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ok......what you're referring to is the upper spring seat, curious, when you say that your upper spring seat is totally different from what's supposed to be there does it look anything like this?

That’s the insulator. I’m talking about the retainer mount for the top of the strut that has studs in it. Sorry if it wasn’t clear enough. I apologize for that.

Don't know what was installed..... but the upper mount should look like this..........it's a common item

But I can replace the mount if I wanted to with the oem correct? My mount is different trust me. The strut shaft got jammed in the tower and got stuck under the mount. I had trouble so I had to pry it back to the top so the insulator could go back on. Where the oem ones you could use the tool designed by gm so you would not have to remove the strut. If the tool fits with the oem mounts in these videos you just saw I rather get that mount. I will send a photo of mine and compare it with the one in the video.

Take a photo of what you have, generally the aftermarket upper mounts are all near as close to the original design. You mentioned that the holes in the strut tower have been maligned? any portable spring compressor will be a manual item, the safe method is to take the struts to a shop & let them do the replacement on a pneumatic spring compressor that has a cage to protect the techie from danger.

Found another video. My strut tower looks nothing like this down the hole. Look at all the clearance he has for the tool. Now I know my top mount was replaced because the cartridge on my strut mount gets stuck under the mount if you use the strut rod to compress it down into the tower. Is it possible someone who worked on my 89 regal the first time removed the whole strut and replaced the top mount? I cannot find any aftermarket mount for my Buick anywhere online for these struts. It all says to replace the cartridge with that tool kit. Is it possible to replace the top mount back with oem from the factory if I can find the mount?

if I was to find this oem mount and replace the aftermarket mount so I can use the tool next time can I swap the top strut mount out? Here is the diagram of the front suspension for the regal.

What mount from the factory was on these cars differently then the aftermarket mount mine has that restricts the clearance from getting the spanner bar down into the tower to remove the cartridge spanner nut?

I am going to have a friend help me out. If his compressor don’t work on the wall mount because of that bracket being made like that I will have to rent one. I am just hoping it doesn’t require a special tool to compress these springs.

Got the knuckles swapped over and the GXP brakes installed. Going to tackle the e-brake next. Going with a rip-it style handle from an 04-ish J-body and a center console from an 00+ Monte. I have new rear e-brake cables from a 2G, so I'm going to need to figure out how to mate them with the Cavalier one. I know there's a thread somewhere on going to this style e-brake, but I can't find it. Anyone know where it is?

be careful with the springs. they are huge and under more tension then i've seen on most others. Nearly killed myself when one went orbital on me. That said if you're going that far its perhaps worth your while to get some 96' knuckles so you can run the larger rotor

Ok so I wanted to let everyone know in here I had no luck still replacing the front strut cartridges with the tool kit I got off eBay to replace these strut cartridges. My friend came over to help me work on my Regal to replace the strut cartridges. We found out the strut cartridges have been played around with the first time they were replaced before. Someone who worked on it years ago tried cutting the top strut tower because we found small cut marks along where the studs are for the strut tower mount. We also found out they replaced the top mount with an aftermarket mount. So that’s why the strut tower will not fit the spanner nut extension down into the tower to loosen the cartridge nut. We have to remove the whole strut and compress it to remove the cartridge. What a pain in the ass.

Been a long time since I've played with rear brakes on a '92 or '93 W-body, but I don't remember there being an access problem.

anyone on here who has a passenger side door for the two door cutlass-preferably black. hit me up i am interested in buying if you are interested in money

The registration fee on mine is $46, but the bill also includes city and county property, which added another $57 for a total bill of $103. I'm thinking of applying for an Antique Auto plate. It qualifies, and although it costs a few extra dollars, one of the perks is it pegs the tax value at $500, which is a fraction of it's present tax value. The flip side of that coin is that it imposes a cap on the number of miles the car can be driven each year. I'm just not sure whether it's worth it.

Congrats. I think here in Iowa, a 25 year old vehicle is considered to be vintage or a classic. With both my W's, I'm well beyond that. Plate renewal is $50 per vehicle for me now.

So, Wednesday marked seven years to the day that I took delivery of my '95 Cutlass Supreme convertible, which also means the registration is due for renewal. When I took it in for that today, I was informed that since the car is now 30 years old, the state of North Carolina considers it to be "vintage vehicle," and such it no longer requires an annual state safety inspection. Fine by me, that's a few dollars I didn't have to spend today. I also believe the Antique Automobile Club of America would consider it an antique.

So….I think that relay might be a little passed its prime. On the plus side, that should be the cause of your issues.

Opened up the compressor relay.

Gotta be careful with testing that one. I don’t believe you can do a simple continuity test like that and get a definitive result. Depending on how the switching is handled in the PCM, it’s likely you won’t get a definitive continuity reading between it and ground. It’s such a low current circuit that the 11 ohms you saw may very well be a good control ground. I’ve heard that you need to use a very low current test light for definitive results when testing those types of circuits.

You are correct, the correct pin to test clutch engagement is #5, not #3. KOEO with AC on I have battery voltage at pins 1 and 3 (test A). Clutch engages with battery voltage to pin 5 (test B). Pin 2 is a mystery. I do not have ground continuity and the meter reads 11 ohms. I don't think it is receiving the control ground from the ECM.

Looking at the AC relay, pins 85 and 86 are the control side. One should have power with the key on, and the other will receive a ground from the PCM when the AC compressor is being commanded on. Pin 30 is the load side power in and pin 87 is the load side power out from the relay. If you have both powers to the relay and the control ground when the AC is being commanded on, but no power out on Pin 87....you have a bad relay. If you have power on Pin 87 when the AC is being commanded on, then you have a broken wire going to the compressor or a bad compressor clutch. I also just noticed that Test B above is wrong. You can't expect to have voltage on Pin 3 in test A, and be expected to supply voltage to Pin 3 in test B to engage the compressor.

3.4s do have the same pressure switch in the power steering rack. What I have tested is that when it won't run the compressor, the #5 wire in the 87 relay socket has 0 volts, test B. If I run battery voltage directly to the compressor connector I'm confident it would engage the clutch.

Well, from where I stand I would probably look for a 3400 LA1 shortblock, plunk the T-code heads & intake down onto it, & install a custom 3400 T-code engine into the car. I personally wouldn't waste my money on just a T code 3.1

Totally for sentimental value because financially it doesn’t make any sense to drop $4k on it! Probably wouldn’t be worth more than that afterwards. It has 172k miles, but I have the money to spend, so want to have a quality replacement engine.