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It's actually a very easy install. I did it on my '91 Cutlass Supreme coupe on my lunch hour from work. If you're going with an aftermarket head unit, be sure to spring the extra few dollars for the wiring harness adapter, which allows a plug-and-play connection between the new radio and the car, without cutting any wires. You can easily do the installation in under an hour. When I was married, it made a fun afternoon project with my then-stepdaughter to replace the dead radio in her mom's Jeep Grand Cherokee. I taught her how to use a soldering iron as part of the process, and she had a great sense of accomplishment when we turned it on and put in her favorite CD to test it out.

I had to replace the pistons on my '95 vert last fall. They guy at the trim shop said he only replaced them in pairs because when one went, the other wasn't far behind, and it was far more cost effective in terms of labor to do them at the same time. The pistons cost $350 each, which accounted for about half of the total bill. I love that car, but it is an expensive habit, for as little as I drive it.

You could have a broken piston on the side that isn't working. I encountered this on my '95 vert last fall. I took the car out for some exercise on a warm afternoon in October, and when I put the top down, there was a loud 'POP', which I found out later was the piston actually snapping off. When I later tried to put it back up, only one side came up. I finally got the top completely up by having a friend operate the switch, while I assisted the broken side to keep it even with the side that was working. I took it to a trim shop a few weeks later, and the guy replaced both pistons, and stapled and screwed the top back into place where it had come loose between the rear seat and trunk lid, and it's been working fine ever since, actually better than it had before. He said he always replaced those pistons in pairs because when one breaks, the other is usually not far behind, and doing them both at once saves significantly on labor.

Please elaborate.....neither the bottom spring seat nor the upper spring seat are fastened to the knuckle, the lower seat, the spring, the upper seat are held in position by the force of the compressed spring against the upper & lower seats. The retaining nut at the top of the shock piston working against the rubber mount keeps everything together.

I have that tool it wasn’t included in the kit I got off Walmart. So I had to buy it off eBay. I had to send the kit back when I wasn’t able to remove the cartridge. The seat is fastened to the top of the knuckle so I couldn’t fit the spanner nut tool down into the tower to remove the cartridge nut. There wasn’t even access to fit that tool you circled to keep the strut elevated from moving. I need to correct a video showing everyone what I am having trouble with. So I can get this done asap. I would love to work on this myself. No one knows how to work on these cars around me. So I’ve been doing all the repairs myself and learning from people in these forums and on fb.

No problem. Pay attention when ordering a replacement though, as there seems to be different part numbers based on whether the car has column or console shift, and whether it has steering wheel controls. The key fob not working is highly likely to be bad solder joints in the keyless entry module. There is a write up on here about repairing them. Extremely common issue!

Thanks that's helpful as I was wondering why I couldn't find many hits for "multi function" switch. The key fob also doesn't work despite fresh coin batteries. What could I be looking at? Took my elderly father for a ride and he is happy to see a car like this still going!

That would be the turn signal switch. Not terribly hard to replace, but you do need to pull the airbag, the steering wheel, the clock spring and the lock plate to get to it. Sounds like the Brake shift interlock is acting up. What I can't recall is whether the turn signal switch issue that causes the left/right brake lights to not illuminate correctly also causes issues with the shift interlock not releasing like it should. I'll let someone else chime in regarding that.

Oh, when the car first starts up I can't click on the shifter to get it out of park into gear. I have to wait a few seconds first, which is not a big deal, but hopefully that's not a sign of a serious problem.

The car runs great so far. I've driven it back to the previous family to show off that it's still running, which they hare happy to see. One issue is that the tail brake lights do not work, but the third small light on the windshield does. I read some other similar issues, and it sounds like the "multi function switch". I think other places have called it a "combo switch". If I pull the signal switch back slightly, but not all the way to engage highbeam, then the brake lights will work. Does anyone have the particular part model or "proper" name for this part? I'm also seeing that it's call "turn signal" switch. I'm not very car-inclined. I'm assuming is discontinued and hoping there's an aftermarket solution.

It’s been just a little over a year now since I got the Regal…so what better way to celebrate that than with some more recent pictures. Nothing much visually has changed except for the refinished wheels and new tires…which was a fairly large, yet subtle change on its own. My intent is to keep the car as stock as possible, and to keep it up to snuff mechanically to be used as a reliable, fair weather cruiser. And to shake things up…. This is the final picture I ever took of my 89 GS before it was parked for good in summer of 2008.

aaahhhhhhhhh....so the correct tires are on the car, the 245's already allow the car to sit almost 1" lower than all the other cars fitted with the 225/60's, coilovers you would more than likely have to build yourself, same for the rears, unless you wanted to explore a replacement custom steel multi leaf for the rear. For coils one needs to cut off the lower spring seats (fronts) of the existing struts to allow one to slide the custom coils down into into place along with the lower perch, threaded sleeve & the lock rings etc....these have been done here in the past, a few threads on the procedure with photos. If one is looking for a replacement rear Monroe OE spectrum shock for a Gen 1 one has to purchase the rear struts for the 95-99 Monte Carlo. These shocks have a lower spring seat, it has to be removed from the shock tube to install onto the earlier W cars seeing as it is not required. This spectrum shock is the same basic shock for the 88-96 cars with the transverse leaf spring but THAT shock was discontinued.

245/50R16

Actually its been holding up great. I've got over 20k miles on the swap now over 2 years. Nothing major, a couple ripped cv boots which may be because they were junkyard sourced. I highly recommend adding a HTOB spacer. ZZP sells them for around $50. Sits behind the HTOB and moves it closer to the clutch by 1/4" for earlier engagement and longer life. Aside from engineering the trans mount, the hardest part is getting the clutch pedal mounted and situated. The pedal arm needs to be cut & welded into proper position as well. As far as the mount, the low-profile mount I fabbed up works great. Only modification I made was adding rubber bushings under the nuts at the bottom to further insulate the mount from the frame. On an aluminum subframe, it might have to be done a bit different. Might be able to drill two holes and bolt it in the same way, but I haven't been hands-on with an 04+ subframe so I can't say for sure. I'm not a fan of the modified 4T65E bracket method that requires tubular control arms as the mount sits outside the frame. An extra $650 that could be spent elsewhere. There really are half a dozen ways you could fab up a mount but I can say for sure the one I made does the job. 3/16 steel plate holds up well so far. I have also just finished taking the time to document the changes to the tune that are highly recommended for a manual swap: Idle speeds in-gear changed to match P/N as its going to be wired to be in D at all times now. ( I actually added a toggle switch to change between forcing it in D or P, since P is needed for a crank relearn procedure if you need it) DTC codes changed And finally zeroing out all the auto trans stuff:

hi

Welcome (back)! somehow I never got out for long, but the last few years I haven't posted as much, been trying to check in more often

Also just now checking some of the forgotten areas of the forum, but Welcome!

I know I;m a bit late but do you have a sound clip? I'm happy with my setup but it still doesn't sound great, I've never heard an LQ1 sound great haha

Chase?

Awesome writeup! How's the 5 speed holding up? I've been wanting to do this swap in my 2004 Impala LS. Do you have any advice/recommendations for making the f23 mount? I have the aluminum subframe. Would it be the same mounting as yours?

Being a GTP which wheels & tires are presently on the car?

Looking to get new shocks and coils. Curious if anyone knows of any good aftermarket parts. I haven’t had any luck finding anything. Only for the next gen. If anyone knows some nice compatible coil overs that would be nice too I’d like to lower mine about an inch maybe two.

Why won't my top go all the way down on one side?

So it seems like unless i have the 94 motor, this pulley wont work on the 91-93?

He hasn't logged in since last Dec, but there's a way to use more commonly available SPST switches. I had a writeup on that which is no longer online, but I could post if that'd be helpful.