I have found that when you work in a tightly confined office setting and have two small children, if everyone gets sick, you might as well get ready. Some sort of sickness went around and people at work got it, then my wife got it, then both my children, who have a propensity for coughing directly in your face, got it. I held out pretty well for a while, but finally it got me.
I had planned on putting an aftermarket radio in April's '97 Lumina so she could hook up an MP3 player. I really don't like the look of aftermarket radios and after looking into it a bit I found that you can modify older radios to add an auxiliary input for an MP3 player. April and the kids were out of town for a week so I used the time to tackle the project. There are several different ways to go about doing this depending on which version of the AC Delco unit you have and how you want it to function. My cousin who had given us the car used to drink coffee and Coca Cola a lot and the buttons were always getting stuck because the cup holder is right against the radio in these cars so while I had everything apart I cleaned it all with soap and water.
The front lights were also burned out on the radio so I ordered new LEDs. I ordered red ones because I've always liked the look of the red and orange gauge and dash lights. The old bulbs had to be de-soldered from the circuit board and the new LEDs had to soldered in their place. The new LEDs had internal resistors so they had to be oriented in the correct negative/positive direction, which meant following the directions was key.
I decided to go with a five pin aux jack, which automatically interrupts the signal and activates the jack when the aux plug is plugged in.
I installed the jack on the back of the radio, visible below in the upper right hand corner of the radio. I ran an aux extension cable out of the back and up through the middle console/armrest. My hope was that when the Ipod was unplugged from the extension cable it would kill the signal, acting as though the aux jack was unplugged. This ended up not being the case and as it is now only the CD player and Aux work with no radio function because the aux jack is always activated due to the fact the extension is always plugged in the back. I'm going to relocate the aux jack to the front of the radio so that the cable can be unplugged when someone would want to have the radio on. Also, whatever varsity GM engineer that designed the dash bezel on the Luminas needs to be found and shot. I ended up breaking the dash bezel into something like 5 different pieces. I'll need to take a trip to the junkyard.
I started having an anti-freeze leak that I couldn't get to stop. I couldn't exactly trace where the liquid was coming from. I would tighten clamps each day and check again, but the leak would get worse and worse.
I finally determined the leak was coming from the radiator itself, where the fin and tubes were connected to the tank on the passenger side. It was hard to find the leak because it was leaking down the inside of the radiator and coming out of the bottom. I found others have had this issue with their new radiators as well. I was afraid that Griffin would not replace the radiator, or that they may try to charge me for shipping. This was not a cheap radiator and I was not about to pay anything to have it replaced. I was already going to be out all of the time I had in finding this problem and removing and replacing the new radiator and the cost of new fluids. If this had only happened a week earlier; the airflow block-off plates would have been way, way easier with the radiator removed. This picture with the radiator out gives a better look at how they block off the air gaps.
Fortunately, I remembered that I had bought the radiator through Summit Racing. In every experience I've had with Summit they have had absolutely great customer service in every way. Once again, not only were they very polite but also accommodating to my problem. They sent me a new radiator and had UPS pick up the old radiator.
Taking the old radiator out was no problem. I found that removing the transmission lines was hugely improved by removing the electric fans. It was easy to remove the fans, with only 6 easy to reach metal screws, but I couldn't put them back in with the radiator installed because of the way the lower mounts were made. I would have to pull the radiator each time I wanted to install the fans and install them together. This was a huge problem because installing the transmission lines with the fans installed is possible, but barely. To solve this problem I was able to trim the bottom of the electric fan shroud so that I could install the radiator and then slide the fans in to place afterwards. This did not compromise the strength or integrity of the shroud in any way so it appeared to be the perfect solution.
I had to buy some cutting wheels for my dremel so I could get a hole big enough to fit a metal saw into. The aluminum was thick and the dremel didn't like it at all. I was amazed at how expensive tiny cut off wheels are for dremels.
With the cut outs I was able to slide the fans into place. I had trouble getting the transmission lines to seal, which meant I ended up taking the fans in and out several times. I found that this was a difficult process until I learned the sequence. There was a very specific sequence of things to do and remove that allowed the fans to slide out, but before I realized that sequence it was pretty difficult. The problem with the transmission lines were the fittings between the lines and the radiator. These fittings use a straight threads, which requires a sealant. I had tried using a liquid Teflon tape sealant but apparently I wasn't using enough. In the end I used regular Teflon tape and everything sealed up fine. Hopefully this radiator will hold up better than the first one.
