The Camaro Club (UK)

Right. I'm relatively new to the Camaro scene and there are a few issues with my 1980 229. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

1.
There is a lot of play in the steering not sure if it's normal or if there is a bush or something somewhere i need to replace. (power steering)

2.
It has the delay wiper switch which for some reason runs flatout in the off position after you use it just once with the engine running and runs until you switch the engine off and back on then the wipers will switch off and tuck down under the bonnet like they should.

3.
The ignition lights don't come on when you turn the key to the ignition stage. The brake light comes on for a second when you start the engine and the oil light does too but kinda faintly. Not sure if this is normal or not. But they're the only 2 warning lights right? Apart front the seat belt one in the center under the vents, which I have never seen actually work on a GM car.

4.
The gear selector will pull down to "S" (not sure if this means sport or just means it does the first 2 gears). It clicks into "S" but it doesn't click into Low. It all seems to feel like "S" down that end of the shifter or perhaps that is "L" that it's selected.

5.
When I shut the engine off the rev counter sits at about 1500rpm the drop back down when I turn the key a couple stages and the speedo wobbles like hell around 15mph. Not sure if these are common things.

There's a few carb issues but I will make a seperate post for them.
Thanks in advanced for the help.

Howdy and welcome ..
I can't help too much with the other problems, but for the steering it's not to complicated of what to check.

From the tyres back, obviously stuff like wheel bearings, then ball joints, and suspension bushes (which will likely be well worn if they're original).
Steering components are track ends onto the spindles,connecting onto inner ends with adjusting sleeves, the inner sleeves connect to a centrelink, which in turn connects via a pitman arm onto the steering box on the drivers side, and via an idler arm to the chassis side.. ALL these parts can wear !!
The steering box can wear, and has a little adjustment. The only other part is the rag joint (sort of soft UJ) that sits inside the plastic housing which connects he steering box to the column.

I hope this helps, and I'm sure some others will chime in for other queries

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Thanks
I'll have a looksy and see what I can diagnos

Number 5 is easy. The speedo is cable drive, remove it from the speedo head, not the transmission, pull the cable out, grease and replace.
I checked the wiring diagram and it is possibly the wiper switch for your wiper parking problem, but it will take an ohmmeter and a few hours to diagnose it correctly.
The same for the dash lights as GM used a plastic sheet with copper tracks as a sort of printed circuit on the back of the speedo. Not one of their better ideas.

The very first thing to look for is these

or these


If you have either you have what is commonly known as a nightmare.
Most auto repair shops here will tell the owner to go somewhere else the moment they see these. It means the owner, or a friend, has tried to fix it themselves and if you take the job you will end up marrying the car.
An employer of mine made this mistake once. He ended up buying the car from the owner then having it crushed, because it was cheaper than trying to fix all the associated problems that the owner considered our fault.

Thanks for the info. I'll pull the clocks out and see what's going on back there.

Don't know if it's still an issue for you, but for the wipers my money is on the park relay needing replacing. It's tucked inside the wiper motor, but isn't too much of a job to replace.

Take a look at the "How To" on my website - www.mfatw.com/WD