Ultimate Fiero toolkit?

[ericjon262]

Hypothetically speaking, say one were to pick up an 88 duke 5 speed Fiero, and was going to drive it home 2800 miles away, what would you put in a tool kit for the drive?

My thoughts,

Socket set with the typical gm sizes
Small wrench roll in the typical gm sizes
Torx bits
The stuff to change/plug a tire.
Cash to rent a truck and U-haul trailer?

I've never messed with a stock duke Fiero, but I would guess it's a good idea to carry a spare IGN module or two...

Anything I would be missing?

[The Dark Side of Will]

Depends on how recently it's run?
A couple gallons of distilled water can get you from the side of the highway to a place where you can work on the car.

If you're asking this question, just rent the U-Haul trailer and go get it. It's not like you don't have two vehicles that could tow it back.

Where is it? Need a hand?

[ericjon262]

I have one vehicle I would trust to tow it back, but it's a bit more about the adventure of it. It's up in Washington near where I left, unfortunately, the pig isn't really a great tow rig, or at least not a 2800 mile tow kinda rig, or else I would drag it with that. 700r4's aren't renowned for holding up to abuse.... Lol!

It's actually in the hands of my buddy with the LZ9 88 GT, he's going to give it a good once over, and realistically, it's going to be 2 months or so before I have time to get it if I do. supposedly it needs a clutch, which he said he would take care of, he suspects the select cable is frozen, but I gave him a brand new set with my old f23 setup that I can convince him to install. I'm not set on anything yet though.

[pmbrunelle]

Besides water for cooling, engine oil and DOT3? The vital fluids.

Spare fuses (if not already present in the fuse block).

Spare serpentine belt.

Is the ignition module on the Iron Duke supposed to be installed with heatsink compound?

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As a data point (anecdote) I actually got stranded once with my previous Fiero (stock 2.8 ).

The connector supplying +12V power to the ignition coil melted/degraded, and so I was stuck, without the equipment required to get going again.

I was on a country road, stopped close to a house. The people there offered me help.

I took paper clips from them, and inserted them into the ignition coil terminals. I cut off the faulty connector, stripped the wires, and soldered (we pushed the car to their garage where they had 120 VAC) the wires to the pieces of paper clip. Electrical tape to insulate things.

I made it home about 200 km away like that with the paper clip terminals!

So I would definitely add basic electrical tools for wire cutting and splicing. The soldering iron should be butane-powered, and you'll want to be packing leaded solder for its ease of use.

I gave these folks a bottle of wine a few days later.

[ericjon262]

Ooh! How dare I forget wiring and electrical stuff! Thanks! I was planning on some basic fluids, along with a check every fuel stop or so

[The Dark Side of Will]

I have one vehicle I would trust to tow it back, but it's a bit more about the adventure of it. It's up in Washington near where I left, unfortunately, the pig isn't really a great tow rig, or at least not a 2800 mile tow kinda rig, or else I would drag it with that. 700r4's aren't renowned for holding up to abuse.... Lol!

It's actually in the hands of my buddy with the LZ9 88 GT, he's going to give it a good once over, and realistically, it's going to be 2 months or so before I have time to get it if I do. supposedly it needs a clutch, which he said he would take care of, he suspects the select cable is frozen, but I gave him a brand new set with my old f23 setup that I can convince him to install. I'm not set on anything yet though.

TH400 swap on the Pig for the trip? Wouldn't hurt mileage because 700's are supposed to tow in third anyway You want an adventure, right?

I get the adventure idea, but I've driven sketchy cars long distances and been bitten by it enough times that I've had my fill of that kind of adventure. The independent contractor auto transport industry is better now than it's ever been. I had the Ferrari moved from Denver to VA for $1k and the Van moved from Tucson to VA for $1200ish. In your situation, I would throw $1000-$1500 at that problem to make it go away.

[allWorkNoPlay]

Agree on the basic handtools, engine oil, brake fluid and coolant. I'd add duct tape, zip ties, a battery for jump starting, a couple good flashlights and AAA. I might bring or buy an air filter/wiper blades. Maybe a compact air compressor/gauge.

I just drove an '87 2k miles back a few weeks ago without anything critical to fix along the way other than a vacuum leak which I found parts at an autozone over lunch off the highway to patch up. I only did an oil change/air filter/wiper change and a couple days of shake down before heading out.

As far as why, for me, it was good to get out of the house (first time in over a year because of COVID and maybe buying the vehicle was an excuse to get out) and to see the country vs paying a service to ship the vehicle.

If anything really goes wrong you can always rent a tow rig.

[ericjon262]

TH400 swap on the Pig for the trip? Wouldn't hurt mileage because 700's are supposed to tow in third anyway You want an adventure, right?

I get the adventure idea, but I've driven sketchy cars long distances and been bitten by it enough times that I've had my fill of that kind of adventure. The independent contractor auto transport industry is better now than it's ever been. I had the Ferrari moved from Denver to VA for $1k and the Van moved from Tucson to VA for $1200ish. In your situation, I would throw $1000-$1500 at that problem to make it go away.

LOL on the transmission swap! only if I had EVERYTHING accounted for, staged, tested, and ready to go would I consider that! I'll have a week to fly to WA, get the pig, and drive it back to SC, so there really can't be any significant delays.

at this point, the idea of picking up the car is floating on a number of unknown variables, realistically, the soonest I can pick up the Pig is the 18th of next month, which means the soonest I could go and get the Fiero would be about the 16th of july. more time to plan the trip is better than less, this trip will probably be fairly well planned, unlike most of my other automotive adventures.

[ericjon262]

Agree on the basic handtools, engine oil, brake fluid and coolant. I'd add duct tape, zip ties, a battery for jump starting, a couple good flashlights and AAA. I might bring or buy an air filter/wiper blades. Maybe a compact air compressor/gauge.

I just drove an '87 2k miles back a few weeks ago without anything critical to fix along the way other than a vacuum leak which I found parts at an autozone over lunch off the highway to patch up. I only did an oil change/air filter/wiper change and a couple days of shake down before heading out.

As far as why, for me, it was good to get out of the house (first time in over a year because of COVID and maybe buying the vehicle was an excuse to get out) and to see the country vs paying a service to ship the vehicle.

If anything really goes wrong you can always rent a tow rig.

AAA is a great idea, I need to reup my subscription before I go get the Pig. I can have my buddy handle most of the basic tune up stuff before I get there.

[Shaun41178(2)]

Unless you are almost getting it for free I would save my time and money and pass on it

[ericjon262]

Unless you are almost getting it for free I would save my time and money and pass on it

I'd be getting it cheap enough, when I go to pick up the Pig next month, I'm going to drop in and take a careful look at it and make sure that it's solid in all the important spots, and make up my mind 100% from there.