"93 Metro, Things I learned This Weekend

[smeismer]

My metro began leaking coolant and some oil, so I essayed an attempt to fix. I found that it is possible to change the front seal without removing the oil pump, but it is important to re-torque the main bolt holding the bottom sprocket tight. Easier said than done, as the engine likes to turn even in gear. Most of my oil leakage was from loose oil pan bolts ( I would assume from vibration) that when tightened back fixed that. My water pump gasket was crystallized, an mostly gone, I replaced the whole pump rather than digging that deep into the engine in the near future. I replaced the timing belt at the same time, as it has to come off to change the water pump. It is apparently critical to line up the main crank pulley, the water pump pulley, and the alternator pulley to avoid belt squeal. This can easily be done using washers as shims at least where the alternator is concerned. That eliminated my persistant belt squeal, and allowed considerably less excessive tension in the belt. Finally, I put in a cruise control using the excellent instructions found on this site. One problem is that my metro does not have automatic locks, hence no lock controller. So, I had to look elsewhere for a speed sensor wire. The third wire in from the right on the left hand plug to the gauge cluster is yellow with a green stripe, and is the speed sense signal that I needed. That worked well, so now I have cruise control. All in all a successful weekend.