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1G 1989 Colt 4wd wagon - what am I getting myself into?

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poomwah

Proven Member
48
0
Jul 26, 2014
west unity, Ohio
Later today I am going to test drive an 89 colt wagon. I know, it's not like what you guys run, but, call me crazy, I like it. I saw it today but the owner wasn't home. I'm supposed to meet him at noon tomorrow.
He said he will take 500 for it, which around here, if you can find something that isn't rusted all to @#$ for under a grand you are doing great.
It is a 4wd with a 5 speed.
The body is very solid, the interior is a bit rough. And of course, a 500 dollar car has issues. He said it smokes a bit, especially when you start it. I figure for now I'd throw a set of valve seals in it (along with the other basic things, plugs, wires, air and oil filters, fluids, timing belt and tensioner, etc).
He said it runs well unless you go over 40 mph, then it "randomly dies". Said he replaced the fuel pump with no effect.
What would you suggest I look into as far as the not being able to go over 40?
I'm hoping its not a terrible idea to get the car, because I doubt I'll get many, if any responses to this before I go to look at it. So if anyone tries to warn me off, it will probably be too late.
Also, does anyone know of a good source of information on 4wd colts, I can't seem to find a whole lot about them.
Thanks everybody
 
ITS RUNNING!!!!

someone suggested that the coil negative terminal shouldn't be hot while the key is on, and that despite passing the resistance checks that the coil was bad. So I changed the coil and it fired right up!!
I haven't had a chance to test drive it yet to see if the other problem has been taken care of. I want to wait for daylight in case I have to tow it home again, LOL.

funny thing, even with the new coil, the negative terminal of the coil is hot, LOL[DOUBLEPOST=1407553052][/DOUBLEPOST]I couldn't wait to test drive it. I'm too impatient and took a chance. I just got home from a very fun drive, let the car sit and idle for about 10 minutes, drove it for a half hour, let it sit for about 15 minutes, drove it for another 10.
NEVER died !!!! I am so excited.
And the craziest part, it was with the old coil!
While it was idling I started tapping on sensors and such to see if I could get the engine to die. when I tapped on the coil wire, it would stumble, I jiggled the cord and the car died. That easily, the signal wire came off the coil. I tightened the plug up and put it back on. Drove it, and it runs great! I'm going to solder and heat shrink some new ends onto the coil wires tomorrow.
 
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hell yeah dude glad you found the problem! not a bad deal at all for $500! my friends mom had a Plymouth vista mini van I wanted for the longest to swap a 4g63t into! man just think how awesome of a sleeper your car would be! but nevertheless your car is running so why not just let it run
 
thanks jimbob, we just got home again, needed an excuse to go for a ride so we went to taco bell, LOL.
I'm so happy to have it running.
Eventually I will put a 4g63 in it, but I'm more than happy with what's in it for now :]
 
That sounds great BMX, I'm only about an hour and a half from fort wayne.
I need to find me some tires before making a trip that far, LOL.

I'll warn you though, its not much to look at right now. But then neither am I so I guess it works out.
Not sure I'll fit in with the crowd though, old fat guy in an old weird car.

when and where do you guys have the meets?
 
Nah dont worry about that, you wouldnt be the first old guy in a wierd car we've had. Usually we have them at Pizza Hut on Coliseum but it varies sometimes. We like all Mitsus really, we got some 3g guys, evo guys, a few people with 3s's, I think even Colt guys although I havent been down in a long time due to medical issues/not having a car. Getting my car tomorrow though so hopefully that will change.
 
sorry to hear about the medical issues.
what kind of car are you getting.

and back on track with the colt, here's a crazy question, where on earth do you guys get keys?
I've been trying to find a place to cut me some spares and noone has the blanks. One place even said my key is too long to go into their machine.
 
Thanks David, That sounds like a great idea.
I'll try to find them someplace else. .38 a key is great, but after I put my zip code in, it said 13.30 shipping . That was the CHEAPEST shipping option.
 
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Congrats on getting it running well. I just recently got a 90 vista awd 5spd myself. It's the sohc 4g63 though with a funky km182 transmission.

Mine was smoking really badly when i got it too, I ended up pulling it all apart like 3 days after I bought it and did a mild rebuild/ rehone and replaced the valve stem seals and its mostly good now. I couldn't get a ring set quickly and I was impatient to get it back together so the tension on the 200k+ oil control rings is still questionable. I also deleted the balance shafts while I was in there and I can highly recommend the old school window weld mod for the engine mounts if they are sloppy, driveshaft carrier bearings as well.

I really do love this car though, I hauled 1300 lbs of paving stones up a steep hill for my aunt the same week I had it running again, just walked up it in first like nothing. Then I drove it back down to Florida from Connecticut were I bought it. I ran the tail of the dragon in the smokey mountains on the way back too and averaged around 30 mpg on the way. Not many cars around that can do all of those things well. It was spectacular on the dragon too, I've never had and awd car this light before, it's slow as piss but handling wise it makes my 1g talon feel like a pig.

FYI, if you're new to the whole dsm thing don't try and fill the driveshaft carrier bearings in the car if they are shot, they need to be supported and centered or they will harden off center and cause a bad vibration when the driveshaft tries to spin inside them again.

I am 100% keeping this car and 100% doing a turbo swap on it. I could actually turbo this engine already, it's the same beast 6 bolt bottom end with a different head on it. I just already have a nice dohc engine I was building for my talon before.
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great pics, I particularly like the dragon.
Those vistas are pretty cool. A lot more room than mine.
I keep getting parts guys arguing with me that mine is vista when it's clearly not. Don't you love when the parts guys try to tell you that you don't know what you have?

I'm having a blast with mine, been doing some cleaning up under the hood, put on some fresh tires today!
 
Ya I feel ya. I was trying to source valve stem seals at a mitsu dealership that I couldn't find at local part stores and the parts counter guy basically accused me of making the car up. I know it's technically a plymouth but it says imported for plymouth right on it, it's all mitsu parts. I told the guy to come out front, I said I swear I'm not making this up I drove it here, it's in your parking lot. No one want to believe it's a 2.0 4g63 and not a 1.8 either.

I couldn't get the seals when I did the engine work and had the head off. I did them later with rope in the spark plug hole. Is your car smoking on acceleration or mostly startup / engine braking? If you've got the tools and all you can do the valve stem seals pretty quickly and easily.

How is the driveshaft and rear suspension setup on yours? I only really see the 2nd gen awd summits being built. The one factory manual I got for my car is not right, it actually shows a live axle in the back but mine is a very weird semi trailing arm torsion bar setup ala old school porsche 911. I am wondering if that's what you've got or a live axle or what. Also that last pic is an external vcu, there's no center diff in the km transmission, it's basically a 4x4 not really awd. It just has a 2 piece driveshaft with the vcu in the center to allow some differentiation when turning.

I know we all like hot rodding and modding and making stuff faster but sometimes just basic cleanup and resto on a cool old car can be just as much fun. I highly recommend taking a look at your roll stops and filling them if they are worn, it makes shifting feel 10x better without the engine wobbling about on the other end of the cables. Shifter bushings too, I did the old school skateboard bearing mod and mounted the shifter base solidly to the frame with nuts and washers. I hate sloppy shifters. Theres allot of easy and cheap dsm style mods you can do like that that will make it allot more fun to drive everyday. I mean you use the shifter all the damn time you know?

http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/skateboard-inline-skate-wheel-bearings-merged-12-6.209015/

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http://www.vfaq.com/mods/wayback/DaveS_shifter.htm

You don't really need special bushings for that though, just get some big nuts that slide over the bolts and space the shifter base up a tad and thick wide washers up top. The clamping load of the bolts will hold everything securely, never had any work loose on 3x dsms and now the colt. These 2 mods are like a $15 investment that will improve the shifter feel 1000%.
 
yeah I know what you mean when you talk about great handling I put a mitsu cordia turbo front sway bar in my colt vista, and used moog urethane D busings I had to custom cut grooves in them in order to mount them in, but damn the vista can out corner many cars, I remember a guy in aus. built one
[they are called the nimbus over there] and he said it smoked an sti and some other exotic cars on a race track.

love my vista haul stuff, seats seven in decent comfort, people have labeled it a swiss arm knife of a car LOL.
 
speaking of sway bar, I've got a broken end link on my front right. Not having much luck finding a new one either :\

Tim, thanks for all the advice and tips.
 
thanks kid, I'll have to get a pic of mine and post it, mine is a right angle deal.
 
got some decent tires on her now. So I got that going for me. Unfortunately I found out I've got a rim that's bent all to @#$#
 
I dunno if there is anyone near you that can do it but there are special machines that can fix very bent rims. I had a nice alunium rim my gf drove under a guard rail. A local shop fixed it perfectly for $40. That's if you can't easily find a replacement.

Just out of sheer curiosity do you have solid axle in the back of your wagon? I realized that I got the wrong manual, I need a vista specific one so I think I've got the book for your car actually. I don't really have much use for it, I'll send it to you for shipping cost. It is for a 90 though, I don't know if there was much change from 89 to 90 but I think they tend to be very similar.


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Actually you can mod some of the awd 1g colt vista to have low and high range gearing kinda like on a semi, I don't know how, but one of my buddies that still owns a vista in Washington has an awd carburetor equipped 1986 colt vista, he put a modified weber carb on it ... he goes by the user name seattle smitty maybe you've seen his posts on various forums about his colt vista... anyway he said you could mod the setup somehow not sure how, but I'll see If I can get him on here to talk about It or maybe I'll find his old posts on the subject.
 
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