I recently purchased another car. A beater/pos... to say the best. It'* a 91 corsica. That I bought for $200.. so you can of course imagine what $200 got me.

It'* got it'* share of problems, but for the most part it'* a good car. Brand new brakes from MC back. New fuel pump. New Battery. And 1/2 tank of gas [always a bonus when you get gas with prices these days]. Drove the car home.. and learned the special tricks to driving it [see I call them tricks, when in reality it'* what doesn't work and what you have to do to make it work].

You can't accelerate fast below 30-40mph. Something seems to hit the passenger'* floorboard.. but I don't know what it is. The previous owner said it was a 'chipped tooth in the cv joint' but that doesn't add up. The driver'* side cv joint is junk, and so is the driver'* side lower motor mount [completely broken.. it'* all loose and worthless]. If I do a tie-rod check on the passenger side tire [moving wheel left and right], the entire thing moves about the distance of a really trashed tie rod. But it'* not the tie rod. The entire hub assembly and I can hear/see the CV joint going in and out of the trans when I move it. Whatever the problem may be, i think it'* related to the noise.

The other problem is the steering wheel is extremely loose. It has a basic tilt column but the steering wheel is very loose. Not something like trying to turn the wheel loose, but the steering wheel can be moved up, down, and side to side. It'* not that big of a deal, but occasionally when it has been shaken real bad, the car will die, or some accessories will turn off [mostly radio.. but the headlights did once too]. The b'ville had this problem quite some time ago, and my mom had her mechanic fix it.. and hasn't been a problem since. So I know it'* something fixable, and a common problem. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

I'll try to shoot some pics so everyone can see my new beauty

Heck, that half tank of gas is worth about $200.... figure you got a free car...

The steering column being loose is a very common problem in the early 90s GMs. You need to pull the steering column apart until you get down to three torx bolts that need to be tightened. I wish I had some pictures or could tell you how far down you need to tear the column, but it'* been a long time since I've done one. I know you have to go quite a ways into it though. Maybe another member can post pics or explain this better. If it'* stalling and messing with your accessories when the column is moving around, you'd better check the wiring when you get into the column. Chances are quite good that you'll find bare wires that have rubbed through and are shorting out.

As for the other problem, get a helper to do a brake stand and watch the motor. Check out where its moving the most and if you can see a torn mount on the passenger side. If something is hitting the passenger floorboard under acceleration, reproduce the conditions to make it happen while standing still and you may see something you didn't before. You'd be amazed what you can find when doing a brake stand. I had a newer Ford Ranger I was working on that wouldn't go into 4 wheel drive. Did a brake stand and the entire motor literally came up and out of the engine bay a good foot because one mount was broken off of the block. [slightly off topic, but so cool that I couldn't help but mention it]


EDIT: http://www.chevyasylum.com/column/tiltcol.html covers the loose column. Note that not all of these steps may apply to you, but this way you can see which bolts need to be tightened (the black reverse torx head bolts). The majority of the steps on that page are correct. If you have any questions, lemme know as I've pulled apart a number of these.

thanks dude.. finally something I can go on now. I don't have any manuals for the corsica, but I still have the shop manual for the b'ville. Which has the breakdown of the column. Although it may not be 100% the same, it'* probably good enough for what i'm doing. Any wires I find that are bare will just get some electrical tape thrown over them. no biggie. All it'* got to do is work.. there will be no money put in this car. [my mom thinks i'll have a grand in it by the end of summer.. i'm thinking more like 150-200; between tune up stuff and fixing some of the broken stuff.

As for your second suggestion, I was thinking the exact same thing, but in our autoshop .

I used to have a 95 Corsica (it came with the wife). Not a bad car, considering...

I actually managed to fix a craked head on it with a file, some snadpaper, and JB Weld.

musta been a 2.2L . Those engines have so many problems. We litterally have three in the shop right now [and i'm on spring break ]. Luckily I got the 3.1L .

That'* some good handy work though, fixing a cracked head with a file and jb...