and has plenty of power and torque.
It is great to see people stare at Her Majesty as she cruises down the main strip in town, not to mention the looks i get on the freeway.
GM C body cars were THE cars to own back in the late 70's early 80's, great for traveling and a night out on the town.
 

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