Factory service manual set
 

I ordered a complete set of 2002 Saturn L series factory service manuals on EBay tonight. $50.00 plus $18.95 freight will be here in a week or so. I will be able to scan and post pages for members. I will be able to trouble shoot the a/c system soon. This weekend I will work on disassembly of the wrecked 03. It is literally painful to work on this car, there is broken glass everywhere! LOL

Disassembly day today, removed the engine and trans. The engine is on a stand so I can replace the cracked oil pan and remove one broken exhaust manifold stud, broken off in he head. I removed the rear doors and the front seats, I tore down the front suspension and kept the hubs, rotors, calipers and wheel bearings. Someone replaced the driver's side strut only? must be a used car dealer thing. Removed the exhaust system and the fuel tank, it had a full tank of gas! I saved the parking brake cables for the silver sedan, you have to drop the exhaust and the tunnel heat shield to change the parking brake cable. Nice design! If you really want to learn your cars take one completely apart. I built my crew cab out of several trucks/ suburbans/ blazers. I "played" with Geo Metros for 8 years, tore many apart and built several cars. Now I have moved on to the L series Saturn. Yes I may have a problem, I own 4 and still look at the auction and on Craigslist.
Hello, my name is Andy and I am addicted to my hobby.
Have a nice day all. 1240 hits as of today!

Enjoy your hobby sir! We enjoy you enjoying it.
Alas, someone must burst this bubble --- 95% of the hits listed are from search engines indexing the pages of our site.

But the regulars here are the ones that read it
Yes you have a problem but no one cares as long as no one gets hurt
And I am personally envious at the sheer magnitude of tools, stands, assemblies, and specialty tool thangers you possess. (I need not see them to know they exist--I can feel their presence....)

Another day in the Saturn shop today. I was wondering about the view count, 300 members and maybe 10 regular visitors.

You don't have a problem at all, Andy. You have a hobby. And a damn fine one at that! Onward and upward.

Attachment 1485
The shell is on the trailer, now to load a bunch of scrap metal to make a load! I saved the doors for the glass, window motors and door lock servos. I get to go back to work tomorrow and rest. LOL

with your permission I may use that as my new avatar

By all means, I will take another picture with the load of scrap metal.

I disassembled this car mainly to see if I wanted to convert my wagon from the v6/auto to a 4/5. I now know how to remove the complete dash without damage. I saved the hvac unit and most of the switches. I have a serviceable right headlight and taillight assembly(2003+). A full size spare tire fits under the trunk floor, I am getting rid of one temp use spare on the scrap car. I saved the rack and pinion assembly, and all the fuel lines from under the car. I had to replace the brake booster on the wagon so I now have a spare. The front sub frame is different on a stick shift car due to the shifter and different mounts down low front and rear. The top mounts for the power train are on the body and appear to be the same. It looks like all of these can be converted to stick shifts.

First tank of gas through the gold L200/a: 30 mpg driving my regular commute. The best I ever got with the L82 was 26 mpg regular driving. It did better on the highway than on my commute, too many stops and town driving. I did not try to eco cruise it at all, passing and excessive idling. The L61/5 should do even better!

nice, sir. Very nice...!

My factory set of service manuals have arrived. I am now reviewing the 1300 page Body/Electrical (Volume II). So far the BCM wiring is the area of concern in converting a LW300 to a LW200/5. There is an engine tie in for the v-6 that is not there on the I-4. So far that is the only difference I see, this will take some time to review. I have ordered a LUK clutch kit and a tensioner/belt kit to put the L200/5 back together. I think I would rather keep the wagon at this point. I will assemble the L200/5 and see if it is a car, en I will decide which way to go. I may steal all the treasures off the wagon and sell what's left as a worn out car. .????

I purchased 2 quarts of Valvoline MTF for the 5 speed. I realize it is not the "proper" Saturn manual transmission fluid. But it costs $8/ quart rather than $20/qt. I have not driven this car so I need to qualify the transmission before it gets good oil. If it is noisy I may buy a low mile tranny out of a Cobalt ef. They have a 3.63 final rather than the 3.84 I have now.

I would advise the Redline MT-90 fluid, it's supposed to work great... The XFE trans is directly compatible with the stock unit?

It is supposed to be the same tranny with a higher final drive. I worked on the LW300 today, it is just about ready to sell. I replaced the fuel pump on the LW today, I saved your new pump for my L200/5.

Aww, I feel special... So, any aero mods planned for your L200? Now would be a good time to integrate them...

I look at Ecomodder every day also I am "me and my metro" an old handle. It looks like a belly pan will be pretty easy, maybe a lower grill block that will slide into the tow bar mounts.

Now that I am down to only 2 Saturns I have been on Craigslist and there is another stick shift LS with a noisy engine close by for $150.00. I have attempted contact and waiting for a reply. It is a 2000 base with crank windows.

I spotted an SC2 yesterday on my way to Melbourne for $350. I didn't have time to stop on the way there. On the way home, there were 3 people looking at it, so I didn't stop. I don't have any money anyway. Maybe next time.

Aww! You're building me an L series too? Awfully nice of you...

I picked up the 2000 LS today, it has no options as far as I can tell. Someone replaced the radio and added a cruise control, it sticks out near the headlight/ turn switch. It is the first year so it has the smaller gas tank. I will get it off the trailer and up on the hoist tomorrow.

What are your plans for that one, Andy?

This is a parts car, the body is very clean. Cars don't rust here so I will save the cradle and suspension pieces. I ran Geo Metros for eight years and still have some parts for those. I am giving one of these to a grandson so I will keep a set of body panels. I tore up my first couple cars as a lot of teenagers do. I will run these cars for many years so spares are good. This engine blew apart, I picked up pieces of block that had littered the road where the car had quit.
I remember car ads from many years ago where they would list a low price just to get you into the dealer. A true loss leader, a base model next to a line of progressively nicer cars with higher prices. As soon as you looked at the stripped model a salesman would then show you the next one with some options, and of course a higher price. This car is the first one, very basic.
I paid $150 for this car, a transmission at the local wrecking yard is $200-$500.
Today we go after a $400 91 Subaru Legacy AWD wagon for a parts car for my Mother-in-law. The transmission in her Legacy has been questionable since they bought it and now needs to be replaced.Attachment 1475

Your parts filing system is a bit unorthodox, but if it works for you...... ;)

Not bad -- a buck n a half for a tranny and many exterior panels

Good Lord! Do you have 20 acres to spread those parts around on? LOL

That picture was one of many taken for the Geometroforum thread about being a Metroholic several years ago. The white 03 and the blue 00 will be stored in the shed for future use. Hopefully organized better than this. LOL

Here are a couple pics of the blue $150 parts car, you will love these. The balance shaft broke off and the complete rod is gone. I picked up some shrapnel at the scene of the crime but I didn't look in the ditch. You can see clear through to the other side. I bet it was near redline when it let loose, there is a NASCAR stripe on the road too. LOLAttachment 1473Attachment 1474

The engine tried doing its own balance shaft delete? That's great! Engines destructively modding themselves now! I thought that was my job...

We had some weather this weekend, I worked about 14 hours overtime. Things are back to "normal" whatever that is. LOL
I started disassembly of the 2000 LS, I pulled the bumpers and their supports. The a/c had a charge and the compressor is smooth. All the external lights are good and the front fenders are not cracked.
I will design and build an inside support for my trailer hitch to fit inside the bumper support. The front bumper support is steel and the rear is aluminum. I will haul a bicycle rack with this hitch and may tow a small trailer to haul lumber. Yes I have a truck but I commute to a medium sized city that has several lumber yards and the Saturn gets twice the mileage!
More later when I take more screws out.

loose screws.....recurring theme.......we love you anyway (well I do)

For some reason, all I read was that you're making a hitch support to hold up that hitch mounted boat tail I know you're planning... Come on, man, I'm ahead of you, with the 4T45 transmission... You can do better with the F23...

I have been working on home repairs before the freeze. I need to build a new pump house for my water system.

Huh?

You dare to question Andy's choices?
The man knows what he needs, what he wants, and what he has access to.

Andy--I'd like to reserve a place in the queue for an impending rebuild on my 97SC2. It's nowhere near needing it, but I figure the line will be long by the time it is ready. Where can I purchase a "priority" ticket for later use?;)

I was just goading him into a little friendly eco-competition... I honestly would love to see how well a pre facelift L series fares with the same stuff that's already been done to the Aerobu...

Back to the L200/5 project today! Pulled the engine/trans from the donor car. I will use this transmission, the oil looks nice. Both of my stick shift cars were purchased blown up, so the transmission is a crap shoot either way. Both have 200K miles, this one has nice oil. Funny the ecm has a pin corroded off inside the black plug. The ecm on this car is inside the car, the 02 car the ecm is mounted to the firewall under the hood. Funny I thought I had a partial abs car, wrong I have a tone ring on the passenger side axle only. This is how they drive the speedo on this car. The head may survive, jury is still out. The new Chinese timing components are questionable at best. I will use the the new water pump and gaskets. The pressure plate looks good on this engine, I will take the clutch off next weekend. I have a new LUK clutch for this project, I have not decided if I am going to put this car together cheap and then build new stuff if I like this car. I really want a 3.62 ratio transmission and I may build a low boost turbo 2.0 for this car. Decisions decisions......

If you're just wanting a low pressure turbo, there's no real reason to build an LSJ for that car...

It's got a different reluctor wheel on the crank(same as 07-up L61)
Crank is eight bolt instead of six like the L61(ZZP sells a custom clutch you could use with an LSJ/F23 combo)
People running supercharged L61s can make well into the 250s for power, and that's accounting for the additional heat and drag from the M62

Really, a healthy L61 *should* tolerate 8psi or so, and the L series PCM is accessible with HPTuners, so you could easily tell the car what to do with the boost

Thanks.

We got back from our 4000 mile spring break trip to Kansas. We came home to 50+ mph winds and it blew my tarp garage cover all apart. I kind of pieced what was left back together and continued tearing the 2000 LS parts car apart. I am going to gut the interior and keep all the suspension for spares. I am going to drop the front subframe and toss it behind the shed. The stick shift subframe is different from the automatic one. The shift linkage mounts to the subframe. I will keep the doors even though they are manual glass doors, the frames are straight. The electric doors I have from the 03 are bent from the rollover. This will give me two sets of extra door glass. I am going to get a set of side glass tinted for my new driver to be installed at a later date.

Going to work in the shop for the next couple of days. I need to finish the gold car and take it to my grandson. I bought oem parts when I repaired the engine in the gold car except for the gaskets. The cheaper gaskets provide just what you pay for. At 9000 miles the valve cover gasket has started to leak. It is leaking right in line with the timing chain and running down the back of the engine. I have been smelling engine oil at the bottom of the hill on my commute. You would be proud I actually opened the hood and took a look. LOL. The power steering pump was a little over full also and has been weeping some oil out of the cap. I still need to diagnose the a/c unit and the alternator. I have three more alternators so I will try another and see if the dimming lights at closed throttle goes away. I am just about done stripping the 2000 LS and will fill it with scrap and donate it to Pick a Part.

I thought you never popped hoods after you worked on stuff.....