Beretta.net

Since I've been spending most if not all of my free time getting my other car finished up to drive for "winter", I haven't had much to update on the Z. It's been serving daily driver status for the past 6 months.

This past Tuesday and my way home from work, my axle (at least I think that's what it was) gave up the ghost. For those of you that don't know, I had a inner CV boot failure on the way to Denver in 2013; put a speedi-boot on it, packed it with grease and continued on. Tried to change the axle in the parking lot, but couldn't. Reason being is that when EP modified the diff for the LSD, they machined the chamfered edge out of where the C-clip on the axle needs to compress to be removed. No chamfer = no axle removal without dropping the trans and splitting the case to remove it. Took 2 and a half years but it finally went.

I have also developed a gas leak somewhere on the filler neck; some gas leaks out when filling and according to my wife, it leaks out when taking a hard left turn.

So over the next few weeks/month or two, I'll be doing some heavy removal of the trans, front suspension/subframes, rear suspension/axle, gas system, and fuel/brake lines. I decided not to do the 6spd swap due to time and financial reasons, but I am going to look at going to a newer style Getrag trans with the newer 92-96 mount setup to provide future clearance for the turbo headers I have.

It was an update.....not the kind you like to hear, but these things happen to these old cars. Tell us what you find on the gas leak. Got a feeling that is on the way for my car.

heavywoody wrote:but I am going to look at going to a newer style Getrag trans with the newer 92-96 mount setup to provide future clearance for the turbo headers I have.

I'm very unhappy with the newer style mounts, keep the dogbone if you can.

Pretty sure the mounting bosses are there for the dogbone setup; just requires a drill and tap. I'll look into it when I get that part started.

Going back to the third brake light, i have found that the early 90's Grand Prix and the same generation Lumina have the top-of-the-window mounted third brake light and the slope of the fits the Beretta perfectly.

That F40 would look better in your car than on your garage floor though...

I think I have poly-filled 92+ mounts and the steel brackets I got from Boner forever ago if you need them. There are bosses you should be able to drill & tap on the older trans cases if that's all you can find.

Be careful with the mounting bosses - I remember on either my 88-91 V6 or 90 Quad Trans - one of them did not have the bosses cast into it.

IIRC, you had the issue with the Quad. Been a long while, still could be not remembering right.

Eric, did you ever see if you had that other case half lying around?

When I get a chance I'll take a trip to the yard to see if they have any 5spds I can salvage the mounts and brackets from. If not, you have both or just the mounts?

heavywoody wrote:Eric, did you ever see if you had that other case half lying around?

When I get a chance I'll take a trip to the yard to see if they have any 5spds I can salvage the mounts and brackets from. If not, you have both or just the mounts?

Both the cases I have are the older style, but they can be drilled & tapped I'm sure. And I have the brackets and mounts for 92+. The only problem is the brackets have chunks of frame rail on them still because Boner had welded them to his G². So if you can get virgin ones that would be tits, but these would suffice with some extra work.

woody90gtz wrote:Both the cases I have are the older style, but they can be drilled & tapped I'm sure. And I have the brackets and mounts for 92+. The only problem is the brackets have chunks of frame rail on them still because Boner had welded them to his G². So if you can get virgin ones that would be tits, but these would suffice with some extra work.

Are they the one that uses the bracket to mount the slave cylinder, or the ones that the slave cylinder bolts straight to the case?

I'll let you know on the brackets; Jessica up in MI pulled a trans from a SCX and is ok going back to check out the mount brackets; if they aren't too rusty she'll cut them out. I'll let you know when I know, I might even take a trip to the rust free southern yard down here to see (hehe)

heavywoody wrote:

woody90gtz wrote:Both the cases I have are the older style, but they can be drilled & tapped I'm sure. And I have the brackets and mounts for 92+. The only problem is the brackets have chunks of frame rail on them still because Boner had welded them to his G². So if you can get virgin ones that would be tits, but these would suffice with some extra work.

Are they the one that uses the bracket to mount the slave cylinder, or the ones that the slave cylinder bolts straight to the case?

I'll let you know on the brackets; Jessica up in MI pulled a trans from a SCX and is ok going back to check out the mount brackets; if they aren't too rusty she'll cut them out. I'll let you know when I know, I might even take a trip to the rust free southern yard down here to see (hehe)

Both. I have the untouched 89 trans I got from you, and a 91 with the bell that cracked where one of the 91 mounts is. That probably wouldn't be a bad one to use since that mount would no longer be needed anyway.

Did I hear someone had 92+ mounts laying around? Lol.
I'll go back to my cave and troll in there...

Finally got some time to tear into the car. Front struts are out and rear brakes are out. I shot some pics of the rear end so you guys can see what I'm dealing with rust wise.

These were the bearings inside the strut mounts - I've had noises for several years. The one on the left side was discolored and appears to be missing at least 1 bearing. No grease - I'm not surprised as these mounts were installed in 2001.


The cup where the nut held the mount down on top of the spring... yeah, I think I had some issues here.


This is the insert piece that holes the boot in place - thread marks from the strut shaft shown here.


Part numbers if anyone wants to attempt a Bilstein install:

And onto the rust - I have some work to do back here, but I have a rust free crossmember and angled pieces from a southern car to replace with the issues seen here. I won't be using the spring perches as I'm changing to a different setup for the springs in the rear with custom perches. So if anyone needs some rust free 95-96 rear spring perches let me know lol