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Greets from North Dakota; New to the forum, time to introduce myself
Topic Started: Jun 13 2010, 12:28 PM (890 Views)
cdmccul
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Well, I'm not new to the automotive forum world, but I am new to the Geo Metro forums. I've had my little car for a while now, and just never needed to find a forum... well, here I am.

The other forum(s) that I am involved in are for the Dodge Intrepid, as I own a very spiffy 1994 Dodge Intrepid that my wife fell in love with. I really like the car, but I have a 45 mile (90 mile round trip) commute 5 days a week, so I needed something a little nicer on fuel.

Enter the Metro! (aka, Basketcase, aka Rollerskate)

My wife has a knack for finding some great deals in news papers and internet listings, and sure enough, my wife found the ad for my Geo.

It was listed on the internet (local listing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, if I am remembering correctly) as a 1992 Geo Basketcase. Her knowing that I'm a sucker for a project car, and knowing that "Basketcase=good $ deal for a little work", pointed me in that direction.

Went and looked at the car... pretty little red two door - with only the 5spd transmission, engine block AC Pump, and crank installed under the hood... The head, rods, pistons, and other parts were sitting in milk crates outside the car. The story goes that the guy bought the car, and shortly there after had a rod break and it blew a hole in the front side of the block. He sourced a 1.0 w/attached 5 speed in Wisconsin on eBay, and installed it whole. Then only like 6 months later, it started making a mid level tick... he dropped the oil pan to find the center piston skirt had broken off one side of the piston... He thought for a bit, and decided to go buy a new car (no idea what he got).

Well, what to do with the Geo? He had a nephew that was turning 16, and needed a car. He told the nephew that he'd buy all the parts, and then give the car away to him if he helped fix it up. The nephew agreed, and the owner started ordering parts and tearing down. He ordered a full gasket set, new rod bearings, new pistons, and new rings. He had also bought assembly lube and brake/carb cleaner, along with the tools he'd bought special (like a hone). He honed the block, and checked the head himself (barely). He called his nephew, and his nephew dropped the ball... not sure what happened, but I got the impression that the nephew "flew the coup" in some manner or got in legal trouble or into drugs - something that made the uncle pull the deal, and sell the car AS IS.

So, $500 for the car with new parts, ready to bolt together, and he threw in towing by his son's construction company for $50 bucks... it was about a 75 mile trip to deliver it... and he threw in the old engine and old transmission for spare parts and as "3D assembly diagrams" to boot.

I pushed it into the garage the next weekend, and 8 hours later, I had it all put together awaiting a battery. One battery and 14 hours later, and I was doing test drives... what a GREAT little car!

I was instantly in love with it. Not only are they nice cars in thier own right, but it was something I'd brought back from a "Basketcase" (or Milk Crate more literally)!

Since then I have done Front and Rear brakes as needed, rear bearings on both sides, new tires (thanks Dad!), and charged the AC (slow leak, from the AC compressor I'm guessing). I also had to change the timing belt... I had the whole family in the car (Wife, 5 year old boy, 1 year old boy, and myself, along with the back full of birthday gifts) going to a birthday party. Doing 65, and just cresting a hill, the engine stalls... I coast to a stop at a farm stand, and the engine cranks WAY too fast and doesn't sound quite right... popped off the distributor cap (didn't think about the oil cap) and my wife cranked it over... sure enough, no movement... Called Dad, he picked up a timing belt for me and brought me a little cheap Chinese tool pouch, brought it all to me and then took my family to the party... he came back to watch me work, and using that little tool kit and my Victorinox Swiss Army Knife, had the car running by the time the party was over!

I installed an old Pioneer tape player (a Christmas present from around 1996 from my Mother when I was in middle school), and wired it up to the Pioneer self contained 2 way speaker boxes that were already in the car. I also installed and fished the wire for an external GPS antenna that fits my phone (HTC TyTN II with a custom OS, no cell service, strictly a PDA right now).

The car has seen many many miles from me, but I stupidly didn't keep track of it all. No idea what miles I've got on it myself, but I'd guess about 25K in the last 3 years.

It has developed a TERRIBLE oil leak in the front crank or cam seals, and is going to be my first project next weekend. It has also developed a sticky caliper on the passenger side - the piston is VERY stiff in the bore. The driver's door handle is a key ring to pull, and the antenna is now a coat hanger (ripped it off going backwards up a driveway and snagged a low tree). The seats need removed and power washed, and the dash center stack needs new trim. I also broke one wheel stud on the front passenger wheel...

More to come!
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Johnny Mullet
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Fear the Mullet

Welcome to our forum! We have guides to help you along in keeping that Metro alive for a long time!
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cdmccul
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Thanks Johnny! Are you the perveyor of this establishment?

I'll add a few pics here soon, along with my trials and projects.

I'm a pretty seasoned shadetree mechanic, formerly ASE Certified in several areas, but I got out of professionally wrenching some time ago as to not ruin my hobby by having to do it on a daily basis for work.

I will be providing help to fellow members as I see questions come up, I really enjoy that part of an active forum. As with my other forum I'm on a lot (and moderator on, www.dodgeintrepid.net), it looks like this forum is a great resource for any level of owner.
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Coche Blanco
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Troll Certified

Glad to have you here.
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bogs
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Duct tape heals all wounds

JM is indeed the purveyor and instigation of this happy little place :) Welcome aboard and we always look forward to pics :popcorn
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Bad Bent
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Facetious Educated Donkey

Great story, cdmccul! Welcome to the forum!

Change your PCV valve lately? If it is clogged it may have blown out the cam seal as you suspect. Clean the "Y" tube and look for oil in your air cleaner. I added a "catch can" after mine blew the seal. I simply pressed the seal back in and it was great for a long time.

So, yea, sounds like a real true life Geo story! :news

Mine was towed to my driveway with the engine in pieces in the hatch...

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cdmccul
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Thanks for the welcome, and thanks for the tip on the PCV... I'll have to go check that. So, you say your cam seal had just poppe dout, and you popped it back in? wow! I'll have to go poking around this next weekend.
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convertible


Welcome to the forum. Enjoy.
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cdmccul
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Here are some pictures of the Rollerskate with the Cargo Conversion Mod installed... Drove from Cedar Rapids, IA, to Sioux Falls, SD with that set up... ran great! I had to deliver a 10 foot projection screen to a guy.

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Very little tape was actually attached to the paint, made sure of that, and as soon as I could pull it off, I removed it to help keep the paint nice.

Here is a shot of my wife's Dodge Intrepid... It gets a LOT of my attention to detail, we can get into that one another day, but for now here's a pic.

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The red sedan behind red van is a friends car I did a bunch of work to... the van is a 2000 Pontiac Montana I still have, but it is currently 850 miles from me awaiting either a part out or an engine swap... Choices choices choices. The white truck was also sold already, it was a 1993 Dodge Dakota.

Well, after a quick scrounge through my computer, I don't see any pictures of the Metro and the parts Metro I don't have ANY pictures of yet, but I'll be on the board a lot in the near future.

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cdmccul
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Well, I took some pictures, but I haven't been able to upload them yet - but the oil leak I think has been fixed!!!

I jacked up the front end, and pulled the passenger side wheel. Pulled the belts, main pulley, water pump pulley, and plastic timing cover. Sure enough, behind the cam gear the seal was out of the head completely. I had already bought the seal for it so I went ahead and removed the cam gear and put in the new seal. I cleaned out the seal bore, and poured a little oil on the end of the cam shaft to lubricate the seal lip, and then tapped it home. After setting the seal, I went ahead and put a bead of RTV around the outer edge of the seal to just help hold it in place. I buttoned up the rest of the front end, and then dropped the oil out the pan. While it was draining, I went top side to see if I could find the PCV.

Taking apart the air cleaner, i noticed that the mounting tab that bolts to the valve cover was broken, so i swapped that from my spare parts car. I broke two screw driver bits trying to remove the PCV bracket, and finally grabbed the heads with a locking plier. Once I cracked them loose, they came out just fine with the screwdriver. The valve was very oily and seemed clogged, so I flushed it with brake-clean (the parts store in my little town closed at 3PM, and this was almost 5PM now). I knocked all the crud out of it I could, and flushed it several times with solvent. I could push a plastic zip-tie through it just fine, so I just flushed it till the solvent was clear, then blew through it to test... air would only pass one way, so I replaced the o-ring on the bottom with one from the crank seal kit, and called it good.

I changed the air filter for a clean spare I already had, then went below to put the drain plug in and remove the oil filter. Put on a nice new NAPA Gold (Wix) filter (pre-filled with oil), and then put the tire on and dropped the car to the ground. Back on top I added 3 quarts of oil through the valve cover, and the car started right up. A quick test drive to prove drivability, and I put it away for the night. The next day I drove to and from work, and didn't use any oil at all (not that i could measure anyway).

One question though - the year of this engine is not 100% known, but I'm guessing it is very close to a 1992 - anyway, the question I have is that there is no obvious TDC mark on the oil pump housing... the spring for the tensioner is slipped over a screw that is oddly placed right about where I'd expect to find the TDC mark, but this is not consistant with other pictures I have seen of the 1.0 engine. I will post a question in the Tech area...

Anyway, very happy to have the car back in once piece... A friend of mine always stated that he has cars that were MALE - they always marked thier territory! Mine now no longer marks.
Edited by cdmccul, Jun 22 2010, 03:42 PM.
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Bad Bent
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Facetious Educated Donkey

One question would be did you inspect and/or clean the "Y" hose that goes between the air cleaner, PCV and valve cover? :hmm :hmm
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