Toronado.org

For over a year my fuel gauge didn't work. Basically I filled up every 100 miles.

Last month I brought my Toronado in to my mechanic for a slew of repairs including:

1. repair holes in floor pan
2. replace front shocks, upper and lower ball joints and idler arm (sloppy steering)
3. replace both lateral (close to wheels) driveshaft boots (one or both burst every year it seems -- why?)
4. machined rotors (remember, this is a front disc brake Toronado!)
5. repair vacuum loss (headlight doors wouldn't operate and A/C stuck in defrost position)
6. lube squeaky power window tracks
7. completed refurbishing of fuel line that was started during a prior repair visit

This time, the gas tank was removed. I sent the fuel sender to USA PARTS SUPPLY for remanufacturing. It was sent back in about 2 weeks and works normally now. Cost for this was $199 plus shipping to their location in West Virginia. USA PARTS SUPPLY farmed out this work to a third party, but the result is a functioning gas gauge for the first time in over a year. I recommend this company without reservation. Check out their 100-page Oldsmobile catalog!

http://www.usapartssupply.com/

While out, the gas tank was refreshed and the fuel lines replaced: stainless steel and rubber. I have a few photos which I'll post later this week.

Thanks for the tip on the Oldsmobile Parts!!! Nice find indeed!

That's great Dave! Thanks for sharing.....

As promised, here are photos of the gas tank.

Photo of my 43-year-old fuel line (removed from Toronado). This is the one that ran along the right-side frame rail. It is one of a pair of fuel lines. My mechanic replaced the entire fuel line from tank to carb.

A long time ago I read something that went like this:

Once iron ore is processed into steel, it then immediately begins the reverse process of turning back into iron ore.

Interesting story David,

I will be sending my unit down there at some point. It's never been accurate and I have mis-calculated a few times. The wife really hates bringing out a can of gas to the middle of no- where!

I'm curious that you had to replace all your front ball joints already. I would have thought that they pretty much would have lasted the life time of the car. You replaced them all with the front brake conversion a few years back I believe. How many miles did you put on the Toro since then?

I have to search through my records. I'll let you know within a few days.

Upper and lower ball joints were replaced September 2005, at 25,314 miles. This was done during the front disc brake installation.

Upper and lower ball joints were again replaced June 2011, at 31,088 miles. This was done during the fuel system restoration (install remanufactured sending unit, replace fuel lines from tank to mechanical fuel pump, refresh fuel tank).

That's 5 years and 9 months, and 5774 miles, between replacements.

I have a guess why the ball joints seemingly wore out prematurely. I altered my Toronado's steering geometry when I installed custom wheels over the disc brakes. Initially, the custom wheels did not clear the disc brake calipers, so I had to install (you guessed it) custom spacers (also known as adapters) to push the front wheels outward about 1.5". This rectified the disc brake caliper clearance issue. Perhaps this created the premature ball joint wearout issue. Does anyone not agree?

I would think that would have a greater impact on the wheel bearing. The Ball Joints should not see much difference. Did you lube the ball joints regularly? It is possible that they dried up.

Wow! They certainly did wear out prematurely.

I'm not an engineer or even a front end mechanic but something had to cause all four ball joints to fail at least 1/10-1/20th of their designed life span.

It's not like your driving the car in harsh weather conditions all year round. You have about 1000 miles a year and your down in FLA.

Perhaps the spacers are contributing some how. Every time you turn the wheels the steering geometry is not as it was initially intended. You wheels are three inches outboard then normal. Maybe this does cause extra stress on the whole front end.

Did your mechanic have an thoughts on the matter?