I may have the opportunity to either purchase or (hopefully) be gifted an '89 K5 from my dad. We both have a ton of sentimental attachment to it. It was the first car he ever bought and it was my brother's first car, then my first car. During that 2 years I drove it ('06-'08) we ran into some pretty major issues. Among other things, the transmission went, so that was either rebuilt or swapped out, I can't remember which. Then the engine went 6 months later, which is when I stopped driving it and that was the last time it was daily driven. It sat for 2 years while my dad decided what he wanted to do with it. In the end, he got the engine swapped out. It has basically sat in different locations since then. My dad will get it fixed up once every year or two with intentions of using it, but he never really does.
Long story short, I can't stand it sitting there unused, so I'm going to see if I can get it from him. I mainly want to use it for weekend driving, but my commute is only 7 miles round trip, so I'm sure I'll drive it to work too. I want it to be reliable enough that I can drive it 3 hours to the beach or 2 hours to the mountains for some camping without having to worry about it. I won't be using it for any serious off-road. Just the typical forest/farm roads, etc to get to hunting spots.
Even though it has been sitting, I'm hoping the engine and transmission are still in decent shape since he has had it worked on every couple of years in preparation of driving it. Where I know it needs work is the angle of the drive shaft. My dad had it leafed(?) back in the day and put some bigger tires on it. I guess the drive shaft angles were never corrected because after driving 3-5k miles, the shaking got gradually got worse until the front of the rear drive shaft literally fell out while I was driving one day. Guess the u-joints just couldn't handle it and it finally failed.
How do I go about fixing the drive shaft angles so I don't have to replace the u-joints every 3-5k miles? And what else should I do to make it reliable? How can I learn to do these things? Problem is, I don't know anything about working on cars. I can change the oil and that's about all. I'd like to be able to work on it on my own because I otherwise probably won't be able to afford to keep it running, but I don't know where to start or how to learn.
I know rust is always a concern...the only spot I know of rust is a small spot at the top corner of the tailgate next to the window. But I also haven't seen the car in a year or inspected it thoroughly.
Long story short, I can't stand it sitting there unused, so I'm going to see if I can get it from him. I mainly want to use it for weekend driving, but my commute is only 7 miles round trip, so I'm sure I'll drive it to work too. I want it to be reliable enough that I can drive it 3 hours to the beach or 2 hours to the mountains for some camping without having to worry about it. I won't be using it for any serious off-road. Just the typical forest/farm roads, etc to get to hunting spots.
Even though it has been sitting, I'm hoping the engine and transmission are still in decent shape since he has had it worked on every couple of years in preparation of driving it. Where I know it needs work is the angle of the drive shaft. My dad had it leafed(?) back in the day and put some bigger tires on it. I guess the drive shaft angles were never corrected because after driving 3-5k miles, the shaking got gradually got worse until the front of the rear drive shaft literally fell out while I was driving one day. Guess the u-joints just couldn't handle it and it finally failed.
How do I go about fixing the drive shaft angles so I don't have to replace the u-joints every 3-5k miles? And what else should I do to make it reliable? How can I learn to do these things? Problem is, I don't know anything about working on cars. I can change the oil and that's about all. I'd like to be able to work on it on my own because I otherwise probably won't be able to afford to keep it running, but I don't know where to start or how to learn.
I know rust is always a concern...the only spot I know of rust is a small spot at the top corner of the tailgate next to the window. But I also haven't seen the car in a year or inspected it thoroughly.
